Old/New Testament
15 The Eternal One spoke to Moses and Aaron.
Eternal One: 2 Go, talk with the Israelites, and tell them that if a man has any sort of a discharge from his body, the discharge renders him impure.
This is the general principle: a bodily discharge produces a state of ritual impurity for both men and women. As we see in this chapter, some of these discharges are abnormal and caused by active infections or diseases. When this is the case, healing is required. But some discharges are actually normal. For example, a woman’s period is normal, but there are conditions that cause her to bleed at odd times or too much. Again, in such cases, healing is required.
Eternal One: 3 A man’s discharge makes him impure regardless of whether his body allows it to flow out of him or blocks its flow altogether. 4 If the person with the discharge lies down in a bed or sits down on a couch, it becomes impure. 5-6 Any person who has contact with that bed or that couch must wash his clothes and bathe in water. He will remain impure until dusk. 7 Any person who touches the discharging man must wash his or her clothes and bathe in water. He will remain impure until dusk. 8 If the discharging man spits on a person who is ritually clean, then that person must wash his garments and bathe in water. He will remain impure until dusk. 9 If the discharging man rides on a saddle, the riding saddle will be impure as well. 10 Therefore, if anyone touches any of the items that were under the discharging man, then that person will be impure until dusk. Whoever picks up and carries any of these items must wash his clothes and bathe in water. He will remain impure until dusk. 11 If the discharging man does not wash his hands and touches another person, then that person must wash his clothes and bathe in water. He will remain impure until dusk. 12 If the discharging man touches a clay cup, then it must be shattered; but a wooden cup shall be washed with water.
The impurity of the clay is because it has penetrated the vessel, but the wood is saved because it is less porous.
13 Once the discharging man is healed, he must wait seven days to make sure the ailment doesn’t return before his ritual cleansing. He will wash his clothes and bathe in running water so that he can be ritually pure again. 14 On the eighth day, he is to bring two turtledoves or young pigeons into My presence and hand them to the priest at the entrance of the congregation tent. 15 The priest will present the birds—one of them as a purification offering for sin and the other as a burnt offering. The priest will come before Me and cover the impurity of the man with a discharge.
16 If a man ejaculates, then he must bathe his whole body with water and remain impure until dusk. 17 If an item of clothing or leather is touched by semen, then it must be cleaned thoroughly with water and will remain impure until dusk. 18 If a man ejaculates while lying with a woman, then both must bathe with water and remain impure until dusk.
The impurity referred to in these verses has to do with ceremonial and ritual practices such as making sacrifices, going to festivals, or receiving a revelation. Men, like women, have times when they become ritually impure. For men it happens whenever they have an ejaculation. For women it happens whenever they have their period. It’s important to note that these bodily functions are normal and natural, not sinful or evil. The ancients knew the power of such events for making them one with their wives and ultimately creating life. Through these bodily fluids men and women become partners with God in creating other humans who are made in the image and likeness of God. Such power cannot and must not be taken lightly.
Eternal One: 19 When a woman has her menstrual period and discharges her blood, she must stay in a state of her menstrual impurity for seven days. Any person who touches her will be impure until dusk. 20 Anything she lies down upon or sits down on during her menstruation will be impure, 21-23 and any person who touches her bed or her cushion or anything else she sits on must wash his clothes and bathe in water. He will remain impure until dusk. 24 If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual period and her menstrual blood gets on him, he will be impure for seven days, and any bed he lies down upon will be impure as well.
25 If a woman discharges blood for several days beyond her menstrual period or outside of it, then she will treat those days as if she were having her menstrual period and will be impure. 26 Treat every bed she lies down upon during her irregular discharge like the bed she lies down upon while she is in her menstrual period. Anything she sits down upon will be considered impure just as it is when she is menstruating. 27 By the same token, any person who touches the items she touches will be impure and must wash his clothes and bathe in water and remain impure until dusk. 28 When the woman’s discharge stops, she will wait seven days before she is ritually cleansed. 29 On the eighth day, she will bring two turtledoves or young pigeons and present them to the priest at the entrance of the congregation tent. 30 The priest will present one as a purification offering for sin and the other as a burnt offering. The priest will come before Me and cover the impurity of the woman with a discharge.
31 This is how you are to separate and deal with the people of Israel during those times when they are ritually impure, so that they will not die from their impurity by defiling My sanctuary that stands among them.
