Knox Bible

1

After the death of Aaron’s two sons, that were punished for offering up unhallowed fire, the Lord spoke to Moses

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giving him a message for his brother Aaron: He must never present himself without due preparation within the sanctuary, behind the veil, where the throne stands above the ark. If he does so, the penalty is death; it is over this shrine that I mean to reveal myself in cloud.

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And this is the preparation he must make; he must offer a young bullock as a victim for his faults, and a ram by way of burnt-sacrifice.

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He must be clad in the linen robe, with linen breeches for decency, and must be girt with a linen girdle, and wear the linen mitre on his head; these are the sacred vestments he must put on, after washing himself.

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And the whole people of Israel must provide him with two goats as victims for their faults, and a ram for burnt-sacrifice.

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He will offer the bullock to make intercession for himself and for his family.

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The two goats he will present before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle that bears record of me,

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and will cast lots between them; one is to be the Lord’s due, the other is for discharge.✻

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The one chosen by lot to be the Lord’s due must be offered for their faults;

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the one chosen for their discharge must be presented before the Lord alive, to let intercession fall upon it, and then be turned loose in the desert.

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So, with due ceremony, he will offer the bullock, making intercession for himself and his family, and immolate it.

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And now, filling his censer with coals from the altar, and taking a handful of beaten spices for incense, he will pass beyond the veil into the inner sanctuary,

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putting incense on the coals, so that a cloud of smoke may hide that shrine over the ark, which none may see and live.

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He will take some of the bullock’s blood, too, and sprinkle it with his finger seven times over the eastern end of the sanctuary, opposite the throne.✻

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And afterwards, when he has immolated the goat for the faults of the people, he will carry some of its blood, too, within the veil, and sprinkle it there opposite the shrine, like the bullock’s blood.

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So he will purify the sanctuary from all the faults the sons of Israel have committed, their transgressions and their uncleanness. With the same ceremony he shall purify the tabernacle that bears the Lord’s record, pitched there amongst them, with all the defilement of their dwellings round about.

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No one must be there in the tabernacle from the time when the high priest enters the inner sanctuary, to make intercession for himself and his family and the whole people of Israel, till the time when he comes out again.

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And when he comes out to the altar that stands there in the Lord’s presence, he must make intercession for himself, pouring the blood of bullock and goat all round the horns of it;

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and so, sprinkling it with his finger seven times, he must make expiation, and cleanse it from all the defilement incurred by the sons of Israel.

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Sanctuary, and tabernacle, and altar so cleansed, he has still to offer up the goat that is left alive.

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He must put both hands on its head, confessing all the sins and transgressions and faults Israel has committed, and laying the guilt of them on its head. And there will be a man standing ready to take it into the desert for him;

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so the goat will carry away all their sins into a land uninhabited, set at large in the desert.

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Then Aaron will come back to the tabernacle, and take off the vestments he wore when he entered the sanctuary, and leave them there;

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he will wash on holy ground, and put on his own garments instead. He will come out, and offer his own burnt-sacrifice, and that of the people, making intercession for himself and for the people both at once,

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and burn the fat of the transgression-victim on the altar.

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The man who let loose the goat that was discharged must wash his clothes and bathe before he returns to the camp.

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As for the transgression-victims, the bullock and the goat, whose blood was carried into the sanctuary to make expiation there, the carcases must be taken away from the camp and destroyed by fire, skin and flesh and dung together.

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And the man who burns them, before he returns to the camp, must wash his clothes and bathe like the other.

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This ceremony you are to observe for all time. On the tenth day of the seventh month you will keep a fast;✻ no work is to be done by citizen or by alien that day.

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It is a day of atonement on your behalf, to cleanse you from all fault, and make you clean in the Lord’s sight;

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it must be all repose; so that you can observe the fast, year after year.

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He who then holds the office of high priest, duly anointed to serve in place of his father, will make atonement, clad in linen robe and sacred vestments;

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purify sanctuary, tabernacle, altar, priests and people.

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You will continue for all time to make intercession, once a year, for the children of Israel, and for all the faults they have committed.

And Aaron carried out the commands which the Lord had given to Moses.