Consecration of the Priests

1“Now this is [a]what you shall do to them to consecrate them to serve as priests to Me: take one bull and two rams without blemish, 2and unleavened bread and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers [b]spread with oil; you shall make them of fine wheat flour. 3And you shall put them in one basket, and present them in the basket along with the bull and the two rams. 4Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 5And you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the tunic and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod and the [c]breastpiece, and wrap his waist with the skillfully woven band of the ephod; 6and you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. 7Then you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head, and anoint him. 8You shall also bring his sons and put tunics on them. 9And you shall wrap their waists with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and fit [d]caps on them, and they shall have the priesthood by a permanent statute. So you shall [e]ordain Aaron and his sons.

The Sacrifices

10“Then you shall bring the bull in front of the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. 11And you shall slaughter the bull before the LORD at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 12Then you shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; and you shall pour out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 13And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the [f]lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and offer them up in smoke on the altar. 14But the flesh of the bull and its hide and its refuse, you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

15“You shall also take the one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram; 16and you shall slaughter the ram and take its blood and sprinkle it around on the altar. 17Then you shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them [g]with its pieces and [h]its head. 18And you shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to the LORD: it is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD.

19“Then you shall take the [i]other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram. 20And you shall slaughter the ram, and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and on the lobes of his sons’ right ears, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet, and sprinkle the rest of the blood around on the altar. 21Then you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments, and on his sons and on his sons’ garments with him; so he and his garments shall be consecrated, as well as his sons and his sons’ garments with him.

22“You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail, and the fat that covers the entrails and the [j]lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of [k]ordination), 23and one loaf of bread, and one cake of bread mixed with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread which is set before the LORD; 24and you shall put [l]all these [m]in the [n]hands of Aaron and [o]in the [p]hands of his sons, and shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. 25Then you shall take them from their hands, and offer them up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering for a soothing aroma before the LORD; it is an offering by fire to the LORD.

26“Then you shall take the breast of Aaron’s ram of [q]ordination, and wave it as a wave offering before the LORD; and it shall be your portion. 27You shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the [r]contribution which was waved and which was [s]offered from the ram of [t]ordination, from the one which was for Aaron and from the one which was for his sons. 28It shall be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the sons of Israel, for it is [u]a contribution; and it shall be [v]a contribution from the sons of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, their [w]contribution to the LORD.

29“The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, [x]so that they may be anointed and ordained in them. 30For seven days the one of his sons who is priest in his place shall put them on when he enters the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place.

Food of the Priests

31“Now you shall take the ram of [y]ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. 32Then Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket, at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 33So they shall eat [z]those things by which atonement was made [aa]at their ordination and consecration; but a [ab]layman shall not eat them, because they are holy. 34And if any of the flesh of [ac]ordination or any of the bread remains until morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire; it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

35“So you shall do for Aaron and for his sons, according to all that I have commanded you; you shall [ad]ordain them for seven days. 36Each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement, and you shall [ae]purify the altar when you make atonement [af]for it, and you shall anoint it to consecrate it. 37For seven days you shall make atonement [ag]for the altar and consecrate it; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy.

38“Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two one-year-old lambs each day, continuously. 39The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the [ah]other lamb you shall offer at [ai]twilight; 40and there shall be a [aj]tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a [ak]fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering with one lamb. 41The [al]other lamb you shall offer at [am]twilight, and shall offer with it [an]the same grain offering and [ao]the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD. 42It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. 43I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by My glory. 44I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve as priests to Me. 45And I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. 46And they shall know that I am the LORD their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might dwell among them; I am the LORD their God.

[a] 1 Lit the thing which
[b] 2 Or anointed
[c] 5 Or pouch
[d] 9 Lit headgear
[e] 9 Lit fill the hand of
[f] 13 Or appendage on
[g] 17 Lit on
[h] 17 Lit on its
[i] 19 Lit second
[j] 22 Or appendage on
[k] 22 Lit filling
[l] 24 Lit the whole
[m] 24 Lit on
[n] 24 Lit palms
[o] 24 Lit on
[p] 24 Lit palms
[q] 26 Lit filling
[r] 27 Or uplifted offering
[s] 27 Lit lifted up
[t] 27 Lit filling
[u] 28 Or uplifted offering
[v] 28 Or uplifted offering
[w] 28 Or uplifted offering
[x] 29 Lit for anointing in them and filling their hand in them
[y] 31 Lit filling
[z] 33 Lit them
[aa] 33 Lit to fill their hand to sanctify them
[ab] 33 Lit stranger
[ac] 34 Lit filling
[ad] 35 Lit fill their hand
[ae] 36 Or offer a sin offering on the altar
[af] 36 Lit upon
[ag] 37 Lit upon
[ah] 39 Lit second
[ai] 39 Lit between the two evenings
[aj] 40 About 3 qt. or 2.8 liters
[ak] 40 About 0.95 qt. or 0.9 liter
[al] 41 Lit second
[am] 41 Lit between the two evenings
[an] 41 Lit according to the grain offering of the morning
[ao] 41 Lit according to its