Nadab and Abihu

¹Nadab and Abihu were two of Aaron's sons, but they disobeyed the Lord by burning incense to him on a fire pan, when they were not supposed to.[#10.1 One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.]

²Suddenly the Lord sent fiery flames and burned them to death.

³Then Moses told Aaron that this was exactly what the Lord had meant when he said:

“I demand respect

from my priests,

and I will be praised

by everyone!”

Aaron was speechless.

⁴Moses sent for Mishael and Elzaphan, the two sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel. Then he told them, “Take these two dead relatives of yours outside the camp far from the entrance to the sacred tent.”

⁵So they dragged the dead men away by their clothes.

⁶Then Moses told Aaron and his other two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar:

Aaron and his two sons obeyed Moses.

⁸The Lord said to Aaron:

¹²Moses told Aaron and his two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar:[#Lv 6.14-18.]

¹⁶When Moses asked around and learned that the ram for the sin sacrifice had already been burned on the altar, he became angry with Eleazar and Ithamar and said,

¹⁷“Why didn't you eat the meat from this sacrifice in an acceptable place? It is very holy, and the Lord has given you this sacrifice to remove Israel's sin and guilt.[#Lv 6.24-26.]

¹⁸Whenever an animal's blood isn't brought into the sacred tent, I commanded you to eat its meat in an acceptable place, but you burned it instead.”

¹⁹Their father Aaron replied, “Today two of my sons offered the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice to please the Lord , and look what has happened to me! Would the Lord have approved if I had eaten the sacrifice for sin?”

²⁰Moses was satisfied with Aaron's reply.