Rules About Sacrifices

15 The Lord said to Moses, ²“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: I am giving you a land to be your home. When you enter that land, ³you must give special offerings made by fire to the Lord. Their smell will please the Lord. You will use your cows, sheep, and goats for burnt offerings, sacrifices, special promises, special gifts, fellowship offerings, or special holidays. ⁴“At the time a person brings his offering, he must also give a grain offering to the Lord. The grain offering will be 8 cups* of fine flour mixed with 1 quart* of olive oil. ⁵Each time you offer a lamb as a burnt offering, you must also prepare a quart of wine as a drink offering. ⁶“If you are giving a ram, then you must also prepare a grain offering. This grain offering should be 16 cups* of fine flour mixed with 1 1/4 quarts* of olive oil. ⁷And you must prepare 1 1/4 quarts of wine as a drink offering. Its smell will please the Lord. ⁸“You might prepare a young bull as a burnt offering, a sacrifice, a fellowship offering, or to keep a special promise to the Lord. ⁹At that time, you must also bring a grain offering with the bull. That grain offering should be 24 cups* of fine flour mixed with 2 quarts* of olive oil. ¹⁰Also bring 2 quarts of wine as a drink offering. This will be an offering made by fire. Its smell will please the Lord. ¹¹Each bull or ram, or lamb or young goat that you give to the Lord must be prepared in this way. ¹²Do this for every one of these animals that you give. ¹³“That is the way every citizen of Israel must give the offerings made by fire to please the Lord. ¹⁴Foreigners will live among you. If those people give offerings made by fire to please the Lord, then they must offer them the same way you do. ¹⁵The same rules will be for everyone—the people of Israel and the foreigners living in your country. This law will continue forever. You and the people living among you will be the same before the Lord. ¹⁶This means that you must follow the same laws and the same rules. Those laws and rules are for you people of Israel and for the other people who are living among you.” ¹⁷The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸“Tell the people of Israel these things: I am taking you to another land. ¹⁹When you eat the food that grows in that land, you must give part of that food as an offering to the Lord. ²⁰You will gather grain and grind it into flour to make dough for bread. You must give the first of that dough as a gift to the Lord. It will be like the grain offering that comes from the threshing floor.* ²¹This rule will continue forever, you must give the first of that dough as a gift to the Lord. ²²“Now what should you do if you make a mistake and forget to obey one of the commands that the Lord gave Moses? ²³The Lord gave these commands to you through Moses. These commands started the day that the Lord gave them to you. And the commands continue forever. ²⁴So, what do you do if you make a mistake and forget to obey all of these commands. If all the people of Israel made that mistake, then together the people must offer one young bull as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its smell will please the Lord. Also remember to give the grain offering and the drink offering that must be offered with the bull. You must also give a male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵“So the priest must do the things that will make the people pure.* He must do this for all of the people of Israel. The people did not know they were sinning. But when they learned about it, they brought a gift to the Lord. They brought the offering made by fire and the sin offering. So the people will be forgiven. ²⁶All of the people of Israel and all the other people living among them will be forgiven. They will be forgiven because they did not know they were doing wrong. ²⁷“But if only one person makes a mistake and sins, then he must bring a female goat that is one year old. That goat will be the sin offering. ²⁸The priest must do the things that will make the person pure.* That person made a mistake and sinned before the Lord. But the priest made that person pure, and he will be forgiven. ²⁹That law is for every person who makes a mistake and sins. The same law is for the people born in the family of Israel and for the foreigners living among you. ³⁰“But if a person sins and knows that he is doing wrong, then that person is against the Lord. That person must be separated from his people. It is the same for a person born into the family of Israel or for a foreigner living among you. ³¹That person did not think the Lord’s word was important. He broke the Lord’s commands. That person must surely be separated from your group. That person is guilty and must be punished!*”

A Man Works on the Day of Rest

³²At this time, the people of Israel were still in the desert. It happened that a man found some wood to burn. So the man was gathering the wood, but it was the Sabbath* day. Some other people saw him doing this. ³³The people who saw him gathering the wood brought him to Moses and Aaron. And all the people gathered around. ³⁴They kept the man there because they did not know how they should punish him. ³⁵Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. All the people must throw stones at him outside the camp.” ³⁶So the people took him outside the camp and killed him with stones. They did this the way that the Lord commanded Moses.

