Leviticus 16
The Day of Atonement
16:1 The
Day of Atonement Offerings
16:3 “In this way Aaron is to enter into the sanctuary – with a young bull4 for a sin offering5 and a ram for a burnt offering.6
16:4 He must put on a holy linen tunic,7 linen leggings are to cover his body,8 and he is to wrap himself with a linen sash9 and wrap his head with a linen turban.10 They are holy garments, so he must bathe11 his body in water and put them on.
16:5 He must also take12 two male goats13 from the congregation of the Israelites for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.
16:6 Then Aaron is to present the sin offering bull which is for himself and is to make atonement on behalf of himself and his household.
16:7 He must then take the two goats14 and stand them before the
The Sin Offering Sacrificial Procedures
16:11 “Aaron is to present the sin offering bull which is for himself, and he is to make atonement on behalf of himself and his household. He is to slaughter the sin offering bull which is for himself,
16:12 and take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the
16:15 “He must then slaughter the sin offering goat which is for the people. He is to bring its blood inside the veil-canopy,27 and he is to do with its blood just as he did to the blood of the bull: He is to sprinkle it on the atonement plate and in front of the atonement plate. 16:16 So28 he is to make atonement for the holy place from the impurities of the Israelites and from their transgressions with regard to all their sins,29 and thus he is to do for the Meeting Tent which resides with them in the midst of their impurities. 16:17 Nobody is to be in the Meeting Tent30 when he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he goes out, and he has made atonement on his behalf, on behalf of his household, and on behalf of the whole assembly of Israel.
16:18 “Then31 he is to go out to the altar which is before the
The Live Goat Ritual Procedures
16:20 “When he has finished purifying the holy place,34 the Meeting Tent, and the altar, he is to present the live goat. 16:21 Aaron is to lay his two hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins,35 and thus he is to put them36 on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man standing ready.37 16:22 The goat is to bear on itself all their iniquities into an inaccessible land,38 so he is to send the goat away39 in the wilderness.
The Concluding Rituals
16:23 “Aaron must then enter40 the Meeting Tent and take off the linen garments which he had put on when he entered the sanctuary, and leave them there. 16:24 Then he must bathe his body in water in a holy place, put on his clothes, and go out and make his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering. So he is to make atonement41 on behalf of himself and the people.42
16:25 “Then he is to offer up the fat of the sin offering43 in smoke on the altar, 16:26 and the one who sent the goat away to Azazel44 must wash his clothes, bathe his body in water, and afterward he may reenter the camp. 16:27 The bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought to make atonement in the holy place, must be brought outside the camp45 and their hide, their flesh, and their dung must be burned up,46 16:28 and the one who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may reenter the camp.
Review of the Day of Atonement
16:29 “This is to be a perpetual statute for you.47 In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you must humble yourselves48 and do no work of any kind,49 both the native citizen and the foreigner who resides50 in your midst,
16:30 for on this day atonement is to be made for you to cleanse you from all your sins; you must be clean before the
16:32 “The priest who is anointed and ordained to act as high priest in place of his father54 is to make atonement. He is to put on the linen garments, the holy garments,
16:33 and he is to purify55 the Most Holy Place,56 he is to purify the Meeting Tent and the altar,57 and he is to make atonement for58 the priests and for all the people of the assembly.
16:34 This is to be a perpetual statute for you59 to make atonement for the Israelites for60 all their sins once a year.”61 So he did just as the