Consecration of the Priests

¹“Now this is what you are to do to consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve Me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without blemish,

²along with unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Make them out of fine wheat flour,

³put them in a basket, and present them in the basket, along with the bull and the two rams.

⁴Then present Aaron and his sons at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.

⁵Take the garments and clothe Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself, and the breastplate. Fasten the ephod on him with its woven waistband.

⁶Put the turban on his head and attach the holy diadem to the turban.

⁷Then take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.

⁸Present his sons as well and clothe them with tunics.

⁹Wrap the sashes around Aaron and his sons and tie headbands on them. The priesthood shall be theirs by a permanent statute. In this way you are to ordain Aaron and his sons.

The Order of the Sacrifices

¹⁰You are to present the bull at the front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.

¹¹And you shall slaughter the bull before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

¹²Take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; then pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

¹³Take all the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar.

¹⁴But burn the flesh of the bull and its hide and dung outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

¹⁵Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head.

¹⁶You are to slaughter the ram, take its blood, and splatter it on all sides of the altar.

¹⁷Cut the ram into pieces, wash the entrails and legs, and place them with its head and other pieces.

¹⁸Then burn the entire ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.

¹⁹Take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.

²⁰Slaughter the ram, take some of its blood, and put it on the right earlobes of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Splatter the remaining blood on all sides of the altar.

²¹And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, as well as on his sons and their garments. Then he and his garments will be consecrated, as well as his sons and their garments.

²²Take the fat from the ram, the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails, the lobe of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh (since this is a ram for ordination),

²³along with one loaf of bread, one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread that is before the LORD.

²⁴Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.

²⁵Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar atop the burnt offering as a pleasing aroma before the LORD; it is a food offering to the LORD.

²⁶Take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it before the LORD as a wave offering, and it will be your portion.

²⁷Consecrate for Aaron and his sons the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the heave offering that is lifted up from the ram of ordination.

²⁸This will belong to Aaron and his sons as a regular portion from the Israelites, for it is the heave offering the Israelites will make to the LORD from their peace offerings.

²⁹The holy garments that belong to Aaron will belong to his sons after him, so they can be anointed and ordained in them.

³⁰The son who succeeds him as priest and enters the Tent of Meeting to minister in the Holy Place must wear them for seven days.

Food for the Priests

³¹You are to take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place.

³²At the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket.

³³They must eat those things by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no outsider may eat them, because these things are sacred.

³⁴And if any of the meat of ordination or any bread is left until the morning, you are to burn up the remainder. It must not be eaten, because it is sacred.

³⁵This is what you are to do for Aaron and his sons based on all that I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them.

³⁶Sacrifice a bull as a sin offering each day for atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it.

³⁷For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will become most holy; whatever touches the altar will be holy.

The Daily Offerings

³⁸This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old.

³⁹Offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight.

⁴⁰With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour,mixed with a quarter hin of oil from pressed olives,and a drink offering of a quarter hin of wine.

⁴¹And offer the second lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning, as a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.

⁴²For the generations to come, this burnt offering shall be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you to speak with you.

⁴³I will also meet with the Israelites there, and that place will be consecrated by My glory.

⁴⁴So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and I will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve Me as priests.

God Will Dwell among the People

⁴⁵Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God.

⁴⁶And they will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I might dwell among them.I am the LORD their God.

God Commands Moses and Aaron

¹The LORD answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

²You are to speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land.

³But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I will multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,

⁴Pharaoh will not listen to you.Then I will lay My hand on Egypt, and by mighty acts of judgment I will bring the divisions of My people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.

⁵And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.”

⁶So Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded them.

⁷Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Aaron’s Staff

⁸The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

⁹“When Pharaoh tells you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ you are to say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a serpent.”

¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent.

¹¹But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts.

¹²Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.

¹³Still, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened,and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

The First Plague: Blood

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding;he refuses to let the people go.

¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning as you see him walking out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.

¹⁶Then say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened.

¹⁷This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD. Behold, with the staff in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will turn to blood.

¹⁸The fish in the Nile will die, the river will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink its water.’”

¹⁹And the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over their rivers and canals and ponds and all the reservoirs—that they may become blood.’ There will be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even in the vessels of wood and stone.”

