Leviticus 16:20-34

Easy-to-Read Version

²⁰ “So Aaron will make the Most Holy Place, the Meeting Tent, and the altar pure. Then he will bring the living goat to the front of the tent. ²¹ He will put both his hands on the head of the living goat. Then he will confess the sins and crimes of the Israelites over the goat. In this way Aaron will lay the people’s sins on the goat’s head. Then he will send the goat away into the desert. A man will be standing by, ready to lead this goat away. ²² So the goat will carry all the people’s sins on itself into the empty desert. The man who leads the goat will let it loose in the desert.

²³ “Then Aaron will enter the Meeting Tent. He will take off the linen clothes that he put on when he went into the Holy Place. He will leave these clothes there. ²⁴ He will wash his whole body with water in a holy place. Then he will put on his clothes. He will come out and offer his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering. He will make himself and the people pure. ²⁵ Then he will burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar.

²⁶ “The man who led the goat to Azazel must wash his clothes and his whole body with water. After that he may come into the camp.

²⁷ “The bull and the goat for the sin offerings will be taken outside the camp. (The blood from these animals was brought into the Holy Place to make the holy things pure.) The skins, bodies, and body waste of those animals will be burned in the fire. ²⁸ Then the man who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe his whole body with water. After that he may come into the camp.

²⁹ “This law will always continue for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you must not eat food.^[a] You must not do any work. None of the travelers or foreigners living in your land can do any work either. ³⁰ Because on this day, the priest will do this to make you pure and wash away your sins. Then you will be clean to the Lord. ³¹ You must humble yourselves^[b] because this day is a very important day of rest for you. This law will continue forever.

³² “In the future, this ceremony will be done by the priest who will be anointed and appointed to serve after his father. That priest will put on the holy linen clothes ³³ and make the Most Holy Place, the Meeting Tent, and the altar pure. He will also make the priests and all the people pure. ³⁴ That law will continue forever. Once every year you will purify the Israelites from all their sins.”

So they did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses.