The Feast of Atonement #2
More of the ceremonies in Jesus' day
From the book “The Temple”
by Alfred Edersheim
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
Continuing:
The high-priest now faced the people, as, standing between his
substitute (at his right hand) and the head of the course on
ministry (on his left hand), he shook the urn, thrust his two
hands into it, and at the same time drew the two lots, laying one
on the head of each goat. Popularly it was deemed of good augury
if the right-hand lot had fallen 'for Jehovah.' The two goats,
however, must be altogether alike in look, size, and value;
indeed, 'so earnestly was it sought to carry out the idea that
these two formed parts of one and the same sacrifice, that it was
arranged they should, if possible, even be purchased at the same
time. The importance of this view will afterwards be explained.
The lot having designated each of the two goats the high-priest
tied a tongue-shaped piece of scarlet cloth to the horn of the
goat for Azazel -- the so-called 'scape-goat' -- and another
round the throat of the goat for Jehovah, which was to be slain.
The goat that was sent forth was now turned round towards the
people, and stood facing them, waiting, as it were till their
sins should be laid on him, and he would carry them forth into 'a
land not inhabited.' .... And, as if to add to the significance
of the rite, tradition has it that when the sacrifice was fully
accepted the scarlet mark which the scape-goat had borne became
white, to symbolize the gracious promise in Isa.1:18; but adds
that this miracle did not take place for forty years before the
destruction of the Temple!
With this presentation of the scape-goat before the people
commenced the third and most solemn part of the expiatory
services of the day.
The high-priest now once more returned towards the sanctuary,
and a second time laid his two hands on the bullock, which still
stood between the porch and the altar, to confess over him, not
only as before, his own and his household's sins, but also those
of the priesthood. The formula used was precisely the same as
before, with the addition of the words, 'the seed of Aaron, Thy
holy people,' both in the confession and in the petition for
atonement. Then the high-priest killed the bullock, caught up his
blood in a vessel, and gave it to an attendant to keep it
stirring, lest it should coagulate. Advancing to the altar of
burnt-offering, he next filled the censer with burning coals, and
then ranged a handful of frankincense in the dish destined to
hold it. Ordinarily, everything brought in actual ministry unto
God must be carried in the right hand-hence the incense in the
right and the censer in the left. But on this occasion, as the
censer for the Day of Atonement was larger and heavier than
usual, the high-priest was allowed to reverse the common order.
Every eye was strained towards the sanctuary as, slowly bearing
the censer and the incense, the figure of the white-robed
high-priest was seen to disappear within the Holy Place. After
that nothing further could be seen of his movements.
The curtain of the Most Holy Place was folded back, and the
high-priest stood alone and separated from all the people in the
awful gloom of the Holiest of All, only lit up by the red glow of
the coals - in the priest's censer. In the first Temple the ark
of God had stood there with the 'mercy-seat' overshadowing it;
above it, the visible presence of Jehovah in the cloud of the
Shechinah, and on either side the outspread wings of the
cherubim; and the high-priest had placed the censer between the
staves of the ark. But in the Temple of Herod there was neither
Shechinah nor ark - all was empty; and the high-priest rested his
censer on a large stone, called the 'foundation-stone.' He now
most carefully emptied the incense into his hand, and threw it on
the coals of the censer, as far from himself as possible, and so,
waited till the smoke had filled the Most Holy Place. Then,
retreating backwards, he prayed outside the veil as follows:
'May it please Thee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers,
that neither this day nor during this year any captivity come
upon us. Yet, if captivity befall us this day or this year, let
it be to a place where the law is cultivated. May it please Thee,
O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that want come not
upon us, either this day or this year. But if want visit us this
day or this year, let it be due to the liberality of our
charitable deeds. May it please Thee, O Lord our God, and the God
of our fathers, that this year may be a year of cheapness, of
fullness, of intercourse and trade; a year with abundance of
rain, of sunshine, and of dew; one in which Thy people Israel
shall not require assistance one from another. And listen not to
the prayers of those who are about to set out on a journey (Who
might pray against the fall of rain). And as to Thy people
Israel, may no enemy exalt himself against them. May it please
bee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that the houses
of the men of Saron may not become their graves' (This on account
of the situation of the valley, which was threatened either by
sudden floods or by dangerous landslips). The high-priest was not
to prolong this prayer, lest his protracted absence might fill
the people with fears for his safety.
