Eleazar Son of Aaron: The Priest Who Received His Father's Garments

A priest of the wilderness generation

Eleazar belongs to the tribe of Levi, a son of Aaron, and the man who wore the high priestly garments after his father. The era in which he lived is placed at around 1706 BC to 1451 BC (era placed on Ussher's chronology, 1650). His name first appears in Exodus 6:23, and his family line is still being traced as late as Ezra 7:5. In between, his name occurs in sixty-one verses across eight books, most heavily in Numbers, where he is named thirty-four times, and then in 1 Chronicles and Joshua.

Named among the sons of Aaron

Scripture introduces him inside a genealogy. He is a son of Aaron and Elisheba (Exodus 6:23), third in a list of four brothers. The Chronicler keeps the same order: "The children of Amram: Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar" (1 Chronicles 6:3). His marriage is recorded in Exodus 6:25, and the woman is identified there only as a daughter of Putiel; her own name is never given. From that marriage came Phinehas: "Eleazar became the father of Phinehas, Phinehas became the father of Abishua" (1 Chronicles 6:4).

His entry into priestly office is bound to a death in the family. "But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children: therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest's office" (1 Chronicles 24:2). The same four brothers stand together in Exodus 28:1 and Numbers 3:2, and the fate of the two elder brothers is noted again in Numbers 3:4. Eleazar is named on the day of that loss in Leviticus 10:6, 10:12 and 10:16, and again in Numbers 3:32 and Numbers 4:16. His name also appears in the aftermath of a rebellion, in Numbers 16:37 and 16:39.

The garments on Mount Hor

The clearest scene of his life is a transfer of office spoken by Yahweh to Moses: "Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron shall be gathered, and shall die there" (Numbers 20:25-26). The carrying out of that word is recorded in Numbers 20:28, and Aaron's death is noted again in Deuteronomy 10:6. Eleazar did not seize the office. It was stripped from a dying father and placed on him at God's command, on a mountain, with witnesses present.

From that point his name appears in the public business of Israel: the census in Numbers 26:1, 26:3, 26:60 and 26:63; the case brought before him in Numbers 27:2; and the matter of warfare in Numbers 31:6 and 31:12-13.

The heifer and the Urim

Two duties are described in his own hands. The first concerns the heifer: "You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face. Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times" (Numbers 19:3-4). The blood is his to carry, the sprinkling his to count.

The second concerns Israel's new leader. Of Joshua, Yahweh says: "He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Yahweh. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation." Then, plainly: "Moses did as Yahweh commanded him. He took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation" (Numbers 27:21-22, with the commissioning also noted in Numbers 27:19). Israel's commander was not to move without the priest's inquiry. Eleazar's name stands beside Joshua's again in Joshua 14:1, 17:4, 19:51, 21:1 and 22:13, and his death and burial are recorded in Joshua 24:33.

What his name carried after him

His son speaks in his place and under his name: "Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, 'Today we know that Yahweh is among us, because you have not committed this trespass against Yahweh. Now you have delivered the children of Israel out of Yahweh's hand.'" The return journey follows, "out of the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan" (Joshua 22:31-32). Phinehas is named as his son in Numbers 25:7 and 25:11, in Judges 20:28, and in 1 Chronicles 9:20.

Generations later his descendants are still counted: "David with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to their ordering in their service. There were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar" (1 Chronicles 24:3-4), sixteen heads of fathers' houses from his line and eight from Ithamar's, divided by lot (1 Chronicles 24:4-6). His line is traced again in 1 Chronicles 6:50 and in Ezra 7:5.

No failure recorded, and much unsaid

The passages gathered here record no sin of Eleazar. That silence should be named as silence, not turned into praise the text never gives him. Scripture here also leaves out a great deal: the name of his wife, anything of his inner life, and any word spoken by him. The only recorded speech in his household belongs to his son (Joshua 22:31).

No New Testament mention listed

No New Testament reference to this Eleazar stands in the record before us, so no line is drawn forward from him here. What remains is a man handed a dead man's garments at God's word, standing in the place where Israel's leader had to come and ask.