1 The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and tell them: None of them shall defile himself for a dead person among his people,
2 except for a relative of his own flesh who is close to him: for his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,
3 and for his virgin sister who is close to him, who has not had a husband; for her he may defile himself.
4 He shall not defile himself as a husband among his people, so profaning himself.
5 They must not make bald spots on their heads or shave off the corners of their beards or make cuts in their flesh.
6 They shall be holy to their God and not profane their God's name, for they present the food offerings of the LORD, the bread of their God; so they must be holy.
7 They must not take as wife a woman who is a harlot or defiled, nor take a woman divorced from her husband, for he is holy to his God.
8 You shall treat him as holy, for he presents the bread of your God; he shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD who makes you holy, am holy.
9 If the daughter of any priest profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.
10 "The priest who is highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the garments, must not let the hair of his head hang loose or tear his garments.
11 He must not go in where there is any dead body or defile himself, even for his father or his mother.
12 He must not go out of the sanctuary or profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of his God's anointing oil is upon him. I am the LORD.
13 He is to take a wife who is a virgin.
14 A widow, a divorced woman, a defiled woman, or a harlot—these he must not take; rather, he is to take as wife a virgin from his own people,
15 so that he does not profane his offspring among his people; for I am the LORD who makes him holy."
16 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
17 "Tell Aaron: Any of your offspring throughout their generations in whom there is a blemish must not come near to present the bread of his God.
18 No man in whom there is a blemish shall come near: no one blind or lame, or with a mutilated face or a limb too long,
19 no one who has a broken foot or a broken hand,
20 or is hunchbacked or stunted, or has a spot in his eye, or festering sores or scabs, or crushed testicles.
21 No man among the offspring of Aaron the priest in whom there is a blemish may come near to present the food offerings of the LORD; there is a blemish in him; he must not come near to present the bread of his God.
22 He may eat the bread of his God, from the most holy things as well as from the holy things,
23 but he must not go in to the veil or approach the altar, because there is a blemish in him, so that he will not profane my sanctuaries; for I am the LORD who makes them holy."
24 Moses spoke these things to Aaron and his sons and to all the children of Israel.