Leviticus 21:15-23

15 Otherwise, his children, who ought to be holy, will be ritually unclean. I am the Lord and I have set him apart as the High Priest."

16 The Lord commanded Moses

17 to tell Aaron, "None of your descendants who has any physical defects may present the food offering to me. This applies for all time to come.

18 No man with any physical defects may make the offering: no one who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed;

19 no one with a crippled hand or foot;

20 no one who is a hunchback or a dwarf; no one with any eye or skin disease; and no eunuch.

21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any physical defects may present the food offering to me.

22 Such a man may eat the food offered to me, both the holy food offering and the very holy food offering,

23 but because he has a physical defect, he shall not come near the sacred curtain or approach the altar. He must not profane these holy things, because I am the Lord and I make them holy."

Leviticus 21:15-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 21

This chapter respects the priests, the sons of Aaron, and forbids their mourning for the dead, unless in some cases, Le 21:1-6; or their marriage with an whore or a divorced woman, Le 21:7,8; and the daughters of any of them to commit fornication, which is made punishable with death, Le 21:9; and it contains particular laws for the high priest to observe, who was not to mourn for any, even for his parents, Le 21:10,11; nor to go out of the sanctuary, Le 21:12; nor to marry any woman but a virgin, Le 21:13-15; and it also directs, that none of the priests having any blemish in them should be employed in divine service, though they might eat of the holy things, Le 21:16-24.