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Old Testament Reading -The Annual Atonement

¹¹“After Aaron^a has sacrificed the young bull as a sin offering for himself and his family, ¹²he shall take a censer full of live coals from the altar of the Lord, and fill his hands with sweet incense beaten into fine powder, and bring it inside the veil. ¹³There before the Lord he shall put the incense upon the coals, so that a cloud of incense will cover the mercy place above the Ark (containing the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments); thus he will not die. ¹⁴And he shall bring some of the blood of the young bull and sprinkle it with his finger upon the east side of the mercy place, and then seven times in front of it.

¹⁵“Then he must go out^b and sacrifice the people’s sin offering goat, and bring its blood within the veil, and sprinkle it upon the place of mercy and in front of it, just as he did with the blood of the young bull. ¹⁶ Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because it is defiled by the sins of the people of Israel, and for the Tabernacle, located right among them and surrounded by their defilement. ¹⁷Not another soul shall be inside the Tabernacle when Aaron enters to make atonement in the Holy Place — not until after he comes out again and has made atonement for himself and his household and for all the people of Israel. ¹⁸Then he shall go out to the altar before the Lord and make atonement for it. He must smear the blood of the young bull and the goat on the horns of the altar, ¹⁹and sprinkle blood upon the altar seven times with his finger, thus cleansing it from the sinfulness of Israel and making it holy.^c

1. The High Priest
2. Implied
3. Literally, “hallowing it.”