Leviticus 9 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around 1446 to 1406 BC, on the eighth day after the week of ordination
Location
The courtyard of the tent of meeting at Sinai, before the assembled nation
Audience
The Israelites of the exodus generation, and later readers learning how the sanctuary began to function
Situation
Aaron offers the first sacrifices of his priesthood, for himself and then for the people, and blesses them alongside Moses. Fire comes out from the Lord and consumes the offering on the altar, and the people shout and fall on their faces.
Key Background
The eighth day marks the end of the ordination week and the first working day of the priesthood, so this is the sanctuary's opening ceremony rather than a routine service. Aaron must make an offering for himself before he can act for anyone else, a point the design of the system keeps returning to, given his part in the golden calf episode not long before. Fire falling from God to consume a sacrifice appears elsewhere in Israel's history as public proof that an altar and its priesthood are accepted, most famously in Elijah's contest on Mount Carmel.
On the Moses called Aaron and his sons and the of Israel.
He said to Aaron, "Take a young bull calf for a and a ram for a both and present them before Yahweh."
Then tell the Israelites: 'Take a male goat for a purification offering, a calf and a lamb — both a year old and without defect — for a whole burnt offering,
and a bull and a ram for a to sacrifice before Yahweh, along with a mixed with oil. Because today, Yahweh is going to to you.'"
They brought what Moses had ordered to the front of the and the whole community came forward and stood before Yahweh.
Moses said, "This is what Yahweh has commanded you to do, so that Yahweh's will appear to you."
Moses said to Aaron, "Approach the altar and prepare your purification offering and your whole burnt offering, and for yourself and for the people. Then prepare the people's offering and for them, just as Yahweh commanded."
So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the calf for his own purification offering.
Aaron's sons brought the to him, and he dipped his finger in the and applied it to the of the Then he poured out the rest of the at the base of the
The the kidneys, and the covering over the liver from the purification offering — he burned these on the altar, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
The meat and the hide he burned outside the camp.
Then he slaughtered the whole burnt offering. Aaron's sons handed him the blood, and he splashed it on all sides of the altar.
They handed him the whole burnt offering piece by piece, along with the head, and he burned each one on the altar.
He washed the inner organs and the legs and burned them on top of the whole burnt offering on the altar.
Then he brought the people's offering. He took the goat for the people's purification offering, slaughtered it, and prepared it as a purification offering just like the first one.
He brought the whole burnt offering and prepared it according to the
He brought the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar — in addition to the morning's whole burnt offering.
He slaughtered the bull and the ram as the fellowship offering for the people. Aaron's sons handed him the blood, and he splashed it on all sides of the altar.
They also brought the portions from the bull and the ram — the the layer of covering the organs, the kidneys, and the covering over the liver.
They placed these fat portions on top of the breast pieces, and Aaron burned the fat on the altar.
Aaron waved the breast pieces and the as a before Yahweh, just as Moses had commanded.
Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and them. Then he stepped down from preparing the purification offering, the whole burnt offering, and the fellowship offerings.
Moses and Aaron went into the meeting tent. When they came out, they spoke God's favor over the people — and Yahweh's to everyone.
out from and consumed the whole burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. When all the people saw it, they with and on the