32 These are the instructions for what to do when someone has a discharge of any kind; and for the man who has become impure from his ejaculation, 33 for the woman who is not well from her menstrual period, for any man or woman who has a discharge, and for the man who has sexual relations with a ritually impure woman.
16 The Eternal One spoke to Moses after Aaron’s two sons died from entering into the Eternal’s presence.[a]
Eternal One (to Moses): 2 Go, talk to Aaron, and warn him that he cannot go whenever he wants beyond the veil to the holy place before the seat of mercy that covers the covenant chest. If he does, he will lose his life because I will appear in the cloud above the seat of mercy. 3 Instead, he may enter into the holy place with a bull from the herd for the purification offering for sin and a ram for the burnt offering. 4 Aaron will wash himself with water and then put on his sacred garments: the linen underclothes and the sacred linen tunic. He will tie the linen sash around his waist and put on his linen turban. 5 From the community of My people Israel, he will take two male goats as a purification offering for sin and a ram as a burnt offering. 6 Aaron will present the bull as a purification offering to cover himself and his family. 7 Then he will take the two goats and present them to Me at the entrance of the congregation tent. 8 There he will cast lots for the goats: one lot for Me and one lot for the scapegoat. 9 Whichever goat My lot falls upon, Aaron will offer that goat as a purification offering for sin. 10 Whichever goat the scapegoat’s lot falls upon, Aaron will keep it alive, bring it before Me as a covering for the people, and set it free into the wilderness.
There are two goats for the annual Day of Atonement. Lots are cast—perhaps the Urim and the Thummim—to see which goat is slaughtered for Israel’s purification before God and which goat is released into the desert. The meaning of the Hebrew term Azazel is translated “scapegoat” but is uncertain; Azazel may refer to the name of a wilderness demon or a place in the desert, or it may simply refer to the goat that takes Israel’s sin deep into the desert, that is, “scapegoat.”
Eternal One: 11 Aaron will offer the bull for the purification offering to cover his and his family’s sins; and he will slaughter it himself. 12 He will gather embers from My altar in a censer and also two handfuls of the finest, sweetest crushed incense and take it behind the veil.
13 He is to place the incense on the embers in My presence so that the cloud of incense engulfs the seat of mercy—where sins are atoned—on the covenant chest, so he will not die. 14 He must also dip his finger into the bull’s blood and sprinkle it on the east side of the seat of mercy; in all he is to sprinkle the blood seven times in front of the seat of mercy.
15 He will then slaughter the goat for the purification offering on behalf of the community’s sin, take its blood behind the veil, and do the same thing with it that he did with the bull’s blood. He will sprinkle it on and in front of the seat of mercy. 16 This is how he will cover the impurities of the sanctuary because the impurities, rebellion, and sin of the people of Israel have defiled it. He will perform the same ritual for the congregation tent since it stands in the heart of their uncleanness. 17 When the high priest enters the sanctuary to cover the impurities in the sacred space, no one else is allowed inside the tent until he comes outside again after atoning for himself, his family, and the entire community of Israel.
18 Then the priest will approach the altar that sits in My presence and cover any impurity it has by taking some of the bull’s and goat’s blood and placing it around the four horns of the altar. 19 Then he must sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times in order to purify it from the Israelites’ impurities and set it apart for My holy purposes.
20 When the priest has finished covering the impurities in the sanctuary, the entire congregation tent, and the altar, he must then present the living goat, the scapegoat. 21-22 Aaron will place both his hands on the goat’s head and confess aloud over it all the guilt, rebellion, and wrongdoings of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the sins of the people onto the goat’s head; then another man who has been selected for this special task will drive the goat into the wilderness. When the man releases the goat into the desert, it will carry all the offenses of God’s people away into the desolate wastelands.
23 Afterward, Aaron will enter the congregation tent, remove all of the linen clothing he put on when he entered, and leave them there. 24 He will wash himself with water in the sacred space, dress himself in his normal, priestly clothes, and present his own burnt offering and the burnt offering for the community to atone for himself and the community. 25 Then on the altar, he must offer up the fat of the purification offering as smoke. 26 As for the man who let the scapegoat go free, he must wash his clothes and bathe in water, and then he may reenter the community. 27 The remains of the bull and goat whose blood was used to purify the sacred space will be carried outside the camp. Their skins, meat, and dung must be burned up completely in a fire. 28 Whoever does the burning must wash his clothes and bathe in water, and then he may reenter the community.
