Leviticus 16:2-29

²He said to him/me, “Warn your older brother Aaron that he must not enter the Very Holy Place inside the curtain that is in the Sacred Tent whenever he wants to, because the cover of the sacred chest is there. That is the place where the priest ◄makes atonement for/requests me to forgive► sins. I am present in the cloud that is over the cover of the sacred chest. If Aaron goes in that room when it is not the proper time, he will die!

³When Aaron enters the Sacred Tent area, he must bring a bull that will be killed to become an offering/sacrifice for sins, and a ram to be killed to be an offering that will be completely burned on the altar.

⁴Then he must bathe his whole body, and put on the linen underwear/undershorts and the linen gown. He must tie the linen sash/waistbands around his waist and wrap the turban around his head. Those are his sacred garments.

⁵The Israeli people must then bring to him two male goats to be killed as an offering/sacrifice for sin, and a ram to be killed and burned completely on the altar.

⁶Aaron must offer the bull to me to be a sacrifice in order that ◄I will forgive his sins and the sins of his family/his sins and the sins of his family will be forgiven►.

⁷Then he must bring the two male goats to me at the entrance to the Sacred Tent.

⁸He must ◄cast lots/throw down stones that have been marked► to determine which goat will be sacrificed to me, and which will be the goat that will be set free.

⁹Aaron must bring to me the goat that was chosen to be sacrificed. It will be an offering for the people's sins.

¹⁰Aaron must also bring to me the other goat, but it is not to be killed. It will be freed while it is still alive. As a result of Aaron sending it into the desert, the people's sins will be forgiven.

¹¹Then Aaron must bring the young bull to me, to be an offering/sacrifice for himself and for his family. He must slaughter that bull to be an offering for their sins, and he must drain the blood into a basin.

¹²Then he must take some burning coals from the bronze altar and put them in the incense burner. Then he must fill his hands with fragrant finely-ground incense. Then he must take the incense and the incense burner inside the curtain into the Very Holy Place of the Sacred Tent.

¹³There he must put the incense on the burning coals, with the result that a cloud of burning incense will rise up over the lid of the sacred chest. If he obeys these instructions, he will not die like Korah's two sons did because of offering incense incorrectly (OR, because of being in God's presence).

¹⁴Then he must dip his finger into the basin and sprinkle some blood on the lid of the sacred chest, and also sprinkle some blood seven times against the front of the chest.

¹⁵Aaron must then go outside the Sacred Tent and slaughter the goat to be an offering for the sins of the people. Then he must bring its blood into the Very Holy Place behind the curtain. There he must sprinkle some of that blood on the lid of the sacred chest and against the front of the chest, like he did with the bull's blood.

¹⁶By doing that, he will purify the Very Holy Place. And he must sprinkle more of the blood on the Sacred Tent, because the tent is in the midst of the camp of the Israeli people who have become unacceptable to me because of their sins.

¹⁷When Aaron goes into the Very Holy Place in the Sacred Tent to purify it, no one else is permitted to enter the other part of the Sacred Tent. Only after Aaron has performed rituals to enable me to forgive him and his family, and all the Israeli people, is any priest permitted to enter the Sacred Tent.

¹⁸Then Aaron must go outside the tent to purify my altar. He must do this by smearing some of the blood from the bull and some of the blood from the goat on each of the projections at the corners of the altar.

¹⁹Then Aaron must dip his finger into the basin of blood and sprinkle some of the blood over the altar seven times. By doing that, he will cleanse it from being unholy because of the sins of the Israeli people, and it will become holy again.

²⁰When Aaron has finished purifying the Very Holy Place inside the Sacred Tent and all of the Sacred Tent and the altar, he must bring the goat that was chosen to be set free.

²¹He must put both of his hands on the head of the goat and confess all the sins DOU of the Israeli people. By doing that, he will put the guilt of their sins on the head of the goat. Then he must give the goat to a man who is chosen, and that man will send the goat out into the desert.

²²It is as though the goat will carry away into the desert the guilt for the sins of all the people.

²³When Aaron approaches the Sacred Tent, he must take off the linen clothes that he wore when he previously entered the Very Holy Place, and he must leave those clothes there.

²⁴Then he must bathe in a sacred place, put on his regular/ordinary clothes, and sacrifice the animals that will be burned completely on the altar, for his own sins and for the sins of the Israeli people. By doing that he will enable me to forgive him and them.

²⁵He must also burn on the altar all the fat of the bull and the goat that were sacrificed.

²⁶The man who was chosen to send the other goat into the desert and free it there must afterwards wash his clothes and bathe. Then he may return to the camp.

²⁷The carcasses of the bull and the goat that were slaughtered to be an offering/sacrifice for the people's sins, whose blood was taken inside the Very Holy Place to enable Yahweh to forgive the Israeli people, must be carried outside the camp and burned. The hides/skins of the animals, the inner organs, and the dung must also be burned.

²⁸The man who burns those things must then wash his clothes and bathe before he returns to the camp.

²⁹In ◄October/the month after the dry season ends►, on the day that I have appointed, you all must ◄fast/abstain from eating food► and not do any work. This is a rule/law that will never end. It must be obeyed by you people who have been Israelis all your lives, and also by foreigners who are living among you.