Death for Unauthorized Fire

¹Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before YHWH, which he had not commanded them.

²Fire came out from before YHWH, and devoured them, and they died before YHWH.

³Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what YHWH has spoken,

‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me,

and before all the people I will be glorified.’”

Aaron held his peace.

⁴Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Y’all come near and carry y’all’s relatives way from the front of the sanctuary outside the camp.”

⁵So they came near, and carried them in their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said.

⁶Moses said to Aaron and his sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Y’all must not let y’all’s hair hang loose or tear y’all’s clothes, so that y’all don’t die, and so that ʜᴇ will not be angry with the whole community. But y’all’s relatives, the whole house of Israel, may mourn the fire YHWH has kindled.

⁷Y’all must not leave the doorway of the Tent of Meeting, or y’all will die, for the anointing oil of YHWH is on y’all.” So they did according to the word of Moses.

⁸Then YHWH said to Aaron,

⁹“You and your sons are not to drink wine or beer whenever y’all go into the Tent of Meeting, or y’all will die. This is a permanent statute throughout y’all’s generations.

¹⁰You are to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean.

¹¹You are to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which YHWH has spoken to them by Moses.”

¹²Moses spoke to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Y’all are to take the grain offering that is left over from the burnt offerings to YHWH, and y’all are eat it without yeast beside the altar, for it is most holy.

¹³Y’all are to eat it in a holy place because it is you and your sons’ portion from the burnt offerings to YHWH, for so I have commanded.

¹⁴And you, your sons, and your daughters with you, y’all may eat the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of contribution in a clean place, because these portions have been given to you and your children from the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the children of Israel.

¹⁵They are to bring the thigh of contribution and the breast of the wave offering with the burnt offering of the fat, to be waved before YHWH as a wave offering. It is to be a perpetual portion for you and your children, as YHWH has commanded.”

¹⁶Moses inquired-inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and found that it had been burned. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, saying,

¹⁷“Why haven’t y’all eaten the sin offering in the sanctuary area? For it is most holy, and it was given to y’all to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before YHWH.

¹⁸Look! Its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. Y’all should have eaten-eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.”

¹⁹Aaron spoke to Moses, “See, today they have presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before YHWH, and such things as these have happened to me. If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been pleasing in YHWH’s sight?”

²⁰When Moses heard that, it was pleasing in his sight.