Nadab and Abihu devoured by fire

The priests Nadab and Abihu were sons of Aaron. On a day they put incense in their censers and lit it, by means of sacrifice. God immediately killed them with fire as they had violated one of the rules on the offering of sacrifices.

Their error was that they should have used burning incense from the sacred bronze altar.

The rules had been set out in Exodus 25-30 and in the previous chapters of Leviticus. This episode shows that God wanted his rules to be applied strictly and that only He could alter them.

This coloured woodcut was in a bible printed in 1499 by Koberger in Nuremberg.