Old/New Testament
15 1-2 The Lord told Moses and Aaron to give the people of Israel these further instructions:
“Any man who has a genital discharge[a] is ceremonially defiled. 3 This applies not only while the discharge is active, but also for a time after it heals. 4 Any bed he lies on and anything he sits on is contaminated: 5 so anyone touching the man’s bed is ceremonially defiled until evening, and must wash his clothes and bathe himself. 6 Anyone sitting on a seat the man has sat upon while defiled is himself ceremonially impure until evening, and must wash his clothes and bathe himself. 7 The same instructions apply to anyone touching him. 8 Anyone he spits on is ceremonially impure until evening, and must wash his clothes and bathe himself. 9 Any saddle he rides on is defiled. 10 Anyone touching or carrying anything else that was beneath him shall be defiled until evening, and must wash his clothes and bathe himself. 11 If the defiled man touches anyone without first rinsing his hands, that person must wash his clothes and bathe himself and be defiled until evening. 12 Any earthen pot touched by the defiled man must be broken, and every wooden utensil must be rinsed in water.
13 “When the discharge stops, he shall begin a seven-day cleansing ceremony by washing his clothes and bathing in running water. 14 On the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and give them to the priest. 15 The priest shall sacrifice them there, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering; thus the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the man because of his discharge.
16 “Whenever a man’s semen goes out from him, he shall take a complete bath and be ceremonially impure until the evening. 17 Any clothing or bedding the semen spills on must be washed and remain ceremonially defiled until evening. 18 After sexual intercourse, the woman as well as the man must bathe, and they are ceremonially defiled until the next evening.
19 “Whenever a woman menstruates, she shall be in a state of ceremonial defilement for seven days afterwards, and during that time anyone touching her shall be defiled until evening. 20 Anything she lies on or sits on during that time shall be defiled. 21-23 Anyone touching her bed or anything she sits upon shall wash his clothes and bathe himself and be ceremonially defiled until evening. 24 A man having sexual intercourse with her during this time is ceremonially defiled for seven days, and every bed he lies upon shall be defiled.
25 “If the menstrual flow continues after the normal time, or at some irregular time during the month, the same rules apply as indicated above, 26 so that anything she lies upon during that time is defiled, just as it would be during her normal menstrual period, and everything she sits on is in a similar state of defilement. 27 Anyone touching her bed or anything she sits on shall be defiled, and shall wash his clothes and bathe and be defiled until evening. 28 Seven days after the menstruating stops, she is no longer ceremonially defiled.
29 “On the eighth day, she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tabernacle, 30 and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for her before the Lord for her menstrual defilement. 31 In this way you shall cleanse the people of Israel from their defilement, lest they die because of defiling my Tabernacle that is among them.”
32 This, then, is the law for the man who is defiled by a genital disease[b] or by a seminal emission; 33 and for a woman’s menstrual period; and for anyone who has sexual intercourse with her while she is in her period of defilement afterwards.
16 1-2 After Aaron’s two sons died before the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother Aaron not to enter into the Holy Place behind the veil, where the Ark and the place of mercy are, just whenever he chooses. The penalty for intrusion is death. For I myself am present in the cloud above the place of mercy.
3 “Here are the conditions for his entering there: He must bring a young bull for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He must bathe himself and put on the sacred linen coat, shorts, belt, and turban. 5 The people of Israel shall then bring him two male goats for their sin offering, and a ram for their burnt offering. 6 First he shall present to the Lord the young bull as a sin offering for himself, making atonement for himself and his family. 7 Then he shall bring the two goats before the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle, 8 and cast lots to determine which is the Lord’s and which is to be sent away.[c] 9 The goat allotted to the Lord shall then be sacrificed by Aaron as a sin offering. 10 The other goat shall be kept alive and placed before the Lord. The rite of atonement shall be performed over it, and it shall then be sent out into the desert as a scapegoat.
11 “After Aaron has sacrificed the young bull as a sin offering for himself and his family, 12 he shall take a censer full of live coals from the altar of the Lord, and fill his hands with sweet incense beaten into fine powder, and bring it inside the veil. 13 There before the Lord he shall put the incense upon the coals, so that a cloud of incense will cover the mercy place above the Ark (containing the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments); thus he will not die. 14 And he shall bring some of the blood of the young bull and sprinkle it with his finger upon the east side of the mercy place, and then seven times in front of it.
