And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of
Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the
dead among his people, except for his closest relatives, his
mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, or his
virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband;
for her he may make himself unclean). He shall not make himself
unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. They
shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges
of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. They shall be
holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they
offer the LORD's food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore
they shall be holy. They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman
who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced
from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. You shall
sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy
to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. And the
daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring,
profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.
“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the
anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the
garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear
his clothes. He shall not go in to any dead bodies nor make himself
unclean, even for his father or for his mother. He shall not go out
of the sanctuary, lest he profane the sanctuary of his God, for the
consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the
LORD. And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or a
divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute,
these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of
his own people, that he may not profane his offspring among his
people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.”
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron, saying,
None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a
blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who
has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has
a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured
foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a
defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed
testicles. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a
blemish shall come near to offer the LORD's food offerings; since
he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his
God. He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of
the holy things, but he shall not go through the veil or approach
the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my
sanctuaries, for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” So Moses spoke
to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.
