Leviticus 21

1Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: A priest must not make himself unclean for a dead person among his people,

2except for a close relative: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,

3or his virgin sister who is close to him because she has no husband; for her he may make himself unclean.

4He must not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself.

5Priests must not shave bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or cut gashes in their bodies.

6They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God, for they present Yahweh’s fire offerings, the food of their God; so they must be holy.

7They must not marry a woman who is a prostitute or who has been defiled, and they must not marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.

8You must regard him as holy, for he presents the food of your God. He is to be holy to you, for I, Yahweh, who sanctify you, am holy.

9If a priest’s daughter profanes herself by prostitution, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.

10The high priest, the one chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the garments, must not let the hair of his head hang loose or tear his garments.

11He must not go near any dead body; he must not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother.

12He must not leave the sanctuary or profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of his God’s anointing oil is on him. I am Yahweh.

13He is to marry a woman who is a virgin.

14He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a defiled woman, a prostitute. He is to marry a virgin from his own people,

15so that he does not profane his offspring among his people, for I am Yahweh, who sanctifies him.”

16Yahweh spoke to Moses:

17“Speak to Aaron: None of your descendants throughout their generations who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.

18No one who has a defect may come near: no one who is blind or lame, or who has a disfigured face or a deformed limb,

19no one who has a broken foot or a broken hand,

20or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or has a defect in his eye, or has a festering rash or scabs, or has crushed testicles.

21No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect may come near to present Yahweh’s fire offerings. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God.

22He may eat the food of his God, both the most holy things and the holy things,

23but he must not go in to the curtain or come near the altar, because he has a defect. He must not profane my holy places, for I am Yahweh, who sanctifies them.”

24So Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.