Rules for Priests
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The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron,
and say to them: 'A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclelan
for any of his people who die,
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except for a close relative, such as his mother or father,
his son or daughter, his brother,
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or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband -
for her he may make himself unclean.
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He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage,
and so defile himself.
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" 'Priests must not shave their heads
or shave off the edges of their beards
or cut their bodies.
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They must be holy to their God
and must not profane the name of their God.
Because they present the offerings made to the LORD by fire,
the food of their God, they are to be holy.
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" 'They must not marry women defiled by prostitution
or divorced from their husbands, because priest are holy to their God.
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Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God.
Consider them holy, because I the LORD am holy - I who make you holy.
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" 'If a priest's daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute,
she disgraces her father; she mut be burned in the fire.
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" 'The high preist, the one among his brothers who has had the anointing oil
poured on his head and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments,
must not let his hair become unkempt or tear his clothes.
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He must not enter a place where there is a dead body.
He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother,
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nor leave the sanctuary of his God or desecrate it,
because he has been dedicated by
the anointing oil of his God. I am the LORD.
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" 'The woman he marries must be a virgin.
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He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman,
or a woman defiled by prostitution,
but only a virgin from his own people.
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so he will not defile his offspring among his people.
I am the LORD, who makes him holy.' "
16
The LORD said to Moses,
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"Say to Aaron: 'For the generations to come none of your descendants
who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.
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No man who has any defect may come near:
no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed;
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no man with a crippled foot or hand,
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or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed,
or who has any eye defect,
or who has festering
or running sores
or damaged testicles.
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No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come
near to present the offerings made to the LORD by fire.
He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God.
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He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food;
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yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach
the altar, and so desecrate my sanctury. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.
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So Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.
