Leviticus 21
BSASBGod sets higher standards for the priests than for ordinary Israelites, because they stand closest to Him and handle the offerings. Rules about mourning, marriage and bodily wholeness all say that the priesthood must show God’s holiness. A priest with a bodily defect was still family and still ate from the sanctuary, but could not serve at the altar.
Leviticus 21:1
God speaks to the priests through Moses. A priest was not to make himself ritually unclean by touching or mourning over a dead person from among the people. Death is the opposite of the living God’s presence, and the priests were to model that difference.
BSA: defile (“to make unclean, to contaminate”): This is ceremonial uncleanness that barred a person from the sanctuary. It is not a charge of sin.
Hebrew: נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, H5315) — “person, soul, life.” The Hebrew calls the dead one a nefesh, a ‘person’, not just a body. The grief of the priest is not scorned. The law only guards the holiness of his service.
See also: Ezekiel 44:25.
Leviticus 21:2-3
There was an exception for the nearest relatives: mother, father, son, daughter, brother, and a sister not yet married. A priest could grieve and bury these. The law never forbids natural love. It only limits how far a priest may go in contact with death.
BSA: immediate family (“nearest relatives, those near in blood”): God allows mourning for those closest by blood, so grief for family is honored.
Leviticus 21:4
For relatives by marriage and more distant connections, the priest was not to make himself unclean. Doing so would profane him, meaning treat his holy calling as ordinary. His service came first, and the line was drawn clearly.
BSA: profane (“pollute, desecrate”): To profane is to bring down what is set apart to the level of the common.
Leviticus 21:5
Priests were not to shave bald patches, trim their beards at the edges, or cut their bodies. These were mourning customs of surrounding pagan peoples. God’s servants were to grieve differently, with hope, and not copy the ways of nations who did not know Him.
BSA: cuts (“incisions, gashes”): Self-cutting was part of pagan mourning, and it marks the kind of practice priests had to avoid.
See also: Deuteronomy 14:1.
Leviticus 21:6
The reason is plain: priests carry God’s name and bring Him the fire offerings. Because they handle what belongs to God, their lives must match it. A careless priest would shame the God he serves.
BSA: holy (“set apart, sacred”): Holiness here means being set apart for God and belonging to Him. food (“bread, grain”): The offerings are called God’s ‘bread’, a table-fellowship picture of what is given to Him.
Hebrew: לֶחֶם (lechem, H3899) — “bread, food.” The offerings are called God’s lechem, His ‘bread’. The picture is of a meal shared with Him, not of feeding a hungry God.
Leviticus 21:7
A priest was not to marry a woman who had been made unclean through prostitution, or who was divorced. Marriage ties a priest’s household to his service, so his home had to reflect the purity of his calling.
BSA: defiled (“made unclean, polluted”): It points to a moral and ceremonial stain that the priest’s household was to be free from.
See also: Ezekiel 44:22.
Leviticus 21:8
The people are told to honor the priest’s holy office, because he brings the food of their God. The root of it all is God’s own nature. He is holy, and He is the one who sets His people apart for Himself.
BSA: set you apart (“consecrate, sanctify”): Holiness is first God’s work. He makes people His own before He asks them to live like it.
Hebrew: מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם (mekaddishkem, H6942) — “the one making you holy.” This form says God is actively, continually making His people holy. It is His ongoing work, not only a one-time declaration.
See also: 1 Peter 1:15-16.
Leviticus 21:9
A priest’s daughter who gave herself to prostitution brought shame on her father and on the whole priesthood. The penalty of burning shows how seriously God’s holiness was to be guarded in Israel’s covenant life. This is a severe law, and it shows what is at stake in the priest’s household.
BSA: profanes (“dishonors, defiles”): Her conduct dishonors her father and makes common the office he holds.
Leviticus 21:10
The high priest had still stricter rules. Anointed with oil and clothed in the sacred garments, he was not to show open mourning by letting his hair go loose or tearing his clothes. He represented God to the people and was always on duty.
