| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1The LORD said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the priests, the descendants of Aaron. “A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean by touching the dead body of a relative. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2The only exceptions are his closest relatives—his mother or father, son or daughter, brother, |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3or his virgin sister who depends on him because she has no husband. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4But a priest must not defile himself and make himself unclean for someone who is related to him only by marriage. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5“The priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or cut their bodies. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6They must be set apart as holy to their God and must never bring shame on the name of God. They must be holy, for they are the ones who present the special gifts to the LORD, gifts of food for their God. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7“Priests may not marry a woman defiled by prostitution, and they may not marry a woman who is divorced from her husband, for the priests are set apart as holy to their God. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8You must treat them as holy because they offer up food to your God. You must consider them holy because I, the LORD, am holy, and I make you holy. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9“If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she also defiles her father’s holiness, and she must be burned to death. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10“The high priest has the highest rank of all the priests. The anointing oil has been poured on his head, and he has been ordained to wear the priestly garments. He must never leave his hair uncombed or tear his clothing. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11He must not defile himself by going near a dead body. He may not make himself ceremonially unclean even for his father or mother. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12He must not defile the sanctuary of his God by leaving it to attend to a dead person, for he has been made holy by the anointing oil of his God. I am the LORD. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13“The high priest may marry only a virgin. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14He may not marry a widow, a woman who is divorced, or a woman who has defiled herself by prostitution. She must be a virgin from his own clan, |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15so that he will not dishonor his descendants among his clan, for I am the LORD who makes him holy.” |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16Then the LORD said to Moses, |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17“Give the following instructions to Aaron: In all future generations, none of your descendants who has any defect will qualify to offer food to his God. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18No one who has a defect qualifies, whether he is blind, lame, disfigured, deformed, |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19or has a broken foot or arm, |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20or is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or has a defective eye, or skin sores or scabs, or damaged testicles. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21No descendant of Aaron who has a defect may approach the altar to present special gifts to the LORD. Since he has a defect, he may not approach the altar to offer food to his God. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22However, he may eat from the food offered to God, including the holy offerings and the most holy offerings. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23Yet because of his physical defect, he may not enter the room behind the inner curtain or approach the altar, for this would defile my holy places. I am the LORD who makes them holy.” |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24So Moses gave these instructions to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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