KJ3 Literal Translation
Leviticus 21
1 Of the priests' mourning. 6 Of their holiness. 7,13 Of their marriages. 17 The priests that have blemishes cannot minister in the sanctuary.
1And Jehovah said to Moses, Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people,
2except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, and his father, and his son, and his daughter, and his brother,
3and for his sister, a virgin, who is near to him, who has had no husband; for her he may defile himself.
4He shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.
5They shall not make baldness on their head, nor shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
6They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God, for they offer the offerings of Jehovah made by fire, the bread of their God. Therefore they shall be holy.
7They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or defiled; nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God.
8You shall consecrate him therefore, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I Jehovah, who sanctifies you, am holy.
9The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father. She shall be burned with fire.
10And he who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes;
11nor shall he go near any dead person, nor defile himself for his father or his mother;
12nor shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am Jehovah.
13And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
14A widow, or a divorced woman, or defiled, or a harlot, these he shall not take; but he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife.
15Nor shall he profane his seed among his people, for I Jehovah sanctify him.
16And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
17Speak to Aaron, saying, No man of your seed in their generations who has any blemish shall approach to offer the bread of his God.
18For any man who has a blemish shall not approach: a man blind or lame, disfigured or deformed;
19a man who has a broken foot or broken hand,
20or is humpbacked or a dwarf, or who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scabs, or is a eunuch.
21No man of the seed of Aaron the priest, who has a blemish, shall come near to offer the offerings of Jehovah made by fire. He has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
22He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy.
23Only he shall not go in to the veil or come near the altar, because he has a blemish, that he not profane My sanctuaries. For I Jehovah sanctify them.
24And Moses told it to Aaron and to his sons, and to all the sons of Israel.
Read Leviticus 21 in the interactive reader with the Hebrew and Greek side by side, audio narration, and the TWOT dictionary.
Open in the reader