The Sin of Nadab and Abihu

1 Now aNadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective bfirepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.

2 aAnd fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying,

‘By those who acome near Me I 1bwill be treated as holy,

And before all the people I will cbe honored.’ ”

So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

4 Moses called also to aMishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come forward, carry your 1relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.”

5 So they came forward and carried them still in their atunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said.

6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “aDo not 1uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not bbecome wrathful against all the congregation. But your 2kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the Lord has 3brought about.

7 “You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for athe Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.” So they did according to the word of Moses.