12 he will fill an incense burner with burning coals from the altar that stands before the Lord . Then he will take two handfuls of fragrant powdered incense and will carry the burner and the incense behind the inner curtain. 13 There in the Lord 's presence he will put the incense on the burning coals so that a cloud of incense will rise over the Ark's cover-the place of atonement-that rests on the Ark of the Covenant. If he follows these instructions, he will not die.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 16:12-13
Commentary on Leviticus 16:1-14
(Read Leviticus 16:1-14)
Without entering into particulars of the sacrifices on the great day of atonement, we may notice that it was to be a statute for ever, till that dispensation be at an end. As long as we are continually sinning, we continually need the atonement. The law of afflicting our souls for sin, is a statue which will continue in force till we arrive where all tears, even those of repentance, will be wiped from our eyes. The apostle observes it as a proof that the sacrifices could not take away sin, and cleanse the conscience from it, that in them there was a remembrance made of sin every year, upon the day of atonement, Hebrews 10:1,3. The repeating the sacrifices, showed there was in them but a feeble effort toward making atonement; this could be done only by offering up the body of Christ once for all; and that sacrifice needed not to be repeated.