The Daily Audio Bible

⁷ Moshe told Aharon, “Approach the altar, offer your sin offering and burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and the people. Then present the offering of the people and make atonement for them, as Adonai ordered.” ⁸ So Aharon approached the altar and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering which was for himself. ⁹ The sons of Aharon presented the blood to him; and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; then he poured out the blood at the base of the altar. ¹⁰ But the fat, the kidneys and the covering of the liver of the sin offering he made go up in smoke on the altar, as Adonai had ordered Moshe. ¹¹ The meat and the skin were burned up completely outside the camp.

¹² Next he slaughtered the burnt offering; Aharon’s sons brought him the blood, and he splashed it against all sides of the altar. ¹³ They brought him the burnt offering, piece by piece, and the head; and he made them go up in smoke on the altar. ¹⁴ He washed the inner organs and the lower parts of the legs and made them go up in smoke on top of the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵ Then the people’s offering was presented. He took the goat of the sin offering which was for the people, slaughtered it and offered it for sin, like the earlier sin offering. ¹⁶ The burnt offering was presented, and he offered it in the prescribed manner. (ii) ¹⁷ The grain offering was presented; he took a handful of it and made it go up in smoke on the altar, in addition to the morning’s burnt offering. ¹⁸ He slaughtered the ox and the ram, the people’s sacrifice as peace offerings; Aharon’s sons brought him the blood, which he splashed against all sides of the altar, ¹⁹ and the fat of the ox and of the ram — the fat tail, the fat which covers the inner organs, the kidneys and the covering of the liver. ²⁰ They put the fat on the breasts, and he made the fat go up in smoke on the altar. ²¹ The breasts and right thigh Aharon waved as a wave offering before Adonai, as Moshe had ordered.

²² Aharon raised his hands toward the people, blessed them and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering and the peace offerings. ²³ Moshe and Aharon entered the tent of meeting, came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of Adonai appeared to all the people! (iii) ²⁴ Fire came forth from the presence of Adonai, consuming the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

10 But Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aharon, each took his censer, put fire in it, laid incense on it, and offered unauthorized fire before Adonai, something he had not ordered them to do. ² At this, fire came forth from the presence of Adonai and consumed them, so that they died in the presence of Adonai. ³ Moshe said to Aharon, “This is what Adonai said:

Aharon kept silent.

⁴ Moshe called Misha’el and Eltzafan, sons of ‘Uzi’el Aharon’s uncle, and told them, “Come here, and carry your cousins away from in front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp.” ⁵ They approached and carried them in their tunics out of the camp, as Moshe had said.

⁶ Then Moshe told Aharon and his sons El‘azar and Itamar, “Don’t unbind your hair or tear your clothes in mourning, so that you won’t die and so that Adonai won’t be angry with the entire community. Rather, let your kinsmen — the whole house of Isra’el — mourn, because of the destruction Adonai brought about with his fire. ⁷ Moreover, don’t leave the entrance to the tent of meeting, or you will die, because Adonai’s anointing oil is on you.”

⁸ Adonai said to Aharon, ⁹ “Don’t drink any wine or other intoxicating liquor, neither you nor your sons with you, when you enter the tent of meeting, so that you will not die. This is to be a permanent regulation through all your generations, ¹⁰ so that you will distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean; ¹¹ and so that you will teach the people of Isra’el all the laws Adonai has told them through Moshe.”

(iv) ¹² Moshe said to Aharon and to El‘azar and Itamar, his remaining sons, “Take the grain offering left from the offerings for Adonai made by fire, and eat it without leaven next to the altar, because it is especially holy. ¹³ Eat it in a holy place, because it is your and your sons’ share of the offerings for Adonai made by fire; for this is what I have been ordered. ¹⁴ The breast that was waved and the thigh that was raised you are to eat in a clean place — you, your sons and your daughters with you; for these are given as your and your children’s share of the sacrifices of the peace offerings presented by the people of Isra’el. ¹⁵ They are to bring the raised thigh and the waved breast, along with the offerings of fat made by fire, and wave it as a wave offering before Adonai; then it will belong to you and your descendants with you as your perpetual share, as Adonai has ordered.”

(v) ¹⁶ Then Moshe carefully investigated what had happened to the goat of the sin offering and discovered that it had been burned up. He became angry with El‘azar and Itamar, the remaining sons of Aharon, and asked, ¹⁷ “Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the area of the sanctuary, since it is especially holy? He gave it to you to take away the guilt of the community, to make atonement for them before Adonai. ¹⁸ Look! Its blood wasn’t brought into the sanctuary! You should have eaten it there in the sanctuary, as I ordered.” ¹⁹ Aharon answered Moshe, “Even though they offered their sin offering and burnt offering today, things like these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have pleased Adonai?” ²⁰ On hearing this reply, Moshe was satisfied.

²⁶ And he said, “The Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Nights he sleeps, days he’s awake; and meanwhile the seeds sprout and grow — how, he doesn’t know. ²⁸ By itself the soil produces a crop — first the stalk, then the head, and finally the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But as soon as the crop is ready, the man comes with his sickle, because it’s harvest-time.”

³⁰ Yeshua also said, “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God? What illustration should we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when planted, is the smallest of all the seeds in the field; ³² but after it has been planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all the plants, with such big branches that the birds flying about can build nests in its shade.”

³³ With many parables like these he spoke the message to them, to the extent that they were capable of hearing it. ³⁴ He did not say a thing to them without using a parable; when he was alone with his own talmidim he explained everything to them.

³⁵ That day, when evening had come, Yeshua said to them, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” ³⁶ So, leaving the crowd behind, they took him just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious windstorm arose, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was close to being swamped. ³⁸ But he was in the stern on a cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, “Rabbi, doesn’t it matter to you that we’re about to be killed?” ³⁹ He awoke, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind subsided, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no trust even now?” ⁴¹ But they were terrified and asked each other, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the waves obey him?”

5 Yeshua and his talmidim arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gerasenes’ territory. ² As soon as he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the burial caves to meet him. ³ He lived in the burial caves; and no one could keep him tied up, not even with a chain. ⁴ He had often been chained hand and foot, but he would snap the chains and break the irons off his feet, and no one was strong enough to control him. ⁵ Night and day he wandered among the graves and through the hills, howling and gashing himself with stones.

⁶ Seeing Yeshua from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him ⁷ and screamed at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Yeshua, Son of God Ha‘Elyon? I implore you in God’s name! Don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Yeshua had already begun saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of this man!” ⁹ Yeshua asked him, “What’s your name?” “My name is Legion,” he answered, “there are so many of us”; ¹⁰ and he kept begging Yeshua not to send them out of that region.

¹¹ Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding near the hill, ¹² and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so we can go into them.” ¹³ Yeshua gave them permission. They came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering around two thousand, rushed down the hillside into the lake and were drowned. ¹⁴ The swineherds fled and told it in the town and in the surrounding country, and the people went to see what had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Yeshua and saw the man who had had the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were frightened. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told what had happened to the man controlled by demons and to the pigs; ¹⁷ and the people began begging Yeshua to leave their district.

¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonized begged him to be allowed to go with him. ¹⁹ But Yeshua would not permit it. Instead, he said to him, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much Adonai in his mercy has done for you.” ²⁰ He went off and began proclaiming in the Ten Towns how much Yeshua had done for him, and everyone was amazed.