Leviticus 7-8

Contemporary English Version

Sacrifices To Make Things Right

(Leviticus 5.14-19)

The Lord said:

7 The sacrifice to make things right is very sacred. ² The animal must be killed in the same place where the sacrifice to please me^[a] is killed, and the animal's blood must be splattered against the four sides of the bronze altar. ³ Offer all of the animal's fat, including the fat on its tail and on its insides, ⁴ as well as the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat. ⁵ One of the priests will lay these pieces on the altar and send them up in smoke to me. ⁶ This sacrifice for making things right is very holy. Only the priests may eat it, and they must eat it in a holy place.^[b]

⁷ The ceremony for this sacrifice and the one for sin are the same, and the meat may be eaten only by the priest who performs this ceremony of forgiveness.

⁸ In fact, the priest who offers a sacrifice to please me^[c] may keep the skin of the animal, ⁹ just as he may eat the bread from a sacrifice to give thanks to me.^{[d] 10} All other grain sacrifices—with or without olive oil in them—are to be divided equally among the priests of Aaron's family.

Sacrifices To Ask the Lord's Blessing

The Lord said:

¹¹ Here are the instructions for offering a sacrifice to ask my blessing:^{[e] 12} If you offer it to give thanks, you must offer some bread together with it. Use the finest flour to make three kinds of bread without yeast—two in the form of loaves mixed with olive oil and one in the form of thin wafers brushed with oil. ¹³ You must also make some bread with yeast. ¹⁴ Give me one loaf or wafer from each of these four kinds of bread, after which they will belong to the priest who splattered the blood against the bronze altar.

¹⁵ When you offer an animal to ask a blessing from me or to thank me, the meat belongs to you, but it must be eaten the same day. ¹⁶ It is different with the sacrifices you offer when you make me a promise or voluntarily give me something. The meat from those sacrifices may be kept and eaten the next day, ^17-18 but any that is left over must be destroyed. If you eat any of it after the second day, your sacrifice will be useless and unacceptable, and you will be both disgusting and guilty.

¹⁹ Don't eat any of the meat that has touched something unclean. Instead, burn it. The rest of the meat may be eaten by anyone who is clean and acceptable to me. ^20-21 But don't eat any of this meat if you have become unclean by touching something unclean from a human or an animal or from any other creature. If you do, you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.

²² The Lord told Moses ²³ to say to the people:

Don't eat the fat of cattle, sheep, or goats. ²⁴ If one of your animals dies or is killed by some wild animal, you may do anything with its fat except eat it. ²⁵ If you eat the fat of an animal that can be used as a sacrifice to me, you will no longer belong to the community of Israel. ^26 (A) And no matter where you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal, ²⁷ or you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.

²⁸ The Lord also told Moses ^29-30 to say to the people of Israel:

If you want to offer a sacrifice to ask my blessing, you must bring the part to be burned and lay it on the bronze altar. But you must first lift up^[f] the choice ribs with their fat to show that the offering is dedicated to me. ³¹ A priest from Aaron's family will then send the fat up in smoke, but the ribs belong to the priests. ^32-33 The upper joint of the right hind leg is for the priest who offers the blood and the fat of the animal. ³⁴ I have decided that the people of Israel must always give the choice ribs and the upper joint of the right hind leg to Aaron's descendants ³⁵ who have been ordained as priests to serve me. ³⁶ This law will never change. I am the Lord!

³⁷ These are the ceremonies for sacrifices to please the Lord, to give him thanks, and to ask for his blessing or his forgiveness, as well as the ceremonies for those sacrifices that demand a payment and for the sacrifices that are offered when priests are ordained. ³⁸ While Moses and the people of Israel were in the desert at Mount Sinai, the Lord commanded them to start offering these sacrifices.

The Ceremony for Ordaining Priests

(Exodus 29.1-37)

8 The Lord said to Moses:

² Send for Aaron and his sons, as well as their priestly clothes, the oil for ordination, the bull for the sin offering, the two rams, and a basket of bread made without yeast. ³ Then bring the whole community of Israel together at the entrance to the sacred tent.

