When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation. Literally," when they go into the tent of meeting—i.e; the place where God and the high priest were to meet. The holy place. The "holy place" seems in this passage to include the court of the tabernacle, wherein the altar was situated. That they bear not iniquity. To "bear iniquity" is to incur guilt, or have sin imputed to one. If even through forgetfulness a priest entered the sanctuary without this necessary article of clothing, and so risked an unseemly, exposure of his person, he was to be accounted guilty, and punished by death. This was to be a "statute for ever," and to apply both to the high priest and the ordinary priests. Compare Exodus 20:26.
HOMILETICS