Leviticus 15–16; Matthew 27:1–26

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Leviticus 15–16

Laws About Bodily Discharges

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, hWhen any man has a discharge from his body,1 his discharge is unclean. And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is blocked up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness. Every bed on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean. And anyone who touches his bed ishall wash his clothes and jbathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever sits on anything on which the one with the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches the body of the one with the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And if the one with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And any saddle on which the one with the discharge rides shall be unclean. 10 And whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening. And whoever carries such things shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 11 Anyone whom the one with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 12 And an kearthenware vessel that the one with the discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.

13 And when the one with a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then lhe shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes. And he shall bathe his body in fresh water and shall be clean. 14 And on the eighth day he shall take two mturtledoves or two pigeons and come before the Lord to the entrance of the tent of meeting and give them to the priest. 15 And the priest shall use them, none for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. oAnd the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord for his discharge.

16 pIf a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening. 17 And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening. 18 If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and qbe unclean until the evening.

19 When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. 20 rAnd everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. 21 And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 22 And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 23 Whether it is the bed or anything on which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening. 24 And sif any man lies with her and her menstrual impurity comes upon him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.

25 If ta woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness. As in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean. 26 Every bed on which she lies, all the days of her discharge, shall be to her as the bed of her impurity. And everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her menstrual impurity. 27 And whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 28 But uif she is cleansed of her discharge, she shall count for herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. 29 And on the eighth day she shall take two vturtledoves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest, to the entrance of the tent of meeting. 30 And the priest shall use one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her before the Lord for her unclean discharge.

31 Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by wdefiling my tabernacle that is in their midst.

32 This is the law xfor him who has a discharge and yfor him who has an emission of semen, becoming unclean thereby; 33 zalso for her who is unwell with her menstrual impurity, that is, for anyone, xmale or afemale, who has a discharge, and for the bman who lies with a woman who is unclean.

The Day of Atonement

The Lord spoke to Moses after cthe death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brother not to dcome at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For eI will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: fwith a bull from the herd for a sin offering and ga ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on hthe holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. iHe shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. And he shall take from jthe congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

Aaron shall koffer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall lmake atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for mAzazel.2 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for mAzazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to mAzazel.

11 Aaron shall present kthe bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. 12 And he shall take na censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13 oand put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover pthe mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. 14 And qhe shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

15 rThen he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood sinside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall tmake atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 uNo one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is vbefore the Lord and wmake atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.

20 And when he has made an end of xatoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall yput them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall zbear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and ahe shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.

23 Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and bshall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the Holy Place and shall leave them there. 24 And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come out and coffer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 And dthe fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. 26 And he who lets the goat go to eAzazel shall wash his clothes and fbathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 27 gAnd the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire. 28 And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp.

29 And it shall be a statute to you forever that hin the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall iafflict yourselves3 and shall do no work, either jthe native or the stranger who sojourns among you. 30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you kto cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. 31 lIt is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall iafflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. 32 mAnd the priest who is anointed and nconsecrated as priest in his father’s place oshall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. 33 He shall make atonement for pthe holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for qthe altar, and he shall make atonement for rthe priests and for sall the people of the assembly. 34 And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel tonce in the year because of all their sins. And Aaron4 did as the Lord commanded Moses.


Matthew 27:1–26

Jesus Delivered to Pilate

wWhen morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people xtook counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And they bound him and yled him away and zdelivered him over to aPilate the governor.

Judas Hangs Himself

Then when bJudas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus1 was condemned, che changed his mind and brought back dthe thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, What is that to us? eSee to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, fhe departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, It is not lawful to put them into gthe treasury, since it is blood money. So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore hthat field has been called the Field of Blood ito this day. jThen was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, kAnd they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.

Jesus Before Pilate

11 lNow Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, Are you mthe King of the Jews? Jesus said, nYou have said so. 12 oBut when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, pDo you not hear how many things they testify against you? 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

The Crowd Chooses Barabbas

15 qNow at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16 And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or rJesus who is called Christ? 18 For he knew that it was out sof envy that they had delivered him up. 19 Besides, while he was sitting on tthe judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, Have nothing to do with uthat righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today vin a dream. 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to wask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21 The governor again said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. 22 Pilate said to them, Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? xThey all said, Let him be crucified! 23 And he said, Why? yWhat evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, Let him be crucified!

Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified

24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that za riot was beginning, he took water and awashed his hands before the crowd, saying, I am innocent of bthis man’s blood;2 csee to it yourselves. 25 And all the people answered, dHis blood be on us and eon our children! 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having fscourged3 Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.