Leviticus 15; Leviticus 16; Matthew 27:1-26

Leviticus 15

1 The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the following regulations

2 for the people of Israel. When any man has a discharge from his penis, the discharge is unclean,

3 whether the penis runs with it or is stopped up by it.

4 Any bed on which he sits or lies is unclean.

5 Anyone who touches his bed

6 or sits on anything the man has sat on must wash his clothes and take a bath, and he remains unclean until evening.

7 Anyone who touches the man with the discharge must wash his clothes and take a bath, and he remains unclean until evening.

8 If the man with the discharge spits on anyone who is ritually clean, that person must wash his clothes and take a bath, and he remains unclean until evening.

9 Any saddle or seat on which the man with the discharge sits is unclean.

10 Anyone who touches anything on which the man sat is unclean until evening. Anyone who carries anything on which the man sat must wash his clothes and take a bath, and he remains unclean until evening.

11 If a man who has a discharge touches one of you without first having washed his hands, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, and you remain unclean until evening.

12 Any clay pot that the man touches must be broken, and any wooden bowl that he touches must be washed.

13 After the man is cured of his discharge, he must wait seven days and then wash his clothes and take a bath in fresh spring water, and he will be ritually clean.

14 On the eighth day he shall take two doves or two pigeons to the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence and give them to the priest.

15 The priest shall offer one of them as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. In this way he will perform the ritual of purification for the man.

16 When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body, and he remains unclean until evening.

17 Anything made of cloth or leather on which the semen falls must be washed, and it remains unclean until evening.

18 After sexual intercourse both the man and the woman must take a bath, and they remain unclean until evening.

19 When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her is unclean until evening.

20 Anything on which she sits or lies during her monthly period is unclean.

21 Any who touch her bed or anything on which she has sat must wash their clothes and take a bath, and they remain unclean until evening.

24 If a man has sexual intercourse with her during her period, he is contaminated by her impurity and remains unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies is unclean.

25 If a woman has a flow of blood for several days outside her monthly period or if her flow continues beyond her regular period, she remains unclean as long as the flow continues, just as she is during her monthly period.

26 Any bed on which she lies and anything on which she sits during this time is unclean.

27 Any who touch them are unclean and must wash their clothes and take a bath; they remain unclean until evening.

28 After her flow stops, she must wait seven days, and then she will be ritually clean.

29 On the eighth day she shall take two doves or two pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence.

30 The priest shall offer one of them as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and in this way he will perform the ritual of purification for her.

31 The Lord told Moses to warn the people of Israel about their uncleanness, so that they would not defile the Tent of his presence, which was in the middle of the camp. If they did, they would be killed.

32 These are the regulations about a man who has a discharge or an emission of semen,

33 a woman during her monthly period, or a man who has sexual intercourse with a woman who is ritually unclean.

Leviticus 16

1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who were killed when they offered unholy fire to the Lord.

2 He said, "Tell your brother Aaron that only at the proper time is he to go behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place, because that is where I appear in a cloud above the lid on the Covenant Box. If he disobeys, he will be killed.

3 He may enter the Most Holy Place only after he has brought a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering."

4 Then the Lord gave the following instructions. Before Aaron goes into the Most Holy Place, he must take a bath and put on the priestly garments: the linen robe and shorts, the belt, and the turban.

5 The community of Israel shall give Aaron two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

6 He shall offer a bull as a sacrifice to take away his own sins and those of his family.

7 Then he shall take the two goats to the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence.

8 There he shall draw lots, using two stones, one marked "for the Lord" and the other "for Azazel."

9 Aaron shall sacrifice the goat chosen by lot for the Lord and offer it as a sin offering.

10 The goat chosen for Azazel shall be presented alive to the Lord and sent off into the desert to Azazel, in order to take away the sins of the people.

11 When Aaron sacrifices the bull as the sin offering for himself and his family,

12 he shall take a fire pan full of burning coals from the altar and two handfuls of fine incense and bring them into the Most Holy Place.

13 There in the Lord's presence he shall put the incense on the fire, and the smoke of the incense will hide the lid of the Covenant Box so that he will not see it and die.

14 He shall take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the lid and then sprinkle some of it seven times in front of the Covenant Box.

15 After that, he shall kill the goat for the sin offering for the people, bring its blood into the Most Holy Place, and sprinkle it on the lid and then in front of the Covenant Box, as he did with the bull's blood.

16 In this way he will perform the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place from the uncleanness of the people of Israel and from all their sins. He must do this to the Tent, because it stands in the middle of the camp, which is ritually unclean.

