The Sin of Nadab and Abihu

10 Now ^(A)Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective ^(B)firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. ^2 (C)And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. ³ Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying,

So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

⁴ Moses called also to ^(G)Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come forward, carry your ^[b]relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.” ⁵ So they came forward and carried them still in their ^(H)tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said. ⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “^(I)Do not ^[c]uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not ^(J)become wrathful against all the congregation. But your ^[d]kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the Lord has ^[e]brought about. ⁷ You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for ^(K)the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.” So they did according to the word of Moses.

⁸ The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying, ⁹ “^(L)Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations— ¹⁰ and ^(M)so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean, ¹¹ and ^(N)so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”

¹² Then Moses spoke to Aaron, and to his surviving sons, ^(O)Eleazar and Ithamar, “^(P)Take the grain offering that is left over from the Lord’s offerings by fire and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy. ¹³ You shall eat it, moreover, in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons’ due out of the Lord’s offerings by fire; for thus I have been commanded. ^14 (Q)The breast of the wave offering, however, and the thigh of the offering you may eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you; for they have been given as your due and your sons’ due out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the sons of Israel. ^15 (R)The thigh offered by lifting up and the breast offered by waving they shall bring along with the offerings by fire of the portions of fat, to present as a wave offering before the Lord; so it shall be a thing perpetually due you and your sons with you, just as the Lord has commanded.”

¹⁶ But Moses searched carefully for the ^(S)goat of the sin offering, and behold, it had been burned up! So he was angry with Aaron’s surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar, saying, ¹⁷ “Why ^(T)did you not eat the sin offering at the holy place? For it is most holy, and ^[f]He gave it to you to bear away ^(U)the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord. ¹⁸ Behold, ^(V)since its blood had not been brought inside, into the sanctuary, you should certainly have ^(W)eaten it in the sanctuary, just as I commanded.” ¹⁹ But Aaron spoke to Moses, “Behold, this very day they ^(X)presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord. When things like these happened to me, if I had eaten a sin offering today, would it have been good in the sight of the Lord?” ²⁰ When Moses heard that, it seemed good in his sight.