Leviticus 21:1-15

The Lord said to Moses: “Speak to the priests,¹ the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

'No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his relatives,except for his nearest kin: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother; likewise, for a virgin sister,² close to him because she has had no husband, he may defile himself for her.³ But he shall not defile himself as a husband among his people and so profane himself.⁴ They shall not make bald spots upon their heads, or shave off the edges of their beards, or make any gashes in their flesh.⁵ They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the Lord’s offerings by fire, the food of their God;⁶ therefore they shall be holy.

They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled;⁷ neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband.⁸ For they are holy to their God, and you shall treat them as holy, since they offer the food of your God; they shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, I who sanctify you, am holy.⁹ When the daughter of a priest profanes herself through prostitution,¹⁰ she profanes her father; she shall be burned to death.¹¹

The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the anointing-oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the vestments,¹² shall not dishevel his hair, nor tear his vestments.¹³ He shall not go where there is a dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother.¹⁴ He shall not go outside the sanctuary and thus profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration of the anointing-oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord. He shall marry only a woman who is a virgin.¹⁵ A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, a prostitute, these he shall not marry. He shall marry a virgin¹⁶ of his own kin,¹⁷ that he may not profane his offspring among his kin; for I am the Lord; I sanctify him.

1 Redirecting towards the priests in a sudden change of subject.

2 Immediate blood relatives only, in other words.

3 The uncleanliness of touching/mourning the dead is balanced against the closeness of the relationship. Even in prohibiting the touching of bodies, love for the dead is shown here.

4 Yet to do so for a wife is to “defile” or “profane” oneself. Seems to degrade the husband/wife relationship.

5 The assumption now is that these were somehow rituals related to mourning the dead. So even this symbolic mourning is to profane or defile oneself (unless it is also pagan in origin).

6 Calling offerings God's “food” must be metaphorical. Even so, it sounds strange.

7 For a woman to have had sex (or perhaps to have been raped) is to have been “defiled”.

8 Priests appear to have been permitted to divorce, but a divorced woman is unclean and cannot marry them. Study Bible points out that this also ensures that a priest's new wife does not bear non-priestly children.

9 “Holy”, mentioned for the 6^th time in rapid succession here, is said to be “like God”, but is also implied to mean not mourning the death of wives and not marrying non-virgin women.

10 A prostitute is profaned, but no command against sleeping with a prostitute is ever given.

11 Daughters of the priest are held to a special standard. It does not appear to matter whether a son of a priest has sex with a prostitute.

12 To anoint and consecrate a priest is to exalt him.

13 More signs of mourning are forbidden for the highest priest.

14 For the high priest, even the intimate dead cannot be mourned in the same manner. Study Bible interprets this as “to go outside the sanctuary for the remainder of the burial ritual.”

15 Again, the necessary virginity of the priest's wife (but not the priest) is emphasized.

16 Third emphasis on “virgin” in a row.

17 One's “own kin” implies one's own faith.

Take-home: The special need of holiness for priests is drawn out. Here is it primarily defined by not participating in mourning rituals for the dead and not marrying a wife unless she is a virgin.