Leviticus 21

1GOD said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin,

2except for the relatives that are closest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother;

3also for a virgin sister, close to him because she has not become someone’s [wife], for her he may defile himself.

4But he shall not defile himself as a kinsman by marriage, and so profane himself.

5They shall not shave smooth any part of their heads, or cut the side-growth of their beards, or make gashes in their flesh.

6They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the ETERNAL’s offerings by fire, the food of their God, and so must be holy.

7They shall not marry a woman defiled by prostitution, nor shall they marry one divorced from her husband. For they are holy to their God

8and you must treat them as holy, since they offer the food of your God; they shall be holy to you, for I GOD who sanctify you am holy.

9When the daughter of a priest defiles herself through prostitution, it is her father whom she defiles; she shall be put to the fire.

10The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the vestments, shall not bare his head or rend his vestments.

11He shall not go in where there is any dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother.

12He shall not go outside the sanctuary and profane the sanctuary of his God, for upon him is the distinction of the anointing oil of Mine, the ETERNAL’s.

13He may marry only a woman who is a virgin.

14A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is degraded by prostitution—such he may not marry. Only a virgin of his own kin may he take to wife—

15that he may not profane his offspring among his kin, for I GOD have sanctified him.

16GOD spoke further to Moses:

17Speak to Aaron and say: No man among your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God.

18No one at all who has a defect shall be qualified: no man who is blind, or lame, or has a limb too short or too long;

19no man who has a broken leg or a broken arm;

20or who is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has a growth in his eye, or who has a boil-scar, or scurvy, or crushed testes.

21No man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall be qualified to offer GOD’s offering by fire; having a defect, he shall not be qualified to offer the food of his God.

22He may eat of the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy;

23but he shall not enter behind the curtain or come near the altar, for he has a defect. He shall not profane these places sacred to Me, for I GOD have sanctified them.

24Thus Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.