Leviticus 21

¹Our Lord said also to Moyses: Speak to the Priests the sons of Aaron, and thou shalt say to them: Let not a priest be contaminated in the deaths of his citizens,

²but only in his kin, and nigh of blood, that is to say, upon his father and mother, and son, and daughter, brother also,

³and sister, being a virgin which hath not been married to a husband:

⁴but neither in the Prince of his people shall he be contaminated.

⁵Neither shall they shave their head nor beard, nor make incisions in their flesh.

⁶They shall be holy to their God, and shall not pollute his name: for the burnt sacrifice of the Lord, and breads of their God do they offer, and therefore they shall be holy.

⁷A whore and a vile strumpet he shall not take to wife, nor her, that is put away from her husband: because they are consecrated to their God,

⁸and offer the breads of proposition. Be they holy therefore, because I also am holy, the Lord, that sanctify them.

⁹The daughter of a Priest, if she be taken in whoredom, & dishonour the name of her father, shall be burnt with fire.

¹⁰The Grand Bishop, that is to say the Priest that is greatest among his brethren, upon whose head hath been poured the oil of unction, and whose hands were consecrated in priesthood, and who was revested with the holy vestments, shall not uncover his head, he shall not rent his garments:

¹¹and to no dead person shall he enter in at all. Upon his father also, and mother shall he not be contaminated.

¹²Neither shall he go forth out of the holy places, lest he pollute the Sanctuary of the Lord, because the oil of the holy unction of his God is upon him. I the Lord.

¹³He shall take a virgin unto his wife:

¹⁴but a widow and her that is put away, and a filth, and a whore he shall not take, but a maid of his own people:

¹⁵that he mingle not the stock of his kindred with the common people of his nation: because I am the Lord that sanctify him.

¹⁶And our Lord spake to Moyses, saying:

¹⁷Speak to Aaron: the man of thy seed throughout their families, that hath a blemish, shall not offer breads to his God,

¹⁸neither shall he approach to his ministry: If he be blind, if lame, if he have a little, or a great, or a crooked nose,

¹⁹if his foot be broken, if his hand,

²⁰if he be crook backed, or blear-eyed, or have a pearl in his eye, or a continual scab, or dry scurf in his body, or be burnt.

²¹Every one that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the Priest, shall not approach to offer the hosts to the Lord, nor the breads to his God.

²²He shall eat notwithstanding of the breads that are offered in the Sanctuary,

²³yet so that he enter not within the veil, or approach the altar, because he hath a blemish, and he must not contaminate my Sanctuary. I the Lord that sanctify them.

²⁴Moyses therefore spake to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all Israel, all things that had been commanded him.