Bible Commentaries
Leviticus 21

Verses 1-24

The absolute necessity for the strictest of separation of the priest from all possibility of defilement is vividly set forth in the laws here enunciated. Standing as he ever did in a place of special nearness to God as the appointed mediator of the people, he must, of all men, manifest in all externals of life and conduct the characteristics of that holiness without which no man can see the Lord. He was strictly forbidden to defile himself by contact with the dead in any form. The only exceptions permitted were in the cases of those who were next of kin to him. In the case of the high priest even such exceptions were not allowed. He must not touch a dead person, even though it be father or mother.

The necessity for rectitude within his family is revealed in the one flaming declaration that if the daughter of a priest defile herself, she profaneth her father and is to be burned with fire.

Moreover, it was provided that no cripple of any sort should exercise the priestly office. Approach to God necessitated perfection in the entire man, and so far as it was possible to reveal this by external symbols, it was done in the case of the priest. A tender recognition of the fact that blame may not attach to the man in the matter of defect is found in the provision that he might eat of the bread of God but must not offer it.