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Regulations for Conduct of Priests
1And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ⚓‘None shall defile himself for the dead among his people,
2except for his relatives who are nearest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother;
3also his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband, for her he may defile himself.
4Otherwise he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.
5⚓‘They shall not make any bald place on their heads, nor shall they shave the edges of their beards 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 the Lord made by fire, and the ⚓bread of their God; ⚓therefore they shall be holy.
7⚓They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman ⚓divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God.
8Therefore you shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ⚓I the Lord, who ⚓sanctify 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.
10‘He who is the high priest among his brethren, 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 body, nor defile himself for his father or his mother;
12⚓nor 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 the Lord.
13And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
14A widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman or a harlot—these he shall not marry; but he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife.
15Nor shall he profane his posterity among his people, for I the Lord sanctify him.’ ”
16And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
17“Speak to Aaron, saying: ‘No man of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his God.
18For any man who has a ⚓defect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb ⚓too long,
19a man who has a broken foot or broken hand,
20or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scab, or is a eunuch.
21No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
22He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy;
23only he shall not go near the ⚓veil or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest ⚓he profane My sanctuaries; for I the Lord sanctify them.’ ”
24And Moses told it to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel.