Leviticus 6
Guilt offerings for people who deceive others
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Someone may cheat another person, which is a sin against the Lord. He may deceive other people in different ways. He may keep something that belongs to them. It may be something that they have given to him to take care of. He may have robbed them. He may cheat them in other ways. 3 He may find something that another person has lost but he keeps it for himself. He may tell lies about it. He may say that he does not have it. He may deceive people in other ways that people do.
4 When someone does any of these sins, he is guilty. He must give back everything that he has taken from other people. He may have cheated other people. He may have kept something that belongs to them. He may have found something that they have lost. 5 He may have told lies about something so that he keeps it for himself. On the day when he knows that he is guilty, he must give back everything to the proper owner. He must also add one fifth more to its value. 6 He must bring a perfect male sheep as his guilt offering to the Lord. You must decide its value in shekels of silver. He must give this guilt offering to the priest. 7 The priest will offer the sheep to the Lord to make the person clean from his sin. Whatever sin the person has done to make him guilty, God will forgive him when the priest does this.’
Rules for the priests
8 The Lord said to Moses, 9 ‘Give this command to Aaron and his sons: “These are the rules about burnt offerings. The burnt offering must stay on the altar fire all night until the morning. The fire on the altar must continue to burn all night.
10 When the morning comes, the priest must dress himself in his linen robe. He must also wear linen trousers next to his skin. He must remove the ashes of the burnt offering that has burnt on the fire. He must put the ashes at the side of the altar. 11 Then he must dress himself in other clothes. He must carry the ashes outside the camp. He must put them in a special place that God has chosen. 12 The fire that is on the altar must always continue to burn. Every morning the priest must put more wood on the fire. He will put the animal for the burnt offering on top of the fire. He will also burn the fat of the friendship offerings on the fire. 13 The fire on the altar must always continue to burn. It must never stop burning.
14 These are the rules about grain offerings. Aaron's sons must take them in front of the altar to give them to the Lord. 15 A priest must take some of the pure flour and the olive oil in his hand. He must also take all the incense that is on the grain offering. He will burn this part of the offering on the altar as a gift to the Lord. The smell of the offering will give pleasure to the Lord.
16 Aaron and his sons may eat what remains of the friendship offerings. They must use it to make bread that has no yeast in it. Then they must eat it in a holy place, in the yard outside the Tent of Meeting. 17 The bread must not have any yeast in it. I have given this part of my offerings to the priests. It belongs to them. It is very holy, in the same way that the sin offerings and the guilt offerings are holy. 18 Any male descendant of Aaron may eat this part of the Lord's offerings. This rule will be true for all time. Anyone who touches these offerings will be holy.” ’
6:18Because the offerings were holy, only people who were holy could touch them. They had to be people that God had chosen to serve him, like the priests. If an ordinary person touched them, God would punish them. He might punish them with death and they would become holy in that way.
19 The Lord said to Moses, 20 ‘On the day when you anoint Aaron and his sons, they must bring an offering to the Lord. It must be a tenth of an ephah of the best flour. It will be a regular grain offering. They must bring half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening. 21 They must mix it carefully with olive oil and they must cook it on a flat plate. Then they must break it into pieces and offer it to the Lord. The smell of it will give pleasure to the Lord.
6:20A tenth of an ephah is about 2 litres, or 1 kilogram of flour.
22 The priest who must prepare the offering is Aaron's son that they anoint to take his father's place. This rule will continue for Aaron's descendants for all time. The priest must completely burn the whole offering as a gift to the Lord. 23 Every grain offering that a priest gives belongs to the Lord completely. Nobody may eat any of it.’
Rules about sin offerings
24 The Lord said to Moses, 25 ‘Tell Aaron and his sons, “These are the rules about sin offerings. They must kill the animal for a sin offering at the place where they kill the animals for burnt offerings. It is a very holy offering that they give to the Lord. 26 The priest who offers this sacrifice will eat his part of the animal. He must do that in a holy place, in the yard outside the Tent of Meeting.
27 If anyone touches the meat, they will be holy. If the blood splashes onto the clothes of a person, he must wash them in a holy place. 28 If a person uses a clay pot to cook the meat, he must then break the pot into pieces. If a person uses a metal pot to cook the meat, he must rub the pot very well to make it clean. Then he must wash it with clean water. 29 The meat is very holy. Only a male person who belongs to a priest's family may eat it.
6:29See the note on verse 18.
30 But it is different if they take some blood from the sin offering into the Tent of Meeting. If they do that to make people clean from their sin, nobody may eat any meat from the offering. Instead, the priest must burn the animal completely in the fire.”
