Leviticus 20:22-22:16

New King James Version

²² ‘You shall therefore keep all My ^(A)statutes and all My judgments, and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell ^(B)may not vomit you out. ^23 (C)And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and ^(D)therefore I abhor them. ²⁴ But ^(E)I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, ^(F)who has separated you from the peoples. ^25 (G)You shall therefore distinguish between clean animals and unclean, between unclean birds and clean, ^(H)and you shall not make yourselves ^[a]abominable by beast or by bird, or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as ^[b]unclean. ²⁶ And you shall be holy to Me, ^(I)for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.

^27 (J)‘A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.’ ”

Regulations for Conduct of Priests^(K)

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ^(L)‘None shall defile himself for the dead among his people, ² 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, who has had no husband, for her he may defile himself. ⁴ Otherwise he shall not defile himself, being a ^[c]chief man among his people, to profane himself.

^5 (M)‘They shall not make any bald place on their heads, nor shall they shave the edges of their beards nor make any cuttings in their flesh. ⁶ They shall be ^(N)holy to their God and not profane the name of their God, for they offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and the ^(O)bread of their God; ^(P)therefore they shall be holy. ^7 (Q)They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman ^(R)divorced from her husband; for ^[d]the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ Therefore you shall ^[e]consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^(S)I the Lord, who ^(T)sanctify you, am holy. ⁹ The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father. She shall be ^(U)burned with fire.

¹⁰ ‘He who is the high priest among his brethren, on whose head the anointing oil was ^(V)poured and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not ^(W)uncover^[f] his head nor tear his clothes; ¹¹ nor shall he go ^(X)near any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or his mother; ^12 (Y)nor shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the ^(Z)consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord. ¹³ And he shall take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴ A widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman or a harlot—these he shall not marry; but he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife. ¹⁵ Nor shall he profane his posterity among his people, for I the Lord sanctify him.’ ”

¹⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “Speak to Aaron, saying: ‘No man of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸ For any man who has a ^(AA)defect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb ^(AB)too long, ¹⁹ a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, ²⁰ or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scab, or is a eunuch. ²¹ No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²² He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy; ²³ only he shall not go near the ^(AC)veil or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest ^(AD)he profane My sanctuaries; for I the Lord sanctify them.’ ”

²⁴ And Moses told it to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel.

The Holiness of the Offerings

22 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to Aaron and his sons, that they ^(AE)separate^[g] themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they ^(AF)do not profane My holy name by what they ^(AG)dedicate to Me: I am the Lord. ³ Say to them: ‘Whoever of all your descendants throughout your generations, who goes near the holy things which the children of Israel dedicate to the Lord, ^(AH)while he has ^[h]uncleanness upon him, that person shall be cut off from My presence: I am the Lord.

⁴ ‘Whatever man of the descendants of Aaron, who is a ^(AI)leper or has ^(AJ)a discharge, shall not eat the holy offerings ^(AK)until he is clean. And ^(AL)whoever touches anything made unclean by a corpse, or ^(AM)a man who has had an emission of semen, ⁵ or ^(AN)whoever touches any creeping thing by which he would be made unclean, or ^(AO)any person by whom he would become unclean, whatever his uncleanness may be— ⁶ the person who has touched any such thing shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat the holy offerings unless he ^(AP)washes his body with water. ⁷ And when the sun goes down he shall be clean; and afterward he may eat the holy offerings, because ^(AQ)it is his food. ^8 (AR)Whatever dies naturally or is torn by beasts he shall not eat, to defile himself with it: I am the Lord.

⁹ ‘They shall therefore keep ^(AS)My ^[i]ordinance, ^(AT)lest they bear sin for it and die thereby, if they profane it: I the Lord sanctify them.

^10 (AU)‘No outsider shall eat the holy offering; one who ^[j]dwells with the priest, or a hired servant, shall not eat the holy thing. ¹¹ But if the priest ^(AV)buys a person with his money, he may eat it; and one who is born in his house may eat his food. ¹² If the priest’s daughter is married to an outsider, she may not eat of the holy offerings. ¹³ But if the priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child, and has returned to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat her father’s food; but no outsider shall eat it.

¹⁴ ‘And if a man eats the holy offering unintentionally, then he shall restore a holy offering to the priest, and add one-fifth to it. ¹⁵ They shall not profane the ^(AW)holy offerings of the children of Israel, which they offer to the Lord, ¹⁶ or allow them to bear the guilt of trespass when they eat their holy offerings; for I the Lord sanctify them.’ ”