Holiness Required of Priests
And the LORD said to Moses: “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall make himself unclean for a dead soul among his people,
except for his close relative nearest to him — for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother,
and for his virgin sister, near to him, who has not belonged to a man; for her he may make himself unclean.
He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people, profaning himself.
They shall not shave a bald spot on their head, and the corner of their beard they shall not shave off, and in their flesh they shall not cut a gash.
They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God — for they bring near the fire offerings of the LORD, the bread of their God; and they shall be holy.
They shall not take a woman who is a whore, or one defiled; and a woman driven out from her husband they shall not take — for the priest is holy to his God.
And you shall treat him as holy, for he brings near the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who makes you holy, am holy.
And the daughter of a priest — when she profanes herself by whoring, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.
And the priest who is greatest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and whose hand has been filled to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, and his garments he shall not tear.
And he shall not come near any dead soul; for his father or for his mother he shall not make himself unclean.
And he shall not go out of the sanctuary, and he shall not profane the sanctuary of his God — for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am the LORD.
And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
A widow, or a driven-out woman, or one defiled, a whore — these he shall not take; but a virgin from his own people he shall take as a wife.
And he shall not profane his seed among his people — for I am the LORD, who makes him holy.”
Restrictions against Those with Blemishes
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to Aaron: A man of your seed, throughout their generations, in whom there is a defect shall not come near to bring near the bread of his God.
For no man in whom there is a defect shall come near: a man blind or lame, or disfigured, or deformed;
or a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand;
or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or one with a spot in his eye, or with a scar, or a rash, or a crushed testicle.
No man of the seed of Aaron the priest in whom there is a defect shall come forward to bring near the fire offerings of the LORD. There is a defect in him; he shall not come forward to bring near the bread of his God.
The bread of his God, from the holy of holies and from the holy things, he may eat.
Only he shall not come in to the veil, and he shall not come forward to the altar — for there is a defect in him — so that he does not profane my sanctuaries. For I am the LORD, who makes them holy.”
And Moses spoke this to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the sons of Israel.