Exodus 29

¹ ‘This is the ritual you must use for them when you consecrate them to serve me in the priesthood. Take one young bull and two rams without blemish,

² unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, made from fine wheat flour.

³ You must put these into a basket and present them in the basket, at the same time as the young bull and the two rams.

⁴ ‘You are to bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and they are to be bathed.

⁵ Take the vestments and dress Aaron in the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the pectoral, and gird him with the woven band of the ephod.

⁶ Put the turban on his head, and on the turban fix the sacred diadem.

⁷ Then take the chrism and pour it on his head, and so anoint him.

⁸ ‘Next, bring his sons and clothe them with tunics.

⁹ Pass the girdles round their waists and put the head-dresses on their heads. And by irrevocable ordinance the priesthood will be theirs. This is how you are to invest Aaron and his sons.

¹⁰ ‘You are to bring the bull in front of the Tent of Meeting. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.

¹¹ Immolate the bull there before Yahweh at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

¹² Then take some of its blood and with your finger put it on the horns of the altar. Next, pour out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar.

¹³ And then take all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty mass which is over the liver, the two kidneys with their covering fat, and burn them on the altar.

¹⁴ As for the bull’s flesh, its skin and its dung, you must burn them outside the camp, for it is a sin-offering.

¹⁵ ‘Next you are to take one of the rams. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.

¹⁶ You are to immolate the ram, take up its blood and pour it out on the surrounds of the altar.

¹⁷ Next, divide the ram in pieces and wash the entrails and legs and put them on top of the pieces and the head.

¹⁸ Then burn the whole ram on the altar. This will be a burnt offering whose fragrance will appease Yahweh; it will be a holocaust in honour of Yahweh.

¹⁹ ‘Next you are to take the other ram. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.

²⁰ You are to immolate the ram, take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the lobes of his sons’ right ears, the thumbs of their right hands, and the big toes of their right feet, and pour out the rest of the blood on the surrounds of the altar.

²¹ Then take some of the blood that remains on the altar, together with the chrism, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his vestments and on his sons and their vestments: so that he and his vestments will be consecrated and his sons too, and their vestments.

²² ‘You are to take the fatty parts of the ram: the tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty mass which is over the liver; the two kidneys with their covering fat and also the right thigh, for this is a ram of investiture.

²³ You are to take a loaf of bread, a cake of bread made with oil, and a wafer, from the basket of unleavened bread placed before Yahweh,

²⁴ and put it all into Aaron’s hands and those of his sons and make the gesture of offering before Yahweh.

²⁵ Then you are to take them back and burn them on the altar, on top of the holocaust, an appeasing fragrance before Yahweh. This will be a holocaust in honour of Yahweh.

²⁶ ‘You are to take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s investiture and make the gesture of offering before Yahweh; this is to be your portion.

²⁷ You are to consecrate the breast that has been thus offered, as also the thigh that is set aside – the breast, that is, which has been offered and the thigh that has been set aside from the ram of investiture of Aaron and his sons.

²⁸ This, by perpetual law, will be the portion that Aaron and his sons are to receive from the sons of Israel, since it is the portion set aside, a portion the sons of Israel are to set aside from their communion sacrifices, the portion they owe to Yahweh.

²⁹ ‘Aaron’s sacred vestments are to pass to his sons after him, and they will wear them for their anointing and investiture.

³⁰ The son of Aaron who succeeds him in the priesthood and enters the Tent of Meeting to serve in the sanctuary must wear them for seven days.

³¹ ‘You are to take the ram of investiture and cook its meat in a holy place.

³² Aaron and his sons will eat the meat of the ram, and also the bread that is in the basket, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

³³ They are to eat what was used in making atonement for them at their investiture; their consecration. No layman may eat these; they are holy things.

³⁴ If any of the meat from the investiture sacrifice, or the bread, should be left till morning, you must put what is left in the fire. It is not to be eaten; it is a holy thing.

³⁵ For Aaron and his sons you are to do exactly as I have commanded you: you are to take seven days over their investiture.

³⁶ ‘On each of the days you are also to offer a bull as a sacrifice for sin, in atonement; by offering an atonement sacrifice for sin you will take away sin from the altar; then you must anoint it, and so consecrate it.

³⁷ For seven days you are to repeat the atonement sacrifice for the altar and consecrate it. So it will excel in holiness, and whatever touches it will be holy.

³⁸ ‘This is what you are to offer on the altar: two yearling lambs each day in perpetuity.

³⁹ The first lamb you must offer in the morning, the second between the two evenings.

⁴⁰ With the first lamb you must offer one-tenth of a measure of fine flour mixed with one quarter of a hin of purest oil and, for a libation, one quarter of a hin of wine.

⁴¹ The second lamb you must offer between the two evenings; do this with the same oblation and the same libation as in the morning, as an appeasing fragrance, an offering burnt in honour of Yahweh.

⁴² This is to be a perpetual holocaust from generation to generation, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting in the presence of Yahweh; that is where I shall meet you and speak to you.

⁴³ ‘I will meet the sons of Israel in the place consecrated by my glory.

⁴⁴ I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar. I will consecrate Aaron too, and his sons, to be priests in my service.

⁴⁵ I will remain with the sons of Israel, and I will be their God.

⁴⁶ And so they will know that it is I, Yahweh their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt to live among them: I, Yahweh their God.