Leviticus 22:1–16

Priests and Their Food

22The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Tell Aaron and his sons to deal respectfully with the holy offerings of the Israelites that they have consecrated to Me, so they do not profane My holy name; ^eI am Yahweh. ³Say to them: If any man from any of your descendants throughout your generations is in a state of uncleanness yet approaches the holy offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person will be cut off from My presence; I am Yahweh. ⁴No man of Aaron’s descendants who has a skin disease ^for a discharge is to eat from the holy offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything made unclean by a dead person or by a man who has an emission of semen, ⁵or whoever touches any swarming creature that makes him unclean or any person who makes him unclean—whatever his uncleanness— ⁶the man who touches any of these will remain unclean until evening ^gand is not to eat from the holy offerings unless he has bathed his body with water. ⁷When the sun has set, he will become clean, and then he may eat from the holy offerings, for that is his food. ^h8He must not eat an animal that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts, ^ijmaking himself unclean by it; I am Yahweh. ⁹They must keep My instruction, ^kor they will be guilty and die because they profane it; I am Yahweh who sets them apart.

¹⁰“No one outside a priest’s family ^lmis to eat the holy offering. A foreigner staying with a priest or a hired hand is not to eat the holy offering. ¹¹But if a priest purchases someone with his money, that person may eat it, and those born in his house may eat his food. ¹²If the priest’s daughter is married to a man outside a priest’s family, ⁿshe is not to eat from the holy contributions. ^o13But if the priest’s daughter becomes widowed or divorced, has no children, and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she may share her father’s food. But no outsider may share it. ¹⁴If anyone eats a holy offering in error, ^phe must add a fifth to its value and give the holy offering to the priest. ^q15The priests must not profane the holy offerings the Israelites give to the Lord ¹⁶by letting the people eat their holy offerings and having them bear the penalty of restitution. ^rFor I am Yahweh who sets them apart.”