While the incense was offering in the Most Holy Place the people
withdrew from proximity to it, and worshipped in silence. At last
the people saw the high-priest emerging from the sanctuary,
and they, knew that the service had been accepted. Rapidly he
took from the attendant, who had kept it stirring, the blood of
the bullock. Once more he entered into the Most Holy Place, and
sprinkled with his finger once upwards, towards where the
mercy-seat had been, and seven times downwards, counting as he
did so: 'Once' (upwards), 'once and once' (downwards), 'once and
twice' and so on to 'once and seven times,' always repeating the
word 'once,' which referred to the upwards sprinkling, so as to
prevent any mistake. Coming out from the Most Holy Place, the
high-priest now deposited the bowl with the blood before
the veil. Then he killed the goat set apart for Jehovah, and,
entering the Most Holy Place a third time, sprinkled as, before,
once upwards and seven times downwards, and again deposited the
bowl with the blood of the goat on a second golden stand before
the veil. Taking up the bowl with the bullock's blood, he next
sprinkled once upwards and seven times downwards towards the
veil, outside the Most Holy Place, and then did the same with the
blood of the goat. Finally, pouring the blood of the bullock into
the bowl which contained that of the goat, and again the mixture
of the two into that which had held the blood of the bullock, so
as thoroughly to commingle the two, he sprinkled each of the
horns of the altar of incense, and then, making a clear place on
the altar, seven times the top of the altar of incense. Thus he
had sprinkled forty-three times with the expiatory blood, taking
care that his own dress should never be spotted with the
sin-laden blood. What was left of the blood the high-priest
poured out on the west side of the base of the altar of
burnt-offering.
By these expiatory sprinklings the high-priest had cleansed the
sanctuary in all its parts from the defilement of the priesthood
and the worshippers. The Most Holy Place, the veil, the Holy
Place, the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt-offering were
now clean alike, so far as the priesthood and as the people were
concerned; and in their relationship to the sanctuary both
priests and worshippers were atoned for. So far as the law could
give it, there was now again free access for all; or, to put it
otherwise, the continuance of typical sacrificial communion with
God was once more restored and secured. Had it not been for these
services, it would have become impossible for priests and people
to offer sacrifices, and so to obtain the forgiveness of sins, or
to have fellowship with God. But the consciences were not yet
free from a sense of personal guilt and sin. That remained to be
done through the 'scape-goat.' All this seems clearly implied in
the distinctions made in Lev.16:33: 'And he shall make an
atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement
for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he
shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people
of the congregation.'
Most solemn as the services had hitherto been, the worshippers
would chiefly think with awe of the high-priest going into the
immediate presence of God, coming out thence alive, and securing
for them by the blood the continuance of the Old Testament
privileges of sacrifices and of access unto God through them.
What now took place concerned them, if possible, even more
nearly. Their own personal guilt and sins were now to be removed
from them, and that in a symbolical rite, at one and the same
time the most mysterious and the most significant of all. All
this while the 'scape-goat,' with the 'scarlet-tongue,' telling
of the guilt it was to bear, had stood looking eastwards,
confronting the people, and waiting for the terrible load which-
it was to carry away 'unto a land not inhabited.' Laying both his
hands on the head of this goat, the high-priest now confessed and
pleaded: 'Ah, JEHOVAH! they have committed iniquity; they have
transgressed; they have sinned. Thy people, the house of Israel.
Oh, then, JEHOVAH! cover over (atone for), I intreat Thee, upon
their iniquities, their transgressions, and their sins, which
they have wickedly committed, transgressed, and sinned before
Thee - Thy people, the house of Israel. As it is written in the
law of Moses, Thy servant, saying: "For on that day shall it be
covered over (atoned) for you, to make you clean from all your
sins before JEHOVAH ye shall be cleansed."'
And while the prostrate multitude worshipped at the name of
Jehovah, the high-priest turned his face towards them as he
uttered the last words, 'Ye shall be cleansed!' as if to declare
to them the absolution and remission of their sins.
