1 Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, set light to their incense burners using ordinary fire and put in incense, and in this way offered forbidden fire in the Lord's presence, something he had not authorized. 2 Fire came out from the Lord's presence and burned them up. They died in the Lord's presence. 3 Moses explained to Aaron, “This is what the Lord was talking about when he said: ‘I will show my holiness to those who approach me; I will reveal my glory so everyone can see.” But Aaron didn't reply. 4 Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and told them, “Come and carry away the bodies of your cousins and take them outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.” 5 They came and picked them up by their clothes, and took them outside the camp, as Moses had ordered. 6 Then Moses told Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Don't leave your hair uncombed, and don't tear your clothes, otherwise you will die, and the Lord will be angry with everyone. But your relatives and all the other Israelites may mourn for those the Lord killed by fire. 7 Don't go outside the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, or you will die, because you have been anointed by the Lord.” They did what Moses said. 8 The Lord told Aaron, 9 “You and your descendants must not drink wine or any other alcohol when you go in to the Tent of Meeting, otherwise you will die. This regulation is for all time and for all future generations. 10 You must realize the difference between the holy and the ordinary, between clean and unclean, 11 so you can teach the Israelites all the regulations that the Lord has given to them through Moses.” 12 Moses told Aaron and his two sons who were left, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that is left over from the food offerings given to the Lord and eat it without yeast beside the altar, because it is most holy. 13 You must eat it in a holy place, because it is the share for you and your descendants from the food offerings given to the Lord. This is what I have been ordered. 14 You and your male and female descendants can eat the breast of the wave offering and the thigh contribution anywhere that is ceremonially clean, because you and your descendants have been given these as your share from the peace offerings of the Israelites. 15 The thigh contribution and the breast of the wave offering, as well as the fat portions of the food offerings made, they are to bring and wave as a wave offering before the Lord. They belong to you and your children forever as the Lord has ordered.” 16 Moses checked what had happened to the goat of the sin offering, and found out that it had been burned. He got angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons Aaron had left, and asked them, 17 “Why didn't you take the sin offering and eat it in the holy place, because it is most holy and it was given to you to take away the people's guilt by making them right before the Lord. 18 As its blood was not taken into the holy place, you should have eaten it in the sanctuary area, as I ordered.” 19 So Aaron explained to Moses, “Look, it was today that they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord. After all that's just happened to me, would the Lord have been pleased if I'd eaten the sin offering today?” 20 When Moses heard what Aaron had to say, he accepted the explanation.
Leviticus · Free Bible Version
Leviticus 10 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Aaron
Moses' brother and spokesman, Israel's first high priest.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 4–40; Leviticus 8–10
Abihu
Aaron's son who died alongside Nadab for offering unauthorized fire in the sanctuary.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 6:23; Leviticus 10:1-2
Elzaphan
A son of Uzziel who with Mishael carried the bodies of Nadab and Abihu outside the camp, and who was later the leader of the Kohathite families.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 6:22; Leviticus 10:4; Numbers 3:30
Mishael
A son of Uzziel and cousin of Nadab and Abihu, who with Elzaphan carried their bodies outside the camp at Moses' command.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 6:22; Leviticus 10:4
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Nadab
Aaron's eldest son, who died offering unauthorized fire before the LORD.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 6:23; Leviticus 10:1-2
Uzziel
Kohath's fourth-listed son, the uncle of Aaron, who fathered Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri and founded the Uzzielite clan.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 6:18; Exodus 6:22; Leviticus 10:4
Cross references (19)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Numbers 26:61; Deuteronomy 12:32; Leviticus 16:12; Numbers 16:46; Exodus 6:23
- 2 Numbers 26:61; Leviticus 9:24; Numbers 16:35; Numbers 3:3–4; 2 Samuel 6:7
- 3 Exodus 19:22; Isaiah 49:3; Leviticus 21:6; Numbers 20:12; 1 Samuel 2:30
- 4 Exodus 6:22; Exodus 6:18; Numbers 3:30; Acts 5:9–10; Acts 5:6
- 5 Leviticus 8:13
- 6 Numbers 1:53; Numbers 16:22; Joshua 7:1; Joshua 22:18; 2 Samuel 24:1
- 7 Leviticus 21:12; 2 Corinthians 1:21; Acts 10:38; Leviticus 8:30; Exodus 28:41
- 9 Luke 1:15; 1 Timothy 3:3; Ephesians 5:18; Titus 1:7; Ezekiel 44:21
- 10 Ezekiel 22:26; 1 Peter 1:14–16; Leviticus 11:47; Titus 1:15; Ezekiel 44:23
- 11 Malachi 2:7; Matthew 28:20; Nehemiah 8:2; Nehemiah 8:8; Jeremiah 18:18
- 12 Leviticus 21:22; Numbers 18:9–10; Exodus 29:2; Leviticus 6:14–18; Leviticus 7:9
- 13 Leviticus 6:16; Leviticus 2:3; Numbers 18:10
- 14 Numbers 18:11; John 4:34; Leviticus 7:29–34; Leviticus 9:21; Exodus 29:24–28
- 15 Leviticus 7:34; Genesis 17:17; 1 Corinthians 9:13–14; Genesis 13:15; Leviticus 7:29–30
- 16 Leviticus 9:3; Leviticus 9:15; Matthew 5:22; Mark 3:5; Mark 10:14
- 17 Numbers 18:1; Leviticus 7:6–7; Leviticus 6:24–30; Exodus 28:38; John 1:29
- 18 Leviticus 6:30; Leviticus 6:26
- 19 Leviticus 9:12; Leviticus 9:8; Jeremiah 14:12; Jeremiah 6:20; Malachi 1:13
- 20 Matthew 12:20; Zechariah 7:8–9; 2 Chronicles 30:18–20; Matthew 12:3–7
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
And the heretics, indeed, who bring strange fire to the altar of God-- namely, strange doctrines--shall be burned up by the fire from heaven, as were Nadab and Abiud. But such as rise up in opposition to the truth, and exhort others against the Church of God, [shall] remain among those in hell (apud inferos), being swallowed up by an …