Leviticus 21 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Holiness and the Priests

(cf. Eze 44:15–31 )

Lev 21:1And 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,

Lev 21:2

Lev 21:2except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,

Lev 21:3

Lev 21:3or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean).

Lev 21:4

Lev 21:4He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself.

Lev 21:5

Lev 21:5They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body.

Lev 21:6

Lev 21:6They 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.

Lev 21:7

Lev 21:7They 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.

Lev 21:8

Lev 21:8You 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.

Lev 21:9

Lev 21:9And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

Lev 21:10

Lev 21:10“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.

Lev 21:11

Lev 21:11He shall not go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother.

Lev 21:12

Lev 21:12He 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.

Lev 21:13

Lev 21:13And he shall take a wife in her virginity.[fn]

Lev 21:14

Lev 21:14A 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[fn] of his own people,

Lev 21:15

Lev 21:15that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.”

Lev 21:16

Lev 21:16And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Lev 21:17

Lev 21:17“Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God.

Lev 21:18

Lev 21:18For 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,

Lev 21:19

Lev 21:19or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand,

Lev 21:20

Lev 21:20or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles.

Lev 21:21

Lev 21:21No 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.

Lev 21:22

Lev 21:22He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things,

Lev 21:23

Lev 21:23but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries,[fn] for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.”

Lev 21:24

Lev 21:24So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(21:13)

Or a young wife

(21:14)

Hebrew young woman

(21:23)

Or my holy precincts

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