Then a strange scene would be witnessed. The priests led the
sin-burdened goat out through 'Solomon's Porch,' and, as
tradition has it, through the eastern gate, which opened upon the
Mount of Olives. Here an arched bridge spanned the intervening
valley, and over it they brought the goat to the Mount of Olives,
where one, specially appointed for the purpose, took him in
charge. Tradition enjoins that he should be a stranger, a
non-Israelite, as if to make still more striking the type of Him
who was delivered over by Israel unto the Gentiles! Scripture
tells us no more of the destiny of the goat that bore upon him
all the iniquities of the children of Israel, than that they
'shall send him away by the band of a fit man into the
wilderness,' and that 'he shall let go the goat in the
wilderness.' But tradition supplements this information.
The distance between Jerusalem and the beginning of 'the
wilderness' is computed at ninety stadia, making precisely ten
intervals, each half a Sabbath-day's journey from the other.
At the end of each of these intervals there was a station,
occupied by one or more persons, detailed for the purpose, who
offered refreshment to the man leading the goat, and then
accompanied him to the next station. By this arrangement two
results were secured: some trusted persons accompanied the goat
all along his journey, and yet none of them walked more than a
Sabbath-day's journey - that is, half a journey going and the
other half returning. At last they reached the edge of the
wilderness. Here they halted, viewing afar off, while the man led
forward the goat, tore off half the 'scarlet tongue,' and stuck
it on a projecting cliff; then, leading the animal backwards, he
pushed it over the projecting ledge of rock. There was a moment's
pause, and the man, now defiled by contact with the sin-bearer,
retraced his steps to the last of the ten stations, where he
spent the rest of the day and the night. But the arrival of the
goat in the wilderness was immediately telegraphed, by the waving
of flags, from station to station, till, a few minutes after its
occurrence, it was known in the Temple, and whispered from ear to
ear, that 'the goat had borne upon him all their iniquities into
a land not inhabited.'
What then was the meaning of a rite on which such momentous
issue depended ? Everything about it seems strange and mysterious -
the lot that designated it, and that 'to Azazel;' the fact,
that though the highest of all sin-offerings, it was neither
sacrificed nor its blood sprinkled in the Temple; and the
circumstance that it really was only part of a sacrifice - the
two goats together forming one sacrifice, one of them being
killed, and the other 'let go,' there being no other analogous
case of the kind except at the purification of a leper, when one
bird was killed and the other dipped in its blood, and let go
free. Thus these two sacrifices - one in the removal of
what symbolically represented sin, the other contracted guilt -
agreed in requiring two animals, of whom, one was killed, the
other 'let go.' This is not the place to discuss the various
views entertained of the import of the scape-goat......
End of quotes from Alfred Edersheim's book "The Temple."
..............
The import of the "scape-goat" alive into a wilderness (the
throwing of the goat over a cliff was a Jewish addition, and
nowhere commanded in the Scriptures), is very significant. Of the
two goats ONLY ONE is "for the Lord" the other being a goat with
the sins of the collective people on its head and sent out into
the wilderness. This goat is NEVER said to be "for the Lord"
hence it CANNOT represent the Lord Jesus as some claim. The type
is really unmistakeable. This sent into the wilderness goat, must
represent Satan the Devil, who is the author of sin, who has in a
sense a part in every person who has lived and their sins. The
wilderness representing the time when Satan will be no longer
around any person, when he will be chained up from "people" to
influence them, a time when he will indeed be in a wilderness by
himself, a time when he will carry the sins of all humanity with
him into the wilderness, and be put away for 1,000 years from the
human race.
Then at that time (Revelation 20), the earth will have her Sabbath
rest in the Lord.
The goat was not killed in the original instructions of Lev.16,
and so Satan will live on through the 1,000 year period to be
allowed back from the wilderness yet one more time to deceive
the people of earth, as we read in Revelations 20.
With Satan in the wilderness of only himself and the demons
with him, the world can be brought from its affliction of sin and
death (which accumulates with all the plagues and destruction
foretold in the book of Revelation at the time of the end), and
be brought back to God and His Word and Way of life. The world
can then be AT ONE with God and His Son Christ Jesus.
What a glorious day that will be!!
