Holiness Required of Priests

1And YHWH said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: No one shall defile himself for the dead among his people, 2except for his relatives who are near to him—his mother, and his father, and his son, and his daughter, and his brother, 3and his sister, the virgin, who is near to him, who has not had a husband. He may defile himself for her. 4As a chief man he shall not defile himself among his people, to profane himself.

5they shall not make baldness on their heads, and they shall not shave the edges of their beards, and they shall not make a cutting in their flesh. 6They shall be Holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the fire offerings of YHWH, the bread of their God; and they shall be holy.

7and they shall not take a woman, a prostitute or defiled, or a woman cast out from her husband they shall not take, for he is holy to his God. 8And you shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God. He is Holy to you, for holy am I, YHWH, sanctifying you⁺. 9And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the prostitute, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with the fire.

10And the high priest among his brothers, on whose head is poured the anointing oil and who has consecrated his hand to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head† and not tear his clothes. 11And he shall not go near any dead body; he shall not defile himself for his father or his mother. 12And he shall not go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am YHWH.

13And he shall take a wife in her virginity. 14A widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman—a prostitute—these he shall not marry; for rather he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife. 15He shall not profane his posterity among his people. For I am YHWH, sanctifying him.”

Restrictions against Those with Blemishes

16And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 17“Speak to Aaron, saying, ‘No man of your seed to their generations who has a blemish in him shall draw near to bring near the bread of his God.

18For any man who has a blemish in him shall not approach—a man blind, or lame, or disfigured, or deformed, 19or a man who has in him a breach in the foot, or a breach in the hand, 20or a hunchback, or dwarfed, or a man who has a blemish in his eye, or itch, or scab, or a crushed testicle.

21Any man of the seed of Aaron the priest who has a blemish in him shall not come near to offer the fire offerings to YHWH; he has a blemish in him. He shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. 22He may eat the bread of his God from the holies of holies,† and from the holies. 23Only he shall not go near the veil. And he shall not approach the altar, because he has a blemish in him. and he shall not profane My sanctuaries, for I am YHWH, sanctifying them.’”

24And Moses told it to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the sons of Israel.