The Father Sets Apart His Priests
Ordination step by step over seven days: washing, robing, anointing, hands laid on the bull and rams, blood on ear, thumb and toe. It ends with the point of it all — I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their Father, and they will know.
29 1"To dedicate them as priests serving me, do this: take one young bull and two rams without defect, 2and bread without yeast, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, all made of fine wheat flour. 3Put them in one basket and present them in it, with the bull and the two rams. 4Then bring Aaron and his sons to the tent of meeting entrance and wash them with water. 5Take the garments and dress Aaron in the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastpiece, and fasten the ephod's woven band on him. 6Set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. 7Then take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him. 8Bring his sons forward and dress them in tunics. 9Wrap sashes around Aaron and his sons and fasten their caps. The priesthood is theirs by lasting decree. So you will ordain Aaron and his sons.
10"Bring the bull before the tent of meeting; Aaron and his sons lay their hands on its head. 11Slaughter the bull before me at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 12Take some of the bull's blood and with your finger put it on the horns of the altar; pour out the rest at the base of the altar. 13Take all the fat covering the organs, the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and burn them on the altar. 14Burn the bull's flesh, hide, and waste outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
15"Take one ram; Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head. 16Slaughter the ram, take its blood, and throw it against the sides of the altar. 17Cut the ram into pieces, wash its inner organs and legs, and place them with its pieces and head. 18Then burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to me, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to me.
19"Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head. 20Slaughter the ram, take some of its blood, and put it on Aaron's right earlobe, on his sons' right earlobes, on their right thumbs and right big toes, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. 21Take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle them on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and their garments with him. Then he and his garments will be holy, with his sons and their garments. 22Take the fat from the ram: the fat tail, the fat covering the internal organs, the liver's long lobe, the two kidneys with their fat, and the right thigh—for it is a ram of ordination. 23Take one loaf, one oil cake, and one wafer from the basket of bread without yeast before me. 24Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons, and wave them as a wave offering before me. 25Take them from their hands and burn them on the altar over the burnt offering, a pleasing aroma before me. It is a food offering to me.
26"Take the breast of Aaron's ordination ram and wave it before me as a wave offering; it is your portion. 27Set apart the wave-offering breast and the raised thigh from the ordination ram—the portions for Aaron and his sons. 28It belongs to Aaron and his sons as a permanent share from the people of Israel, for it is a contribution—the contribution from the people of Israel's peace offerings, their contribution to me.
29"Aaron's holy garments pass to his sons after him, to be anointed and ordained in them. 30The son who succeeds him as priest 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. 32At the entrance of the tent of meeting, Aaron and his sons will eat the ram's meat and the bread in the basket. 33They are to eat what made atonement at their ordination and dedication, but no outsider is to eat it, because it is holy. 34If any ordination meat or bread remains till morning, burn the rest with fire. It must not be eaten, because it is holy.
35"Do this for Aaron and his sons, following all I commanded you. Take seven days to ordain them. 36Each day offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to dedicate it. 37For seven days make atonement for the altar and dedicate it. Then it will be most holy, and whatever touches it becomes holy.
38"This is what you are to offer on the altar: two year-old lambs each day, without fail. 39Offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight. 40With the first lamb offer about two quarts of fine flour mixed with about a quart of pressed oil, and about a quart of wine as a drink offering. 41Offer the second lamb at twilight with the same grain and drink offering as in the morning, a pleasing aroma, a food offering to me. 42A continual burnt offering for your generations at the tent of meeting's entrance before me, where I will meet with you to speak with you. 43There I will meet with the Israelites, and my glory will make the place holy. 44I will dedicate the tent of meeting and the altar, and dedicate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests.
45"I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their Father. 46They will know I am their Father, who brought them out of Egypt so I could live among them. I am their Father."
