29This will be a permanent rule for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month,m you must deny yourselves. You must not do any work--neither the citizen nor the immigrant who lives among you. 30On that day reconciliation will be made for you in order to cleanse you. You will be clean before the LORD from all your sins. 31It will be a Sabbath of special rest for you, and you will deny yourselves. This is a permanent rule.
Conclusion concerning the Day of Reconciliation
32The priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest after his father will perform the reconciliation, wearing the holy linen clothes. 33He will reconcile the holiest part of the sanctuary and will do the same for the meeting tent and the altar. He will make reconciliation for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34This will be a permanent rule for you, in order to make reconciliation for the Israelites from all their sins once a year.
It was done just as the LORD commanded Moses.
Sacrifice at the sanctuary
Leviticus 17The LORD said to Moses, 2Say to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the Israelites: This is what the LORD has commanded: 3Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, sheep, or goat inside or outside the camp 4but does not bring it to the meeting tent's entrance to present it as an offering to the LORD in front of the LORD's dwellingn will be considered guilty of bloodshed; they have spilled blood. They will be cut off from their people. 5This will make the Israelites bring the communal sacrifices, which they are sacrificing in the countryside, to the LORD, to the priest at the meeting tent's entrance, and sacrifice them as communal sacrifices of well-being to the LORD. 6The priest will toss the blood against the LORD's altar at the meeting tent's entrance and burn the fat completely as a soothing smell to the LORD. 7The Israelites must no longer sacrifice their communal sacrifices to the goat demons that they follow so faithlessly.o This will be a permanent rule for them throughout their future generations. 8You will also say to them: Anyone from Israel's house or from the immigrants who live with you who offers up an entirely burned offering or communal sacrifice 9without bringing it to the meeting tent's entrance in order to offer it to the LORD will be cut off from their people.
Consuming blood forbidden
10I will oppose the person who consumes blood--whether they are from Israel's house or from the immigrants who live with you--and I will cut them off from their people. 11A creature's life is in the blood. I have provided you the blood to make reconciliation for your lives on the altar, because the blood reconciles by means of the life.p 12That is why I have told the Israelites: No one among you can consume blood, nor can the immigrant who lives with you consume blood.
13Anyone who hunts any animal or bird that can be eaten--whether the hunter is an Israelite or an immigrant who lives with you--must drain its blood out and cover it with dirt. 14Again: for every creature's life, its blood is its life. That is why I have told the Israelites: You must not consume any creature's blood because every creature's life is its blood. Anyone who consumes it will be cut off.
Eating meat
15Anyone, whether citizen or immigrant, who eats an animal that has died naturally or that was killed by another animal, must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. At that time, they will be clean again. 16If they do not wash or bathe their body, they will be liable to punishment.
Sexual conduct
Leviticus 18The LORD said to Moses, 2Speak to the Israelites and say to them: I am the LORD your God. 3You must not do things like they are done in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. And you must not do things like they are done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You must not follow the practicesq of those places. 4No, my regulations and my rules are the ones you must keep by following them: I am the LORD your God. 5You must keep my rules and my regulations; by doing them one will live; I am the LORD.
6No one is allowed to approach any blood relative for sexual contact:r I am the LORD. 7You must not uncover your father's nakedness, which is your mother's nakedness. She is your mother; you must not have sexual contact with her. 8You must not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness. 9You must not have sexual contact with your sister--regardless of whether she is your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether born into the same household as you or outside it. 10You must not have sexual contact with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, because their nakedness is your own nakedness.s 11You must not have sexual contact with the daughter of your father's wife, who was born into your father's family; she is your sister. 12You must not have sexual contact with your father's sister; she is your father's blood relative. 13You must not have sexual contact with your mother's sister because she is your mother's blood relative. 14You will not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother--that is, you will not approach his wife for sex; she is your aunt. 15You must not have sexual contact with your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife. You must not have sexual contact with her. 16You will not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness.
17You must not have sexual contact with a woman and her daughter. You will not marry her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter, thereby uncovering her nakedness. They are her blood relatives; it is shameful. 18You must not marry your wife's sister as a rival and have sexual contact with her while her sister is alive. 19You must not approach a woman for sexual contact during her menstrual uncleanness. 20You must not have sexual relations with the wife of your fellow Israelite, becoming unclean by it.
21You must not give any of your childrent to offer them over to Molech so that you do not defile your God's name: I am the LORD. 22You must not have sexual intercourse with a man as you would with a woman; it is a detestable practice. 23You will not have sexual relations with any animal, becoming unclean by it. Nor will a woman present herself before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.
Warning against uncleanness and moral pollution
24Do not make yourselves unclean in any of these ways because that is how the nations that I am throwing out before you became unclean. 25That is also how the land became unclean, and I held it liable for punishment, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26But all of you must keep my rules and my regulations. You must not do any of these detestable things, neither citizen nor immigrant who lives with you (27because the people who had the land before you did all of these detestable things and the land became unclean), 28so that the land does not vomit you out because you have made it unclean, just as it vomited out the nations that were before you. 29Anyone who does any of these detestable things will be cut off from their people. 30You must keep my requirement of not doing any of the detestable practicesu that were done before you arrived so that you don't make yourselves unclean by them; I am the LORD your God.
Living as holy people
Leviticus 19The LORD said to Moses, 2Say to the whole community of the Israelites: You must be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy. 3Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must keep my sabbaths; I am the LORD your God. 4Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves; I am the LORD your God. 5When you sacrifice a communal sacrifice of well-being to the LORD, offer it so that it will be accepted on your account. 6It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice or the following day; whatever is left over on the third day must be burned with fire. 7If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is foul;