Leviticus 10:8-20

Priestly drinking and eating

8 The LORD said to Aaron:

9 Both you and your sons must not drink wine or beer when you enter the meeting tent so that you don't die—this is a permanent rule throughout your future generations—

10 so that you can distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean,

11 and so that you can teach the Israelites all the rules that the LORD spoke to them through Moses.

12 Moses then told Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, "Take the grain offering that is left over from the LORD's food gifts and eat it unleavened next to the altar, because it is most holy.

13 You must eat it in a holy place because it is your portion and your sons' portion from the LORD's food gifts, as I have been commanded.

14 You must eat the breast for the uplifted offering and the thigh for the gift offering in a clean place—both you and your sons and daughters. These things are designated as your portion and your children's portion from the Israelites' communal sacrifices of well-being.

15 The Israelites must bring the thigh for the gift and the breast for the uplifted offering along with the food gifts of the fat pieces, to be lifted up as an uplifted offering before the LORD. These will belong to both you and your children as a permanent portion, just as the LORD has commanded."

16 Then Moses asked about the male goat for the purification offering, and discovered that it had already been burned. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's remaining sons, and asked,

17 "Why didn't you eat the purification offering in the holy area? It's most holy, and it was assigned to you for bearing the community's punishment by making reconciliation for them before the LORD.

18 Since its blood wasn't brought into the sanctuary's interior, you were to have eaten it in the sanctuary, just as I was commanded."

19 "Look," Aaron said to Moses, "today they offered their purification offerings and their entirely burned offerings before the LORD, but these things still happened to me! Would the LORD have approved if I had eaten a purification offering today?"

20 When Moses heard that, he approved.

Leviticus 10:8-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 10

This chapter begins with the sin and punishment of two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Le 10:1-5 for whose death Aaron and his sons are commanded not to mourn, nor to depart from the tabernacle, Le 10:6,7 and an order is given, prohibiting the priests from drinking wine when they went into it, Le 10:8-11 the law of eating holy things, both those that were more, and those that were less holy, is enjoined, Le 10:12-15 and the flesh of the sin offering not being eaten, but burnt, Aaron's sons are blamed for it, for which he makes an apology to the satisfaction of Moses, Le 10:16-20.

Footnotes

• [a]. Syr, Tg, Vulg; MT as I commanded; cf 8:31
• [b]. Or he was satisfied.