BSA: hang loose (“go uncombed, be disheveled”): Unkempt hair was a sign of grief, and the high priest was to hold back this outward display. ordained (“consecrated, set apart”): He was formally set apart for the office, and the garments mark that setting apart.
Hebrew: יִפְרָע (yifra’, H6544) — “let go loose, uncover.” It describes letting the hair hang free and unbound. This was a visible sign of mourning that the high priest was not to show.
See also: Leviticus 10:6.
Leviticus 21:11
The high priest was not to go near any dead body, not even his own father or mother. No exception is made for family. His office was so close to God that nothing was to interrupt it. The verse shows how total his calling was.
BSA: dead body (“corpse or deceased person”): Contact with a corpse brought uncleanness, even when done out of love.
Leviticus 21:12
He was not to leave or desecrate the sanctuary. Likely this means he was not to abandon his duties for the sake of mourning or let his service be made common. What marks him out is the anointing oil of God resting on him, like a crown.
BSA: consecration (“crown, dedication”): The oil is pictured as a crown on his head, a sign that he is set apart for God.
Hebrew: נֵזֶר (nezer, H5145) — “crown, consecration.” The same word is used for a royal crown and for a sign of dedication. The anointing is the high priest’s mark of belonging to God.
See also: Exodus 29:7.
Leviticus 21:13-14
The high priest was to marry a virgin from his own people, not a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution. His household was to be a picture of undivided devotion, with nothing mixed in.
BSA: virgin (“a woman who has not had relations with a man”): The high priest’s marriage was to begin with a wife not previously joined to another man.
Leviticus 21:15
The goal is that his children not be defiled among the people. A priest’s family would carry on the priesthood, so purity at the start protected the line. Behind it is God’s promise that He is the one who sanctifies him.
BSA: sanctifies (“sets apart as holy, consecrates”): God Himself makes the priest holy, and the priest’s care for his household answers that gift.
Leviticus 21:16-17
A new message begins, for all generations of Aaron’s descendants. A man with a physical blemish was not to come near to offer the food of his God. The rule concerned who could serve at the altar, not who belonged to the family.
BSA: defect (“blemish, flaw”): The same word describes the flawless animals required for sacrifice, so priest and offering are held to the same standard. approach (“come near, draw near”): Drawing near means serving at the altar and entering God’s presence on behalf of the people.
Hebrew: מוּם (mum, H3971) — “blemish, defect.” This is the word also used for flaws in sacrificial animals. Priest and offering were both to picture wholeness before God.
Leviticus 21:18-20
A list of defects follows: blindness, lameness, disfigurement, broken limbs, a hunched back, and certain eye and skin conditions, among others. This is no judgment on a man’s worth or on his faith. It is about the picture of wholeness at the altar, which pointed to a perfect priest still to come.
See also: Hebrews 7:26.
Leviticus 21:21
The rule is repeated for emphasis. Such a descendant of Aaron could not present the fire offerings or the food of God. The repetition shows how carefully this picture of wholeness was kept.
BSA: approach (“draw near, come close”): It names the act of coming close to the altar to serve, which is the thing barred to him.
Leviticus 21:22-23
Still, he remained a priest’s son and ate the most holy food as well as the holy food. He was fed from God’s table and was part of the family. He simply could not go near the veil or the altar. The point is protecting the sanctuary, since God sanctifies it.
BSA: veil (“curtain or veil, separating the holy from the common”): The veil marks the boundary between God’s inner dwelling and everything else.
Hebrew: פָּרֹכֶת (parokhet, H6532) — “veil, curtain.” This is the curtain that closed off the Most Holy Place. It stood for the barrier that kept sinners from God’s presence.
See also: Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 10:19-20.
Leviticus 21:24
Moses passed this on to Aaron, his sons and all Israel. The rules were not hidden in a priestly handbook. The whole people heard them, so everyone knew what holiness meant for those who served.
See also: 1 Peter 2:9.