The Daily Audio Bible

⁷ Moses then said to Aaron, “Come near to the altar and ^[a](A)offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, so that you may make atonement for yourself and for the people; then make the offering ^[b]for the people, so that you may make atonement for them, just as the Lord has commanded.”

^8 (B)So Aaron came near to the altar and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering which was for himself. ^9 (C)Aaron’s sons then presented the blood to him; and he dipped his finger in the blood and ^(D)put some on the horns of the altar, and poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. ¹⁰ The fat and the kidneys and the ^[c]lobe of the liver of the sin offering he then offered up in smoke on the altar, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ^11 (E)The flesh and the hide, however, he burned with fire outside the camp.

¹² Then he slaughtered the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he sprinkled it around on the altar. ¹³ They brought the burnt offering to him in ^[d]pieces, with the head, and he offered them up in smoke on the altar. ¹⁴ He also washed the entrails and the legs, and offered them up in smoke with the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵ Then he presented the people’s offering, and took the ^(F)goat of the sin offering which was for the people, and slaughtered it and offered it for sin, like the first. ¹⁶ He also presented the burnt offering, and ^[e]offered it according to ^(G)the ordinance. ¹⁷ Next he presented ^(H)the grain offering, and filled his ^[f]hand with some of it and offered it up in smoke on the altar, ^(I)besides the burnt offering of the morning.

¹⁸ Then ^(J)he slaughtered the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings which was for the people; and Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he sprinkled it around on the altar. ¹⁹ As for the portions of fat from the ox and from the ram, the fat tail, the fat ^(K)covering, the kidneys, and the ^[g]lobe of the liver, ²⁰ they now placed the portions of fat on the breasts; and he offered ^[h]them up in smoke on the altar. ²¹ But ^(L)the breasts and the right thigh Aaron ^[i]presented as a wave offering before the Lord, just as Moses had commanded.

²² Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and ^(M)blessed them, and he stepped down after making the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings. ²³ And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed the people, ^(N)the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. ^24 (O)Then fire went out from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell ^[j]face downward.

The Sin of Nadab and Abihu

10 Now ^(P)Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective ^(Q)firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on ^[k]the fire and offered ^[l]strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. ^2 (R)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 ^(V)Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to an area outside of the camp.” ⁵ So they came forward and carried them, still in their ^(W)tunics, to an area outside the camp, just as Moses had said. ⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “^(X)Do not ^[n]uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you do not die and He does not ^(Y)become wrathful against all the congregation. But your ^[o]kinsmen, the entire house of Israel, shall weep for the burning which the Lord has ^[p]brought about. ⁷ You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for ^(Z)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 “^(AA)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 do not die—it is a permanent statute throughout your generations— ¹⁰ and ^(AB)to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean, ¹¹ and ^(AC)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, ^(AD)Eleazar and Ithamar, “^(AE)Take the grain offering that is left over from the Lord’s offerings by fire and eat it as unleavened bread beside the altar, for it is most holy. ¹³ You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your allotted portion and your sons’ allotted portion from the Lord’s offerings by fire; for so I have been commanded. ^14 (AF)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 allotted portion and your sons’ allotted portion from the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the sons of Israel. ¹⁵ They shall bring ^(AG)the thigh offered by lifting up and the breast offered by waving, 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 ^(AH)goat of the sin offering, and behold, it had been burned! So he was angry with Aaron’s surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar, saying, ¹⁷ “Why ^(AI)did you not eat the sin offering at the ^[q]holy place? For it is most holy, and ^[r]He gave it to you to take away ^(AJ)the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord. ¹⁸ Behold, ^(AK)since its blood had not been brought inside, into the sanctuary, you certainly should have ^(AL)eaten it in the sanctuary, just as I commanded!” ¹⁹ But Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, this very day they ^(AM)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 was good in his sight.

Parable of the Seed

²⁶ And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; ²⁷ and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. ²⁸ The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. ²⁹ Now when the crop permits, he immediately ^[a](A)puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30 (B)And He was saying, “How shall we ^[b](C)picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³² yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that ^(D)the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”

³³ And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to ^[c]understand it; ³⁴ and He did not speak to them ^(E)without a parable; but He was ^(F)explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

Jesus Stills the Sea

^35 (G)On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” ³⁶ After dismissing the crowd, they *took Him along with them ^(H)in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And a fierce gale of wind *developed, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling with water. ³⁸ And yet Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And He got up and ^(I)rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and ^[d]it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you ^[e]afraid? ^(J)Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

The Demon-possessed Man Cured

5 ^(K)They came to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes. ² When He got out of ^(L)the boat, immediately a man from the tombs ^(M)with an unclean spirit met Him. ³ He lived among the tombs; and no one was able to bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴ because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces; and no one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; ⁷ and shouting with a loud voice, he *said, “^[f](N)What business do You have with me, Jesus, ^(O)Son of ^(P)the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” ⁸ For He had already been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is ^(Q)Legion, for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the region. ¹¹ Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding ^[g]nearby on the mountain. ¹² And the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us into the pigs so that we may enter them.” ¹³ Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the pigs; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴ Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the countryside. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ And then they *came to Jesus and *saw the man who had been ^(R)demon-possessed sitting down, ^(S)clothed and ^(T)in his right mind, the very man who had previously had the “^(U)legion”; and they became frightened. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the ^(V)demon-possessed man, and all about the pigs. ¹⁷ And they began to ^(W)beg Him to leave their region. ^18 (X)And as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been ^(Y)demon-possessed was begging Him that he might ^[h]accompany Him. ¹⁹ And He did not let him, but He *said to him, “^(Z)Go home to your people and report to them ^[i]what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” ²⁰ And he went away and began to ^(AA)proclaim in ^(AB)Decapolis ^[j]what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.