God Helps His People Remember the Rules

³⁷The Lord said to Moses, ³⁸“Speak to the people of Israel. Tell them these things: {I will give you something to remember my commands.} Tie several pieces of thread together and tie them in the corner of your clothes. Put a piece of blue thread in each one of these tassels. You must wear these things now and forever. ³⁹You will be able to look at these tassels and remember all the commands that the Lord has given you. Then you will obey the commands. You will not do wrong by forgetting about the commands and doing the things that your own bodies and eyes want. ⁴⁰You will remember to obey all my commands. Then you will be God’s special people. ⁴¹I am the Lord your God. I am the One who brought you out of Egypt. I did this to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”

8 cups Literally, “1/10 of an ephah.” 1 quart Literally, “1/4 hin.” 16 cups Literally, “2/10 of an ephah.” 1 1/4 quarts Literally, “1/3 hin.” 24 cups Literally, “3/10 of an ephah.” 2 quarts Literally, “1/2 hin.” threshing floor A place where grain is beaten or walked on to remove the hulls from the grain. make … pure Or, “make atonement.” The Hebrew word means “to cover,” “to hide,” or “to erase sins.” That … punished Literally, “His guilt is on him.” Sabbath Saturday, a day of rest and worship for the Jews.

Some Leaders Turn Against Moses

16 Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On turned against Moses. (Korah was the son of Izhar. Izhar was the son of Kohath, and Kohath was the son of Levi. Dathan and Abiram were brothers, the sons of Eliab. And On was the son of Peleth. Dathan, Abiram, and On were descendants* of Reuben.) ²Those four men gathered 250 other men from Israel together and came against Moses. They were leaders that had been chosen by the people. All the people knew them. ³They came as a group to speak against Moses and Aaron. These men said to Moses and Aaron, “You have gone too far—you are wrong! All the people of Israel are holy—the Lord still lives among them! You are making yourself more important than the rest of the Lord’s people.” ⁴When Moses heard these things, he bowed his face to the ground {to show he was not being proud}. ⁵Then Moses said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will show which person truly belongs to him. The Lord will show which person is truly holy. And the Lord will bring that person near to him. The Lord will choose that man, and the Lord will bring that man near to him. ⁶So Korah, you and all your followers should do this: ⁷Tomorrow put fire and incense* in some special pans. Then bring those pans before the Lord. The Lord will choose the person who is truly holy. You Levites have gone too far—you are wrong!” ⁸Moses also said to Korah, “You Levites, listen to me. ⁹You should be happy that the God of Israel chose you and made you special. You are different from the rest of the Israelite people. The Lord brought you near to him to do the special work in the Lord’s Holy Tent* to help the people of Israel worship him. Isn’t that enough? ¹⁰The Lord brought you Levite people near to him {to help the priests}. But now you are trying to become priests also. ¹¹You and your followers have joined together and turned against the Lord! Did Aaron do anything wrong? No! So why are you complaining against Aaron?” ¹²Then Moses called Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But the two men said, “We will not come! ¹³You have brought us out of a land filled with many good things.* You brought us to the desert to kill us. And now you want to show that you have even more power over us. ¹⁴Why should we follow you? You did not bring us into the new land filled with many good things.* You did not give us the land God promised. You did not give us the fields or the vineyards. Will you make these men your slaves? No! We will not come.” ¹⁵So Moses became very angry. He said to the Lord, “I never did anything wrong to these people. I never took anything from them—not even a donkey! Lord, don’t accept their gifts!” ¹⁶Then Moses said to Korah, “You and all your followers will stand before the Lord tomorrow. There will be Aaron and you and your followers. ¹⁷Each of you must bring a pan, put incense* on it, and present it to the Lord. There will be 250 pans {for the leaders} and one pan for you and one pan for Aaron.” ¹⁸So each man got a pan and put burning incense* on it. Then they stood at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.* Moses and Aaron also stood there. ¹⁹Korah also gathered all the people together at the entrance of the Meeting Tent. Then the Glory of the Lord* appeared to every person there. ²⁰The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹“Move away from these men! I want to destroy them now!” ²²But Moses and Aaron bowed to the ground and cried out, “God, you know what people are thinking.* Please don’t be angry at all these people. Only one man really sinned.” ²³Then the Lord said to Moses, ²⁴“Tell the people to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.” ²⁵Moses stood and went to Dathan and Abiram. All the elders (leaders) of Israel followed him. ²⁶Moses warned the people, “Move away from the tents of these evil men. Don’t touch anything that belongs to them! If you do, then you will be destroyed because of their sins.” ²⁷So the men moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram went to their tents. They stood outside of their tents with their wives, children, and little babies. ²⁸Then Moses said, “I will show you proof that the Lord sent me to do all the things I told you. I will show you that all those things were not my own idea. ²⁹These men here will die. But if they die in a normal way—the way men always die—then that will show that the Lord did not really send me. ³⁰But if the Lord causes these men to die in a different way—something new—then you will know that these men have truly sinned against the Lord. {This is the proof:} the earth will open and swallow these men. They will go down to their grave still alive. And everything that belongs to these men will go down with them.” ³¹When Moses finished saying these things, the ground under the men opened. ³²It was like the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them. All of Korah’s men, their families, and everything they owned went down into the earth. ³³Those people went down into their grave alive. Everything they owned went with them. Then the earth closed over them. They were finished—gone from the camp! ³⁴The people of Israel heard the cries of the men being destroyed. So they all ran in different directions and said, “The earth will kill us, too!” ³⁵Then a fire came from the Lord and destroyed the 250 men who were offering the incense.* ³⁶The Lord said to Moses, ^37–38“Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to get all the incense* pans from the fire. Tell him to scatter the coals and ashes. Those men sinned against me, and their sin cost them their lives. But the incense pans are still holy.* The pans are holy because they gave them to the Lord. Hammer the pans into flat sheets. Use the metal sheets to cover the altar.* This will be a warning to all of the people of Israel.” ³⁹So Eleazar the priest gathered together all the bronze* pans that the men had brought. Those men were all burned up, but the pans were still there. Then Eleazar told some men to hammer the pans into flat metal. Then he put the metal sheets on the altar.* ⁴⁰He did this the way the Lord commanded him through Moses. This was a sign to help the people of Israel remember that only a person from the family of Aaron should burn incense* before the Lord. Any other person who burns incense before the Lord will die like Korah and his followers.

