CHAPTER 21
Then the LORD
said
to
Moses,
“Speak
to
Aaron’s
sons,
the priests,
and tell
them:
‘A priest is not
to defile himself
for a dead person
among his people,
Priests must not
make bald
spots on their heads,
shave off the edges
of their beards,
or make
cuts
in their bodies.
They must be
holy
to their God
and not
profane
the name
of their God.
For
they
present
the offerings made by fire
to the LORD,
the food
of their God.
So they must be
holy.
A priest must not
marry
a woman
defiled
by prostitution
or
divorced
by her husband,
for
the priest
is holy
to his God.
You are to regard him as holy,
since
he
presents
the food
of your God.
He shall be
holy
to you,
because
I,
the LORD
who sets you apart,
am holy.
If
a priest’s
daughter
defiles herself
by prostituting herself,
she
profanes
her father;
she must be burned
in the fire.
The priest
who is highest
among his brothers,
who
has had the anointing
oil
poured
on
his head
and has been ordained
to wear
the priestly garments,
must not
dishevel
his hair
or tear
his garments.
He must not
leave
or desecrate
the sanctuary
of his God,
for
the consecration
of the anointing
oil
of his God
is on him.
I
am the LORD.
He is not
to marry
a widow,
a divorced woman,
or one defiled
by prostitution.
He is to marry
a virgin
from his own people,
so that he does not
defile
his offspring
among his people,
for
I
am the LORD
who sanctifies him.’”
“Say
to
Aaron,
‘For the generations to come,
none
of your descendants
who
has
a physical defect
may approach
to offer
the food
of his God.
or
who is a hunchback
or
dwarf,
or
who has an eye
defect,
a festering rash,
scabs,
or
a crushed
testicle.
No
descendant
of Aaron
the priest
who
has a defect
shall approach
to present
the offerings made by fire
to the LORD.
Since he has a defect,
he is not
to come near
to offer
the food
of his God.
but
because
he has a defect,
he must not
go
near
the curtain
or approach
the altar,
so as not to desecrate
My sanctuaries.
For
I
am the LORD
who sanctifies them.’”