16:23-34
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Day of Atonement: other details
(Le 16:23-34)
Until now the high priest was clothed in the plain white clothes of the ordinary priests (see Le 16:4).
This may have been to emphasize to him the need for humility and the importance of purity in all his representative actions in the ritual of sin-cleansing.
Now that atonement for sin had been made, he bathed himself, put on his normal high priestly clothes and offered burnt offerings of consecration, first for the priests, then for the people.
All others whose duties brought them into contact with the sin offering during the ritual had likewise to cleanse themselves (Le 16:23-28).
As for the Israelite people as a whole, they were to participate in this solemn act of confession and atonement in a fitting spirit of shame and humility. It seems that on that day they were to do no work and eat no food (Le 16:29-34).