Leviticus 21

English Standard Version

Holiness and the Priests

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ^(A)No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ² except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³ or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). ⁴ He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ^5 (B)They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God and ^(C)not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord's food offerings, ^(D)the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ^7 (E)They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman ^(F)divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^(G)I, the Lord, who sanctify you, ^(H)am holy. ⁹ And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; ^(I)she shall be burned with fire.

^10 (J)“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^(K)shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. ¹¹ He shall not ^(L)go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. ^12 (M)He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he ^(N)profane the sanctuary of his God, for the ^(O)consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. ¹³ And he shall take a wife in her virginity.^{[a] 14} A widow, ^(P)or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin^[b] of his own people, ¹⁵ that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for ^(Q)I am the Lord who sanctifies him.”

¹⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may ^(R)approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸ For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man ^(S)blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face ^(T)or a limb too long, ¹⁹ or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a ^(U)defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or ^(V)crushed testicles. ²¹ No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to ^(W)offer the Lord's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²² He may eat the bread of his God, both of ^(X)the most holy and of the ^(Y)holy things, ²³ but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not ^(Z)profane my sanctuaries,^{[c] (AA)}for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” ²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.