Leviticus 15:1–17:16

Unclean Bodily Discharges

15 The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the following regulations 2for the people of Israel. When any man has a discharge from his penis, the discharge is unclean, 3whether the penis runs with it or is stopped up by it. 4Any bed on which he sits or lies is unclean. 5Anyone who touches his bed 6or sits on anything the man has sat on must wash his clothes and have a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. 7Anyone who touches the man with the discharge must wash his clothes and have a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. 8If the man with the discharge spits on anyone who is ritually clean, that person must wash his clothes and have a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. 9Any saddle or seat on which the man with the discharge sits is unclean. 10Anyone who touches anything on which the man sat is unclean until evening. Anyone who carries anything on which the man sat must wash his clothes and have a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. 11If a man who has a discharge touches someone without first having washed his hands, that person must wash his clothes and have a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. 12Any clay pot that the man touches must be broken, and any wooden bowl that he touches must be washed.

13 After the man is cured of his discharge, he must wait seven days and then wash his clothes and bathe in fresh spring water, and he will be ritually clean. 14On the eighth day he shall take two doves or two pigeons to the entrance of the Tent of the Lord’s presence and give them to the priest. 15The priest shall offer one of them as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. In this way he will perform the ritual of purification for the man.

16 When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body, and he remains unclean until evening. 17Anything made of cloth or leather on which the semen falls must be washed, and it remains unclean until evening. 18After sexual intercourse both the man and the woman must have a bath, and they remain unclean until evening.

19 When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her is unclean until evening. 20Anything on which she sits or lies during her monthly period is unclean. 21–23Anyone who touches her bed or anything on which she has sat must wash his clothes and have a bath, and he remains unclean until evening. 24If a man has sexual intercourse with her during her period, he is contaminated by her impurity and remains unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies is unclean.

25 If a woman has a flow of blood for several days outside her monthly period or if her flow continues beyond her regular period, she remains unclean as long as the flow continues, just as she is during her monthly period. 26Any bed on which she lies and anything on which she sits during this time is unclean. 27Anyone who touches them is unclean and must wash his clothes and have a bath; he remains unclean until evening. 28After her flow stops, she must wait seven days, and then she will be ritually clean. 29On the eighth day she shall take two doves or two pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord’s presence. 30The priest shall offer one of them as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and in this way he will perform the ritual of purification for her.

31 The Lord told Moses to warn the people of Israel about their uncleanness, so that they would not defile the Tent of his presence, which was in the middle of the camp. If they did, they would be killed.

32 These are the regulations about a man who has a discharge or an emission of semen, 33a woman during her monthly period, or a man who has sexual intercourse with a woman who is ritually unclean.

The Day of Atonement

16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who were killed when they offered unholy fire to the Lord. 2*He said, “Tell your brother Aaron that only at the proper time is he to go behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place, because that is where I appear in a cloud above the lid on the Covenant Box. If he disobeys, he will be killed. 3*He may enter the Most Holy Place only after he has brought a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.”

4 Then the Lord gave the following instructions. Before Aaron goes into the Most Holy Place, he must have a bath and put on the priestly garments: the linen robe and shorts, the belt, and the turban.

5 The community of Israel shall give Aaron two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 6He shall offer a bull as a sacrifice to take away his own sins and those of his family. 7Then he shall take the two goats to the entrance of the Tent of the Lord’s presence. 8There he shall draw lots, using two stones, one marked “for the Lord” and the other “for Azazel”.f 9Aaron shall sacrifice the goat chosen by lot for the Lord and offer it as a sin offering. 10The goat chosen for Azazel shall be presented alive to the Lord and sent off into the desert to Azazel, in order to take away the sins of the people.

11 When Aaron sacrifices the bull as the sin offering for himself and his family, 12he shall take a fire pan full of burning coals from the altar and two handfuls of fine incense and bring them into the Most Holy Place. 13There in the Lord’s presence he shall put the incense on the fire, and the smoke of the incense will hide the lid of the Covenant Box so that he will not see it and die. 14He shall take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the lid and then sprinkle some of it seven times in front of the Covenant Box.

15 *After that, he shall kill the goat for the sin offering for the people, bring its blood into the Most Holy Place, and sprinkle it on the lid and then in front of the Covenant Box, as he did with the bull’s blood. 16In this way he will perform the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place from the uncleanness of the people of Israel and from all their sins. He must do this to the Tent, because it stands in the middle of the camp, which is ritually unclean. 17From the time Aaron enters the Most Holy Place to perform the ritual of purification until he comes out, there must be no one in the Tent. When he has performed the ritual for himself, his family, and the whole community, 18he must then go out to the altar for burnt offerings and purify it. He must take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it all over the projections at the corners of the altar. 19With his finger he must sprinkle some of the blood on the altar seven times. In this way he is to purify it from the sins of the people of Israel and make it holy.

The Scapegoat

20 When Aaron has finished performing the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place, the rest of the Tent of the Lord’s presence, and the altar, he shall present to the Lord the live goat chosen for Azazel.g 21He shall put both his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the evils, sins, and rebellions of the people of Israel, and so transfer them to the goat’s head. Then the goat is to be driven off into the desert by someone appointed to do it. 22The goat will carry all their sins away with him into some uninhabited land.

23 *Then Aaron shall go into the Tent, take off the priestly garments that he had put on before entering the Most Holy Place, and leave them there. 24He must bathe in a holy place and put on his own clothes. After that, he shall go out and offer the burnt offering to remove his own sins and those of the people. 25He shall burn on the altar the fat of the animal for the sin offering. 26The man who drove the goat into the desert to Azazel must wash his clothes and have a bath before he comes back into camp. 27*The bull and the goat used for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to take away sin, shall be carried outside the camp and burnt. Skin, meat, and intestines shall all be burnt. 28The one who burns them must wash his clothes and have a bath before he returns to camp.

Observing the Day of Atonement

29 *The following regulations are to be observed for all time to come. On the tenth day of the seventh month the Israelites and the foreigners living among them must fast and must not do any work. 30*On that day the ritual is to be performed to purify them from all their sins, so that they will be ritually clean. 31*That day is to be a very holy day, one on which they fast and do no work at all. These regulations are to be observed for all time to come. 32*The High Priest, properly ordained and consecrated to succeed his father, is to perform the ritual of purification. He shall put on the priestly garments 33*and perform the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place, the rest of the Tent of the Lord’s presence, the altar, the priests, and all the people of the community. 34*These regulations are to be observed for all time to come. This ritual must be performed once a year to purify the people of Israel from all their sins.

So Mosesh did as the Lord had commanded.

The Sacrifices of Blood

17 The Lord commanded Moses 2to give Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel the following regulations. 3–4An Israelite who kills a cow or a sheep or a goat as an offering to the Lord anywhere except at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord’s presence has broken the Law. He has shed blood and shall no longer be considered one of God’s people. 5The meaning of this command is that the people of Israel shall now bring to the Lord the animals which they used to kill in the open country. They shall now bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent and kill them as fellowship offerings. 6The priest shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar at the entrance of the Tent and burn the fat to produce a smell that is pleasing to the Lord. 7The people of Israel must no longer be unfaithful to the Lord by killing their animals in the fields as sacrifices to the…