The Daily Audio Bible

Concerning Bodily Discharges

15 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² “Say to the people of Israel, When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. ³ And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is stopped from discharge, it is uncleanness in him. ⁴ Every bed on which he who has the discharge lies shall be unclean; and everything on which he sits shall be unclean. ⁵ And any one who touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. ⁶ And whoever sits on anything on which he who has the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. ⁷ And whoever touches the body of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. ⁸ And if he who has the discharge spits on one who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. ⁹ And any saddle on which he who has the discharge rides shall be unclean. ¹⁰ And whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening; and he who carries such a thing shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. ¹¹ Any one whom he that has 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 the earthen vessel which he who has the discharge touches shall be broken; and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.

¹³ “And when he who has a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes; and he shall bathe his body in running water, and shall be clean. ¹⁴ And on the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord to the door of the tent of meeting, and give them to the priest; ¹⁵ and the priest shall offer them, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord for his discharge.

¹⁶ “And if 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 be unclean until the evening.

¹⁹ “When a woman has a discharge of blood which is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. ²⁰ And everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon 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 upon 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 upon which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening. ²⁴ And if any man lies with her, and her impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.

²⁵ “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her 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 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 if 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 turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting. ³⁰ And the priest shall offer 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 defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst.”

³² This is the law for him who has a discharge and for him who has an emission of semen, becoming unclean thereby; ³³ also for her who is sick with her impurity; that is, for any one, male or female, who has a discharge, and for the man who lies with a woman who is unclean.

The Day of Atonement

16 The Lord spoke to Moses, after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died; ² and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is upon the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. ³ But thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴ He shall put on the holy linen coat, and shall have the linen breeches on his body, be girded with the linen girdle, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water, and then put them on. ⁵ And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

⁶ “And Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. ⁷ Then he shall take the two goats, and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting; ⁸ and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Aza′zel. ⁹ And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin offering; ¹⁰ but the goat on which the lot fell for Aza′zel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Aza′zel.

¹¹ “Aaron shall present the 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 a 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 within the veil ¹³ and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat which is upon the testimony, lest he die; ¹⁴ and he shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times.

¹⁵ “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood within the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat; ¹⁶ thus he shall make 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 abides with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. ¹⁷ There shall be no man in the tent of meeting when 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 which is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar round about. ¹⁹ And he shall sprinkle some of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.

²⁰ “And when he has made an end of atoning 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 upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. ²² The goat shall bear all their iniquities upon him to a solitary land; and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness.

²³ “Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, and shall put off the linen garments which 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 forth, and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. ²⁵ And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn upon the altar. ²⁶ And he who lets the goat go to Aza′zel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. ²⁷ And 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 forth outside the camp; their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned 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.

The Tradition of the Elders

7 Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, ² they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands,^[a] observing the tradition of the elders;^{[b] 4} and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify^[c] themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.^[d]) ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live^[e] according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?” ⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

⁸ You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”

⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die’; ¹¹ but you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God)^[f]— ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do.”

¹⁴ And he called the people to him again, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.”^{[g] 17} And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?”^[h] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.”