Leviticus
Chapter 21
Priestly Holiness
The Priest and the High Priest
The Lord said to Moses:
“Speak to the priests, sons of Aaron, and tell them that not one of them shall make himself unclean for a dead person among his people
except for those relatives nearest to him, specifically his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother,
or for an unmarried sister who is dependent on him because she has no husband. For her, he may make himself unclean.
As a husband, he must not make himself unclean for his family-in-law and thus profane himself.
They shall not make tonsures on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make any cuts in their flesh.
They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God, for it is they who present offerings by fire, the bread of their God; therefore, they shall be holy.
You shall regard the priest as holy, for he offers up the food of your God. Holy, he shall be for you because I, the Lord, am holy and make you holy.
If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she dishonors her father and shall be burned in the fire.
The high priest, the one among his brothers on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head or tear his clothes.
He shall not go near any dead person or defile himself, either for his father or his mother.
He shall not leave the Sanctuary or profane the Sanctuary of his God, for he bears the consecration of the anointing oil of his God. I am the Lord.
The woman he marries must be a virgin.
He shall not take as wife a widow or a divorced woman or a woman defiled by prostitution, but only a virgin of his own people,
that he may not defile his children among his people. I am the Lord who makes him holy.”
Physical Requirements for Priests
The Lord said to Moses:
“Say to Aaron: No man among your descendants in future generations who has a defect shall approach to offer the bread of his God.
No man who has a defect may come near, no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed
or who has a broken foot or hand,
or is a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an eye defect or eczema or scabs or damaged testicles.
The descendant of Aaron, the priest with a defect, shall not approach to offer the burnt offering to the Lord. He must not approach to offer the bread of his God because of his defect.
He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy,
but he may not go as far as the veil or advance toward the altar because he has a defect. Let him not defile my Sanctuary, for I, the Lord, make them holy.”
Thus spoke Moses to Aaron and his sons, and all Israel.