Leviticus 21
About LeviticusWritten by AI
Leviticus is the instruction book for living near a holy God. Exodus ends with God's glory filling the tabernacle; Leviticus begins with God calling from that tent to explain how a sinful people can come close. It covers offerings, the priests, clean and unclean, the Day of Atonement, and a long call to holiness in everyday life.
Tradition credits the book to Moses at Mount Sinai. Many scholars see it as gathered and shaped by Israel's priests over time. Christians also differ on how its laws apply today, but the New Testament, especially Hebrews, reads its sacrifices and priesthood as pointing to Christ.
It can feel like the hardest book to read straight through. Watch for its repeated heartbeat, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy”, and notice how often holiness means caring for the poor, the foreigner and your neighbor.
Before you read Leviticus 21Written by AI
Higher standards for priests, especially the high priest, in mourning and marriage. Then a list of physical defects that kept a descendant of Aaron from offering at the altar, though he could still eat the holy food. Read this as about the sanctuary's symbolism, not about a person's worth before God.
Holiness Required of Priests
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them that a priest is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people, except for his immediate family—his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother, or his unmarried sister who is near to him, since she has no husband. He is not to defile himself for those related to him by marriage, and so profane himself.
Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies. They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present to the LORD the food offerings, the food of their God, they must be holy.
A priest must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. You are to regard him as holy, since he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, because I the LORD am holy—I who set you apart. If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.
The priest who is highest among his brothers, who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair hang loose or tear his garments. He must not go near any dead body; he must not defile himself, even for his father or mother. He must not leave or desecrate the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am the LORD.
The woman he marries must be a virgin. He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people, so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.”
Restrictions against Those with Blemishes
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘For the generations to come, none of your descendants who has a physical defect may approach to offer the food of his God.
No man who has any defect may approach—no man who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed; no man who has a broken foot or hand, or who is a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle.
No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall approach to present the food offerings to the LORD. Since he has a defect, he is not to come near to offer the food of his God. He may eat the most holy food of his God as well as the holy food, but because he has a defect, he must not go near the veil or approach the altar, so as not to desecrate My sanctuaries. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.’”
Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.