29 This directive stands for all time: on the tenth day of the seventh month, all of you must humble yourselves and do no work—all native-born children of Israel as well as outsiders living among you. 30 This must be a day when the high priest comes before Me to cover your sins and cleanse you from all your impurities. 31 This day will be a Sabbath of sacred rest for you and you are to humble yourselves. This directive stands for all time. 32 The priest who is anointed and ordained as high priest—succeeding his father Aaron—is to make atonement and thereby cover the sins of the people. He will clothe himself in the sacred linen garments 33 and cover the impurities of the sanctuary, the congregation tent, and the altar. He will cover the priests and the entire community. 34 This directive stands for all time: atone for the sins of My people Israel once every year.
Moses did exactly what the Eternal commanded him.
27 Eventually the chief priests and the elders looked around and saw that it was morning. They convened a council meeting whose sole purpose was to hand down Jesus’ death sentence. 2 They tied Jesus up, took Him away, and handed Him over to the governor of Judea, a man called Pilate.
3 Judas—the one who had betrayed Him with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver—saw that Jesus had been condemned, and suddenly Judas regretted what he had done. He took the silver back to the chief priests and elders and tried to return it to them.
Judas Iscariot: 4 I can’t keep this money! I’ve sinned! I’ve betrayed an innocent man! His blood will be on my hands.
The priests and elders want nothing to do with Judas, and they refuse to take his money.
Chief Priests and Elders: We’re through with you, friend. The state of your soul is really none of our affair.
5 Judas threw down the money in the temple, went off, and hanged himself.
6 The chief priests looked at the silver coins and picked them up.
Chief Priests and Elders: You know, according to the law, we can’t put blood money in the temple treasury.
7 After some deliberation, they took the money and bought a plot of land called Potter’s Field; they would use it to bury foreigners, suicides, and others who were unfit for a full Jewish burial. 8 (To this day, the field is called Blood Field, because it was bought with blood money.) 9 And when the priests bought Potter’s Field, they unwittingly fulfilled a prophecy made long ago by the prophet Jeremiah: “They took 30 pieces of silver, the price set on the head of the man by the children of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the Potter’s Field as the Eternal One instructed.”[a]
11 Jesus was standing before the governor, Pilate.
Pilate: Are You the King of the Jews?
Jesus: So you say.
12 The chief priests and the elders stood and poured out their accusations: that Jesus was a traitor, a seditious rebel, a crazy, a would-be Savior, and a would-be king. Jesus stood in the stream of accusations, but He did not respond.
Pilate: 13 Do You hear these accusations they are making against You?
14 Still Jesus said nothing, which Pilate found rather astounding—no protests, no defense, nothing.
15 Now the governor had a custom. During the great Jewish festival of Passover, he would allow the crowd to pick one of the condemned men, and he, Pilate, would set the man free. Just like that. Gratuitous, gracious freedom. 16 At this time, they had a notorious prisoner named Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd gathered, Pilate offered them a choice:
Pilate: Whom do you want me to free? Barabbas or Jesus, whom some call the Anointed One?
Pilate could call Him “Jesus of Nazareth” or “Jesus the Carpenter,” but he says, “whom some call the Anointed One.” It is significant that Pilate is in a position where he passes judgment. He determines who will live and who will die, and he is preparing to hold court.
18 Pilate knew the chief priests and elders hated Jesus and had delivered Him up because they envied Him.
19 Then Pilate sat down on his judgment seat, and he received a message from his wife: “Distance yourself utterly from the proceedings against this righteous man. I have had a dream about Him, a dream full of twisted sufferings—He is innocent, I know it, and we should have nothing to do with Him.”
20 But the chief priests and the elders convinced the crowd to demand that Barabbas, not Jesus, whom-some-call-the-Anointed-One, be freed and that Jesus be put to death.
Pilate (standing before the crowd): 21 Which of these men would you have me free?
Crowd (shouting): Barabbas!
Pilate: 22 What would you have me do with this Jesus, whom some call the Anointed One?
Crowd (shouting): Crucify Him!
Pilate: 23 Why? What crime has this man committed?
Crowd (responding with a shout): Crucify Him!
It is clear Pilate has laid his own trap. He realizes he has given the crowd a choice, but the crowd doesn’t choose as he expects them to.
24 Pilate saw that unless he wanted a riot on his hands, he now had to bow to their wishes. So he took a pitcher of water, stood before the crowd, and washed his hands.
Pilate: You will see to this crucifixion, for this man’s blood will be upon you and not upon me. I wash myself of it.
Crowd: 25 Indeed, let His blood be upon us—upon us and our children!
26 So Pilate released Barabbas, and he had Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.