The Daily Audio Bible

²⁸ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁹ “Say to the people of Israel, He that offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord; from the sacrifice of his peace offerings ³⁰ he shall bring with his own hands the offerings by fire to the Lord; he shall bring the fat with the breast, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. ³¹ The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be for Aaron and his sons. ³² And the right thigh you shall give to the priest as an offering from the sacrifice of your peace offerings; ³³ he among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace offerings and the fat shall have the right thigh for a portion. ³⁴ For the breast that is waved and the thigh that is offered I have taken from the people of Israel, out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons, as a perpetual due from the people of Israel. ³⁵ This is the portion of Aaron and of his sons from the offerings made by fire to the Lord, consecrated to them on the day they were presented to serve as priests of the Lord; ³⁶ the Lord commanded this to be given them by the people of Israel, on the day that they were anointed; it is a perpetual due throughout their generations.”

³⁷ This is the law of the burnt offering, of the cereal offering, of the sin offering, of the guilt offering, of the consecration, and of the peace offerings, ³⁸ which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day that he commanded the people of Israel to bring their offerings to the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.

The Rites of Ordination

8 The Lord said to the Moses, ² “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bull of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread; ³ and assemble all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting.” ⁴ And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and the congregation was assembled at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁵ And Moses said to the congregation, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded to be done.” ⁶ And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. ⁷ And he put on him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and girded him with the skilfully woven band of the ephod, binding it to him therewith. ⁸ And he placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim. ⁹ And he set the turban upon his head, and on the turban, in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses.

¹⁰ Then Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them. ¹¹ And he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the laver and its base, to consecrate them. ¹² And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to consecrate him. ¹³ And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and clothed them with coats, and girded them with girdles, and bound caps on them, as the Lord commanded Moses.

¹⁴ Then he brought the bull of the sin offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bull of the sin offering. ¹⁵ And Moses killed it, and took the blood, and with his finger put it on the horns of the altar round about, and purified the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar, and consecrated it, to make atonement for it. ¹⁶ And he took all the fat that was on the entrails, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and Moses burned them on the altar. ¹⁷ But the bull, and its skin, and its flesh, and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as the Lord commanded Moses.

¹⁸ Then he presented the ram of the burnt offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. ¹⁹ And Moses killed it, and threw the blood upon the altar round about. ²⁰ And when the ram was cut into pieces, Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat. ²¹ And when the entrails and the legs were washed with water, Moses burned the whole ram on the altar, as a burnt offering, a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²² Then he presented the other ram, the ram of ordination; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. ²³ And Moses killed it, and took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot. ²⁴ And Aaron’s sons were brought, and Moses put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet; and Moses threw the blood upon the altar round about. ²⁵ Then he took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was on the entrails, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and the right thigh; ²⁶ and out of the basket of unleavened bread which was before the Lord he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of bread with oil, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat and on the right thigh; ²⁷ and he put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. ²⁸ Then Moses took them from their hands, and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering, as an ordination offering, a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord. ²⁹ And Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord; it was Moses’ portion of the ram of ordination, as the Lord commanded Moses.

³⁰ Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and of the blood which was on the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron and his garments, and also upon his sons and his sons’ garments; so he consecrated Aaron and his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.

³¹ And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the flesh at the door of the tent of meeting, and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it’; ³² and what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn with fire. ³³ And you shall not go out from the door of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for it will take seven days to ordain you. ³⁴ As has been done today, the Lord has commanded to be done to make atonement for you. ³⁵ At the door of the tent of meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days, performing what the Lord has charged, lest you die; for so I am commanded.” ³⁶ And Aaron and his sons did all the things which the Lord commanded by Moses.

Aaron’s Priesthood Inaugurated

9 On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel; ² and he said to Aaron, “Take a bull calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. ³ And say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish, for a burnt offering, ⁴ and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord, and a cereal offering mixed with oil; for today the Lord will appear to you.’” ⁵ And they brought what Moses commanded before the tent of meeting; and all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. ⁶ And Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord commanded you to do; and the glory of the Lord will appear to you.”

The True Kindred of Jesus

³¹ And his mother and his brethren^[a] came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. ³² And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brethren^[b] are outside, asking for you.” ³³ And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brethren?” ³⁴ And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brethren! ³⁵ Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

The Parable of the Sower

4 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ² And he taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³ “Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it had not much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil; ⁶ and when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” ⁹ And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰ And when he was alone, those who were about him with the twelve asked him concerning the parables. ¹¹ And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; ¹² so that^[c] they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven.” ¹³ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown; when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word which is sown in them. ¹⁶ And these in like manner are the ones sown upon rocky ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; ¹⁷ and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.^{[d] 18} And others are the ones sown among thorns; they are those who hear the word, ¹⁹ but the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰ But those that were sown upon the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

A Lamp under a Bushel Basket

²¹ And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, and not on a stand? ²² For there is nothing hid, except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. ²³ If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴ And he said to them, “Take heed what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. ²⁵ For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”