The priests must always be holy
1The Lord said to Moses: ‘You must tell the priests, the descendants of Aaron, that they may not touch a dead body of someone who has died in their family, because then they will become impure. 2The only dead people that a priest may touch are the bodies of his father or his mother or his child or his brother. 3He may also touch the dead body of his sister if she was still a virgin, but if she was married, he will become impure if he touches her body. 4He may not touch the bodies of his wife's family. If he does, he will become impure.
5Priests may not cut the hair on the sides of their heads and their beards when they mourn and they may not cut their skin.
6The priests must be consecrated to their God. They may not take away the honour of the name of their God because they must sacrifice the fire-offerings of the Lord, the food of their God, and they must be holy when they sacrifice it.
7A priest may not marry a woman who is a prostitute, or a woman who has had sex with someone before, or a woman who is divorced from her husband, because the priest is consecrated to his God. 8People of Israel, you must always remember that the priests are holy, because they sacrifice the food of your God. The priests must always be holy to you because I, the Lord, am holy and I have consecrated you to Me. 9If a priest's daughter becomes a prostitute and takes away her honour, then she also brings shame to her father and you must burn her.
10The high-priest is more important than all the other priests. Another priest has consecrated and anointed him with oil on his head so that he may wear the holy clothes. That is why the priest's hair must always be neat and he may never tear his clothes when he mourns. 11He may never touch a dead body, not even his father or his mother's body, because then he will become impure. 12He may not go out of the temple to mourn, because then he will make the tent of his God impure. The high-priest has a holy_crown on his head that shows he has been anointed and consecrated to his God. I am the Lord.
13The high-priest may marry only a girl who is a virgin. 14He may not marry a widow or a woman who is divorced from her husband. He may not marry a woman who has had sex with a man before, or a woman who is a prostitute. He must marry a virgin from his own people, 15so that his descendants will not become impure, because I am the Lord, and I have made him holy.’
Priests must be healthy
16The Lord said to Moses: 17‘You must tell Aaron: “If one of your descendants is not healthy, then he may not come to the altar to sacrifice food to his God. 18If a person is not healthy from his head to his feet, then he may not come to the altar. No one who is blind or crippled or who can not walk 19or has a broken leg or arm 20or has a bent back or is a dwarf or has a spot in his eye or has bad spots on his skin or is emasculated may come to the altar. 21If any of the descendants of Aaron is not healthy from his head to his feet, then he may not come to the altar to sacrifice fire-offerings to the Lord. If he is not completely healthy, he may not go to the altar to sacrifice food for his God. 22But he may eat some of the offerings of his God. He may eat the holy food and the most holy food. 23He may not go to the curtain in front of the covenant box and he may not come near the altar because he is not completely healthy. If he goes there, he will make the tent where God appears to his people impure. I have made all these things pure Myself.” ’
24Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.
