1 Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense, and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when He said: ‘To those who come near Me I will show My holiness, and in the sight of all the people I will reveal My glory.’” But Aaron remained silent. 4 Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come here; carry the bodies of your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.” 5 So they came forward and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses had directed. 6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become disheveled and do not tear your garments, or else you will die, and the LORD will be angry with the whole congregation. But your brothers, the whole house of Israel, may mourn on account of the fire that the LORD has ignited. 7 You shall not go outside the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, or you will die, for the LORD’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses instructed. 8 Then the LORD said to Aaron, 9 “You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink when you enter the Tent of Meeting, or else you will die; this is a permanent statute for the generations to come. 10 You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean, 11 so that you may teach the Israelites all the statutes that the LORD has given them through Moses.” 12 And Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that remains from the food offerings to the LORD and eat it without leaven beside the altar, because it is most holy. 13 You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your share and your sons’ share of the food offerings to the LORD; for this is what I have been commanded. 14 And you and your sons and daughters may eat the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution in a ceremonially clean place, because these portions have been assigned to you and your children from the peace offerings of the sons of Israel. 15 They are to bring the thigh of the contribution and the breast of the wave offering, together with the fat portions of the food offerings, to wave as a wave offering before the LORD. It will belong permanently to you and your children, as the LORD has commanded.” 16 Later, Moses searched carefully for the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it had been burned up. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, and asked, 17 “Why didn’t you eat the sin offering in the holy place? For it is most holy; it was given to you to take away the guilt of the congregation by making atonement for them before the LORD. 18 Since its blood was not brought inside the holy place, you should have eaten it in the sanctuary area, as I commanded.” 19 But Aaron replied to Moses, “Behold, this very day they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD. Since these things have happened to me, if I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been acceptable in the sight of the LORD?” 20 And when Moses heard this explanation, he was satisfied.
Leviticus · Majority Standard Bible
Leviticus 10 Majority Standard Bible
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 …