Keith Hunt
TO BE CONTINUED
The Feast of Atonement
The goat sent into the wilderness
From the book “The Temple”
by
Alfred Edersheim D.D. Ph.D.
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
Continuing from Edersheim's book "The Temple"
....This i not the place to discuss the various views entertained
of the import of the scape-goat. But it is destructive of one and
all of the received interpretations, that the sins of the people
were confessed not on the goat which was killed, but on that
which was 'let go the wilderness,' and that it was this goat -
not the other - which 'bore upon him all the iniquities' of the
people....
The blood sprinkled had effected this; but it had done no more,
and it could do no more, for it 'could not make him that did the
service perfect, as pertaining to conscience. (Heb.9:9). The
symbolical representation of perfecting was by the live goat,
which, laden with confessed sins of the people, carried them away
into 'the wilderness' to 'a land not inhabited' ....
Thus viewed, not only the text of Lev.16, but the language of
Heb.9 and 10, which chiefly refer to the Day of Atonement,
becomes plain. The 'blood,' both of the bullock and of the
goat which the high-priest carried 'once a year within 'the
sacred veil,' was 'offered for himself (including the priesthood)
and for the errors (or rather ignorances) of the people.' In the
language of Lev.16:20, it reconciled 'the Holy Pace, and the
tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar,' that is, as
already explained, it rendered on the part of priests and people
the continuance of sacrificial worship possible. But THIS LIVE
scape-goat 'let go' in the wilderness, over which, in the ex-
haustive language of Lev.16:21, the high-priest had confessed and
on which he had laid 'all the iniquities of the children of
Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins,' meant
something QUITE DIFFERENT....
After this it is comparatively of secondary importance to
discuss, so far as we can in these pages, the question of the
meaning of the term 'la-Azazel.' Both the interpretation which
makes it a designation of the goat itself (as 'scape-goat in our
Authorised Version), and that which would refer it to a certain
locality in the wilderness (Thus the book of Sifra paraphrases
it: 'rough place in the mountains') being, on many grounds,
wholly untenable, two other views remain, one of which regards
Azazel as a person, and denoting Satan; while the other would
render the term by 'complete removal.' .....
We may here at once state, that the later Jewish practice of
pushing the goat over a rocky precipice was undoubtedly an
innovation, in no wise sanctioned by the law of Moses, and not
even introduced at the time the Septuagint translation was made,
as its rendering of Lev.16:26 shows. The law simply ordained that
the goat, once arrived in 'the land not inhabited,' was to be
'let go' free, and the Jewish ordinance of having it pushed over
the rocks is signally characteristic of the Rabbinical perversion
of its spiritual type. The word Azazel, which only occurs in Lev.
16, is by universal consent derived from a root which means
'wholly to put aside,' or, 'wholly to go away,' Whether,
therefore, we render 'la-Azazel ' by 'for him who is wholly put
aside,' ... or 'put wholly aside or away,' the truth is still the
same, as pointing through the temporary and provisional removal
of sin by the goat 'let go' in 'the land not inhabited,' to the
final, real, and complete removal of sin ....
While the scape-goat was being led into the wilderness, the
high-priest proceeded to cut up the bullock and the goat with
whose blood he had previously 'made atonement,' put the 'inwards'
in a vessel which he committed to an attendant, and sent the
carcasses to be burnt 'outside the city,' in the place where the
Temple ashes were usually deposited. Then, according to
tradition, the high-priest, still wearing the linen garments,
went into the 'Court of the Women,' and read the passages of
Scripture bearing on the Day of Atonement, viz. Lev.16; 23:27-32;
also repeating by heart Numb.29:7-11. A series of prayers
accompanied this reading of the Scriptures.
The most interesting of these supplications may be thus summed up
:- Confession of sin with prayer for forgiveness, closing with
the words, 'Praise be to Thee, O Lord, Who in Thy mercy forgivest
the sins of Thy people Israel;' prayer for the permanence of the
Temple, and that the Divine Majesty might shine in it, closing
with - 'Praise be to Thee, O Lord, Who inhabitest Zion;' prayer
for the establishment and safety of Israel, and the continuance
of a king among them, closing - 'Thanks be to Thee, O Lord, Who
hast chosen Israel;' prayer for the priesthood, that all their
doings, but especially their sacred services, might be acceptable
unto God, and He be gracious unto them, closing with - 'Thanks be
to Thee, O Lord, Who hast sanctified the priesthood;' and,
finally (in the language of Maimonides), prayers, entreaties,
hymns, and petitions of the high-priest's own, closing with the
words: 'Give help, O Lord, to Thy people Israel, for Thy people
needeth help; thanks be unto Thee, O Lord, Who Hearest prayer.'
