Leviticus 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them, and fire from the LORD kills them; their bodies are carried outside the camp. Moses tells Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, not to show signs of mourning or leave the entrance of the tent, and the LORD tells Aaron that priests must not drink wine or strong drink when they enter it. Moses then gives instructions about the priests' portions of the offerings. When Moses finds that the goat of the sin offering has been burned up, he is angry with Eleazar and Ithamar; Aaron answers him, and Moses is satisfied.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer.
   • They put fire in their censers.
   • They put incense on the fire.
   • They offered strange fire before the LORD.
   • The LORD had not commanded them to offer that fire.
2. 10:2
   • Fire went out from before the LORD.
   • The fire devoured Nadab and Abihu.
   • They died before the LORD.
3. 10:3
   • Moses said to Aaron that this was what the LORD had spoken.
   • Moses reported the LORD as saying he would be shown holy in those who come near him.
   • Moses reported the LORD as saying he would be glorified before all the people.
   • Aaron was silent.
4. 10:4
   • Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan.
   • Mishael and Elzaphan were the sons of Uzziel.
   • Uzziel was Aaron's uncle.
   • Moses told them to come near.
   • Moses told them to carry their kinsmen away from before the sanctuary to outside the camp.
5. 10:5
   • They came near.
   • They carried the bodies in their tunics to outside the camp.
   • They did this as Moses had said.
6. 10:6
   • Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar.
   • Moses told them not to let their hair go unbound.
   • Moses told them not to tear their clothes.
   • Moses said this was so that they would not die.
   • Moses said that otherwise wrath would come upon the whole congregation.
   • Moses said their brethren, the whole house of Israel, were to weep over the burning that the LORD had kindled.
7. 10:7
   • Moses told them not to go out from the entrance of the tent of meeting.
   • Moses said that if they went out they would die.
   • Moses said the reason was that the LORD's anointing oil was upon them.
   • They did according to the word of Moses.
8. 10:8
   • The LORD spoke to Aaron.
9. 10:9
   • The LORD told Aaron that he and his sons were not to drink wine or strong drink when they entered the tent of meeting.
   • The LORD said that otherwise they would die.
   • The LORD said this was a perpetual statute throughout their generations.
10. 10:10
    • The LORD said this was so they could distinguish between the holy and the common.
    • The LORD said this was so they could distinguish between the unclean and the clean.
11. 10:11
    • The LORD said this was so they could teach the children of Israel all the statutes.
    • The LORD said he had spoken those statutes to them by the hand of Moses.
12. 10:12
    • Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar who were left.
    • Moses told them to take the grain offering that remained from the offerings made by fire to the LORD.
    • Moses told them to eat it without leaven beside the altar.
    • Moses said it was most holy.
13. 10:13
    • Moses told them to eat it in a holy place.
    • Moses said it was Aaron's due and his sons' due from the offerings made by fire to the LORD.
    • Moses said he had been so commanded.
14. 10:14
    • Moses said the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution were to be eaten in a clean place.
    • Moses said Aaron, his sons, and his daughters were to eat them.
    • Moses said these were given as the due of Aaron and his sons from the peace offerings of the children of Israel.
15. 10:15
    • Moses said the thigh of the contribution and the breast of the wave offering were to be brought with the fire offerings of the fat.
    • Moses said they were to be waved as a wave offering before the LORD.
    • Moses said it would belong to Aaron and his sons as a perpetual due.
    • Moses said this was as the LORD had commanded.
16. 10:16
    • Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering.
    • The goat had been burned up.
    • Moses was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left.
    • Moses spoke to them.
17. 10:17
    • Moses asked why they had not eaten the sin offering in the holy place.
    • Moses said it was most holy.
    • Moses said it had been given to them to bear the iniquity of the congregation.
    • Moses said it was given to make atonement for them before the LORD.
18. 10:18
    • Moses said the blood of the offering had not been brought inside the holy place.
    • Moses said they should certainly have eaten it in the holy place.
    • Moses said this was as he had commanded.
19. 10:19
    • Aaron said to Moses that on that day they had offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD.
    • Aaron said that such things as these had befallen him.
    • Aaron asked whether it would have been good in the LORD's sight if he had eaten the sin offering that day.
20. 10:20
    • Moses heard this.
    • It was good in Moses' sight.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

A censer (fire pan) was a shallow metal pan with a handle, used to carry burning coals from the altar so that incense could be sprinkled on them. Incense was a blend of aromatic gums burned to produce fragrant smoke, part of the daily service in the sanctuary. "Strange fire" translates a Hebrew word meaning foreign, outside, or not belonging, fire from a source or in a manner that had not been authorized. The text says only that it was not commanded; it never specifies what exactly was wrong with it.

