The Daily Audio Bible

What people should do when pus, blood or semen comes out of them

15 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² ‘Say to Israel's people, “If pus is coming out of a man's body, he is unclean.” ³ The man is unclean if the pus pours. And he is unclean even if it stops pouring.

⁴ If the man sits on a bed, it becomes unclean. If the man sits on anything, it becomes unclean. ⁵ A person who touches the bed must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening. ⁶ If anyone sits on anything that he has sat on, they will also become unclean. So they must wash their clothes and their body. They will also be unclean until evening.

⁷ A person who touches the unclean man must wash his clothes. He must also wash his body. He will be unclean until evening.

⁸ A man who is unclean might spit on another person. Then the other person must wash his clothes. He must also wash his body. He will be unclean until evening.

⁹ An unclean man might ride on an animal. The cloth on the back of the animal will become unclean. ¹⁰ A person who touches that cloth will be unclean until evening. If a person picks up that cloth, he must wash his clothes. He must also wash his body. He will be unclean until evening.

¹¹ The unclean man might not wash his hands but then he touches another person. The person that he touched becomes unclean. That person must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening.

¹² If the unclean man touches a clay pot, you must break it. Or he may touch a thing that someone has made from wood. If he touches it, you must wash that thing.

¹³ The pus may stop coming out of a person. When it does, he must count seven days. He must wash his clothes and his body with fresh water. Then the man will be clean. ¹⁴ On the eighth day, he must come in front of the Lord. He must take two birds to the door of the Tent of Meeting. They must be doves or pigeons. He must give them to the priest. ¹⁵ The priest will sacrifice them. One bird is for a sin offering and the other is for a burnt offering. They are an atonement to the Lord. Then the man will be clean.

¹⁶ When semen comes out of a man, he must wash his body. He will be unclean until evening. ¹⁷ You must wash any clothes that semen touches. They are unclean until evening. ¹⁸ A man might lie with a woman. If semen comes out of him, they are both unclean. They must wash their bodies. They will be unclean until evening.

¹⁹ A woman will bleed every month. She is unclean for seven days. A person might touch the woman when she is bleeding. That person will remain unclean until evening.

²⁰ The woman who is bleeding might lie on a bed. The bed will become unclean. If the woman sits on something, it becomes unclean. ²¹ If another person touches the bed, he must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening. ²² Another person might sit on the thing that she sat on. That person must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening. ²³ A person might touch anything that the woman sat on. If he does, he is unclean until evening.

²⁴ A man might lie down with a woman. If her blood touches him, he is unclean for seven days. Any bed that the man lies on becomes unclean.

²⁵ If a woman is bleeding for more than seven days, she is unclean. She is unclean all the time that she is bleeding. ²⁶ The bed that the woman lies on becomes unclean. Anything that the woman sits on is unclean. ²⁷ If another person touches the chair, he becomes unclean. He must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening. If another person touches the bed, he will also become unclean. He must wash his clothes and his body. He will be unclean until evening.

²⁸ When the woman stops bleeding, she must count seven days. Then she will be clean. ²⁹ On the eighth day, she must take two birds to the door of the Tent of Meeting. They must be doves or pigeons. She must give them to the priest. He will sacrifice one bird for her sin and he will burn the other. ³⁰ He will kill them as an atonement to the Lord. Then the woman will be clean.

³¹ The tabernacle is God's house. It is among Israel's people. The priests must keep the people away from anything that makes them unclean. If they are not clean, they will make the Tent of Meeting unclean. So they will die.’

³² These are the rules when pus or semen come from a man's body. ³³ These are the rules for a woman when she bleeds each month. These are the rules for a man who has sex with an unclean woman.

Rules about the Day of Atonement

16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the two sons of Aaron died. The gift that they gave to the Lord was not holy. So they died. ² The Most Holy Place in the Tent of Meeting is behind the curtain. The Lord said to Moses, ‘Your brother Aaron cannot go behind the curtain at any time that he wants to. Tell him that. The Lord appears in a cloud over the lid of the Covenant Box. So Aaron will die if he does not obey the Lord.

³ This is how Aaron must go into the Most Holy Place. He must bring a young bull for a sin offering. He must also bring a male sheep for a burnt offering. ⁴ He must wash his body before he puts on his special clothes. He must wear his linen robe and linen clothes next to his body. They are holy. He must tie a linen belt round his body. He must put the linen hat on his head. These clothes are holy. ⁵ He must take two male goats for a sin offering. And he must take a male sheep for a burnt offering. They are a gift from Israel's people.

⁶ Aaron must offer the bull as an atonement to the Lord for himself, his family and his servants. ⁷ He must take the two goats to the door of the Tent of Meeting. They are a gift to the Lord. ⁸ He must use the special stones.^[a] They will help him to decide what he should do. He must decide which goat is for the Lord. And he must decide which goat he must send away. ⁹ Aaron must take the goat that is for the Lord. And he must kill it. It is a sin offering. ¹⁰ He must not kill the other goat. It is an atonement to the Lord. It will pay for the bad things that the people have done. It is to take away the people's punishment. He must send it away into the desert.’