15 “Then he must go out[d] and sacrifice the people’s sin offering goat, and bring its blood within the veil, and sprinkle it upon the place of mercy and in front of it, just as he did with the blood of the young bull. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because it is defiled by the sins of the people of Israel, and for the Tabernacle, located right among them and surrounded by their defilement. 17 Not another soul shall be inside the Tabernacle when Aaron enters to make atonement in the Holy Place—not until after he comes out again and has made atonement for himself and his household and for all the people of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar before the Lord and make atonement for it. He must smear the blood of the young bull and the goat on the horns of the altar, 19 and sprinkle blood upon the altar seven times with his finger, thus cleansing it from the sinfulness of Israel and making it holy.[e]
20 “When he has completed the rite of atonement for the Holy Place, the entire Tabernacle, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat and, 21 laying both hands upon its head, confess over it all the sins of the people of Israel. He shall lay all their sins upon the head of the goat and send it into the desert, led by a man appointed for the task. 22 So the goat shall carry all the sins of the people into a land where no one lives,[f] and the man shall let it loose in the wilderness.
23 “Then Aaron shall go into the Tabernacle again and take off the linen garments he wore when he went behind the veil, and leave them there in the Tabernacle. 24 Then he shall bathe in a sacred place, put on his clothes again, and go out and sacrifice his own burnt offering for the people, making atonement for himself and for them. 25 He shall also burn upon the altar the fat for the sin offering.
26 “The man who took the goat out into the desert[g] shall afterwards wash his clothes and bathe himself and then come back into the camp. 27 And the young bull and the goat used for the sin offering (their blood was taken into the Holy Place by Aaron, to make atonement) shall be carried outside the camp and burned, including the hides and internal organs. 28 Afterwards, the person doing the burning shall wash his clothes and bathe himself and then return to camp.
29-30 “This is a permanent law: You must do no work on the twenty-fifth day of September,[h] but must spend the day in self-examination and humility. This applies whether you are born in the land or are a foreigner living among the people of Israel; for this is the day commemorating the atonement, cleansing you in the Lord’s eyes from all of your sins. 31 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall spend the day in quiet humility;[i] this is a permanent law. 32 This ceremony, in later generations, shall be performed by the anointed High Priest, consecrated in place of his ancestor Aaron; he shall be the one to put on the holy linen garments, 33 and make atonement for the holy sanctuary, the Tabernacle, the altar, the priests, and the people. 34 This shall be an everlasting law for you, to make atonement for the people of Israel once each year, because of their sins.”
And Aaron followed all these instructions that the Lord gave to Moses.
27 When it was morning, the chief priests and Jewish leaders met again to discuss how to induce the Roman government to sentence Jesus to death.[a] 2 Then they sent him in chains to Pilate, the Roman governor.
3 About that time Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus had been condemned to die, changed his mind and deeply regretted what he had done,[b] and brought back the money to the chief priests and other Jewish leaders.
4 “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”
“That’s your problem,” they retorted.
5 Then he threw the money onto the floor of the Temple and went out and hanged himself. 6 The chief priests picked the money up. “We can’t put it in the collection,” they said, “since it’s against our laws to accept money paid for murder.”
7 They talked it over and finally decided to buy a certain field where the clay was used by potters, and to make it into a cemetery for foreigners who died in Jerusalem. 8 That is why the cemetery is still called “The Field of Blood.”
9 This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah which says,
“They took the thirty pieces of silver—the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel— 10 and purchased a field from the potters as the Lord directed me.”
11 Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. “Are you the Jews’ Messiah?”[c] the governor asked him.
“Yes,” Jesus replied.
12 But when the chief priests and other Jewish leaders made their many accusations against him, Jesus remained silent.
13 “Don’t you hear what they are saying?” Pilate demanded.
14 But Jesus said nothing, much to the governor’s surprise.
15 Now the governor’s custom was to release one Jewish prisoner each year during the Passover celebration—anyone they wanted. 16 This year there was a particularly notorious criminal in jail named Barabbas, 17 and as the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning he asked them, “Which shall I release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus your Messiah?”[d] 18 For he knew very well that the Jewish leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy because of his popularity with the people.
19 Just then, as he was presiding over the court, Pilate’s wife sent him this message: “Leave that good man alone; for I had a terrible nightmare concerning him last night.”
20 Meanwhile the chief priests and Jewish officials persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas’s release, and for Jesus’ death. 21 So when the governor asked again,[e] “Which of these two shall I release to you?” the crowd shouted back their reply: “Barabbas!”
22 “Then what shall I do with Jesus, your Messiah?” Pilate asked.
And they shouted, “Crucify him!”
23 “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What has he done wrong?” But they kept shouting, “Crucify! Crucify!”
24 When Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing, he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this good man. The responsibility is yours!”
25 And the mob yelled back, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
26 Then Pilate released Barabbas to them. And after he had whipped Jesus, he gave him to the Roman soldiers to be taken away and crucified.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.