Leviticus 21
1 Yahweh also said to Moses/me, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them,
And Yahweh said unto Moses, Say unto the priests, the sons of Aaron, —yea thou shalt say unto them, For a dead person, shall no one make himself unclean among his people:
2 ‘You priests must not cause yourselves to become unfit to do my work by [touching] corpses. Priests are permitted to touch only the corpses of close relatives, such as the priest’s mother or father or his son or daughter or his brother.
Saving for his kin, that are near unto him, for his mother or for his father, or for his son or for his daughter, or for his brother;
3 Priests are also permitted to touch the corpse of a sister if she is not married, because she has no husband [to bury her body].
or for his sister, a virgin who is near unto him, who belongeth not unto a husband, —for her, he may make himself unclean:
4 Priests must not cause themselves to become unfit to do my work [DOU] by [touching corpses of] people who were married to one of their close relatives.
He shall not make himself unclean being a chief among his people, —by profaning himself:
5 You priests must not shave your heads or shave the edges of your beards or cut your bodies [to show that you are mourning for someone who has died].
They shall not make a baldness behind in their head, And the border of their beard, shall they not cut off, —And, in their flesh, shall they not make incisions.
6 You must act in ways that I, your God, consider to be holy, and not disgrace my name/reputation. You are the ones who present to me the offerings that are burned. [It is as though] those offerings are food for me, your God; so you must act in ways that are holy.
Holy persons, shall they be unto their God, and not profane the name of their God, —for, the altar-flames of Yahweh, the food of their God, do they bring near—Therefore shall they be holy.
7 You priests must not marry women who have been prostitutes or who have been divorced from their husbands, because you priests are (set apart for me/holy).
A woman that is unchaste or dishonoured, shall they not take, And a woman divorced from her husband, shall they not take, —For holy, he is unto his God.
8 You must consider that you are holy, because you offer food to me, your God. Consider yourselves to be holy because I, Yahweh, [the one who caused you to be priests and] the one who enables you to be holy, am holy.
Therefore shalt thou hold him as holy, for the food of thy God, doth he bring near, —Holy, shall he be to thee, For, holy, am I—Yahweh, who am making you holy.
9 If a priest’s daughter disgraces herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; and she must be killed by being burned in a fire.
And, the daughter of any priest, when she profaneth herself by unchastity, Her father, she, doth profane, with fire, shall she be consumed.
10 The Supreme Priest is the one among his relatives who has been [appointed for that work] by having his head anointed with olive oil. He is also the one who has been appointed to wear the special garments that priests wear. He must not allow the hair on his [head] to remain uncombed, and he must not tear his clothes [when he is mourning for someone].
And, as for the high priest from among his brethren upon whose head is poured the anointing oil, and who is installed, by putting on the garments, His head, shall he not bare, And, his garments, shall he not rend;
11 He must not enter some place where there is a corpse. He must not do that and cause himself to become unfit for his work, even if it is his father or his mother who has died.
And, unto no persons of the dead, shall he go in, —For his father or for his mother, shall he not make himself unclean;
12 He must not leave the Sacred Tent [to join those who are mourning], because he would cause himself to become unfit for his work and would also defile/desecrate the Sacred Tent. He must not leave the Sacred Tent [at that time], because by being anointed with olive oil he has been (appointed/set apart) to serve his God [in the Sacred Tent]. I, Yahweh, [am the one who am commanding this].
And, out of the sanctuary, shall he not go forth, so shall he not profane the sanctuary of his God, —for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him—I, am Yahweh.
13 Women whom you priests marry must be virgins.
But, he, shall take a woman in her virginity:
14 You priests must not marry widows or prostitutes or divorced women, because if you did that, [if you later have] sons, they would not be acceptable to be priests among your people. You must marry only virgins from among your own people. I am Yahweh, who sets priests apart to be holy.’”
A widow or a divorced woman or one dishonoured—an unchaste woman, these, shall he not take, But, a virgin from among his own kinsfolk, shall he take to wife;
So shall he not profane his seed, among his kinsfolk, —For I—Yahweh, do hallow him.
16 Yahweh also said to Moses/me,
And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying:
17 “Say this to Aaron: 'For all future time, none of your descendants who has any defects [on his body] will be allowed to come near [the altar] to offer [sacrifices to me which will be like] [MET] my food:
Speak unto Aaron, saying, —No man of thy seed, unto their generations in whom shall be any blemish, shall come near, to present the food of his God.
18 No one who is blind or lame or deformed, or whose [face is] disfigured,
Surely, no man in whom is any blemish, shall come near, —No man who is blind or lame, or hath a flat nose, or is lanky;
19 no man with a crippled foot or a crippled hand,
nor any man who hath a broken foot, —or a broken hand;
20 no man who is a hunchback or a dwarf, no man whose eyes are defective, no man who has a skin disease [DOU] or whose testicles have been damaged is allowed to brings sacrifices.
or is hump-backed or a dwarf, or hath defective vision, —or hath scurvy or scab, or is crushed in the stones:
21 No descendant of Aaron, the [first Supreme] Priest, who has any defect is allowed to come to the altar to offer to me, his God, sacrifices that will be burned.
No, man in whom is a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest, shall approach, to bring near the altar-flames of Yahweh, —a blemish, is in him, the food of his God, shall he not approach to bring near:
22 Priests who have defects are permitted to eat the various kinds of holy food offered to me.
Of the food of his God, both of the most holy, —and the holy, may he eat:
23 But because of their defects, they must not go near the curtain [in the Sacred Tent] or near the altar, because if they did that, they would desecrate my Sacred Tent. I am Yahweh, the one who sets those places apart as being holy.'”
Only, unto the veil, shall he not come in and unto the altar, shall he not approach—because, a blemish, is in him, so shall he not profane my sanctuaries, For, I—Yahweh, am hallowing them.
24 So Moses/I told this to Aaron and to his sons and to all the Israeli people.
And Moses spake [these things] unto Aaron, and unto his sons, —and unto all the sons of Israel.