These prayers ended, the high-priest washed his hands and feet,
put off his 'linen,' and put on his 'golden vestments,' and once
more washed hands and feet before proceeding to the next minis-
try. He now appeared again before the people as the Lord's
anointed in the golden garments of the bride-chamber. Before he
offered the festive burnt-offerings of the day, he sacrificed
'one kid of the goats for a sin-offering,' probably with special
reference to these festive services, which, like everything else,
required atoning blood for their acceptance. The flesh of this
sin-offering was eaten at night by the priests within the
sanctuary. Next, he sacrificed the burnt-offerings for the people
and that for himself, and finally burned the 'inwards' of the
expiatory offerings, whose blood had formerly been sprinkled in
the Most Holy Place. This, properly speaking, finished the
services of the day.
But the high-priest had yet to offer the ordinary evening
sacrifice, after which he washed his hands and his feet, once
more put off his 'golden' and put on his 'linen garments,' and
again washed his hands and feet. This before entering the Most
Holy Place a fourth time on that day to fetch from it the censer
and incense-dish which he had left there. On his return he washed
once more hands and feet, put off his linen garments, which were
never to be used again, put on his golden vestments, washed hands
and feet, burnt the evening incense on the golden altar, lit the
lamps on the candlestick for the night, washed his hands and
feet, put on his ordinary layman's dress, and was escorted by the
people in procession to his own house in Jerusalem. The evening
closed with a feast.
If this ending of the Day of Atonement seems incongruous, the
Mishnah records something yet more strange in connection with the
day itself. It is said that on the afternoon of the 15th of Ab,
when the collection of wood for the sanctuary was completed, and
on that of the Day of Atonement, the maidens of Jerusalem went in
white garments, specially lent them for the purpose, so that rich
and poor might be on an equality, into the vineyards close to the
city, where they danced and sung. The following fragment of one
of their songs has been preserved:
'Around in circle gay, the Hebrew maidens see;
From them our happy youths their partners choose.
Remember! Beauty soon its charm must lose -
And seek to win a maid of fair degree.
When fading grace and beauty low are laid,
Then praise shall her who fears the Lord await;
God does bless her handiwork - and, in the gate,
"Her works do follow her," it shall be said.'
We will not here undertake the melancholy task of describing what
the modern synagogue has made the Day of Atonement, nor how it
observes the occasion chiefly in view of their gloomy thoughts,
that on that day man's fate for the year, if not his life or
death, is finally fixed. But even the Mishnah already contains
similar perverted notions of how the day should be kept, and what
may be expected from its right observance. Rigorous rest and
rigorous fasting are enjoined from sundown of one day to the
appearance of the first stars on the next. Neither food nor drink
of any kind may be tasted; a man may not even wash, nor anoint
himself, nor put on his sandals.
The sole exception made is in favour of the sick and of children,
who are only bound to the full fast - girls at the age of twelve
years and one day, and boys at that of thirteen years and one
day, though it is recommended to train them earlier to it. In
return for all this 'affliction' Israel may expect that death
along with the Day of Atonement will finally blot out all sins!
That is all - the Day of Atonement and our own death! Such are
Israel's highest hopes of expiation! It is unspeakably saddening
to follow this subject further through the minutiae of Rabbinical
ingenuity - how much exactly the Day of Atonement will do for a
man; what proportion of his sins it will remit, and what merely
suspend; how much is left over for after-chastisements, and how
much for final extinction at death. The law knows nothing of such
miserable petty misrepresentations of the free pardon of God. In
the expiatory sacrifices of the Day of Atonement every kind of
transgression, trespass, and sin is to be removed from the people
of God. Yet annually anew, and each time confessedly only
provisionally, not really and finally, till the gracious promises
should be fulfilled: I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more.' Accordingly it is very marked, how
in the prophetic, or it may be symbolical, description of
Ezekiel's Temple all mention of the Day of Atonement is omitted
for Christ has come 'an high-priest of good things to come,' and
'entered in once into the Holy Place,' 'to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself.'
