Leviticus 10

¹ Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, each took his censer, put fire in it and incense on the fire, and presented unlawful fire before Yahweh, fire which he had not prescribed for them.

² Then from Yahweh’s presence a flame leaped out and consumed them, and they perished in the presence of Yahweh.

³ And Moses said to Aaron, ‘That is what Yahweh meant when he said: “In those who are close to me I show my holiness, and before all the people I show my glory”‘.[*b] Aaron remained silent.

⁴ Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, ‘Come and take your brothers far away from the sanctuary, out of the camp’.

⁵ They came and carried them away, still in their tunics, out of the camp, as Moses had ordered.

⁶ Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, ‘Do not disorder your hair nor tear your garments;[*c] you are not going to die. It is with the whole community that he is angry; it is the whole House of Israel that must lament your brothers, the victims of Yahweh’s fire.

⁷ Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, lest you die; for the chrism of Yahweh is on you.’ And they obeyed the words of Moses.

⁸ Yahweh spoke to Aaron; he said:

⁹ ‘When you come to the Tent of Meeting, you and your sons with you, do not take wine or strong drink; then you will not die. This is a perpetual law for all your descendants.

¹⁰ And so be it too when you separate the sacred from the profane, the unclean from the clean,

¹¹ and when you teach the sons of Israel any of the laws that Yahweh has pronounced for them through Moses.’

¹² Moses said to Aaron and his surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, ‘Take the oblation that is left over from Yahweh’s burnt offering. Eat the unleavened part of it beside the altar, because it is a most holy thing.

¹³ Eat it in a holy place; it is the portion of Yahweh’s burnt offering prescribed for you and your sons; this is the order I have received.

¹⁴ The breast that was offered up and the thigh that was set aside you will eat in some place that is clean, you, your sons and your daughters with you; this is the portion of the communion sacrifices of the sons of Israel that is prescribed for you and your sons.

¹⁵ The thigh that was set aside and the breast that was offered up, when the fat was burnt, revert to you, to you and your sons with you, after they have been presented before Yahweh by the gesture of offering, in virtue of a perpetual law as Yahweh has ordered.’

¹⁶ Then Moses enquired about the goat offered as a sacrifice for sin, and found that they had burnt it. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s surviving sons:

¹⁷ Why’ he asked ‘did you not eat this victim in the holy place? For it is a most holy thing given to you to take away the fault of the community, by performing the rite of atonement over it before Yahweh.

¹⁸ Since its blood was not taken inside the sanctuary, you should have eaten its flesh there, as I ordered you.’

¹⁹ Aaron said to Moses, ‘Today they have offered their sacrifice for sin and their holocaust before Yahweh. If I had been concerned, if I had eaten the victim for sin today, would that have seemed good to Yahweh?’

²⁰ And when Moses heard this, he was satisfied.