Chapter 10

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.

8 The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying,

9 “aDo not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations—

10 and aso as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean,

11 and aso as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”

12 Then Moses spoke to Aaron, and to his surviving sons, aEleazar and Ithamar, “bTake the grain offering that is left over from the Lord’s offerings by fire and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy.

13 “You shall eat it, moreover, in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons’ due out of the Lord’s offerings by fire; for thus I have been commanded.

14 “aThe breast of the wave offering, however, and the thigh of the offering you may eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you; for they have been given as your due and your sons’ due out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the sons of Israel.

15 “aThe thigh offered by lifting up and the breast offered by waving they shall bring along with the offerings by fire of the portions of fat, to present as a wave offering before the Lord; so it shall be a thing perpetually due you and your sons with you, just as the Lord has commanded.”

16 But Moses searched carefully for the agoat of the sin offering, and behold, it had been burned up! So he was angry with Aaron’s surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar, saying,

17 “Why adid you not eat the sin offering at the holy place? For it is most holy, and 1He gave it to you to bear away bthe guilt of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord.

18 “Behold, asince its blood had not been brought inside, into the sanctuary, you should certainly have beaten it in the sanctuary, just as I commanded.”

19 But Aaron spoke to Moses, “Behold, this very day they apresented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord. When things like these happened to me, if I had eaten a sin offering today, would it have been good in the sight of the Lord?”

20 When Moses heard that, it seemed good in his sight.