Chapter 21
1Then AO said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, Aaron’s sons, and tell them [that] [a priest] is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people
2except for his immediate family—his mother, father, son, daughter or brother,
3or his unmarried sister who is near to him since she has no husband.
4He is not to defile himself for those related to him by marriage and so profane himself.
5Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards or make cuts in their bodies.
6They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present the offerings made by fire to AO, the food of their God, they must be holy.
7[A priest] must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband for [the priest] is holy to his God.
8You are to regard him as holy since he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you because I, AO, am holy—I who set you apart.
9If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.
10The priest who is highest among his brothers, who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been ordained to wear the priestly garments must not {let} his hair hang loose or tear his garments.
11He must not go near any dead body, even for his father or mother he must not defile himself.
12He must not leave or desecrate the sanctuary of his God for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am AO!
13The woman he marries must be a virgin.
14He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people
15so that he does not defile his offspring among his people for I am AO who sanctifies him.”
16Then AO said to Moses,
17“Say to Aaron, ‘For the generations to come, none of your descendants who has a physical defect may approach to offer the food of his God.
18No man who has any defect may approach—no man who is blind or lame, disfigured, deformed,
19no man who has a broken foot or hand
20or who is a hunchback or dwarf or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs or a crushed testicle.
21No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall approach to present the offerings made by fire to AO. [Since] he has a defect, he is not to come near to offer the food of his God.
22He may eat the most holy food of his God as well as the holy [food],
23but he must not go near the veil or approach the altar because he has a defect so as not to desecrate My sanctuaries. For I am AO who sanctifies them.’”
24Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.