Leviticus 21–23

Chapter 21

¹And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them that none of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people, ²except for his nearest of kin, 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 defile himself). ⁴He shall not defile himself as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ⁵They shall not make tonsures upon their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. ⁶They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings by fire to the Lord, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ⁷They shall not marry a harlot or a woman who has been defiled; neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸You shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy. ⁹And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰“The priest who is chief among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, nor rend his clothes; ¹¹he shall not go in to any dead body, nor defile himself, even for his father or for his mother; ¹²neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration 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 one divorced, or a woman who has been defiled, or a harlot, these he shall not marry; but he shall take to wife a virgin of his own people, ¹⁵that he may not profane his children among his people; for I am the Lord who sanctify him.”

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷“Say to Aaron, None of your descendants throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or 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 defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles; ²¹no man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s offerings by fire; 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 the most holy and of the holy things, ²³but he shall not come near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries; for I am the Lord who sanctify them.” ²⁴So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

Chapter 22

¹And the Lord said to Moses, ²“Tell Aaron and his sons to keep away from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they may not profane my holy name; I am the Lord. ³Say to them, ‘If any one of all your descendants throughout your generations approaches the holy things, which the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord. ⁴None of the line of Aaron who is a leper or suffers a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or a man who has had an emission of semen, ⁵and whoever touches a creeping thing by which he may be made unclean or a man from whom he may take uncleanness, whatever his uncleanness may be— ⁶the person who touches any such shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. ⁷When the sun is down he shall be clean; and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because such are his food. ⁸That which dies of itself or is torn by beasts he shall not eat, defiling himself by it: I am the Lord.’ ⁹They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it: I am the Lord who sanctify them.

¹⁰“An outsider shall not eat of a holy thing. A sojourner of the priest’s or a hired servant shall not eat of a holy thing; ¹¹but if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it; and those that are born in his house may eat of his food. ¹²If a priest’s daughter is married to an outsider she shall not eat of the offering of the holy things. ¹³But if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child, and returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food; yet no outsider shall eat of it. ¹⁴And if a man eats of a holy thing unwittingly, he shall add the fifth of its value to it, and give the holy thing to the priest. ¹⁵The priests shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they offer to the Lord, ¹⁶and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: for I am the Lord who sanctify them.”

¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸“Say to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel, When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents his offering, whether in payment of a vow or as a freewill offering which is offered to the Lord as a burnt offering, ¹⁹to be accepted you shall offer a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. ²⁰You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. ²¹And when any one offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, to fulfil a vow or as a freewill offering, from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. ²²Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord or make of them an offering by fire upon the altar to the Lord. ²³A bull or a lamb which has a part too long or too short you may present for a freewill offering; but for a votive offering it cannot be accepted. ²⁴Any animal which has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not offer to the Lord or sacrifice within your land; ²⁵neither shall you offer as the bread of your God any such animals gotten from a foreigner. Since there is a blemish in them, because of their mutilation, they will not be accepted for you.”

²⁶And the Lord said to Moses, ²⁷“When a bull or sheep or goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother; and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to the Lord. ²⁸And whether the mother is a cow or a ewe, you shall not kill both her and her young in one day. ²⁹And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. ³⁰It shall be eaten on the same day, you shall leave none of it until morning: I am the Lord.

³¹“So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord. ³²And you shall not profane my holy name, but I will be hallowed among the people of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctify you, ³³who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.”

Chapter 23

¹The Lord said to Moses, ²“Say to the people of Israel, The appointed feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed feasts, are these. ³Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.

⁴“These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. ⁵In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is the Lord’s passover. ⁶And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. ⁸But you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord seven days; on the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.”

⁹And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰“Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest; ¹¹and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance; on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. ¹²And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³And the cereal offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, to be offered by fire to the Lord, a pleasing odor; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. ¹⁴And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

¹⁵“And you shall count from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven full weeks shall they be, ¹⁶counting fifty days to the morrow after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the Lord. ¹⁷You shall bring from your dwellings two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah; they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with leaven, as first fruits to the Lord. ¹⁸And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one young bull, and two rams; they shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their cereal offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. ¹⁹And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a…