Knox Bible

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The Lord also spoke to Moses giving him a message for the priests, the sons of Aaron: When a fellow-citizen dies, a priest is not to expose himself to defilement,

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unless it be the funeral of one of his near kin, father or mother, son or daughter, a brother of his

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or a sister that is a virgin unwed.

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Nay, he must not expose himself to defilement even for the ruler among the people.✻

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Priests are not to shave their heads or beards, or make gashes in their skin for mourning.

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They are men set apart for their God, and must never bring reproach on his name; they burn incense✻ to the Lord, offer their God his consecrated loaves, and shall they not be holy?

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They must not wed harlots, or women dishonoured, or those whom their husbands have rejected, these men vowed to the service of their God,

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who set out the consecrated loaves before him. They must be set apart, as I, the Lord, am set apart, the Lord that hallows them.

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If the daughter of a priest is convicted of playing the harlot, and bringing dishonour on her father’s name, she must be given to the flames.

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The high priest, that one who is chief among his brethren, whose brow has been anointed with the holy oil, and his hands consecrated for the priestly office, who wears the sacred vestments, may never bare his head, or rend his garments,

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or go near a dead body upon any occasion. Though it be his father or mother, he must not expose himself to defilement,

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but keep within the Lord’s holy precincts, so as not to bring defilement on them, a man consecrated to his God by the holy oil that anointed him; the Lord’s own priest.

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And when he marries, he must marry a virgin;

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not a widow, or a rejected wife, or a harlot, or a woman dishonoured; she must be a virgin of his own clan,✻

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so that the stock of his family is not debased by the blood of common folk; I, the Lord, have set him apart.

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The Lord, too, spoke to Moses,

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bidding him tell Aaron: No descendant of thine that has any blemish shall be allowed to offer his God the consecrated loaves,

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nor to come forward and do him service. Such are the blind, the lame, one whose nose is deformed in size or twisted awry,✻

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one who has a crushed hand or foot,

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is hunch-backed or blear-eyed,✻ or wall-eyed, has a continual scab or itch on him, or a rupture.

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No one of the priestly line of Aaron who has such a blemish must come forward to sacrifice to the Lord, or offer his God the consecrated loaves.

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He is allowed to eat the bread which is offered in the sanctuary,

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but he must have no access to the veil,✻ must not go near the altar; my sanctuary must not be profaned by any blemish. I, the Lord, have set priests apart for myself.

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All these commands Moses handed on to Aaron, and to his sons, and to the people of Israel.