Leviticus 10 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around 1446 to 1406 BC, on the same day the sanctuary opened for service
Location
The tent of meeting at Sinai, with the bodies carried outside the camp
Audience
The Israelites of the exodus generation, especially the priestly family taking up its duties
Situation
Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron's sons, offer unauthorised fire and are killed. Aaron is told not to mourn publicly, priests are forbidden to drink before serving, and Moses argues with Aaron over a purification offering that was burned rather than eaten.
Key Background
The phrase usually rendered strange or unauthorised fire means coals or incense not taken from the prescribed source, so the fault is improvising with holy things rather than any moral scandal. The immediate ban on wine and strong drink for serving priests suggests one traditional explanation for the lapse, and it also set a lasting rule for temple duty. Aaron's silence and the ban on the customary mourning signs, torn clothes and loose hair, reflect that a consecrated priest could not adopt the visible marks of grief while on duty, a restriction later extended to the high priest generally.
Now Aaron's sons and each took their put burning coals in them, and laid incense on top. They brought before Yahweh — fire he had never commanded them to bring.
out from and them. They died right there before Yahweh.
Moses said to "This is what Yahweh meant when he said: 'Among those who come near me, I will show that there is no me, and in front of all the people I will be And was
Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Come here. Carry your relatives away from the front of the outside the camp."
So they came forward and carried them, still in their outside the camp — exactly as Moses had said.
Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons Eleazar and Ithamar, or in grief, or you'll die too — and Yahweh's anger will fall on the entire community. But the rest of the Israelite community may mourn the ones Yahweh burned."
And don't leave the entrance of the of or you'll die — because Yahweh's is on you." So they did exactly what Moses said.
Then Yahweh spoke directly to Aaron:
"Don't drink or other when you enter the Tent of Meeting — not you, not your sons — or you'll die. This is a for every generation."
"You have to be able to draw the line between what to and what is and between what is and what is
"and to teach the Israelites all the that Yahweh gave them through Moses."
Moses said to Aaron and to his remaining sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Take the left over from Yahweh's and eat it without yeast beside the altar, because it to
"Eat it in a for because it is your and your sons' from Yahweh's fire-offerings. That is what I have been commanded."
"But the breast of the and the of the — you, your sons, and your daughters may eat those in any ritually clean place. These have been given as your rightful share — yours and your children's — from the Israelites'
"They are to bring the thigh of the contribution and the breast of the wave offering, along with the for the fire-offerings, to wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh. It will belong to you and your children as a permanent rightful share, just as Yahweh commanded."
Now Moses searched carefully for the goat of the and discovered it had already been completely burned up. He was with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's remaining sons, and demanded:
"Why didn't you eat the failure offering in the place kept for It to He gave it to you to the to for them before Yahweh."
"Look, its was never brought inside the You should have eaten the offering in the place kept for God, just as I commanded."
Aaron said to Moses, "Look — today they presented their purification and their before Yahweh, and after everything that's happened to me today — if I had eaten the purification today, would Yahweh really have been with that?"
When Moses heard this, he it.