21
Holiness for All the Priests
1 The 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. 2 However, you are allowed to become unclean when one of your nearest relatives dies. These relatives include your mother, father, son, daughter, or brother, 3 and especially an unmarried virgin sister who is still close to you. 4 As 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. 7 You should never marry prostitutes, those who have lost their virginity, or divorced women because a priest is God’s holy man. 8 Be holy because you offer the food of your God. Be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I set you apart as holy. 9 When 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. 11 He must never go near any dead bodies or become unclean, even for his father or mother. 12 He 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. 14 He 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. 15 He must not dishonor his children among his people because I, the Lord, set him apart as holy.”
16 The 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. 18 Indeed, 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, 19 or a crippled hand or foot, 20 who is a hunchback or dwarf, who has defective sight, skin diseases, or crushed testicles. 21 If 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. 22 He may eat the food of his God—what is holy and what is very holy. 23 However, 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.”
24 So Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.