21Then^a Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, Aaron’s sons, and say to them, ‘One must not make himself unclean for a dead person among his own people, ²except for his direct relative closest to him: his mother and his father, and his son and his daughter, and his brother, ³and for his sister, a virgin, who is closest to him, who has not had a husband^b—for her he may defile himself. ⁴He must not make himself unclean as a kinsman by marriage,^c defiling himself.

⁵“ ‘And they shall not shave bald patches on their head, and they shall not shave off the corner of their beard, and they shall not make a cut in their body. ⁶They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God, because they are bringing near the offerings made by fire to^d Yahweh—their God’s food—and they shall be holy.

⁷“ ‘They shall not marry^e a woman who is a prostitute and defiled, nor shall they marry^f a woman divorced from her husband, because each priest^g is holy for his God. ⁸And you shall consecrate him, because he is bringing near your God’s food; he shall be holy to you, since I, Yahweh, who consecrates you, am holy.

⁹“ ‘As for^h the daughter of any priest, if she is defiled by prostituting, she is disgracing her father—she shall be burned in the fire.

¹⁰“ ‘As forⁱ the priest who is higher than his brothers, on whose head the oil of anointment is poured and he was ordained^j to wear the garments, he shall not dishevel his head, and he shall not tear his garments. ¹¹And he shall not go near any dead person, nor shall he make himself unclean for his father or^k for his mother. ¹²And he shall not go out from the sanctuary, and he shall not profane his God’s sanctuary, because the dedication of his God’s oil of anointment is on him; I am Yahweh.

¹³“ ‘And he himself must take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴A widow or^l a divorced woman or^m a defiled woman, a prostitute—these he must not take; he shall take onlyⁿ a virgin from his people as wife. ¹⁵And he shall not profane his offspring among his people, because I am Yahweh, who consecrates him.’ ”

¹⁶Then^o Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷“Speak to Aaron, saying, ‘A man from your offspring throughout their generations, in whom is a physical defect, shall not come near to present your God’s food. ¹⁸Indeed,^p any man in whom is a physical defect shall not come near: a blind man or lame or disfigured or deformed, ¹⁹or a man in whom is a broken foot or a broken hand, ²⁰or a hunchback or a dwarf, or a spot in his eye or a skin disorder or a skin eruption or a crushed testicle. ²¹Any man from Aaron the priest’s offspring in whom is a physical defect shall not come near to present offerings made by fire to^q Yahweh; a physical defect is in him; he shall not come near to present his God’s food. ²²He may eat his God’s food, from the most holy things^r and from the holy things. ²³But he must not enter the curtain, and he must not come near to the altar, because a physical defect is in him, and he must not profane my sanctuary, because I am Yahweh, who consecrates them.’ ”

²⁴Thus^s Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the Israelites.^t

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Footnotes

aOr “And”
bLiterally “who is not for a man/husband”
cLiterally “a husband among his people”
dHebrew “of”
eLiterally “take”
fLiterally “take”
gHebrew “he”; singular antecedent specified from the context
hOr “And”
iOr “And”
jLiterally “he has filled up his hand”
kOr “and”
lOr “and”
mOr “and”
nOr “instead”
oOr “And”
pOr “For”
qHebrew “of”
rLiterally “the holy things of the holy things”
sOr “And”
tLiterally “sons/children of Israel”