The Father Sets Apart His Priests
Priests live under tighter limits: restricted mourning, no shaving or gashing themselves, care over whom they marry, and no bodily defect in a man who approaches the altar. A priest with a defect still eats his Father's bread — he is family, not staff.
21 1Our Father said to Moses: "Tell the priests, Aaron's sons: No one may make himself unclean for the dead among his people, 2except for his closest relatives—his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 3or his virgin sister, close to him, still unmarried—for her he may become unclean. 4He must not make himself unclean as a leader among his people and desecrate himself.
5They must not shave their heads bald, shave off their beard edges, or gash their bodies. 6They must be holy to their Father and not desecrate his name; they present our Father's food offerings, his bread, so they must be holy.
7They must not marry a prostitute, one made unclean, or one divorced from her husband; the priest is holy to his Father. 8Treat him as holy—he offers your Father's bread. He is to be holy to you, for I, your Father who makes you holy, your Father who sets you apart, am holy. 9A priest's daughter who desecrates herself by prostitution desecrates her father; she is to be burned with fire.
10The high priest, greatest among his brothers, with anointing oil poured on his head and ordained to wear the garments, must not let his hair hang loose or tear his clothes. 11He must not go near a corpse or make himself unclean, even for his father or mother. 12He must not leave the sanctuary or desecrate his Father's sanctuary; his anointing oil has dedicated him. I am your Father.
13He is to marry only a virgin. 14He may not marry a widow, divorced woman, or woman made unclean by prostitution—only a virgin from his own people. 15So he won't desecrate his offspring among his people, for I, your Father, make him holy—his Father who sets him apart."
16And our Father said to Moses:
17"Speak to Aaron: no descendant of yours, in any generation, who has a defect may approach to offer his Father's food. 18No man with a defect may approach: blind, lame, disfigured-faced, or deformed-limbed, 19or a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand, 20or a hunchback, a dwarf, an eye defect, festering sores, scabs, or crushed testicles. 21No descendant of Aaron the priest with a defect may approach to offer our Father's food offerings; with a defect, he may not approach to offer his Father's bread. 22He may eat the bread of his Father, both the most holy and the holy things. 23He must not go near the veil or approach the altar, having a defect, so he won't desecrate my holy places—for I, your Father, make them holy, their Father who sets them apart." a a v23 The veil is the inner curtain dividing the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle.
24So Moses spoke this to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel.
