Law of Atonement

16 Now the Lord spoke to Moses after ^(A)the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had approached the presence of the Lord and died. ² The Lord said to Moses:

“Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter ^(B)at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the ^[a]mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die; for ^(C)I will appear in the cloud over the ^[b]mercy seat. ³ Aaron shall enter the holy place with this: with a ^[c]bull for a ^(D)sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴ He shall put on the ^(E)holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his ^[d]body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban (these are holy garments). Then he shall ^(F)bathe his ^[e]body in water and put them on. ⁵ He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel ^(G)two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

An Annual Atonement

²⁹ “This shall be a permanent statute for you: ^(A)in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not ^(B)do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; ³⁰ for it is on this day that ^[a]atonement shall be made for you to ^(C)cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. ³¹ It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may ^(D)humble your souls; it is a permanent statute. ³² So the priest who is anointed and ^[b]ordained to serve as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement: he shall thus put on ^(E)the linen garments, the holy garments, ³³ and make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for ^(F)the priests and for all the people of the assembly. ³⁴ Now you shall have this as a ^(G)permanent statute, to ^(H)make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year.” And just as the Lord had commanded Moses, so he did.