Aaron Saves the People

⁴¹The next day all the people of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. They said, “You killed the Lord’s people.” ⁴²Moses and Aaron were standing at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.* The people gathered together at that place to complain against Moses and Aaron. But when they looked toward the Meeting Tent, the cloud covered it and the Glory of the Lord* appeared there. ⁴³Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Meeting Tent. ⁴⁴The Lord said to Moses, ⁴⁵“Move away from those people so that I can destroy them now.” So Moses and Aaron bowed with their faces to the ground. ⁴⁶Then Moses said to Aaron, “Get your bronze* pan and some fire from the altar.* Then put incense* on it. Hurry to the group of people and do the things that will make the people pure.* The Lord is angry at them. The trouble has already started.” ^47–48So Aaron did what Moses said. Aaron got the incense* and the fire, and he ran to the middle of the people. But the sickness had already started among the people. So Aaron stood between the dead people and the people who were still alive. Aaron did the things to make the people pure.* And the sickness stopped there. ⁴⁹But 14,700 people died from that sickness—and that is not counting the people who died because of Korah. ⁵⁰So, the terrible sickness was stopped and Aaron went back to Moses at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.*

descendants A person’s children and their future families. incense Special dried tree sap. Burned to make a sweet-smelling smoke, it was offered as a gift to God. Holy Tent Or, “tabernacle,” the tent where God came to live among his people. filled with many good things Literally, “flowing with milk and honey.” incense Special dried tree sap. Burned to make a sweet-smelling smoke, it was offered as a gift to God. Meeting Tent The Holy Tent (tabernacle) where the people of Israel went to meet with God. Glory of the Lord One of the forms God used when he appeared to people. This was like a bright, shining light. God, … thinking Literally, “God, God of the spirits of all people.” holy Set aside or chosen for a special purpose. altar A table or raised area used for offering sacrifices. bronze A metal. The Hebrew word can mean “copper,” “bronze,” or “brass.” make … pure Or, “make atonement.” The Hebrew word means “to cover,” “to hide,” or “to erase sins.”