Douay Rheims Original ↷
Leviticus 21 📜 📕 ↷
Holiness Required of Priests
1 OUR Lord said also to Moyses: Speak to the Priests the sons of Aaron, and thou shalt say to them: Let not a priest be contaminated in the deaths of his citizens,📜💬📚
2 but only in his kin, and nigh of blood, that is to say, upon his father and mother, and son, and daughter, brother also,📜💬📚
3 and sister, being a virgin which hath not been married to a husband:📜💬📚
4 but neither in the Prince of his people shall he be contaminated.📜💬📚
5 Neither shall they shave their head nor beard, nor make incisions in their flesh.📜💬📚
6 They shall be holy to their God, and shall not pollute his name: for the burnt sacrifice of the Lord, and breads of their God do they offer, and therefore they shall be holy.📜💬📚
7 A whore and a vile strumpet he shall not take to wife, nor her, that is put away from her husband: because they are consecrated to their God,📜💬📚
8 and offer the breads of proposition. Be they holy therefore, because I also am holy, the Lord, that sanctify them.📜💬📚
9 The daughter of a Priest, if she be taken in whoredom, & dishonour the name of her father, shall be burnt with fire.📜💬📚
10 The Grand Bishop, that is to say the Priest that is greatest among his brethren, upon whose head hath been poured the oil of unction, and whose hands were consecrated in priesthood, and who was revested with the holy vestments, shall not uncover his head, he shall not rent his garments:📜💬📚
11 and to no dead person shall he enter in at all. Upon his father also, and mother shall he not be contaminated.📜💬📚
12 Neither shall he go forth out of the holy places, lest he pollute the Sanctuary of the Lord, because the oil of the holy unction of his God is upon him. I, the Lord.📜💬📚
13 He shall take a virgin unto his wife:📜💬📚
14 but a widow and her that is put away, and a filth, and a whore he shall not take, but a maid of his own people:📜💬📚
15 that he mingle not the stock of his kindred with the common people of his nation: because I am the Lord that sanctify him.📜💬📚
Restrictions against Those with Blemishes
16 And our Lord spake to Moyses, saying:📜💬📚
17 Speak to Aaron: the man of thy seed throughout their families, that hath a blemish, shall not offer breads to his God,📜💬📚
18 neither shall he approach to his ministry: If he be blind, if lame, if he have a little, or a great, or a crooked nose,📜💬📚
19 if his foot be broken, if his hand,📜💬📚
20 if he be crook backed, or blear-eyed, or have a pearl in his eye, or a continual scab, or dry scurf in his body, or be burnt.📜💬📚
21 Every one that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the Priest, shall not approach to offer the hosts to the Lord, nor the breads to his God.📜💬📚
22 He shall eat notwithstanding of the breads that are offered in the Sanctuary,📜💬📚
23 yet so that he enter not within the veil, or approach the altar, because he hath a blemish, and he must not contaminate my Sanctuary. I, the Lord that sanctify them.📜💬📚
24 Moyses therefore spake to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all Israel, all things that had been commanded him.📜💬📚
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