Leviticus 21:1-24 - Regulations Concerning Priests

¹ Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, Aaron's sons, and say to them, 'One must not make himself unclean for a dead person among his [own] people, ² except for his direct relative closest to him: his mother and his father, and his son and his daughter, and his brother, ³ and for his sister, a virgin, [who is] closest to him, {who has not had a husband}--for her he may defile himself. ⁴ He must not make himself unclean [as] {a kinsman by marriage}, defiling himself.

⁵ " 'And they shall not shave bald patches on their head, and they shall not shave off the corner of their beard, and they shall not make a cut in their body. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God, because they are bringing near the offerings made by fire to Yahweh--their God's food--and they shall be holy. ⁷ " 'They shall not {marry} a woman [who is] a prostitute and defiled, nor shall they {marry} a woman divorced from her husband, because each priest [is] holy for his God. ⁸ And you shall consecrate him, because he is bringing near your God's food; he shall be holy to you, since I, Yahweh, who consecrates you, [am] holy. ⁹ " 'As for the daughter of any priest, if she is defiled by prostituting, she is disgracing her father--she shall be burned in the fire.

¹⁰ " 'As for the priest [who is] higher than his brothers, on whose head the oil of anointment is poured and {he was ordained} to wear the garments, he shall not dishevel his head, and he shall not tear his garments. ¹¹ And he shall not go near any dead person, nor shall he make himself unclean for his father or for his mother. ¹² And he shall not go out from the sanctuary, and he shall not profane his God's sanctuary, because the dedication of his God's oil of anointment [is] on him; I [am] Yahweh.

¹³ " 'And he himself must take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴ A widow or a divorced woman or a defiled [woman], a prostitute--these he must not take; he shall take only a virgin from his people [as] wife. ¹⁵ And he shall not profane his offspring among his people, because I [am] Yahweh, who consecrates him.'"

¹⁶ Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ "Speak to Aaron, saying, 'A man from your offspring throughout their generations, in whom is a physical defect, shall not come near to present your God's food. ¹⁸ Indeed, any man in whom is a physical defect shall not come near: a blind man or lame or disfigured or deformed, ¹⁹ or a man in whom is a broken foot or a broken hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf, or a spot in his eye or a skin disorder or a skin eruption or a crushed testicle. ²¹ Any man from Aaron the priest's offspring in whom is a physical defect shall not come near to present offerings made by fire to Yahweh; a physical defect [is] in him; he shall not come near to present his God's food. ²² He may eat his God's food, from {the most holy things} and from the holy things. ²³ But he must not enter the curtain, and he must not come near to the altar, because a physical defect [is] in him, and he must not profane my sanctuary, because I [am] Yahweh, who consecrates them.'" ²⁴ Thus Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the {Israelites}.