Leviticus 21
21
Instructions for Priests
1The Lord gave Moses these instructions for Aaron's sons, the priests:
Touching a dead body will make you unclean. So don't go near a dead relative, 2except your mother, father, son, daughter, brother, 3or an unmarried sister, who has no husband to take care of her. 4Don't make yourself unclean by attending the funeral of someone related to you by marriage.#21.4 marriage: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 4. 5#Lv 19.27,28; Dt 14.1. Don't shave any part of your head or trim your beard or cut yourself to show that you are mourning. 6I am the Lord your God, and I have chosen you alone to offer sacrifices of food to me on the altar. That's why you must keep yourselves holy. 7Don't marry a divorced woman or a woman who has served as a temple prostitute. You are holy, 8because I am holy. And so, you must be treated with proper respect, since you offer food sacrifices to me, the God of holiness.
9If any of you priests has a daughter who disgraces you by serving as a temple prostitute, she must be burned to death.
10If you are the high priest, you must not mess up your hair or tear your clothes in order to mourn for the dead. 11Don't make yourself unclean by going near a dead body, not even that of your own father or mother. 12If you leave the sacred place to attend a funeral, both you and the sacred place become unclean, because you are the high priest.
13If you are the high priest, you must marry only a virgin 14from your own tribe. Don't marry a divorced woman or any other woman who has already had sex, including a temple prostitute. 15In this way, your descendants will be qualified to serve me. Remember—I am the Lord, and I have chosen you.
16The Lord told Moses 17-18to say to Aaron:
No descendant of yours can ever serve as my priest if he is blind or lame, if his face is disfigured, if one leg is shorter than the other, 19if either a foot or a hand is paralyzed, 20if he is a hunchback or a dwarf, if an eye or his skin is diseased, or if his testicles have been damaged. 21These men may not serve as my priests and burn sacrifices to me. 22They may eat the food offerings presented to me, 23but they may not enter the sacred place or serve me at the altar. Remember—I am the Lord, the one who makes a priest holy.
24Moses told all of this to Aaron, his sons, and the people of Israel.
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© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Leviticus 21
21
Holiness Code for Kohanim
1Then Adonai said to Moses, “Speak to the kohanim, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: A kohen is not to allow himself to become unclean for the dead among his people,
2except for his relatives that are nearest to him—his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,
3or his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband. For her he may allow himself to become unclean.
4But he is not to defile himself—a husband among his people—and so profane himself.
5“Kohanim are not to shave their heads, nor shave off the corners of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
6They are to be holy to their God, and not profane the Name of their God, for they present the offerings of Adonai made by fire, the bread of their God. Therefore they are to be holy.
7They are not to marry women who are defiled as prostitutes, or profane. Neither shall they marry women divorced from their husbands, for a kohen is holy to his God.
8Therefore you are to sanctify him, because he offers the bread of your God. He should be holy to you, for I, Adonai, who sanctifies you, am holy.
9“The daughter of any kohen, if she profanes herself by playing the prostitute, profanes her father. She is to be burned with fire.
10“He who is the kohen gadol among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured and is consecrated to put on the garments, is not to let the hair of his head hang loose or tear his clothes,
11nor shall he go near any dead person, defiling himself, even for his father or his mother.
12He is not to go out of the Sanctuary or profane the Sanctuary of his God—for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am Adonai.
13“He shall take a wife in her virginity.
14A widow, or one divorced, or one who has been defiled as a prostitute, he is not to marry. He is to take a virgin from his own people as a wife,
15so as not to corrupt his offspring among his people. For I am Adonai who sanctifies him.”
16Adonai spoke to Moses saying:
17“Say to Aaron: None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect may approach to offer the food of his God.
18Any man who has a defect is not to draw near: no one blind or lame or disfigured or deformed,
19or a man who has a crippled foot or crippled hand
20or a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an eye defect or a rash or scabs, or who has damaged testicles.
21None of the offspring of Aaron the kohen who has a defect shall come near to present the offerings of Adonai made by fire. Since he has a defect, he is not to come near to offer the food of his God.
22He may eat the food of his God, both from the most holy and the holy.
23But he is not to approach the curtain or come near the altar, because of the defect on him, so that he may not desecrate My sanctuaries, for I am Adonai who sanctifies them.”
24So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons, and to all Bnei-Yisrael.
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