10:2

The King James "devoured" means burned up or consumed. Nadab and Abihu were Aaron's two oldest sons, ordained as priests only days before, in the middle of the seven day ceremony described in chapters 8 and 9.

10:3

"Those who come near me" is a standard phrase for the priests, the only people permitted to approach the altar and the sanctuary. Moses quotes a saying not recorded elsewhere in these words. "Aaron said nothing" renders a Hebrew verb for being silent or still; whether it means acceptance, shock, or grief is left open.

10:4

Mishael and Elzaphan are first cousins of Nadab and Abihu; "brethren" in the King James is the general Hebrew word for kinsmen, not literal brothers. Contact with a corpse made a person ritually unclean, and the dead were removed from the camp for that reason, Aaron and his surviving sons, being under the restrictions of their office, could not handle the bodies themselves.

10:5

The "coats" are the linen tunics of the priestly vestments. The detail notes that the bodies were carried away still clothed, rather than the garments being stripped off first.

10:6

Letting the hair hang loose and uncovered and tearing one's clothing were the ordinary public signs of mourning in Israel, as normal then as wearing black at a funeral. Aaron and his sons are forbidden these gestures while on duty; everyone else may perform them on their behalf. "Wrath will come on all the people" means the whole community, not just the priests, would suffer the consequences.

10:7

The tent of meeting (the King James "tabernacle of the congregation") was the portable sanctuary at the center of the camp, where God was understood to meet Israel. The anointing oil was the perfumed olive oil poured on the priests at their installation, marking them as set apart for the sanctuary and, in this context, as still bound to their post.

10:9

"Strong drink" translates Hebrew *shekar*, fermented drink made from something other than grapes, barley beer, or drink made from dates or other fruit. It does not mean distilled spirits, which did not exist at this time.

10:10

"Holy" and "common" are categories of status rather than of morality: holy means reserved for the sanctuary, common means ordinary and available for everyday use. "Clean" and "unclean" likewise concern ritual fitness to approach the sanctuary, not hygiene or sin; a person could become unclean through entirely blameless events such as childbirth or burying the dead. Sorting things into these categories was part of the priests' professional job.

10:11

Priests were Israel's teachers and legal experts as well as its ritual officials. Deciding what counted as clean or unclean, and instructing ordinary people in the rules, was part of the job.

10:12

The grain offering was flour with oil and incense; a token handful was burned on the altar and the rest belonged to the priests. "Without leaven" means made without yeast or any fermenting agent. "Most holy" is a technical grade: such food could be eaten only by male priests and only within the sanctuary precinct.

10:13

"Your due" means the fixed share allotted to the priests. Priests received no farmland of their own, so specified portions of the offerings were their income and their food supply.

10:14

The breast and thigh were lifted or moved in a set ritual gesture in front of the altar, marking them as handed over to God and then assigned back to the priests. These portions ranked as merely holy rather than most holy, which is why they could be eaten in any ritually clean place rather than only in the sanctuary, and by the priests' wives and daughters as well as the men. Peace offerings were sacrifices shared out and eaten as a meal by the worshiper, the priests, and the altar.

10:15

The fat portions were the parts burned on the altar; they were never eaten. Only the breast and thigh went to the priests.

10:16

The sin offering (better, purification offering) was the sacrifice that cleansed the sanctuary and the people of ritual impurity. "It had been burned up" means incinerated as waste rather than burned on the altar as a sacrifice, the meat that should have gone to the priests had been destroyed instead of eaten.

10:17

"To carry away the guilt of the people" reflects a Hebrew idiom for bearing or removing liability; the priests' eating of the offering was itself part of how the impurity was disposed of. "Atonement" translates a verb meaning to wipe clean or to cover over, used of clearing away pollution and its consequences.

10:18

The rule Moses cites is the one given earlier: if a purification offering's blood was carried inside the tent, the carcass had to be burned and not eaten; if the blood stayed outside at the altar, the priests were required to eat the meat. Since this animal's blood had not gone inside, burning it was a breach of procedure.

10:19

Aaron's reply is compressed and its logic has been argued over since antiquity. "Things like this have happened to me" points to the deaths of his sons; the implied argument may be that a man in mourning, or newly touched by such a death, was in no fit state to eat holy food. The text records that Moses accepted it without stating exactly what the reasoning was.

10:20

Here "he was content" means Moses accepted Aaron's answer and said no more about it. It does not mean he felt happy.