REGULATIONS FOR PRIESTS

8 The Lord spoke to Aaron: 9 “You and your sons are not to drink wineae or beeraf when you enter the tent of meeting, or else you will die; this is a permanent statuteag throughout your generations. 10 You must distinguishah between the holy and the common,ai and the clean and the unclean,aj 11 and teach the Israelites all the statutesak that the Lord has given to them through Moses.”

12 Moses spoke to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar: “Take the grain offering that is left over from the food offeringsa to the Lord, and eat it prepared without yeast beside the altar, because it is especially holy. 13 You must eat it in a holy place because it is your portionA and your sons’ from the food offerings to the Lord, for this is what I was commanded. 14 But you and your sons and your daughters may eat the breast of the presentation offering and the thigh of the contribution in any ceremonially clean place, because these portions have been assigned to you and your children from the Israelites’ fellowship sacrifices. 15 They are to bring the thigh of the contribution and the breast of the presentation offering, together with the food offerings of the fat portions, to present as a presentation offering before the Lord. It will belong permanentlyb to you and your children, as the Lord commanded.”

16 Then Moses inquired carefully about the male goat of the sin offering, but it had already been burned up. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s surviving sons, and asked, 17 “Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the sanctuary area?c For it is especially holy, and he has assigned it to you to take away the guiltd of the communitye and make atonement for them before the Lord. 18 Since its blood was not brought inside the sanctuary, you should have eaten it in the sanctuary area, as I commanded.”f

19 But Aaron replied to Moses, “See, today they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord. Since these things have happened to me, if I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been acceptable in the Lord’s sight?” 20 When Moses heard this, it was acceptable to him.B