¹¹ ‘Aaron must bring the bull and he must kill it. It is his atonement for his family's sins. ¹² He must take a pot of the hot material. It is burning on the altar in front of the Lord. He must fill his two hands with incense. He must take the hot material and the incense behind the curtain. ¹³ He must put the incense on the burning material. It is in front of the Lord. The smoke will cover the lid of the Covenant Box. So he will not die. ¹⁴ He must take with him blood from the bull. He must use his finger to shake the blood. He must shake it onto the lid of the Covenant Box. He must shake the blood in front of the lid of the Covenant Box. He must shake it seven times with his finger.

¹⁵ Aaron must kill the goat for the sin offering. It is a gift from the people. He must take the blood behind the curtain. He must shake the blood on the lid of the Covenant Box as he did with the bull's blood. And he must shake the blood in front of the lid of the Covenant Box. ¹⁶ This will make atonement for all the sins of Israel's people. This will make the Holy Place clean. Aaron must do the same for the Tent of Meeting. That is because the people have done bad things in the camp. The Tent of meeting is in the middle of the camp. ¹⁷ Aaron must give the offerings to God. He must give them for his family and he must give them for his servants. He must give them for all the people. Nobody can go into the Tent of Meeting while Aaron is in the Most Holy Place. He must be alone when he goes in. And he must be alone until he comes out. He must be alone when he gives the offerings to God. Those offerings make atonement for himself, for his family and for all Israel's people.

¹⁸ He must go to the altar that is in front of the Lord. He must make atonement for it. He must take blood from the bull and blood from the goat. He must put the blood on the horns of the altar. ¹⁹ He must shake blood on the altar seven times to make it clean.

A goat will carry away all the bad things that the people have done

²⁰ Aaron must first atone for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of meeting and the altar. Then he must bring the goat that is alive. ²¹ He must put his hands on the goat's head. He must speak aloud all the bad things that Israel's people have done. Then all the bad things will be on the goat's head. Aaron must tell a man that he must send the goat away into the desert. ²² The goat will carry all the sins of the people into the desert. The man must send it away into the desert.

²³ Aaron must go into the Tent of Meeting. He must take off his special linen clothes. The holy clothes must stay in the Tent of Meeting. ²⁴ He must wash his body in a holy place. He must put on his own clothes. He must leave the holy place. Then he must sacrifice the burnt offerings. They will make atonement for himself and for the people. ²⁵ And he must also burn the fat from the sin offering on the altar.

²⁶ The person who sent the goat away must wash his clothes and his body. He can return to the camp. ²⁷ Aaron had killed a bull and a goat. He took their blood into the Most Holy Place to make atonement. Someone must carry their dead bodies outside the camp. He must burn them. That man must burn the skin, the meat and the inside parts. ²⁸ The man who burnt the animals must wash his clothes and his body. Then he can return to the camp.

Jesus speaks to Pharisees and to some teachers of God's Law

7 A group of Pharisees and some teachers of God's Law came from Jerusalem to talk with Jesus. ² They had been watching Jesus' disciples. Some of the disciples did not wash their hands before they ate a meal. That is to say, they did not wash them in the right way. ³ (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat food until they have washed their hands carefully. They do this because of what their leaders taught them. ⁴ When they come from the market place, they always wash themselves carefully. Unless they do this, they do not eat anything. Their leaders also gave them rules about how they should wash cups, pots and metal bowls.)

⁵ The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Your disciples do not obey the things that our leaders taught many years ago. Your disciples have not washed their hands in the right way. They are eating their food with unclean hands. That is not right.’

⁶ Jesus said to them, ‘You are hypocrites! What God's prophet Isaiah wrote about you long ago is true:

⁸ Jesus then said, ‘You have stopped obeying God. Instead you obey the ideas that men teach.’

⁹ He said to them, ‘You refuse to obey God's rules, because then you can keep your own ideas! ¹⁰ For example, Moses wrote, “You must love your father and your mother. You must obey them.” He also said, “You must kill anyone who curses his father or his mother.”^{[b] 11} But you teach that a person may say to his father or to his mother, “I would have given gifts to help you. But I cannot do that, because I have given them to God instead.” ¹² If he says that, you let him do nothing to help his father or his mother. ¹³ This shows that you have not obeyed what God says is right. Instead, you have obeyed the ideas that you received from your leaders many years ago. And you do many other things like that.’

¹⁴ Jesus asked the crowd of people to come to him again. He said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, so that you can understand these things. ¹⁵ People do not become unclean because of things that go into their bodies from outside. They become unclean because of the things that come out from their minds. ¹⁶ [You have heard my words. So do what I say.’]^[c]

Jesus explains to his disciples what he had taught

¹⁷ Jesus left the crowd of people and he went into a house. Then his disciples asked him to explain what he had taught.

¹⁸ Jesus said, ‘I am surprised that you too do not understand what I am saying. You should understand that food will not make people unclean. Food goes into people's bodies from outside. ¹⁹ But food does not go into people's minds. It goes into their stomachs and then it passes out of their bodies.’

When Jesus said this, he was teaching that all foods are clean.

²⁰ Jesus then said, ‘People become unclean because of what comes out from them, not because of what goes in. ²¹ Evil thoughts come out from people's minds. As a result they do wrong things. They have sex in wrong ways. They rob people. They murder people. ²² They have sex with another man's wife. They are greedy. They are cruel to other people. They deceive people. They live like wild animals. They are jealous of other people. They say bad things about other people. They are proud and foolish.

²³ All these wrong things begin inside people's minds and then they come out. That is what makes them unclean.’