Read the Bible

The Holiness of the Priests

¹ The Lord said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them: A priest is not to make himself ceremonially unclean for a dead person among his relatives,^{(C1) 2} except for his immediate family: his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother. ³ He may make himself unclean for his unmarried virgin sister in his immediate family. ⁴ He is not to make himself unclean for those related to him by marriage^(F1) and so defile himself.

⁵ “Priests may not make bald spots on their heads, shave the edge of their beards, or make gashes on their bodies.^{(C1) 6} They are to be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God.^(C1) For they present the fire offerings to the Lord, the food of their God, and they must be holy. ⁷ They are not to marry a woman defiled by prostitution.^(F1)(C1) They are not to marry one divorced^(C2) by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ You are to consider him holy since he presents the food of your God. He will be holy to you because I, the Lord who sets you apart, am holy. ⁹ If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by promiscuity,^(F1)(C1) she defiles her father; she must be burned to death.^(C2)

¹⁰ “The priest who is highest among his brothers, who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been ordained^(F1) to wear the clothes, must not dishevel his hair^(F2) or tear his clothes.^{(C1) 11} He must not go near any dead person or make himself unclean even for his father or mother.^{(C1) 12} He must not leave the sanctuary or he will desecrate the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him;^(C1) I am the Lord.

¹³ “He is to marry a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴ He is not to marry a widow,^(C1) a divorced woman,^(C2) or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people, ¹⁵ so that he does not corrupt his bloodline^(F1) among his people, for I am the Lord who sets him apart.”

Physical Defects and Priests

¹⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁷ “Tell Aaron: None of your descendants throughout your generations who has a physical defect^(C1) is to come near to present the food^(C2) of his God. ¹⁸ No man who has any defect is to come near: no man who is blind, lame, facially disfigured, or deformed; ¹⁹ no man who has a broken foot or hand, ²⁰ or who is a hunchback or a dwarf,^(F1)(C1) or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs,^(C2) or a crushed testicle.^{(C3) 21} No descendant of the priest Aaron who has a defect is to come near to present the fire offerings to the Lord. He has a defect and is not to come near to present the food of his God. ²² He may eat the food of his God from what is especially holy as well as from what is holy. ²³ But because he has a defect, he must not go near the curtain^(C1) or approach the altar. He is not to desecrate my holy places, for I am the Lord who sets them apart.”^{(C2) 24} Moses said this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.