Questions From Readers

Why did Moses become angry with Aaron’s sons Eleazar and Ithamar after the death of their brothers Nadab and Abihu, and how was his anger appeased?​—Lev. 10:16-20.

Shortly after the installation of the priesthood for service at the tabernacle, Jehovah executed Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu because they had offered illegitimate fire before Him. (Lev. 10:1, 2) Moses ordered Aaron’s surviving sons not to mourn their dead brothers. Not long thereafter, Moses became indignant at Eleazar and Ithamar because they had not eaten the goat of the sin offering. (Lev. 9:3) Why did Moses react this way?

The laws that Jehovah had given Moses specified that the priest who offered up a sin offering was to eat part of it in the courtyard of the tent of meeting. Doing so was considered to be answering for the sins of those who made the sacrifice. However, if some of the blood of the sacrifice was taken into the Holy Place, the first compartment of the sanctuary, the offering was not to be eaten. Instead, it was to be burned.​—Lev. 6:24-26, 30.

It appears that after the tragic events of that day, Moses saw the need to make sure that all of Jehovah’s commandments had been followed. On discovering that the goat of the sin offering had been burned, he indignantly asked Eleazar and Ithamar why they had not eaten it as directed, because its blood had not been presented before Jehovah in the Holy Place.​—Lev. 10:17, 18.

Aaron answered Moses’ question, since the surviving priests had evidently acted as they did with his approval. In the light of the execution of two of his sons, Aaron may have wondered whether any of the priests could in good conscience eat of the sin offering on that day. Perhaps he felt that their eating of it would not be pleasing to Jehovah, even though they bore no direct responsibility for the error committed by Nadab and Abihu.​—Lev. 10:19.

Aaron may especially have reasoned that on the day when members of his family first performed their priestly duties, they should have exercised great care to please God in even the smallest detail. However, Jehovah’s name had been profaned by Nadab and Abihu, and God’s anger had blazed against them. So Aaron may have thought that members of a priestly family in which such sin was found should not partake of a holy offering.

Moses seems to have accepted his brother’s answer, for the passage concludes: “When Moses got to hear that, then it proved satisfactory in his eyes.” (Lev. 10:20) Evidently, Jehovah too was satisfied with Aaron’s answer.