The holiness and duties of priests
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📚✭✭And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people. 2 📚But he may defile himself for a close relative, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, 3 and for his virgin sister who is near him, not having a husband. 4 📚But a leader among his people shall not defile himself to make himself unclean. 5 📚✭“They shall not make bald spots on their heads, and shall not shave off the edges of their beards, or make any cuts on their body. 6 📚They shall be holy for their God, and not profane the name of their God, for they present the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and they present the bread of their God✭; therefore they shall be holy.
7 📚“They shall not marry one who is a prostitute, or profane, and they shall not marry a woman divorced by her husband; for the priest is holy to his God. 8 📚✭So you shall sanctify him; for he presents the bread of your God; he shall be holy to you, for I the LORD, who sanctifies you, am holy.
9 📚“And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by prostituting herself, she is profaning her father; she shall be burned in the fire.
10 📚✭“And the high priest among his brethren, on whose head the anointing oil was poured, and who was consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head or tear his clothes, 11 📚and he shall not approach any dead body, nor defile himself even for his father or for his mother, if they die, 12 📚or go out of the sanctuary, or profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am the LORD.
13 📚“And he shall marry a virgin. 14 📚He shall not marry a widow, or a divorced woman, or a profane one, or a prostitute, but shall marry a virgin of his own people. 15 📚And he must not profane his offspring among his people; for I the LORD sanctify him”.
16 ✭And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 17 📚“Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has any blemish is to approach to present the bread of his God. 18 📚For none who has a blemish shall approach: a blind man, or a lame man, or one who is disfigured, or has a deformed limb, 19 or one with a crippled foot, or crippled hand, 20 📚or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or one with a defective eye, or one who has skin defects or scabs, or crushed testicles. 21 📚No one among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall approach to present the offerings of the LORD made by fire. He has a blemish; he shall not approach to present the bread of his God. 22 📚He shall eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy, 23 📚but because he has a blemish he shall not go behind the veil, or come near the altar, so that he does not profane my sanctuaries; for I the LORD sanctify them”.
24 📚And Moses told this to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel.