Leviticus 21

¹And the LORD said to Moses, Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: For a dead person he shall not defile himself among his peoples.

²but only for his close kin who is his own flesh — for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother;

³And for his virgin sister, who is close to him, who has not belonged to a man — for her he may defile himself.

⁴He shall not defile himself, a husband among his peoples, so as to profane himself.

⁵They shall not make a bald spot on their head, and they shall not shave off the edge of their beard, and they shall not make incisions in their flesh.

⁶They shall be holy to their God and shall not profane the name of their God; for the fire offerings of the LORD, the food of their God, they are the ones who offer them — and they shall be holy.

⁷A woman who is a prostitute and has been defiled they shall not take, and a woman divorced from her husband they shall not take, for he is holy to his God.

⁸And you shall treat him as holy, for the food of your God he is presenting; he shall be holy to you, for I the LORD am holy, who consecrates you all.

⁹And the daughter of a man who is a priest — if she defiles herself by going about as a prostitute, she is profaning her father; with fire she shall be burned.

¹⁰And the high priest among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments — his head he shall not let go unkempt and his garments he shall not tear.

¹¹And near any dead persons he shall not come; for his father and for his mother he shall not defile himself.

¹²And from the sanctuary he shall not go out, and he shall not profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the LORD.

¹³And he shall take a wife in her virginity.

¹⁴A widow, and a divorced woman, and a defiled woman, and a prostitute — these he shall not take; but a virgin from his peoples he shall take as wife.

¹⁵And he shall not profane his offspring among his peoples, for I the LORD consecrate him.

¹⁶And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

¹⁷Speak to Aaron, saying: Any man from your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish in him shall not draw near to offer the food of his God.

¹⁸For any man in whom there is a blemish shall not approach: a blind man or a lame man, or one with a disfigured face, or one with a limb too long.

¹⁹or a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand.

²⁰or who is hunchbacked, or emaciated, or who has a defect in his eye, or a festering sore, or a running sore, or whose testicles are crushed.

²¹Any man who has a blemish from the offspring of Aaron the priest shall not come near to offer the food offerings of the LORD; he has a blemish in him — he shall not come near to offer the food of his God.

²²The food of his God, from the most holy things and from the holy things, he shall eat.

²³But to the curtain he shall not come, and to the altar he shall not approach; for there is a blemish in him, so that he shall not profane my sanctuaries; for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

²⁴And Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel.