1 And the LORD {YHWH, Lawgiver} said to Moses, “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and you shall say to them: ‘For a dead person {nefesh: Dead Body}, a priest is not to defile himself among his people.’”
2 But only for his close relative {she’er: blood kin}, who is the close one {hakārôv: proximate relation} to him, to his mother, to his father, to his son, to his daughter, and to his brother.
3 And for his sister, the virgin {betulah: unmarried woman} who has not been to a man and is closely related {qerovah: near kinswoman} to him, he shall make himself unclean for her.
4 He shall not make himself unclean as a husband {baal: husband} among his people, so as to profane {lechallo: lose sacred status} himself.
5 They must not make baldness {qerchah: pagan mourning} on their heads, nor shave off the edge of their beards, nor make any incision {saretet: ritual incision} in their flesh.
6 They shall be holy{kedoshim: consecrated, set-apart} to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they offer the fire-offerings of the LORD{YHWH, Covenant Sustainer}—the bread of their God—they shall be holy.
7 They must not take a wife who is a prostitute {zonah: morally unfaithful} or a profaned woman; nor shall they take a divorced woman from her husband, because he is holy to his God {Elohim: object of worship}.
8 And you shall sanctify him, because he offers the bread of your God {eloheicha: Covenant Deity}. He shall be holy to you, because I, the LORD {YHWH, Sanctifier}, am holy, and I sanctify you.
9 And the daughter of any priest, if she begins to prostitute {liznot: practice harlotry}, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire {ba’esh: consuming flame}.
10 The high priest {ha-kohen ha-gadol: supreme priestly office} who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil {shemen hamishcha: consecration oil} has been poured and who has been consecrated to put on the priestly garments, must not let his hair go unkempt nor tear his garments.
11 He shall not enter where any dead {met: deceased individual} is, nor shall he become unclean {yittama: ritually defiled} for his father or his mother.
12 And he shall not go out from the sanctuary, nor desecrate the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration {nezer: sacred separation} of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I {YHWH, Holy Lawgiver} am the LORD.
13 And he{hu: the high priest} shall take a woman in her virginity{bivtuleha: state of being unmarried and untouched} as a wife.
14 A widow, a divorced woman, a profaned woman {chalalah: ritually defiled}, or a prostitute—these he must not take; but he shall take only a virgin from among his own people as his wife {ishah: covenant partner}.
15 And he shall not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD {YHWH, Sanctifier} who makes him holy {mekaddesh: set apart}.
16 And the LORD {YHWH, Divine Commander} spoke to Moses {Mosheh: Lawgiver}, saying,
17 Speak to Aaron, saying, “Any man from your descendants through their generations who has in him a defect shall not approach to offer the bread {lechem: priestly provision} of his God {Elohim, Sacred Legislator}.”
18 For any man who has a defect {mum: ritual disqualification} shall not come near: a man who is blind, or lame, or mutilated in face {charum: facial mutilation}, or a limb too long.
19 Or a man who has in him a broken foot {regel: lower limb} or a broken hand {yad: grasping member}.
20 Or a hunchback, or one of small stature {daq: physically undersized}, or one having a blemish in his eye, or a scab, or an itching disease {yallep̄et: persistent skin ailment}, or one whose testicle is crushed.
21 Every man from the descendants of Aaron the priest who has in him a blemish shall not approach to offer the fire-offerings of the LORD {YHWH, Sanctuary Authority}; he has a blemish {mum: physical imperfection}, and he shall not approach to offer the food of his God.
22 He may eat the bread of his God {Elohim, Priestly Provider} from the most holy offerings {qodshei haqqodashim: highest sanctity offerings} and from the holy offerings.
23 However, he shall not come to the curtain, and he shall not approach the altar, for there is a defect {mum: physical blemish} in him; and he shall not profane My sanctuaries, for I am the LORD {YHWH, Sanctifier of Israel} who sanctifies them.
24 Moses spoke to Aaron {Aharon: high priestly leader} and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel {Yisrael: covenant people}.