The Daily Audio Bible

Regulations Concerning Discharges

15 The Lord told Moses and Aaron, ² “Tell the Israelis that when a man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean, ³ and this is the cause of his uncleanness—his discharge. Whether his body is releasing the discharge or his body has stopped the discharge, he’s unclean. ⁴ Every bed on which he lies down with the discharge is to be considered unclean, and every object on which he sits becomes unclean. ⁵ Any person^[a] who touches his bed is to wash his garments and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ⁶ Whoever sits on any object on which the one with the discharge has sat is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening.

⁷ “Whoever touches the body of someone with a discharge is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ⁸ Whoever has a discharge and spits on someone who is clean, then he is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening.

⁹ “Any saddle that anyone with a discharge rides on will become unclean. ¹⁰ Whoever touches anything that was under him will be unclean until evening. Whoever carries these things is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening.

¹¹ “Anyone whom the one with the discharge touches without rinsing his hands with water is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ¹² The earthen vessel that the person with the discharge touches is to be broken in pieces, and every wooden vessel is to be rinsed with water.”

On Cleansing from Discharges

¹³ “When the one with the discharge is cleansed from his discharge, then he is to set aside for himself seven days for his cleansing. He is to wash his clothes and bathe with flowing water. Then he will be clean. ¹⁴ On the eighth day, he is to take for himself two turtledoves or two young doves, bring them to the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest. ¹⁵ Then the priest is to offer them—one for a sin offering and the other for a whole burnt offering. That’s how the priest will make atonement for him in the Lord’s presence regarding his discharge.”

On Seminal Emissions

¹⁶ “If a man has a seminal emission, he is to bathe his entire body with water and remain unclean until evening. ¹⁷ Every garment (including leather) on which the semen is found is to be washed with water, and it will remain unclean until evening. ¹⁸ When a man has sexual relations with a woman and the man releases semen, both are to bathe with water, and they will remain unclean until evening.”

On Menstrual Discharges

¹⁹ “When a woman has a discharge,^[b] and the blood is her monthly menstrual discharge^[c] from her body, then for seven days she is to remain in her menstrual uncleanness. Whoever touches her will remain unclean until evening. ²⁰ Everything that she sleeps on during her uncleanness will be unclean. Moreover, everything that she sits on will become unclean. ²¹ Anyone who touches her bed is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ²² Anyone who touches any of the objects on which she has sat is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ²³ Any bed or other object on which she sat that he touches will make him unclean until evening. ²⁴ When a man has sexual relations with her and her menstrual uncleanness touches him, he will be unclean for seven days. Every bed where he sleeps will remain unclean.

²⁵ “When a woman has a continuous discharge of blood many days beyond the time of her menstrual uncleanness, or if she has a discharge that lasts beyond the days of her menstrual uncleanness, her uncleanness is to be treated like the days of her menstruation—she’s unclean. ²⁶ Every bed on which she sleeps the whole time she has the discharge will be her own unclean bed, so that every object on which she sits becomes unclean like her menstrual uncleanness. ²⁷ Whoever touches them will become unclean. He is to wash his clothes and bathe with water and he will remain unclean until evening.

²⁸ “If she becomes clean with her discharge, then she is to count for herself seven days, after which she becomes clean. ²⁹ On the eighth day, she is to take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ³⁰ Then the priest is to offer one for a sin offering and the other for a whole burnt offering. This is how the priest will make atonement in the Lord’s presence for her regarding her unclean discharge.

³¹ “So separate the Israelis from their uncleanness so that they won’t die in their uncleanness if they defile my tent that is in their midst. ³² These are the regulations for one whose discharge of semen causes him to become unclean because of it, ³³ for her whose menstruation causes her to become ill,^[d] for anyone who has a discharge (whether male or female), and for the man who has sexual relations^[e] with one who is unclean.”

The Day of Atonement

16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons when they had approached the Lord and died. ² The Lord told Moses, “Remind^[f] your brother Aaron that at no time is he to enter the sacred place from the room that contains the curtain into the presence of the Mercy Seat^[g] on top of the ark. Otherwise, he’ll die, because I will appear in a cloud at the Mercy Seat. ³ Aaron is to enter the sacred place with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a whole burnt offering. ⁴ He is to wear a sacred linen tunic and linen undergarments that will cover his genitals. He is to clothe himself with a sash and wrap his head with a linen turban. Because they are sacred garments, he is to wash himself with water before putting them on.”

