Leviticus 21

Holiness and the Priests

21And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ^aNo one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ²except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). ⁴He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ^5bThey shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. ⁶They shall be holy to their God and ^cnot profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord’s food offerings, ^dthe bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ^7eThey shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman ^fdivorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^gI, the Lord, who sanctify you, ^ham holy. ⁹And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; ⁱshe shall be burned with fire.

^10j“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^kshall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. ¹¹He shall not ^lgo in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. ^12mHe shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he ⁿprofane the sanctuary of his God, for the ^oconsecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. ¹³And he shall take a wife in her virginity.^{1 14}A widow, ^por a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin² of his own people, ¹⁵that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for ^gI am the Lord who sanctifies him.”

¹⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷“Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may ^qapproach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man ^rblind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face ^sor a limb too long, ¹⁹or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, ²⁰or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a ^rdefect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or ^tcrushed testicles. ²¹No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to ^uoffer the Lord’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²²He may eat the bread of his God, both of ^vthe most holy and of the ^wholy things, ²³but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not ^xprofane my sanctuaries,^{3 y}for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” ²⁴So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.