Leviticus 16:1–16

The Day of Atonement

16The Lord spoke to Moses after ^cthe death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, ²and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to ^dcome at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For ^eI will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. ³But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: ^fwith a bull from the herd for a sin offering and ^ga ram for a burnt offering. ⁴He shall put on ^hthe holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. ⁱHe shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. ⁵And he shall take from ^jthe congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

⁶“Aaron shall ^koffer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall ^lmake atonement for himself and for his house. ⁷Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ⁸And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for ^mAzazel.^{1 9}And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, ¹⁰but the goat on which the lot fell for ^mAzazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to ^mAzazel.

¹¹“Aaron shall present ^kthe bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. ¹²And he shall take ⁿa censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil ^13oand put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover ^pthe mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. ¹⁴And ^qhe shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

^15r“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood ^sinside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. ¹⁶Thus he shall ^tmake atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.