Rules for the Priests
1Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and tell them: A priest must not make himself unclean for a dead person among his people, 2except for his closest relatives — his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 3or an unmarried sister who is close to him because she has no husband; for her he may make himself unclean. 4A husband must not make himself unclean for those related to him by marriage, profaning himself among his people. 5Priests must not shave their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies. 6They are to be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God, because they present the food offerings to Yahweh, the food of their God; so they must be holy. 7They must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution, nor one divorced from her husband, because the priest is holy to his God. 8You are to regard him as holy, because he presents the food of your God; he is to be holy to you, because I, Yahweh, who makes you holy, am holy. 9If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she profanes her father; she is to be burned in the fire. 10The high priest, the one among his brothers on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair hang loose or tear his clothes. 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, because he has been dedicated with the anointing oil of his God. I am Yahweh. 13He is to marry a woman who is still a virgin. 14He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution; he may marry only a virgin from his own people, 15so that he does not profane his descendants among his people. I am Yahweh, who makes him holy.”
Physical Defects and the Priesthood
16Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 17“Tell Aaron: None of your descendants, for all generations to come, who has a defect may approach to present the food of his God. 18No man with a defect may approach — no one who is blind, or lame, or disfigured, or deformed, 19or has a broken foot or a broken hand, 20or is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or has a defect in his eye, or a festering rash, or a skin disease, or damaged testicles. 21No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect may come near to present the food offerings to Yahweh; he has a defect, so he must not come near to present the food of his God. 22He may eat the food of his God, from the most holy offerings as well as the holy ones, 23but because he has a defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, so that he does not profane my sanctuary. I am Yahweh, who makes them holy.” 24So Moses told this to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the Israelites.
