¹⁵ “Then Aaron must slaughter the first goat as a sin offering for the people and carry its blood behind the inner curtain. There he will sprinkle the goat’s blood over the atonement cover and in front of it, just as he did with the bull’s blood.

⁷ But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

¹² With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

³ Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room^[a] called the Most Holy Place.

¹⁷ Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters,^[a] so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.

¹⁹ This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.

³ That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs.

² The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.

²⁵ And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. ²⁶ If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age^[a] to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.

⁵ Aaron must take from the community of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

⁶ “Aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family, making them right with the Lord.^{[a] 7} Then he must take the two male goats and present them to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle.^{[b] 8} He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the Lord and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness of Azazel. ⁹ Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the Lord.