Leviticus 16:29-18:30
Contemporary English Version
The Lord told Moses to say to the people:
29 (A) On the tenth day of the seventh month[a] of each year, you must go without eating to show sorrow for your sins, and no one, including foreigners who live among you, is allowed to work. 30 This is the day on which the sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sins will be made in my presence, 31 and from now on, it must be celebrated each year. Go without eating and make this a day of complete rest just like the Sabbath. 32 The high priest must offer the sacrifices for cleansing from sin, while wearing the sacred linen clothes. 33 He will offer these sacrifices for the most holy place, the sacred tent, the bronze altar, all the priests, and for the whole community. 34 You must celebrate this day each year—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness[b] for all the sins of the people of Israel.
Moses did exactly as the Lord had commanded.
Where To Offer Sacrifices
17 The Lord told Moses 2 to tell Aaron, his sons, and everyone else in Israel:
3-4 Whenever you kill any of your cattle, sheep, or goats as sacrifices to me, you must do it at the entrance to the sacred tent. If you don't, you will be guilty of pouring out blood, and you will no longer belong to the community of Israel. 5 And so, when you sacrifice an animal to ask my blessing,[c] it must not be done out in a field, 6 but in front of the sacred tent. Then a priest can splatter its blood against the bronze altar and send its fat up in smoke with a smell that pleases me. 7 Don't ever turn from me again and offer sacrifices to goat-demons. This law will never change.
8 Remember! No one in Israel, including foreigners, is to offer a sacrifice anywhere 9 except at the entrance to the sacred tent. If you do, you will no longer belong to my people.
Do Not Eat Blood
The Lord said:
10 (B) I will turn against any of my people who eat blood. This also includes any foreigners living among you. 11 (C) Life is in the blood, and I have given you the blood of animals to sacrifice in place of your own. 12 That's also why I have forbidden you to eat blood. 13 Even if you should hunt and kill a bird or an animal, you must drain out the blood and cover it with soil.
14 The life of every living creature is in its blood. That's why I have forbidden you to eat blood and why I have warned you that anyone who does will no longer belong to my people.
15 If you happen to find a dead animal and eat it, you must take a bath and wash your clothes, but you are still unclean until evening. 16 If you don't take a bath, you will suffer for what you did wrong.
Forbidden Sex
18 The Lord told Moses 2 to tell the people of Israel:
I am the Lord your God! 3 So don't follow the customs of Egypt where you used to live or those of Canaan where I am bringing you. 4 I am the Lord your God, and you must obey my teachings. 5 (D) Obey them and you will live. I am the Lord.
6 Don't have sex with any of your close relatives, 7 especially your own mother. This would disgrace your father. 8 (E) And don't disgrace him by having sex with any of his other wives. 9 (F) Don't have sex with your sister or stepsister, whether you grew up together or not. 10 Don't disgrace yourself by having sex with your granddaughter 11 or half sister 12-13 (G) or a sister of your father or mother. 14 Don't disgrace your uncle by having sex with his wife. 15 (H) Don't have sex with your daughter-in-law 16 (I) or sister-in-law. 17 (J) And don't have sex with the daughter or granddaughter of any woman that you have earlier had sex with. You will be having sex with her closest relatives, and that would make you unclean. 18 As long as your wife is alive, don't cause trouble for her by taking one of her sisters as a second wife.
19 (K) When a woman is having her monthly period, she is unclean, so don't have sex with her.
20 (L) Don't have sex with another man's wife—that would make you unclean.
21 (M) Don't sacrifice your children on the altar fires to the god Molech. I am the Lord your God, and that would disgrace me.
22 (N) It is disgusting for a man to have sex with another man.
23 (O) Anyone who has sex with an animal is unclean.
24 Don't make yourselves unclean by any of these disgusting practices of those nations that I am forcing out of the land for you. They made themselves 25 and the land so unclean, that I punished the land because of their sins, and I made it vomit them up. 26-27 Now don't do these sickening things that make the land filthy. Instead, obey my laws and teachings. 28 Then the land won't become sick of you and vomit you up, just as it did them. 29-30 If any of you do these vulgar, disgusting things, you will be unclean and no longer belong to my people. I am the Lord your God, and I forbid you to follow their sickening way of life.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.
