Leviticus 9:22-10:11

Contemporary English Version

^22 (A) Aaron held out his hand and gave the people his blessing, before coming down from the bronze altar where he had offered the sacrifices. ²³ He and Moses went into the sacred tent, and when they came out, they gave the people their blessing. Then the Lord appeared to the people in all of his glory. ²⁴ The Lord sent fiery flames that burned up everything on the altar, and when everyone saw this, they shouted and fell to their knees to worship the Lord.

Nadab and Abihu

10 Nadab and Abihu were two of Aaron's sons, but they disobeyed the Lord by burning incense to him on a fire pan, when they were not supposed to.^{[a] 2} Suddenly the Lord sent fiery flames and burned them to death. ³ Then Moses told Aaron that this was exactly what the Lord had meant when he said:

Aaron was speechless.

⁴ Moses sent for Mishael and Elzaphan, the two sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel. Then he told them, “Take these two dead relatives of yours outside the camp far from the entrance to the sacred tent.” ⁵ So they dragged the dead men away by their clothes.

⁶ Then Moses told Aaron and his other two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar:

Don't show your sorrow by messing up your hair and tearing your priestly clothes, or the Lord will get angry. He will kill the three of you and punish everyone else. It's all right for your relatives, the people of Israel, to mourn for those he destroyed by fire. ⁷ But you are the Lord's chosen priests, and you must not leave the sacred tent, or you will die.

Aaron and his two sons obeyed Moses.

⁸ The Lord said to Aaron:

⁹ When you or your sons enter the sacred tent, you must never drink beer or wine. If you do, you will die right there! This law will never change. ¹⁰ You must learn the difference between what is holy and what isn't holy and between the clean and the unclean. ¹¹ You must also teach the people of Israel everything that I commanded Moses to say to them.