Study Desk

'The man who commits adultery with another's wife, even his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall most certainly be put to death.

'The man who lies [intimately] with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall most certainly be put to death; their blood is on them.

'If a man lies [intimately] with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall most certainly be put to death; they have committed incest; their blood is on them.

'If a man takes his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness; he bears [responsibility for] his guilt.

'You shall not uncover the nakedness of (have intimate relations with) your mother's sister or your father's sister, for such a one has uncovered his blood relative; they will bear their guilt.

'If there is a man who lies [intimately] with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they will bear their sin. They will die childless.

'If a man takes his brother's wife, it is a hated and unclean thing; he has uncovered his brother's nakedness. They will be childless.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: 'No one shall defile himself [that is, become ceremonially unclean] for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial],

except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother,

also his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may become unclean.

'He shall not become unclean as a relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself.

'They shall not take [as a wife] a woman who is a prostitute, nor a woman who is divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God.

'But he who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the [sacred] garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes [in mourning],

nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself [by doing so, even] for his father or for his mother;

nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane (make ceremonially unclean) the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the LORD.

'He may not marry a widow or a divorced woman or one who is profaned by prostitution, but he is to marry a virgin from his own people,

so that he will not profane or dishonor his children among his people; for I am the LORD who sanctifies the high priest.'"

"Say to Aaron, 'Throughout their generations none of your descendants who has any [physical] defect shall approach [the altar] to present the food of his God.

or a hunchback or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye or eczema or scabs or crushed testicles.

'No man among the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a [physical] defect and is disfigured or deformed is to approach [the altar] to present the offerings of the LORD by fire. He has a defect; he shall not approach [the altar] to present the food of his God.