Leviticus 16

Modern English Version

The Day of Atonement^(A)

16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near to the Lord and died. ² The Lord said to Moses: Speak to Aaron your brother so that he does not come at any time into the Holy Place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is on the ark, so that he will not die, for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.

³ Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴ He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and he shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and shall be girded with a linen sash, and shall be wearing the linen turban. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water and then put them on. ⁵ He shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

⁶ Aaron shall offer his bull for the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. ⁷ Then he shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ⁸ Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. ⁹ Aaron shall bring the goat on which the lot of the Lord falls and offer him for a sin offering. ¹⁰ But the goat on which the lot falls to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement with it, that it may be sent away as a scapegoat into the wilderness.

¹¹ Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bull of the sin offering for himself. ¹² And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil. ¹³ And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. ¹⁴ And he shall take of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the eastern side, and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle from the blood with his finger seven times.

¹⁵ Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, and bring its blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it over and in front of the mercy seat. ¹⁶ And he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions in all their sins, and so he shall do for the tent of meeting that remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. ¹⁷ There shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out and has made atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel.

¹⁸ Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and he shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. ¹⁹ He shall sprinkle from the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

²⁰ When he has made an end of atonement for the Holy Place, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, then he shall bring the live goat. ²¹ And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away by the hand of a designated man into the wilderness. ²² And the goat shall bear on it all their iniquities to a desolate land, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.

²³ Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, and shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there. ²⁴ And he shall wash his body with water in a holy place, and put on his garments, and come out, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. ²⁵ The fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar.

²⁶ He who releases the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his body in water, and afterward come into the camp. ²⁷ The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. They shall burn in the fire their hides, their flesh, and their refuse. ²⁸ He who burns them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his body in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp.

²⁹ This shall be a perpetual statute for you so that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble yourselves, and do no work of any kind, whether it is the native citizen or the stranger who sojourns among you. ³⁰ For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. ³¹ It shall be a sabbath, a solemn rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. It is a perpetual statute. ³² The priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as a priest in the place of his father, shall make atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, the holy garments. ³³ And he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, for the tent of meeting, and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation.

³⁴ This shall be a perpetual statute for you to make atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year.

And Moses did as the Lord commanded him.