Leviticus 8-10
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
8 And the Lord said to Moses,
2 Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments [symbols of their office], and the anointing oil, and the bull of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread;
3 And assemble all the congregation at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
4 Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
5 Moses told the congregation, This is what the Lord has commanded to be done.
6 Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water.
7 He put on Aaron the long undertunic, girded him with the long sash, clothed him with the robe, put the ephod (an upper vestment) upon him, and girded him with the skillfully woven cords attached to the ephod, binding it to him.
8 And Moses put upon Aaron the breastplate; also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim [articles upon which the high priest put his hand when seeking the divine will concerning the nation].
9 And he put the turban or miter on his head; on it, in front, Moses put the shining gold plate, the holy diadem, as the Lord commanded him.
10 And Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them.
11 And he sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the laver and its base, to consecrate them.
12 And he poured some of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him.
13 And Moses brought Aaron’s sons and put undertunics on them and girded them with sashes and wound turbans on them, as the Lord commanded Moses.
14 Then he brought the bull of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering.
15 Moses killed it and took the blood and put it on the horns of the altar round about with his finger and poured the blood at the base of the altar and purified and consecrated the altar to make atonement for it.
16 He took all the fat that was on the entrails, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and Moses burned them on the altar.
17 But the bull [the sin offering] and its hide, its flesh, and its dung he burned with fire outside the camp, as the Lord commanded Moses.
18 He brought the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.
19 And Moses killed it and dashed the blood upon the altar round about.
20 He cut the ram into pieces and Moses burned the head, the pieces, and the fat.
21 And he washed the entrails and the legs in water; then Moses burned the whole ram on the altar; it was a burnt sacrifice, for a sweet and satisfying fragrance, an offering made by fire to the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
22 And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration and ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.
23 And Moses killed it and took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.
24 And he brought Aaron’s sons and Moses put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears, and the thumbs of their right hands, and the great toes of their right feet; and Moses dashed the blood upon the altar round about.
25 And he took the fat, the fat tail, all the fat that was on the entrails, the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat, and the right thigh;
26 And out of the basket of unleavened bread, that was before the Lord, he took one unleavened cake, a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer and put them on the fat and on the right thigh;
27 And he put all these in Aaron’s hands and his sons’ hands and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord.
28 Then Moses took these things from their hands and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering as an ordination offering, for a sweet and satisfying fragrance, an offering made by fire to the Lord.
29 And Moses took the breast and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord; for of the ram of consecration and ordination it was Moses’ portion, as the Lord commanded Moses.
30 And Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood which was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments, and upon his sons and their garments also; so Moses consecrated Aaron and his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments.
31 And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the Tent of Meeting and there eat it with the bread that is in the basket of consecration and ordination, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it.
32 And what remains of the flesh and of the bread you shall burn with fire.
33 And you shall not go out of the door of the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the days of your consecration and ordination are ended; for it will take seven days to consecrate and ordain you.
34 As has been done this day, so the Lord has commanded to do for your atonement.
35 At the door of the Tent of Meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days, [a]doing what the Lord has charged you to do, that you die not; for so I am commanded.
36 So Aaron and his sons did all the things which the Lord commanded through Moses.
9 On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel;
2 And he said to Aaron, Take a young calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, [each] without blemish, and offer them before the Lord.(A)
3 And say to the Israelites, Take a male goat for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both a year old, without blemish, for a burnt offering,
4 Also a bull and a ram for peace offerings to sacrifice before the Lord, and a cereal offering mixed with oil, for today the Lord will appear to you.
5 They brought before the Tent of Meeting what Moses [had] commanded; all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord.
6 And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded you to do, and the glory of the Lord will appear to you.
7 And Moses said to Aaron, Draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people; and offer the offering of the people and make atonement for them, as the Lord commanded.(B)
8 So Aaron drew near to the altar and killed the calf of 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 it on the horns of the altar and poured out the blood at the altar’s base;
10 But the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver from the sin offering he burned on the altar, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
11 And the flesh and the hide Aaron burned with fire outside the camp.
12 He killed the burnt offering, and Aaron’s sons delivered to him the blood, which he dashed round about upon the altar.
13 And they brought the burnt offering to him piece by piece, and the head, and Aaron burned them upon the altar.
14 And he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar.
15 Then Aaron presented the people’s offering, and took the goat of the sin offering which was for the people and killed it and offered it for sin as he did the first sin offering.(C)
16 And he presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the ordinance.
17 And Aaron presented the cereal offering and took a handful of it and burned it 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, for the people; and Aaron’s sons presented to him the blood, which he dashed upon the altar round about,
19 And the fat of the bull and of the ram, the fat tail and that which covers the entrails, and the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver.
