Leviticus 21
1 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, 2 except for his immediate family— his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother, 3 or his unmarried sister who is near to him, since she has no husband. 4 He is not to defile himself for those related to him by marriage, and so profane himself. 5 Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies. 6 They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present to the LORD the offerings made by fire, the food of their God, they must be holy. 7 A priest must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. 8 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. 9 If a priest ’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire. 10 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. 11 He must not go near any dead body; he must not defile himself, even for his father or mother. 12 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. 13 The woman he marries must be a virgin. 14 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, 15 so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.” Restrictions against Those with Blemishes 16 Then the LORD said to Moses, 17 “ 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. 18 No man who has any defect may approach — no man who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed; 19 no man who has a broken foot or hand, 20 or who is a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall approach to present the offerings made by fire to the LORD. Since he has a defect, he is not to come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God as well as the holy food, 23 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.’” 24 Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.
✦ What the text says
## Summary
Leviticus 21 records Yahweh's instructions given through Moses to the priests (*kohanim*, H3548), sons of Aaron, restricting their contact with the dead, their mourning practices, and their marriage choices, since they are to be *qedoshim* ("holy", H6918G) to their God. The chapter then adds stricter rules for the high priest and disqualifies any priestly descendant with a *mum* ("blemish", H3971B) from approaching the altar to present offerings, though such a man may still eat the sacred food.
## Key words
- *yitamma'* ("he will make himself unclean", H2930A) — hithpael (reflexive) imperfect, used repeatedly (vv. 1, 3, 4, 11) to mark self-defilement through corpse contact as an action the priest brings on himself.
- *yechallel* ("he will profane", H2490H) — piel imperfect, appears for both priest and daughter (vv. 4, 9, 12, 15, 23), framing improper acts as active desecration rather than passive impurity.
- *qadosh* ("holy", H6918G) — adjective repeated for priests (v. 6), the high priest (v. 7), and God's own self-description (v. 8), tying priestly conduct directly to divine holiness.
- *mum* ("blemish", H3971B) — noun used throughout vv. 17–23 as the technical term disqualifying a priest from *hakriv* ("to present", H7126H) offerings, though not from eating sacred food.
- *meqaddesh* ("who sets apart as holy", H6942G) — piel participle recurring as Yahweh's self-designation (vv. 8, 15, 23), grammatically presenting holiness as an ongoing action performed by Yahweh upon the priests.
## What the text says
The chapter opens with a double command structure: Yahweh tells Moses (*'emor*, "say", H0559, imperative) to speak to the priests, and Moses in turn is told *'amarta*, "you will say" (H0559, sequential perfect), continuing the reported-speech chain. The corpse-contact prohibition uses *nefesh* ("a corpse", H5315M) — literally "soul/life" — as the term for what defiles, then lists exceptions via construct chains: *le-'immo*, *le-'aviv*, *li-veno*, *li-vito*, *le-'achiv* ("for his mother," "for his father," "for his son," "for his daughter," "for his brother," all H9005 + kinship noun + possessive suffix), establishing who is close enough kin to permit defilement.
The high priest section (vv. 10–15) intensifies the ordinary priestly rules using the same verbs (*yitamma'*, *yechallel*) but removes even the parental exception present in v. 11's *lo yitamma'* for father and mother — the high priest may not defile himself even for these. The marriage law for the high priest narrows the field of eligible wives using *betulah* ("virgin", H1330) exclusively, excluding *almanah* ("widow", H0490), *gerushah* ("divorced", H1644H — qal passive participle), and *chalalah zonah* ("profaned prostitute", H2491B/H2181).
The blemish list (vv. 18–20) is built almost entirely of adjectives and qal passive participles describing physical conditions (*'iver*, "blind", H5787; *pisseach*, "lame", H6455; *charum*, "slit-nosed", H2763B, passive participle; *saru'a*, "enlarged", H8311, passive participle), each barring *qerav* ("drawing near", H7126G/H5066G) to the altar for offering, though v. 22 explicitly permits such a man to eat both *qodshei ha-qodashim* ("holy things of the holy things", H6944G) and ordinary *qodashim* ("holy things", H6944G).
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.