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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Leviticus 21 NLT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/leviticus/21.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/leviticus/21-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NLT</a> > Leviticus 21</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../leviticus/20.htm" title="Leviticus 20">◄</a> Leviticus 21 <a href="../leviticus/22.htm" title="Leviticus 22">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Living Translation</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/nlt/esv/leviticus/21.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="hdg">Instructions for the Priests</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>The LORD said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the priests, the descendants of Aaron.</p><p class="reg">“A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean by touching the dead body of a relative. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>The only exceptions are his closest relatives—his mother or father, son or daughter, brother, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>or his virgin sister who depends on him because she has no husband. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>But a priest must not defile himself and make himself unclean for someone who is related to him only by marriage.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>“The priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or cut their bodies. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>They must be set apart as holy to their God and must never bring shame on the name of God. They must be holy, for they are the ones who present the special gifts to the LORD, gifts of food for their God.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>“Priests may not marry a woman defiled by prostitution, and they may not marry a woman who is divorced from her husband, for the priests are set apart as holy to their God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>You must treat them as holy because they offer up food to your God. You must consider them holy because I, the LORD, am holy, and I make you holy.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>“If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she also defiles her father’s holiness, and she must be burned to death.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>“The high priest has the highest rank of all the priests. The anointing oil has been poured on his head, and he has been ordained to wear the priestly garments. He must never leave his hair uncombed<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">a</span></a> or tear his clothing. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>He must not defile himself by going near a dead body. He may not make himself ceremonially unclean even for his father or mother. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>He must not defile the sanctuary of his God by leaving it to attend to a dead person, for he has been made holy by the anointing oil of his God. I am the LORD.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>“The high priest may marry only a virgin. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>He may not marry a widow, a woman who is divorced, or a woman who has defiled herself by prostitution. She must be a virgin from his own clan, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>so that he will not dishonor his descendants among his clan, for I am the LORD who makes him holy.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Then the LORD said to Moses, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>“Give the following instructions to Aaron: In all future generations, none of your descendants who has any defect will qualify to offer food to his God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>No one who has a defect qualifies, whether he is blind, lame, disfigured, deformed, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>or has a broken foot or arm, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>or is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or has a defective eye, or skin sores or scabs, or damaged testicles. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>No descendant of Aaron who has a defect may approach the altar to present special gifts to the LORD. Since he has a defect, he may not approach the altar to offer food to his God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>However, he may eat from the food offered to God, including the holy offerings and the most holy offerings. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>Yet because of his physical defect, he may not enter the room behind the inner curtain or approach the altar, for this would defile my holy places. I am the LORD who makes them holy.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/leviticus/21-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>So Moses gave these instructions to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="fn">a</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">21:10 </span><span class="ft">Or </span><span class="it">never uncover his head.</span><br></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><em>Holy Bible</em>, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of <a href="http://www.tyndale.com">Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.</a>, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. 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