Leviticus 9-10

Amplified Bible

Aaron Offers Sacrifices

9 And it happened on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel; ² and he said to Aaron, “Take a bull calf as a sin offering and a ram as a burnt offering, [each] without blemish, and offer both before the Lord.^{(A) 3} Then say to the Israelites, ‘Take a male goat as a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both one year old, without blemish, as a burnt offering, ⁴ and a bull and a ram as peace offerings to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering mixed with [olive] oil, for today the Lord will appear to you.’” ⁵ So they took what Moses had commanded to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and all the congregation approached and stood before the Lord. ⁶ Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.” ⁷ Moses said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and present your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people; and present the offering of the people and make atonement for them, just as the Lord has commanded.”^(B)

⁸ So Aaron approached the altar and killed the calf as the sin offering, which was designated for himself. ⁹ The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him; he dipped his finger in the blood and put some of it on the horns of the altar, and poured out the rest of the blood at the altar’s base; ¹⁰ but the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver from the sin offering he offered up in smoke on the altar, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ¹¹ And Aaron burned the meat and the hide in the fire outside the camp.

¹² Then he killed the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him and he sprinkled it around on the altar. ¹³ They brought the burnt offering to him piece by piece, with the head, and Aaron offered them up in smoke on the altar. ¹⁴ He also washed the entrails and the legs, and offered them up in smoke with the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵ Then Aaron presented the people’s offering. He took the goat for the sin offering of the people, and killed it and offered it for sin, as he did the first.^{(C) 16} He also presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the ordinance. ¹⁷ Next Aaron presented the grain offering and took a handful of it and offered it up in smoke on the altar in addition to the burnt offering of the morning.

¹⁸ He also killed the bull and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings which was for the people; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him and he sprinkled it around on the altar, ¹⁹ As for the portions of fat from the bull and from the ram—the fat tail, and the fat covering the internal organs, and the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver— ²⁰ they now put the portions of fat on the breasts; and Aaron offered the fat up in smoke on the altar. ²¹ But the breasts and the right thigh Aaron presented as a wave offering before the Lord, just as Moses had commanded.

²² Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them, and came down [from the altar of burnt offering] after presenting the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings. ²³ Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory and brilliance of the Lord [the Shekinah cloud] appeared to all the people [as promised].^{(D) 24} Then fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell face downward [in awe and worship].

The Sin of Nadab and Abihu

10 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective [ceremonial] censers, put fire in them, placed incense on it and offered ^[a]strange (unauthorized, unacceptable) fire before the Lord, [an act] which He had not commanded them to do. ² And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. ³ Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord said:

So Aaron, therefore, said nothing.

⁴ Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel who was Aaron’s uncle, and said to them, “Come here, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary and take them outside the camp.” ⁵ So they came forward and carried them, still in their undertunics, outside the camp, as Moses had said. ⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron and to his [younger] sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not ^[b]uncover your heads nor let your hair hang loose nor tear your clothes [as expressions of mourning], so that you will not die [also] and so that He will not express His wrath and anger toward all the congregation. But your relatives, the whole house of Israel, may mourn the burning which the Lord has brought about. ⁷ You shall not even go out of the doorway of the Tent of Meeting, or you will die; for the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.” So they did [everything] according to the word of Moses.

⁸ Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, ⁹ “^[c]Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the Tent of Meeting, so that you will not die—it is a permanent statute throughout your generations— ¹⁰ and to make a distinction and recognize a difference between the holy (sacred) and the common (profane), and between the [ceremonially] unclean and the clean;^{(E) 11} and you are to teach the Israelites all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them ^[d]through Moses.”

¹² Then Moses said to Aaron, and to his surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that is left over from the offerings by fire to the Lord, and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy. ¹³ You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your portion and your sons’ portion, from the offerings by fire to the Lord; for so I have been commanded. ¹⁴ But the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering you may eat in a clean place, you and your sons and daughters with you; for the breast and the thigh are your portion and your sons’ portion, given out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the Israelites. ¹⁵ They shall bring the thigh presented by lifting up and the breast presented by waving, along with the offerings by fire of the fat, to present as a wave offering before the Lord. This shall be yours and your sons’ with you, as your perpetual portion, just as the Lord has commanded.”

¹⁶ But Moses diligently tried to find the goat [that had been offered] as the sin offering, and discovered that it had been burned up [as waste, not eaten]! So he was angry with Aaron’s surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar, saying, ¹⁷ “Why did you not eat the sin offering in the holy place? For it is most holy; and God gave it to you to remove the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord. ¹⁸ Behold, its blood was not brought into the Holy Place; you certainly should have eaten the goat in the sanctuary, just as I commanded.” ¹⁹ Then Aaron said to Moses, “This very day they have [obediently] presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, but [such terrible things] as these have happened to me [and to them]; if I [and my sons] had eaten a sin offering today would it have been acceptable and pleasing in the sight of the Lord?”^{(F) 20} When Moses heard that, he was satisfied.