Exodus

Ritual of Consecration

This is the ceremony you must use to consecrate them to serve me in the priesthood.

Take one young bull and two rams without any defects,

unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil made from fine wheat flour.

You must put these things into a basket and present them in the basket at the same time as the young bull and the two rams.

Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting after they have been bathed.

Take the vestments and dress Aaron in the shirt, the robe over the Ephod, the Ephod and the breastpiece, and the embroidered belt.

Put the headdress on his head and tie it to the sacred plate.

Then pour the chrism oil on his head, and so anoint him.

Next, bring his sons and clothe them with shirts,

pass the belts around their waists, and put the headdresses on their heads. With this, the priesthood will be theirs forever. This is how you are to ordain Aaron and his sons.

You are to bring the bull before the Tent of Meeting. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.

Kill the bull there before the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

Then take some of its blood and, with your finger, put it on the horns of the altar. Next, pour out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar.

And then take all the fat that covers the inner organs, the fatty mass, which is over the liver, the two kidneys with their covering fat, and burn them on the altar.

As for the bull’s flesh, its skin, and its intestines, you must burn them outside the camp, for it is an offering to take away the sins of the priests.

Next, you are to take one of the rams. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.

You are to kill the ram, take up its blood, and pour it out on the sides of the altar.

Next, divide the ram into pieces, wash the inner organs and legs, and put them on top of the head and the other pieces.

Then burn the whole ram on the altar.

This is a fire offering to the Lord, a fragrant offering by fire.

Next, you are to take the other ram. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.

You are to kill the ram, take some of its blood, and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the lobes of his sons’ right ears, the thumbs of their right hands, and the big toes of their right feet, and pour out the rest of the blood on the sides of the altar.

Then take some of the blood that remains on the altar, together with the chrism oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his vestments and on his sons and their vestments so that he and his vestments will be consecrated and his sons, too, and their vestments.

You are to take the fatty parts of the ram: the tail, the fat that covers the inner organs, the fatty mass over the liver, the two kidneys with their covering fat, and also the right thigh, for this is a ram for the clothing ceremony.

You are to take a loaf of bread, a cake of bread made with oil, and a wafer, from the basket of unleavened bread placed before the Lord,

and put them all into Aaron’s hands and those of his sons and make the gesture of offering before the Lord.

Then you are to take them back and burn them on the altar, on top of the burnt offering, as a sweet-smelling offering which pleases the Lord.

You are to take the breast of the ram and make the gesture of offering before the Lord; this is to be your own portion.

You are to consecrate the breast that has been thus offered, as also the thigh that is set aside—the breast that has been offered and the thigh that has been set aside from the ram.

This, by a perpetual law, will be the portion that Aaron and his sons are to receive from the sons of Israel; this is the portion set aside, a portion the sons of Israel are to set aside from their communion sacrifices, the portion they owe to the Lord.

Aaron’s sacred vestments are to pass to his sons after him, and they will wear them for their anointing and consecration.

The son of Aaron, who comes after him in the priesthood and enters the Tent of Meeting to serve in the sanctuary, must wear them for seven days.

You are to take the ram used for the ordination and cook its meat in a holy place.

Aaron and his sons will eat the meat of the ram and also the bread that is in the basket at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

They are to eat what was used in the forgiveness ceremony during their ordination. No layman may eat these; they are holy things.

If any meat from the ordination sacrifice, or the bread, should be left till morning, you must put what is left in the fire. It is not to be eaten; it is a holy thing.

For Aaron and his sons, you are to do exactly as I have commanded you: to spend seven days ordaining them.

On each day of this week, you are also to offer a bull as a sacrifice for sin, in atonement; by offering an atonement sacrifice for sin, you will take sin away from the altar; then you must anoint it and consecrate it.

For seven days, you are to repeat the atonement sacrifice for the altar and consecrate it. So it will be extremely holy, and whatever touches it will become holy.

This is what you are to offer on the altar: two yearling lambs day by day continually.

The first lamb you must offer in the morning, the second in the evening twilight.

With the first lamb, you must offer two pounds of fine flour mixed with one quart of purest oil and pour out one quart of wine as an offering.

The second lamb you must offer in the evening twilight; do this with the exact amounts of flour, olive oil, and wine as in the morning. This is a sweet-smelling offering that pleases the Lord.

This is the perpetual offering, which is to be offered from generation to generation, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting in the presence of the Lord. That is where I shall meet you and speak to you.

There I will teach the people of Israel, and the presence of my glory will consecrate this place.

In this way, I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting, the altar, and Aaron and his sons to be priests in my service.

For I will remain with the people of Israel and be their God.

And so they will know that I, their God, brought them out of the land of Egypt to live among them:

I, their God.