Leviticus 16:1–16

The Day of Atonement

16The 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.”

⁴Then 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.

⁵The 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 9}Aaron 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.

¹¹When 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.