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Leviticus 21:1-24 — Rules for Priests

Lev.21.1-24

¹Yahweh said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: 'A priest must not defile himself for a dead person among his people, ²except for his close blood relatives: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother, ³and for his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband; for her he may defile himself. ⁴He must not defile himself as a leader among his people, and so profane himself. ⁵Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make cuts in their flesh. ⁶They shall be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they present the fire offerings of Yahweh, the food of their God , they must be holy. ⁷They must not marry a woman who is a prostitute, or a defiled woman, nor marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸You shall sanctify him, therefore, because he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, Yahweh, who sanctifies you, am holy. ⁹If the daughter of any priest profanes herself by prostitution, she profanes her father; she must be burned with fire. ¹⁰The high priest, the one greater than his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let the hair of his head hang loose, nor tear his garments. ¹¹He must not go near any dead body; he must not defile himself even for his father or for his mother. ¹²He must not leave the sanctuary , nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am Yahweh. ¹³He must take a wife while she is still a virgin. ¹⁴A widow, or a divorced woman, or a defiled woman, or a prostitute—these he must not marry. Instead, he must take a virgin from his own people as a wife, ¹⁵so that he does not profane his offspring among his people; for I am Yahweh who sanctifies him.' ¹⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷"Speak to Aaron, saying: 'Any man of your descendants throughout their generations who has a physical defect must not approach to offer the food of his God. ¹⁸For no man who has a defect may approach: no man who is blind, or lame, or disfigured, or deformed; ¹⁹no man who has a broken foot or a broken hand; ²⁰or who is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has an eye defect, or festering sores, or scabs, or crushed testicles. ²¹No man among the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall approach to present the fire offerings of Yahweh. Since he has a defect, he must not approach to offer the food of his God. ²²He may eat the food of his God, both from the most holy and from the holy offerings. ²³However, he must not go near the veil , nor approach the altar, because he has a defect, so that he does not profane My sanctuaries; for I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.'" ²⁴So Moses spoke these things to Aaron, to Aaron's sons, and to all the sons of Israel.

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4/11/2026

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