Leviticus 21–23

Chapter 21

The Lord said also to Moses: Speak to the priests the sons of Aaron, and thou shalt say for them: Let not a priest incur an uncleanness at the death of his citizens.

²But only for his kin, such as are near in blood: that is to say, for his father and for his mother, and for his son, and for his daughter, for his brother also:

³And for a maiden sister, who hath had no husband.

⁴But not even for the prince of his people shall he do any thing that may make him unclean.

⁵Neither shall they shave their head, nor their beard, nor make incisions in their flesh.

⁶They shall be holy to their God, and shall not profane his name. For they offer the burnt offering of the Lord, and the bread of their God: and therefore they shall be holy.

⁷They shall not take to wife a harlot or a vile prostitute, nor one that has been put away from her husband: because they are consecrated to their God,

⁸And offer the loaves of proposition. Let them therefore be holy because I also am holy: the Lord, who sanctify them.

⁹If the daughter of a priest be taken in whoredom and dishonour the name of her father, she shall be burnt with fire.

¹⁰The high priest, that is to say, the priest who is the greatest among his brethren, upon whose head the oil of unction hath been poured; and whose hands have been consecrated for the priesthood; and who hath been vested with the holy vestments. He shall not uncover his head: he shall not rend his garments.

¹¹Nor shall he go in at all to any dead person: not even for his father, or his mother, shall he be defiled.

¹²Neither shall he go out of the holy places, lest he defile the sanctuary of the Lord: because the oil of the holy unction of his God is upon him. I am the Lord.

¹³He shall take a virgin unto his wife.

¹⁴But a widow or one that is divorced, or defiled, or a harlot, he shall not take: but a maid of his own people.

¹⁵He shall not mingle the stock of his kindred with the common people of this nation: for I am the Lord who sanctify him.

¹⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

¹⁷Say to Aaron: Whosoever of thy seed throughout their families, hath a blemish, he shall not offer bread to his God.

¹⁸Neither shall he approach to minister to him: If he be blind; if he be lame; if he have a little, or a great, or a crooked nose;

¹⁹If his foot, or if his hand be broken;

²⁰If he be crookbacked; or blear eyed; or have a pearl in his eye, or a continual scab, or a dry scurf in his body, or a rupture.

²¹Whosoever of the seed of Aaron the priest hath a blemish: he shall not approach to offer sacrifices to the Lord, nor bread to his God.

²²He shall eat nevertheless of the loaves that are offered in the sanctuary.

²³Yet so that he enter not within the veil, nor approach to the altar: because he hath a blemish, and he must not defile my sanctuary. I am the Lord who sanctify them.

²⁴Moses, therefore spoke to Aaron, and to his sons and to all Israel, all the things that had been commanded him.

Chapter 22

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying:

²Speak to Aaron and to his sons, that they beware of those things that are consecrated of the children of Israel: and defile not the name of the things sanctified to me, which they offer. I am the Lord.

³Say to them and to their posterity: Every man of your race, that approacheth to those things that are consecrated, and which the children of Israel have offered to the Lord, in whom there is uncleanness, shall perish before the Lord. I am the Lord.

⁴The man of the seed of Aaron, that is a leper, or that suffereth a running of the seed, shall not eat of those things that are sanctified to me, until he be healed. He that toucheth any thing unclean by occasion of the dead: and he whose seed goeth from him as in generation:

⁵And he that toucheth a creeping thing, or any unclean thing, the touching of which is defiling:

⁶Shall be unclean until the evening, and shall not eat those things that are sanctified. But when he hath washed his flesh with water,

⁷And the sun is down, then being purified, he shall eat of the sanctified things, because it is his meat.

⁸That which dieth of itself, and that which was taken by a beast, they shall not eat, nor be defiled therewith. I am the Lord.

⁹Let them keep my precepts, that they may not fall into sin, and die in the sanctuary, when they shall have defiled it. I am the Lord who sanctify them.

¹⁰No stranger shall eat of the sanctified things: a sojourner of the priests, or a hired servant, shall not eat of them.

¹¹But he whom the priest hath bought, and he that is his servant, born in his house, these shall eat of them.

¹²If the daughter of a priest be married to any of the people, she shall not eat of those things that are sanctified nor of the firstfruits.

