Lê-vi Ký 16

The Day of Atonement

¹The LORD spoke to Moses after Aaron’s two sons had come near to the LORD and died.^{a 2}The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to your brother Aaron. He may not go at any time he pleases into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he will not die. For it is in the cloud above the mercy seat that I appear.^{b 3}Aaron may enter the Most Holy Place only in this way: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴He must be dressed in the holy linen tunic, with linen undergarments on his body, a linen sash tied around him and a linen turban wound on his head. Because these garments are holy, he is to wash his body in water and then put them on. ⁵From the congregation of the Israelites he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. ⁶Aaron is to bring forward the bull that is the sin offering for himself, and so make atonement for himself and those of his household. ⁷He is to take the two goats and have them stand before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ⁸Over the two goats Aaron is to cast two lots, one lot for the LORD and one lot for Azazel.^{c 9}Aaron is then to bring forward the goat picked by the lot for the LORD and offer it as a sin offering. ¹⁰The goat picked by the lot for Azazel, however, is to be set alive before the LORD, so that atonement may be made with it by sending it off into the wilderness to Azazel.^{d 11}Aaron is to bring forward the bull of his own sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household. He is to slaughter this bull. ¹²He is to fill a censer with burning coals from the altar that stands before the LORD, take two handfuls of fragrant incense ground fine, and carry them in behind the curtain. ¹³There before the LORD he is to lay the incense on the fire, and the cloud of incense will cover the mercy seat above the testimony. So he will not die. ¹⁴Some of the bull’s blood he is to take and sprinkle with his finger on the east side of the mercy seat, on its front. In front of the mercy seat, too, he is to sprinkle some of the blood with his finger, seven times. ¹⁵Then he is to slaughter the goat that is the sin offering for the people and bring its blood inside the curtain. He is to do with this blood what he did with the bull’s blood, sprinkling it on the mercy seat and before it. ¹⁶So he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place, cleansing it from the impurities of the Israelites, from their rebellious acts and all their sins. He is to do the same for the tent of meeting, which stays with them right among their impurities. ¹⁷While Aaron is inside making atonement in the Most Holy Place, no one may be in the tent of meeting until he comes out again. He makes atonement for himself, for his household and for the whole assembly of Israel. ¹⁸Next he is to go out to the altar before the LORD and make atonement for it. Taking some of the blood of the bull and of the goat, he is to put it on the horns of the altar on every side.^{e 19}He is to sprinkle some of the blood on the altar with his finger seven times. So he will purify it from the impurities of the Israelites and make it holy again. ²⁰Once he has completed the atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he is to present the goat that is still alive. ²¹Aaron is to lay both his hands on the live goat’s head and confess over it all the wrongdoing of the Israelites, all their rebellious acts, all their sins. So he is to place them on the goat’s head, and send it off into the wilderness with a man kept ready for that purpose.^{f 22}The goat will carry all their wrongdoing on itself into a barren land, and the man is to set the goat free in the wilderness. ²³After that Aaron is to go into the tent of meeting. There he is to take off the linen garments he put on to enter the Most Holy Place, and leave them in the tent. ²⁴He is to wash his body with water in a holy place and dress in his usual garments. Then he is to come out and offer the burnt offering for himself and the one for the people, making atonement for himself and the people. ²⁵The fat of the sin offering he is to burn on the altar. ²⁶The man who led the goat away to Azazel is to wash his clothes and bathe in water before he comes back into the camp. ²⁷As for the bull and the goat of the sin offerings, whose blood was taken into the Most Holy Place for atonement, someone is to carry them outside the camp, and there their skins, meat and dung are to be burned. ²⁸The one who burns them is to wash his clothes and bathe in water before he comes back into the camp. ²⁹This is to be a permanent rule for you. On the tenth day of the seventh month you are to humble yourselves by fasting and do no work of any kind. This applies to the native-born and to the outsider who lives among you. ³⁰For on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you, so that before the LORD you are clean of all your sins.^{g 31}It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, a day to humble yourselves by fasting. This is a permanent rule. ³²The atonement is to be made by the priest who has been anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father’s place. He is to put on the linen garments, the holy garments, ³³and make atonement for the holy sanctuary, for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and also for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.^{h 34}This is to be a permanent rule for you, that once a year atonement is made for the Israelites for all their sins.” And Aaron did as the LORD had commanded Moses.ⁱ