Leviticus 21

Regulations for Conduct of Priests

21And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ^a‘None shall defile himself for the dead among his people, ²except for his relatives who are nearest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; ³also his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband, for her he may defile himself. ⁴Otherwise he shall not defile himself, being a ¹chief man among his people, to profane himself.

^5b‘They shall not make any bald place on their heads, nor shall they shave the edges of their beards nor make any cuttings in their flesh. ⁶They shall be ^choly to their God and not profane the name of their God, for they offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and the ^dbread of their God; ^etherefore they shall be holy. ^7fThey shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman ^gdivorced from her husband; for ²the priest is holy to his God. ⁸Therefore you shall ³consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^hI the Lord, who ⁱsanctify you, am holy. ⁹The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father. She shall be ^jburned with fire.

¹⁰‘He who is the high priest among his brethren, on whose head the anointing oil was ^kpoured and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not ^luncover ⁴his head nor tear his clothes; ¹¹nor shall he go ^mnear any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or his mother; ¹²ⁿnor shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the ^oconsecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord. ¹³And he shall take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴A widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman or a harlot—these he shall not marry; but he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife. ¹⁵Nor shall he profane his posterity among his people, for I the Lord sanctify him.’ ”

¹⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷“Speak to Aaron, saying: ‘No man of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸For any man who has a ^pdefect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb ^qtoo long, ¹⁹a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, ²⁰or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scab, or is a eunuch. ²¹No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²²He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy; ²³only he shall not go near the ^rveil or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest ^she profane My sanctuaries; for I the Lord sanctify them.’ ”

²⁴And Moses told it to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel.