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Exodus 29

1“This is what you are to do for them to consecrate them to serve me as priests: take one young bull and two rams without defect, 2unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil. Make them of fine wheat flour. 3Put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, along with the bull and the two rams. 4Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 5Take the garments and clothe Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him with its skillfully woven band. 6Put the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. 7Take the anointing oil and pour it on his head, and anoint him. 8Bring his sons near and clothe them with tunics. 9Fasten sashes around them, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them. The priesthood is to be theirs by a lasting statute. Thus you are to ordain Aaron and his sons.

10“Bring the bull before the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the bull's head. 11Slaughter the bull before Yahweh at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 12Take some of the bull's blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. 13Take all the fat covering the inner parts, the appendage of the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and burn them as an offering on the altar. 14But the bull's flesh, its skin, and its dung you are to burn in fire outside the camp. It is a purification offering.

15“Take the first ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the ram's head. 16Slaughter the ram, take its blood, and splash it against the altar all around. 17Cut the ram into its pieces, wash its inner parts and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head. 18Burn the whole ram as an offering on the altar. It is a burnt offering to Yahweh, a pleasing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh.

19“Take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the ram's head. 20Slaughter the ram and take some of its blood. Put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the lobes of his sons' right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Splash the blood against the altar all around. 21Take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments, on his sons and on his sons' garments with him. He and his garments, and his sons and his sons' garments with him, will be holy. 22Take from the ram the fat and the fat tail, the fat covering the inner parts, the appendage of the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and the right thigh, for it is a ram of ordination. 23Take one round loaf, one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread before Yahweh. 24Put all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh. 25Take them from their hands and burn them as an offering on the altar, on top of the burnt offering, as a pleasing aroma before Yahweh. It is an offering by fire to Yahweh. 26Take the breast of the ram of Aaron's ordination and wave it as a wave offering before Yahweh; it is to be your portion.

27“Consecrate the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution, which were waved and raised from the ram of ordination, from what belongs to Aaron and his sons. 28It is to be for Aaron and his sons as a lasting due from the sons of Israel, for it is a contribution. It is to be a contribution from the sons of Israel out of their peace-offering sacrifices, their contribution to Yahweh. 29Aaron's holy garments are to belong to his sons after him, for them to be anointed in them and ordained in them. 30The priest from among his sons who succeeds him and enters the tent of meeting to serve in the holy place is to wear them seven days.

31“Take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. 32Aaron and his sons are to eat the ram's flesh and the bread in the basket at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 33They are to eat the things through which atonement was made, to ordain them and consecrate them. But an outsider must not eat them, because they are holy. 34If any of the ordination meat or the bread remains until morning, burn the remainder in fire. It must not be eaten, because it is holy. 35Do this for Aaron and his sons according to everything I have commanded you. For seven days you are to ordain them. 36Each day offer a bull as a purification offering for atonement. Purify the altar when you make atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. 37For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. The altar will be most holy; whatever touches the altar will become holy.

38“This is what you are to offer on the altar: two lambs a year old each day, regularly. 39Offer one lamb in the morning, and offer the second lamb at twilight. 40With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from beaten olives, and a drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. 41Offer the second lamb at twilight, with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning, as a pleasing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh. 42It is to be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you to speak to you there. 43I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it will be made holy by my glory. 44I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45I will dwell among the sons of Israel and be their God. 46They will know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am Yahweh their God.

Translation notes 8

29:1–9 — Ordination. “Ordain” renders fill the hand, a conventional expression for installation in priestly service. The following actions actually place offerings in the priests' palms. The holy crown is the gold plate associated with the turban, not an additional royal crown invented by the translation.

29:10–14, 36 — Purification offering. The Hebrew noun is traditionally translated “sin offering.” Here the rite purifies the altar as well as consecrating the priests; the term should not imply that an altar has committed a moral offense. “Purify” in verse 36 is a related Hebrew verb.

29:13, 22 — Fat and organs. The appendage associated with the liver is a technical anatomical term whose precise identification is debated. The fat tail is the fatty tail of a sheep, not an ordinary tail stripped of its ritual significance. The kidneys and the fat around them remain separate items.

29:16, 20–21 — Splash and sprinkle. Different Hebrew verbs describe applying blood around the altar and sprinkling blood and oil on the priests and garments. The distinction is retained rather than making every application the same action.

29:20 — Right ear, thumb, and toe. The bodily locations and the right side are explicit. The text does not supply an explanation that each one separately represents hearing, working, or walking; such interpretations belong to discussion rather than the reading text.

29:24–28 — Wave offering and contribution. The text describes presentation gestures and portions assigned to the priests. “Peace offerings” is a conventional rendering of a term also translated well-being offerings or fellowship offerings. It does not mean that every such sacrifice follows a military peace treaty.

29:33, 37 — Outsider; becoming holy. “Outsider” here concerns eligibility to eat priestly holy food, not simply foreign ethnicity. The final clause of verse 37 can be understood as becoming holy through contact or as requiring holiness in whoever approaches; the draft retains the former, with the alternative open for review.

29:38–43 — Daily offerings and meeting. Ephah and hin are ancient volume measures; the fractions are retained. “A tenth of an ephah” supplies the unit conventionally understood with the Hebrew tenth-measure. In verse 42 the Hebrew first addresses the community in the plural, then Moses in the singular. The object made holy in verse 43 is not explicitly named; the following verse identifies the tent and altar.