The Atonement and Scapegoat Lots

⁵ “He is to take two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a whole burnt offering from the assembly of the Israelis. ⁶ Then Aaron is to bring the bull as a sin offering for himself and make atonement for himself and his household. ⁷ Then he is to take the two male goats and present them in the Lord’s presence at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁸ Aaron is to cast lots over the two male goats—one lot for the Lord and the other one for the scapegoat.^{[h] 9} Aaron is then to bring the male goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and offer it as a sin offering. ¹⁰ The male goat on which the lot fell for the scapegoat is to be brought alive into the Lord’s presence to make atonement for himself. Then he is to send it into the wilderness.”

The Sin Offering

¹¹ “Aaron is then to bring the bull for a sin offering for himself, thus making atonement for himself and his household. He is to slaughter the ox for himself. ¹² Then he is to take a censer and fill it with coals from the fire on the altar in the Lord’s presence. With his hands full of spiced and refined incense, he is to bring it beyond the curtain.

¹³ “Then he is to place the incense over the fire in the Lord’s presence, ensuring that the smoke^[i] from the incense covers the Mercy Seat, according to regulation, so he won’t die. ¹⁴ He is to take blood from the ox and sprinkle it with his forefinger toward the surface of the Mercy Seat. Then he is to sprinkle the blood on the surface of the Mercy Seat with his forefinger seven times.

¹⁵ “He is to slaughter the male goat as a sin offering for the people and bring its blood beyond the curtain and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull: He is to sprinkle it on the Mercy Seat—that is, over the surface of the Mercy Seat. ¹⁶ Then he is to make atonement on the sacred^[j] place on account of the uncleanness of the Israelis, their transgressions, and all their sins. This is how he is to act in the Tent of Meeting, which will remain with them in the middle of their uncleanness.

¹⁷ “No person^[k] is to be there when he enters the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the sacred place, until he comes out and has made atonement on account of himself, his household, and the entire assembly of Israel. ¹⁸ When he goes to the altar in the Lord’s presence to make atonement for himself, he is to take some of the blood from the bull and the male goat, place it around the horns of the altar, ¹⁹ and sprinkle it with the blood on his forefinger seven times, cleansing and sanctifying it from Israel’s sins.”

The Scapegoat Offering

²⁰ “When he has completed making atonement at the sacred place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, then he is to present the live male goat. ²¹ Aaron is to lay his two hands upon the head of the male goat and confess over it the sins of Israel, all their transgressions, and all their sins, thus placing them on the head of the male goat that he’ll then send out to the wilderness by the hand of a man capable of carrying out this task.^{[l] 22} The male goat will bear on itself all their sins to a solitary land as Aaron sends the goat out to the wilderness.

²³ “Then Aaron is to enter the Tent of Meeting, take off his white linen clothes that he had put on when he entered the sacred place, and leave them there. ²⁴ He is to wash his body with water at the sacred place and put on his clothes. Then he is to go out and offer a whole burnt offering for himself and a whole burnt offering for the people, thereby making atonement on account of himself and on account of the people.

²⁵ “As to the fat from the burnt offering, he is to incinerate it on the altar. ²⁶ The one who sent away the male goat as a scapegoat^[m] is to wash his clothes and bathe his body with water. After doing so, he may enter the camp.

²⁷ “The bull for the sin offering and the male goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the sacred place, are to be taken outside the camp. Their skin, meat, and offal are to be incinerated. ²⁸ The one who burns them is to wash his clothes and bathe his body with water. After doing so, he may enter the camp.”

Jesus Challenges the Tradition of the Elders^(A)

7 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.^{[a] 2} They noticed that some of his disciples were eating^[b] with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. ³ (The Pharisees—and indeed all the Jewish people—don’t eat unless they wash their hands properly,^[c] following the tradition of their elders. ⁴ They don’t eat anything from the marketplace unless they dip it in water. They also observe many other traditions, such as the proper washing of washing cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.)^{[d] 5} So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus,^[e] “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat^[f] with unclean hands.”

⁶ He told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written,

⁸ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

⁹ Then he told them, “You have such a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your own tradition! ¹⁰ Because Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’^[h] and, ‘Whoever curses his father or mother must certainly be put to death.’^{[i] 11} But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother, “Whatever support you might have received from me is Corban,”’ (that is, an offering to God) ¹² ‘you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.’ ¹³ You are destroying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other things like that.”

¹⁴ Then he called to the crowd again and told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand! ¹⁵ Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean. ¹⁶ If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!”^[j]

¹⁷ When he had left the crowd and gone home, his disciples began asking him about the parable. ¹⁸ He asked them, “Are you so ignorant? Don’t you know that nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean? ¹⁹ Because it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then into the sewer,^[k] thereby expelling^[l] all foods.” ²⁰ Then he continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean, ²¹ because it’s from within, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, as well as sexual immorality, stealing, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, slander,^[m] arrogance, and foolishness. ²³ All these things come from inside and make a person unclean.”