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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Leviticus 21: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Leviticus 21
21
Holiness for All the Priests
1The Lord spoke to Moses, “Tell the priests, Aaron’s sons: None of you should become unclean by touching one of your relatives who has died. 2However, you are allowed to become unclean when one of your nearest relatives dies. These relatives include your mother, father, son, daughter, or brother, 3and especially an unmarried virgin sister who is still close to you. 4As the head of your people, you should never become unclean. That would make you unholy.
5“You should never mourn by shaving bald spots on your heads, shaving the edges of your beards, or slashing your bodies.
6“Be God’s holy men, and don’t dishonor the name of your God. Be holy because you bring sacrifices by fire to the Lord. It is the food of your God. 7You should never marry prostitutes, those who have lost their virginity, or divorced women because a priest is God’s holy man. 8Be holy because you offer the food of your God. Be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I set you apart as holy. 9When a priest’s daughter dishonors herself by becoming a prostitute, she dishonors her father. She must be burned.
Holiness for the Chief Priest
10“The priest who is anointed with oil and wears the chief priest’s clothes is chief over his brothers. He must never mourn by leaving his hair uncombed or by tearing his clothes. 11He must never go near any dead bodies or become unclean, even for his father or mother. 12He must not leave the holy tent of his God. If he does, he will be dishonoring it, because he is dedicated with the anointing oil of his God. I am the Lord.
13“The anointed priest must marry a virgin. 14He must never marry a widow, a divorced woman, a woman who has lost her virginity, or a prostitute. He may only marry a virgin from his own people. 15He must not dishonor his children among his people because I, the Lord, set him apart as holy.”
16The Lord spoke to Moses, 17“Tell Aaron: If any of your descendants (now or in future generations) has a physical defect, he must never bring food to offer to God. 18Indeed, no one who has a physical defect may ever come near ⌞the altar⌟. That means anyone who is blind or lame, who has a disfigured face, a deformity, 19or a crippled hand or foot, 20who is a hunchback or dwarf, who has defective sight, skin diseases, or crushed testicles. 21If a descendant of the priest Aaron has a physical defect, he must never bring sacrifices by fire to the Lord. He has a defect. He must never bring food to offer to God. 22He may eat the food of his God—what is holy and what is very holy. 23However, he must never come up to the canopy or to the altar, since he has a physical defect. He must never dishonor the holy places because I, the Lord, set them apart as holy.”
24So Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.
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