21:1  THE LORD said to Moses, Speak to the priests [exclusive of the high priest], the sons of Aaron, and say to them that none of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial],

21:2  Except for his near [blood] kin, for his mother, father, son, daughter, brother,

21:3  And for his sister, a virgin, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may be defiled.

21:4  He shall not even defile himself, being a [bereaved] husband [his wife not being his blood kin] {or} being a chief man among his people, and so profane himself.

21:5  The priests [like the other Israelite men] shall not shave the crown of their heads or clip off the corners of their beard or make any cuttings in their flesh.

21:6  They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.

21:7  They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or polluted {or} profane or divorced, for [the priest] is holy to his God.

21:8  You shall consecrate him therefore, for he offers the bread of your God; he shall be holy to you, for I the Lord Who sanctifies you am holy.

21:9  The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire [after being stoned].

21:10  But he who is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to put on the [sacred] garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose or rend his clothes [in mourning],

21:11  Neither shall he go in where any dead body lies nor defile himself [by doing so, even] for his father or for his mother;

21:12  Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary nor desecrate {or} make ceremonially unclean the sanctuary of his God, for the crown {or} consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the Lord.

21:13  He shall take a wife in her virginity.

21:14  A widow or a divorced woman or a woman who is polluted {or} profane or a harlot, these he shall not marry, but he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people,

21:15  That he may not profane {or} dishonor his children among his people; for I the Lord do sanctify the high priest.

21:16  And the Lord said to Moses,

21:17  Say to Aaron, Any one of your sons in their successive generations who has any blemish, let him not come near to offer the bread of his God.

21:18  For no man who has a blemish shall approach [God's altar to serve as priest], a man blind or lame, or he who has a disfigured face or a limb too long,

21:19  Or who has a fractured foot or hand,

21:20  Or is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or has a defect in his eye, or has scurvy {or} itch, or scabs {or} skin trouble, or has damaged testicles.

21:21  No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish {and} is disfigured {or} deformed shall come near [the altar] to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire. He has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.

21:22  He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things,

21:23  But he shall not come within the veil or come near the altar [of incense], because he has a blemish, that he may not desecrate {and} make unclean My sanctuaries {and} hallowed things; for I the Lord do sanctify them.

21:24  And Moses told it to Aaron and to his sons and to all the Israelites.