.............
End of quotes from Edersheim
The Day of Atonement is probably not mentioned as such in Ezekiel
because in those last chapter we see the 1,000 reign, Jesus the
Messiah has come, Satan the goat to be sent into the wilderness,
has indeed been sent, chained up, to work his deception no more
till the thousand years is completed (Rev.20).
The proofs for the second goat, the one sent into the wilderness,
being representative of Satan the Devil is:
First and mainly, only one goat is said to be chosen "for the
Lord" and that the live goat is never killed and its blood never
enters the Temple, and especially the Holy of Holies, behind the
curtain of the Temple. The goat for the Lord is killed and its
blood enters the throne room of God. That goat and its blood is
fully the Messiah's sacrifice for the sins of the whole community
- the whole world, as put in a collective manner on that day of
Atonement.
Secondly, the very fitting symbolism of the live goat having a
part in all sins committed by ALL the collective people, having
sins therefore justly placed on his head, and sent out alive, but
into a wilderness, where nothing but sin so to speak, can he have
for company. It is fitting that Satan be chained up with the
guilt of his part in all sins ever committed, and to dwell with
those sins for a thousand years. With no contact with the human
race for a thousand years, we can see how a daily torment will be
agonizing for the originator of sin - Lucifer, the light bringer
who became the bringer of darkness.
Before Satan is chained and the world is at one with God, it
would seem (because there is not much hope for the world to
REPENT of its sins and rejection of the Lord and His word) all
the prophecies of the book of Revelation will come to pass, and
the people of earth will experience the GREATEST time of trouble
that they will have ever experienced, and such a time of
tribulation will never be the like again on earth. All this
foretold in the many prophecies of the Bible, and explained in
detail on my Website.
Part of the affliction that God's children feel on this special
day of fasting, the feast day of atonement, on the 10th day of
the 7th month in the Jewish calendar, is the sober reflections of
what the people of this earth will have to go through to bring
them to REPENTANCE, and into a mindset where they will be
willing to have God rule them.
This feast day is NOT so much a personal repentance feast as is
the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread, BUT as a time to
FEEL for the world at large and its sins, and how the world at large
needs to be at-one with the Eternal, and how it one day will be,
but what will lead up to that time of at-one-ment with God, will
be truly horrific.
Judaism and the so-called "days of Awe" (from Trumpets to
Atonement), 10 days of "repentance" was borrowed from the
Babylonians, when in their 70 year captivity in the 500 B.C.
time. The ancient heathen had a same period of time in the fall
of the year, a time of moaning and groaning. This custom the Jews
brought with them from Babylon and hence still observe this ten
day period. The time for God's children to have an extended
period of intra-spection is before and leading up to the Passover
service on the 14th day of Nisan (first month in Jewish calendar)
and on into the feast of Unleavened Bread. It is not at the time
from Trumpets to Atonement. The fall feasts of God are to
basically a JOYOUS period, for what those feasts proclaim in the
plan of salvation by God for mankind. There is a sober tone to
them of course. The Day of Trumpets and Jesus' return carries
with it some grave news for many people on earth. So then the
Feast of Atonement has an affliction part, but BOTH feasts carry
the main theme of the GOOD that lies ahead for the world.
Rejoicing in the GOOD should be the main theme of the fall
festivals of the Lord.
From Trumpets to Atonement should NOT be observed and practiced
as the orthodox Jews of today practice that period of time.
The feast of Atonement will come to pass.
For one thousand years the world will be AT ONE with the Creator,
the sacrifice of Jesus, and His office of High Priest, and His
blood to cover all sins, will shine forth as never before. The
sending of Satan and his deceptions into the nothingness of the
wilderness, away from the people of God, will accomplish the
prophecies that state the earth will be filled with the knowledge
of God as the waters cover the sea-beds.
God speed that day and age!!
For the revealed details of the age to come, see the studies on
the Feast of Tabernacles.
Keith Hunt
Entered on my Website, October 2003
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