17 From the time Aaron enters the Most Holy Place to perform the ritual of purification until he comes out, there must be no one in the Tent. When he has performed the ritual for himself, his family, and the whole community,

18 he must then go out to the altar for burnt offerings and purify it. He must take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it all over the projections at the corners of the altar.

19 With his finger he must sprinkle some of the blood on the altar seven times. In this way he is to purify it from the sins of the people of Israel and make it holy.

20 When Aaron has finished performing the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place, the rest of the Tent of the Lord's presence, and the altar, he shall present to the Lord the live goat chosen for Azazel.

21 He shall put both of his hands on the goat's head and confess over it all the evils, sins, and rebellions of the people of Israel, and so transfer them to the goat's head. Then the goat is to be driven off into the desert by someone appointed to do it.

22 The goat will carry all their sins away with him into some uninhabited land.

23 Then Aaron shall go into the Tent, take off the priestly garments that he had put on before entering the Most Holy Place, and leave them there.

24 He must take a bath in a holy place and put on his own clothes. After that, he shall go out and offer the burnt offering to remove his own sins and those of the people.

25 He shall burn on the altar the fat of the animal for the sin offering.

26 The man who drove the goat into the desert to Azazel must wash his clothes and take a bath before he comes back into camp.

27 The bull and the goat used for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to take away sin, shall be carried outside the camp and burned. Skin, meat, and intestines shall all be burned.

28 The one who burns them must wash his clothes and take a bath before he returns to camp.

29 The following regulations are to be observed for all time to come. On the tenth day of the seventh month the Israelites and the foreigners living among them must fast and must not do any work.

30 On that day the ritual is to be performed to purify them from all their sins, so that they will be ritually clean.

31 That day is to be a very holy day, one on which they fast and do no work at all. These regulations are to be observed for all time to come.

32 The High Priest, properly ordained and consecrated to succeed his father, is to perform the ritual of purification. He shall put on the priestly garments

33 and perform the ritual to purify the Most Holy Place, the rest of the Tent of the Lord's presence, the altar, the priests, and all the people of the community.

34 These regulations are to be observed for all time to come. This ritual must be performed once a year to purify the people of Israel from all their sins. So Moses did as the Lord had commanded.

Matthew 27:1-26

1 Early in the morning all the chief priests and the elders made their plans against Jesus to put him to death.

2 They put him in chains, led him off, and handed him over to Pilate, the Roman governor.

3 When Judas, the traitor, learned that Jesus had been condemned, he repented and took back the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders.

4 "I have sinned by betraying an innocent man to death!" he said. "What do we care about that?" they answered. "That is your business!"

5 Judas threw the coins down in the Temple and left; then he went off and hanged himself.

6 The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "This is blood money, and it is against our Law to put it in the Temple treasury."

7 After reaching an agreement about it, they used the money to buy Potter's Field, as a cemetery for foreigners.

8 That is why that field is called "Field of Blood" to this very day.

9 Then what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true: "They took the thirty silver coins, the amount the people of Israel had agreed to pay for him,

10 and used the money to buy the potter's field, as the Lord had commanded me."

11 Jesus stood before the Roman governor, who questioned him. "Are you the king of the Jews?" he asked. "So you say," answered Jesus.

12 But he said nothing in response to the accusations of the chief priests and elders.

13 So Pilate said to him, "Don't you hear all these things they accuse you of?"

14 But Jesus refused to answer a single word, with the result that the Governor was greatly surprised.

15 At every Passover Festival the Roman governor was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the crowd asked for.

16 At that time there was a well-known prisoner named Jesus Barabbas.

17 So when the crowd gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to set free for you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called the Messiah?"

18 He knew very well that the Jewish authorities had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.

19 While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: "Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night I suffered much on account of him."

20 The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask Pilate to set Barabbas free and have Jesus put to death.

21 But Pilate asked the crowd, "Which one of these two do you want me to set free for you?" "Barabbas!" they answered.

22 "What, then, shall I do with Jesus called the Messiah?" Pilate asked them. "Crucify him!" they all answered.

23 But Pilate asked, "What crime has he committed?" Then they started shouting at the top of their voices: "Crucify him!"

24 When Pilate saw that it was no use to go on, but that a riot might break out, he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, "I am not responsible for the death of this man! This is your doing!"

25 The whole crowd answered, "Let the responsibility for his death fall on us and on our children!"

26 Then Pilate set Barabbas free for them; and after he had Jesus whipped, he handed him over to be crucified.