²⁰Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded; in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials, Aaron raised the staffand struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was turned to blood.

²¹The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. And there was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

²²But the magicians of Egypt did the same things by their magic arts. So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.

²³Instead, Pharaoh turned around, went into his palace, and did not take any of this to heart.

²⁴So all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, because they could not drink the water from the river.

²⁵And seven full days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile.

The Divisions of the Levites

¹When David was old and full of years, he installed his son Solomon as king over Israel.

²Then he gathered all the leaders of Israel, as well as the priests and Levites.

³The Levites thirty years of age or older were counted, and the total number of men was 38,000.

⁴“Of these,” said David,“24,000 are to oversee the work of the house of the LORD, 6,000 are to be officers and judges,

⁵4,000 are to be gatekeepers, and 4,000 are to praise the LORD with the instruments I have made for giving praise.”

⁶Then David divided the Levites into divisions according to the sons of Levi:Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

The Gershonites

⁷The Gershonites: Ladanand Shimei.

⁸The sons of Ladan: Jehielthe first, Zetham, and Joel—three in all.

⁹The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran—three in all. These were the heads of the families of Ladan.

¹⁰And the sons of Shimei:Jahath, Zina,Jeush, and Beriah. These were the sons of Shimei—four in all.

¹¹Jahath was the first and Zizah was the second; but Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, so they were counted as one family and received a single assignment.

The Kohathites

¹²The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel—four in all.

¹³The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. Aaron and his descendants were set apart forever to consecrate the most holy things, to burn incense before the LORD, to minister before Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name forever.

¹⁴As for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi.

¹⁵The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer.

¹⁶The descendants of Gershom: Shebuel was the first.

¹⁷The descendants of Eliezer: Rehabiah was the first. Eliezer did not have any other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very numerous.

¹⁸The sons of Izhar: Shelomith was the first.

¹⁹The sons of Hebron: Jeriah was the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.

²⁰The sons of Uzziel: Micah was the first and Isshiah the second.

The Merarites

²¹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi.The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.

²²Eleazar died without having any sons; he had only daughters. Their cousins, the sons of Kish, married them.

²³The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth—three in all.

Levite Duties Revised

²⁴These were the descendants of Levi by their families—the heads of families, registered individually by name—those twenty years of age or older who worked in the service of the house of the LORD.

²⁵For David had said, “The LORD, the God of Israel, has given rest to His people and has come to dwell in Jerusalem forever.

²⁶So now the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the articles for its service.”

²⁷For according to the final instructions of David, the Levites twenty years of age or older were counted,

²⁸but their duty was to assist the descendants of Aaron with the service of the house of the LORD, being responsible for the courts and chambers, the purification of all the holy things, and the work of the service of the house of God,

²⁹as well as for the rows of the showbread, the fine flour for the grain offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the baking, the mixing, and all measurements of quantity and size.

³⁰They were also to stand every morning to give thanks and praise to the LORD, and likewise in the evening.

³¹Whenever burnt offerings were presented to the LORD on the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed feasts, they were to serve regularly before the LORD in the numbers prescribed for them.

³²So the Levites were to carry out the responsibilities for the Tent of Meeting and the Holy Place, and, under their brothers the descendants of Aaron, the service of the house of the LORD.

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

¹Have mercy on me,O God,according to Your loving devotion;according to Your great compassion,blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me clean of my iniquityand cleanse me from my sin.

³For I know my transgressions,and my sin is always before me.

⁴Against You, You only, have I sinnedand done what is evil in Your sight,so that You may be proved right when You speakand blameless when You judge.

⁵Surely I was brought forth in iniquity;I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

⁶Surely You desire truth in the inmost being;You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;let the bones You have crushed rejoice.

⁹Hide Your face from my sinsand blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹Cast me not away from Your presence;take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

¹²Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,and sustain me with a willing spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,and sinners will return to You.

¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God,the God of my salvation,and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.

¹⁵O Lord, open my lips,and my mouth will declare Your praise.

¹⁶For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;a broken and a contrite heart,O God, You will not despise.

¹⁸In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper;build up the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,in whole burnt offerings;then bulls will be offered on Your altar.