⁴ Moses obeyed the Lord, and when everyone had come together, ⁵ he said, “We are here to follow the Lord's instructions.”

⁶ After Moses told Aaron and his sons to step forward, he told them to wash themselves. ⁷ He put the priestly shirt and robe on Aaron and wrapped the sash around his waist. Then he put the sacred vest on Aaron and fastened it with the finely woven belt. ⁸ Next, he put on Aaron the sacred breastpiece that was used in finding out what the Lord wanted his people to do. ⁹ He placed the turban on Aaron's head, and on the front of the turban was the narrow strip of thin gold as a sign of his dedication to the Lord.

¹⁰ Moses then dedicated the sacred tent and everything in it to the Lord by sprinkling them with some of the oil for ordination. ¹¹ He sprinkled the bronze altar seven times, and he sprinkled its equipment, as well as the large bronze bowl and its base. ¹² He also poured some of the oil on Aaron's head to dedicate him to the Lord. ¹³ Next, Moses dressed Aaron's sons in their shirts, then tied sashes around them and put special caps on them, just as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁴ Moses led out the bull that was to be sacrificed for sin, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. ¹⁵ After it was killed, Moses dipped a finger in the blood and smeared some of it on each of the four corners of the bronze altar, before pouring out the rest at the foot of the altar. This purified the altar and made it a fit place for offering the sacrifice for sin. ¹⁶ Moses then took the fat on the bull's insides, as well as the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat, and sent them up in smoke on the altar fire. ¹⁷ Finally, he took the skin and the flesh of the bull, together with the food still in its stomach, and burned them outside the camp, just as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁸ Moses led out the ram for the sacrifice to please the Lord.^[g] After Aaron and his sons had laid their hands on its head, ¹⁹ Moses killed the ram and splattered its blood against the four sides of the altar. ^20-21 Moses had the animal cut up, and he washed its insides and hind legs. Then he laid the head, the fat, and the rest of the ram on the altar and sent them up in smoke with a smell that pleased the Lord. All this was done just as the Lord had commanded.

²² Moses led out the ram for the ceremony of ordination. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head, ²³ and it was killed. Moses smeared some of its blood on Aaron's right earlobe, some on his right thumb, and some on the big toe of his right foot. ²⁴ Moses did the same thing for Aaron's sons, before splattering the rest of the blood against the four sides of the altar. ²⁵ He took the animal's fat tail, the fat on its insides, and the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat, and the right hind leg. ²⁶ Then he took from a basket some of each of the three kinds of bread^[h] that had been made without yeast and had been dedicated to the Lord.

²⁷ Moses placed the bread on top of the meat and gave it all to Aaron and his sons, who lifted it up^[i] to show that it was dedicated to the Lord. ²⁸ After this, Moses placed it on the fires of the altar and sent it up in smoke with a smell that pleased the Lord. This was part of the ordination ceremony. ²⁹ Moses lifted up^[j] the choice ribs of the ram to show that they were dedicated to the Lord. This was the part that the Lord had said Moses could have.

³⁰ Finally, Moses sprinkled the priestly clothes of Aaron and his sons with some of the oil for ordination and with some of the blood from the altar. So Aaron and his sons, together with their priestly clothes, were dedicated to the Lord.

³¹ Moses said to Aaron and his sons:

The Lord told me that you must boil this meat at the entrance to the sacred tent and eat it there with the bread. ³² Burn what is left over ³³ and stay near the entrance to the sacred tent until the ordination ceremony ends seven days from now. ³⁴ We have obeyed the Lord in everything that has been done today, so that your sins may be forgiven.^{[k] 35} The Lord has told me that you must stay near the entrance to the tent for seven days and nights, or else you will die.

³⁶ Aaron and his sons obeyed everything that the Lord had told Moses they must do.