Chapter 21

¹The Lord said also to Moses: Speak to the priests the sons of Aaron, and thou shalt say to them: Let not a priest incur an uncleanness at the death of his citizens: ²But only for his kin, such as are near in blood, that is to say, for his father and for his mother, and for his son, and for his daughter, for his brother also, ³And for a maiden sister, who hath had no husband: ⁴But not even for the prince of his people shall he do any thing that may make him unclean. ⁵Neither shall they shave their head, nor their beard, nor make incisions in their flesh. ⁶They shall be holy to their God, and shall not profane his name: for they offer the burnt offering of the Lord, and the bread of their God, and therefore they shall be holy. ⁷They shall not take to wife a harlot or a vile prostitute, nor one that has been put away from her husband: because they are consecrated to their God, ⁸And offer the leaves of proposition. Let them therefore be holy, because I also am holy, the Lord, who sanctify them. ⁹If the daughter of a priest be taken in whoredom, and dishonour the name of her father, she shall be burnt with fire. ¹⁰The high priest, that is to say, the priest, is the greatest among his brethren. upon whose head the oil of unction hath been poured, and whose hands have been consecrated for the priesthood, and who hath been vested with the holy vestments, shall not uncover his head, he shall not rend his garments: ¹¹Nor shall he go in at all to any dead person: not even for his father, or his mother, shall he be defiled: ¹²Neither shall he go out of the holy places, lest he defile the sanctuary of the Lord, because the oil of the holy unction of his God is upon him. I am the Lord. ¹³He shall take a virgin unto his wife: ¹⁴But a widow or one that is divorced, or defiled, or a harlot, he shall not take, but a maid of his own people : ¹⁵He shall not mingle the stock of his kindred with the common people of his nation: for I am the Lord who sanctify him. ¹⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹⁷Say to Aaron: Whosoever of thy seed throughout their families, hath a blemish, he shall not offer bread to his God. ¹⁸Neither shall he approach to minister to him: If he be blind, if he be lame, if he have a little, or a great, or a crooked nose, ¹⁹If his foot, or if his hand be broken, ²⁰If he be crookbacked, or blear eyed, or have a pearl in his eye, or a continual scab, or a dry scurf in his body, or a rupture: ²¹Whosoever of the seed of Aaron the priest hath a blemish, he shall not approach to offer sacrifices to the Lord, nor bread to his God. ²²He shall eat nevertheless of the loaves, that are offered in the sanctuary, ²³Yet so that he enter not within the veil, nor approach to the altar, because he hath a blemish, and he must not defile my sanctuary. I am the Lord who sanctify them. ²⁴Moses therefore spoke to Aaron, and to his sons and to all Israel, all the things that had been commanded him.