¹³But if she be a widow, or divorced, and having no children return to her father’s house, she shall eat of her father’s meats, as she was wont to do when she was a maid. No stranger hath leave to eat of them.

¹⁴He that eateth of the sanctified things through ignorance, shall add the fifth part with that which he ate, and shall give it to the priest into the sanctuary.

¹⁵And they shall not profane the sanctified things of the children of Israel, which they offer to the Lord:

¹⁶Lest perhaps they bear the iniquity of their trespass, when they shall have eaten the sanctified things. I am the Lord who sanctify them.

¹⁷And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

¹⁸Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The man of the house of Israel, and of the strangers who dwell with you, that offereth his oblation, either paying his vows, or offering of his own accord, whatsoever it be which he presenteth for a holocaust of the Lord,

¹⁹To be offered by you: it shall be a male without blemish of the beeves, or of the sheep, or of the goats.

²⁰If it have a blemish you shall not offer it: neither shall it be acceptable.

²¹The man that offereth a victim of peace offerings to the Lord, either paying his vows, or offering of his own accord, whether of beeves or of sheep, shall offer it without blemish, that it may be acceptable. There shall be no blemish in it.

²²If it be blind, or broken, or have a scar or blisters, or a scab, or a dry scurf: you shall not offer them to the Lord, nor burn any thing of them upon the Lord’s altar.

²³An ox or a sheep, that hath the ear and the tail cut off, thou mayst offer voluntarily: but a vow may not be paid with them.

²⁴you shall not offer to the Lord any beast that hath the testicles bruised, or crushed, or cut and taken away: neither shall you do any such things in your land.

²⁵you shall not offer bread to your God, from the hand of a stranger, nor any other thing that he would give: because they are all corrupted, and defiled. You shall not receive them.

²⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

²⁷When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, they shall be seven days under the udder of their dam: but the eighth day, and thenceforth, they may be offered to the Lord.

²⁸Whether it be a cow, or a sheep, they shall not be sacrificed the same day with their young ones.

²⁹If you immolate a victim for thanksgiving to the Lord, that he may be favourable,

³⁰You shall eat it the same day. There shall not any of it remain until the morning of the next day. I am the Lord.

³¹Keep my commandments, and do them. I am the Lord.

³²Profane not my holy name, that I may be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctify you:

³³And who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. I am the Lord.

Chapter 23

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

²Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall call holy.

³Six days shall ye do work: the seventh day, because it is the rest of the sabbath, shall be called holy. You shall do no work on that day: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your habitations.

⁴These also are the holy days of the Lord, which you must celebrate in their seasons.

⁵The first month, the fourteenth day of the month at evening, is the phase of the Lord.

⁶And the fifteenth day of the same month is the solemnity of the unleavened bread of the Lord. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread.

⁷The first day shall be most solemn unto you, and holy: you shall do no servile work therein.

⁸But you shall offer sacrifice in fire to the Lord seven days. And the seventh day shall be more solemn, and more holy: and you shall do no servile work therein.

⁹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

¹⁰Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have entered into the land which I will give you, and shall reap your corn, you shall bring sheaves of ears, the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.

¹¹Who shall lift up the sheaf before the Lord, the next day after the sabbath, that it may be acceptable for you, and shall sanctify it.

¹²And on the same day that the sheaf is consecrated, a lamb without blemish of the first year shall be killed for a holocaust of the Lord.

¹³And the libations shall be offered with it: two tenths of flour tempered with oil, for a burnt offering of the Lord, and a most sweet odour. Libations also of wine, the fourth part of a hin.

¹⁴You shall not eat either bread, or parched corn, or frumenty or the harvest, until the day that you shall offer thereof to your God. It is a precept for ever throughout your generations, and all your dwellings.

¹⁵You shall count therefore from the morrow after the sabbath, wherein you offered the sheaf of firstfruits, seven full weeks.

¹⁶Even unto the morrow after the seventh week be expired, that is to say, fifty days: and so you shall offer a new sacrifice to the Lord.

¹⁷Out of all your dwellings, two loaves of the firstfruits, of two tenths of flour leavened, which you shall bake for the firstfruits of the Lord.

¹⁸And you shall offer with the loaves seven lambs without blemish of the…