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Regulations concerning Priests

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: '^(C1)No one shall defile himself that is, become ceremonially unclean for the dead among his people by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial,^2 (C1)except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother,³ also his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may become unclean.⁴ 'He shall not become unclean as a relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself.⁵ '^(C1)The priests ^(F1)shall ^(C2)not shave their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor ^(C3)make any cuts in their body.⁶ 'They shall be holy to their God and ^(C1)not profane the name of their God; for they present the offerings by fire to the LORD, ^(C2)the food of their God; so they shall be holy.⁷ '^(C1)They shall not take as a wife a woman who is a prostitute, nor a woman who is divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God.⁸ 'You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers ^(C1)the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the LORD, who sanctifies you, am holy.⁹ '^(C1)The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by prostitution profanes her father; she shall be burned in fire. ^(VR1)

¹⁰ 'But he who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the sacred garments, ^(C1)shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes in mourning,^11 (C1)nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself by doing so, even for his father or for his mother;^12 (C1)nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane (make ceremonially unclean) the sanctuary of his God, for ^(C2)the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the LORD.¹³ 'He shall take a wife in her virginity.¹⁴ '^(C1)He may not marry a widow or a divorced woman or one who is profaned by prostitution, but he is to marry a virgin from his own people, ^(VR1)15 so that he will not profane or dishonor his children among his people; for I am the LORD who sanctifies the high priest.'"

¹⁶ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,¹⁷ "Say to Aaron, 'Throughout their generations none of your descendants who has any physical defect shall approach the altar to present the ^(C1)food of his God.¹⁸ '^(C1)For no man who has a defect shall approach God's altar as a priest: no man who is blind or lame, or who has a ^(C1)disfigured face, or any deformed limb,¹⁹ or a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand,²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye or eczema or scabs or ^(C1)crushed testicles.²¹ 'No man among the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a physical defect and is disfigured or deformed is to approach the altar to present the offerings of the LORD by fire. He has a defect; he shall not approach the altar to present ^(C1)the food of his God.²² 'He may eat ^(C1)the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things,²³ but he shall not go within the veil or approach the altar of incense, because he has a defect, so that he will not profane My sanctuaries; for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.'" ^(VR1)24 So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons, and to all the Israelites.