20 And they put the fat upon the breasts, and Aaron burned the fat upon the altar;
21 But the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses commanded.
22 Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them, and came down [from the altar] after offering 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 of the Lord [the Shekinah cloud] appeared to all the people [as promised].(D)
24 Then there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
10 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and offered strange and unholy fire before the Lord, as He had not commanded them.
2 And there came forth fire from before the Lord and killed them, and they died before the Lord.
3 Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord meant when He said, I [b][and My will, not their own] will be acknowledged as hallowed by those who come near Me, and before all the people I will be honored. And Aaron said nothing.
4 Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Uzziel uncle of Aaron, and said to them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.
5 So they drew near and carried them in their undertunics [stripped of their priestly vestments] out of the camp, as Moses had said.
6 And Moses said to Aaron and Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons [the father and brothers of the two priests whom God had slain for offering false fire], Do not uncover your heads or let your hair go loose or tear your clothes, lest you die [also] and lest God’s wrath should come upon all the congregation; but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord has kindled.
7 And you shall not go out from the door of the Tent of Meeting, lest you die, for the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you. And they did according to Moses’ word.
8 And the Lord said to Aaron,
9 Do not drink wine or strong drink, you or your sons, when you go into the Tent of Meeting, lest you die; it shall be a statute forever in all your generations.
10 You shall make a distinction and recognize a difference between the holy and the common or unholy, and between the unclean and the clean;
11 And you are to teach the Israelites all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.
12 And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons who were left, Take the cereal offering that remains of the offerings of the Lord made by fire and eat it without leaven beside the altar, for it is most holy.
13 You shall eat it in a sacred place, because it is your due and your sons’ due, from the offerings made by fire to the Lord; for so I am commanded.
14 But the breast that is waved and the thigh that is offered you shall eat in a clean place, you and your sons and daughters with you; for they are your due and your sons’ due, given out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the Israelites.
15 The thigh that is offered and the breast that is waved they shall bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave for a wave offering before the Lord; and it shall be yours and your sons’ with you as a portion or due perpetually, as the Lord has commanded.
16 And Moses diligently tried to find [what had become of] the goat [that had been offered] for the sin offering, and behold, it was burned up [as waste]! And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left alive, and said,
17 Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the Holy Place? It is most holy; and God has given it to you to bear and take away the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord.
18 Behold, the blood of it was not brought within the Holy Place; you should indeed have eaten [the flesh of it] in the Holy Place, as I commanded.
19 But Aaron said to Moses, Behold, this very day in which they have [obediently] offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, such [terrible calamities] have befallen me [and them]! If I [and they] had eaten the most holy sin offering today [humbled as we have been by the sin of our kinsmen and God’s judgment upon them], would it have been acceptable in the sight of the Lord?(E)
20 And when Moses heard that, he was pacified.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 8:35 We have, every one of us, a charge to keep, an eternal God to glorify, an immortal soul to provide for, needful duty to be done, our generation to serve; and it must be our daily care to keep this charge, for it is the charge of the Lord our Master (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Holy Bible). The laws contained in this book, for the most part ceremonial, had an important spiritual bearing, the study of which is highly instructive (Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown, A Commentary). The Scripture references recorded within the text are intended to be a guide to its spiritual implications.
- Leviticus 10:3 Perhaps few believers have ever identified themselves with Nadab and Abihu, and yet few, if any, of us have not done exactly what they did in principle. Their sin, which God took so seriously and which proved fatal to them, was not a mere matter of failing to obey the letter of God’s law for priests. Their inexcusable folly was in trying to please the Lord their way instead of His way. Who of us cannot recognize himself as the offerer of this prayer, with only the details lacking: “O Lord, make me rich! Then I will make large donations to Your interests!” Yet our very poverty may be the means to the end which He has in love and wisdom planned for us, the ultimate purpose of our creation, perhaps, which substitution of our will for His will would utterly defeat. No wonder God removed Nadab and Abihu from the earth! They, like ourselves, had acted like the child of a great painter who attempted to work on his father’s priceless canvas instead of on the tablet assigned to him. They, like the child, were banished from the father’s presence. And every believer does well to recognize the importance of being entirely surrendered to “God’s will; nothing more; nothing less; nothing else; at any cost.” And that does not mean first making an unholy alliance in marriage, or in business, or in thought, and then adjusting it to God’s will. Remember Nadab and Abihu, who “offered strange and unholy fire before the Lord.” It does not pay.
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