Exodus 29: Setting Aaron and his sons apart, and the daily offering

In plain English: "This is what you are to do to them to set them apart (make them holy), so that they may serve me in the priest's office: take one young bull and two rams without defect,

In plain English: unleavened bread (bread made without yeast), unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Make them of fine wheat flour.

In plain English: Put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.

In plain English: Bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.

In plain English: Take the garments. Put on Aaron the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and clothe him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod.

In plain English: Set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban.

In plain English: Then take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him.

In plain English: Bring his sons and put tunics on them.

In plain English: Clothe them with belts, Aaron and his sons, and bind headbands on them. The priesthood is to be theirs by a perpetual statute (a lasting rule). Consecrate Aaron and his sons.

In plain English: "Bring the bull before the Tent of Meeting. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the head of the bull.

In plain English: Kill the bull before Yahweh at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

In plain English: Take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger. Pour out all the blood at the base of the altar.

In plain English: Take all the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar.

In plain English: But burn the meat of the bull, its skin, and its dung with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.

In plain English: "Take also the one ram. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the head of the ram.

In plain English: Kill the ram, take its blood, and sprinkle it around on the altar.

In plain English: Cut the ram into its pieces, wash its innards and its legs, and put them with its pieces and with its head.

In plain English: Burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to Yahweh, a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

In plain English: "Take the other ram. Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on the head of the ram.

In plain English: Then kill the ram, take some of its blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, on the tip of the right ear of his sons, on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot. Sprinkle the blood around on the altar.

In plain English: Take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and the garments of his sons with him. Then he will be made holy, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.

In plain English: Also take some of the ram's fat, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration),

In plain English: and one loaf of bread, one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread that is before Yahweh.

In plain English: Put all of this in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh.

In plain English: Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar, on the burnt offering, as a pleasant aroma before Yahweh. It is an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

In plain English: "Take the breast of Aaron's ram of consecration and wave it as a wave offering before Yahweh. It will be your portion.

In plain English: Set apart (make holy) the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the wave offering, which is waved and which is raised up, from the ram of consecration, from what is for Aaron and from what is for his sons.

In plain English: It will be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the Israelites, because it is a wave offering. It will be a wave offering from the Israelites, from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, their wave offering to Yahweh.

In plain English: "The holy garments of Aaron are to be for his sons after him, for them to be anointed in them and consecrated in them.

In plain English: The son who becomes priest in his place is to wear them for seven days, when he comes into the Tent of Meeting to serve in the holy place.

In plain English: "Take the ram of consecration and boil its meat in a holy place.

In plain English: Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

In plain English: They are to eat the things with which atonement was made, to consecrate and set them apart (make them holy). But a stranger is not to eat of it, because they are holy.

The Hebrew word: "Stranger" is zar, a different word from ger, the "alien" of Exodus 22:21.

Good to know: The verse does not say who counts as a "stranger" here. Verse 32 says that Aaron and his sons eat the meat and the bread. The same Hebrew word is in only 3 verses of Exodus: this one, 30:9 ("strange incense") and 30:33 ("a stranger").

In plain English: If any of the meat of the consecration, or of the bread, is left until morning, burn what is left with fire. It is not to be eaten, because it is holy.

In plain English: "Do this to Aaron and to his sons, according to everything I have commanded you. Consecrate them for seven days.

In plain English: Every day offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Cleanse (or: make a sin offering on) the altar when you make atonement for it. Anoint it, to set it apart (make it holy).

The Hebrew word: "Make atonement" is kaphar. The dictionary gives it as "to cover (specifically with bitumen); figuratively, to expiate or condone, to placate or cancel".

How it is translated: In Exodus this word is in 7 verses: 29:33, this one, 29:37, 30:10, 30:15, 30:16 and 32:30. In this Bible all 7 of them use the word "atonement".

Good to know: This verse speaks of making atonement for the altar itself, and verse 37 says the altar will then be most holy. The text does not say what the altar needs atonement for. The word for "mercy seat" (Exodus 25:17) sounds like kaphar.

The Hebrew word: "Cleanse" is chata, which sounds like chattath, the word for "sin offering" earlier in the verse. Word for word, the Hebrew here reads "make a sin offering on the altar".

In plain English: For seven days make atonement for the altar and set it apart. Then the altar will be most holy. Whatever touches the altar will be holy.

In plain English: "Now this is what you are to offer on the altar: two lambs a year old, day by day, continually.

In plain English: Offer the one lamb in the morning and the other lamb at evening (literally: between the two evenings),

In plain English: and with the one lamb a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil, and a quarter of a hin of wine for a drink offering.

The Hebrew word: "A hin" is hin, which the dictionary gives as "a hin or liquid measure". It is in only 2 verses of Exodus: here and 30:24.

Good to know: The Hebrew for "a tenth part of an ephah" is the one word issaron, "a tenth", with no separate word for "ephah". The dictionary gives issaron as "(fractional) a tenth part" and ephah as "an ephah or measure for grain". Exodus 16:36 says an omer is one tenth of an ephah. The text does not give the size of an ephah or a hin.

In plain English: Offer the other lamb at evening (literally: between the two evenings). Do to it as with the morning meal offering and its drink offering, for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

In plain English: It is to be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the Tent of Meeting, before Yahweh, where I will meet with you to speak to you there.

In plain English: There I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be made holy by my glory.

In plain English: I will make the Tent of Meeting and the altar holy. I will also make Aaron and his sons holy, to serve me in the priest's office.

In plain English: I will dwell among the Israelites and will be their God.

In plain English: They 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.