The Holiness of Priests

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them that none of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people, ² except for his nearest of kin, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³ or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may defile himself). ⁴ He shall not defile himself as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ⁵ They shall not make tonsures upon their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings by fire to the Lord, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ⁷ They shall not marry a harlot or a woman who has been defiled; neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ You shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy. ⁹ And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰ “The priest who is chief among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, nor rend his clothes; ¹¹ he shall not go in to any dead body, nor defile himself, even for his father or for his mother; ¹² neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord. ¹³ And he shall take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴ A widow, or one divorced, or a woman who has been defiled, or a harlot, these he shall not marry; but he shall take to wife a virgin of his own people, ¹⁵ that he may not profane his children among his people; for I am the Lord who sanctify him.”

¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ “Say to Aaron, None of your descendants throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸ For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, ¹⁹ or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles; ²¹ no man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s offerings by fire; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²² He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things, ²³ but he shall not come near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries; for I am the Lord who sanctify them.” ²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

The Use of Holy Offerings

22 And the Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell Aaron and his sons to keep away from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they may not profane my holy name: I am the Lord. ³ Say to them, ‘If any one of all your descendants throughout your generations approaches the holy things, which the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord. ⁴ None of the line of Aaron who is a leper or suffers a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or a man who has had an emission of semen, ⁵ and whoever touches a creeping thing by which he may be made unclean or a man from whom he may take uncleanness, whatever his uncleanness may be— ⁶ the person who touches any such shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. ⁷ When the sun is down he shall be clean; and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because such are his food. ⁸ That which dies of itself or is torn by beasts he shall not eat, defiling himself by it: I am the Lord.’ ⁹ They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it: I am the Lord who sanctify them.

¹⁰ “An outsider shall not eat of a holy thing. A sojourner of the priest’s or a hired servant shall not eat of a holy thing; ¹¹ but if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it; and those that are born in his house may eat of his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter is married to an outsider she shall not eat of the offering of the holy things. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child, and returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food; yet no outsider shall eat of it. ¹⁴ And if a man eats of a holy thing unwittingly, he shall add the fifth of its value to it, and give the holy thing to the priest. ¹⁵ The priests shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they offer to the Lord, ¹⁶ and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: for I am the Lord who sanctify them.”

Acceptable Offerings

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸ “Say to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel, When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents his offering, whether in payment of a vow or as a freewill offering which is offered to the Lord as a burnt offering, ¹⁹ to be accepted you shall offer a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. ²⁰ You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. ²¹ And when any one offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, to fulfil a vow or as a freewill offering, from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. ²² Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord or make of them an offering by fire upon the altar to the Lord. ²³ A bull or a lamb which has a part too long or too short you may present for a freewill offering; but for a votive offering it cannot be accepted. ²⁴ Any animal which has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not offer to the Lord or sacrifice within your land; ²⁵ neither shall you offer as the bread of your God any such animals gotten from a foreigner. Since there is a blemish in them, because of their mutilation, they will not be accepted for you.”

²⁶ And the Lord said to Moses, ²⁷ “When a bull or sheep or goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother; and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to the Lord. ²⁸ And whether the mother is a cow or a ewe, you shall not kill both her and her young in one day. ²⁹ And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. ³⁰ It shall be eaten on the same day, you shall leave none of it until morning: I am the Lord.

³¹ “So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord. ³² And you shall not profane my holy name, but I will be hallowed among the people of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctify you, ³³ who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.”

Praise for God’s Goodness to Israel

To the choirmaster. A Song. A Psalm.

Seven Chosen to Serve

6 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists^[a] murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. ² And the twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³ Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Proch′orus, and Nica′nor, and Timon, and Par′menas, and Nicola′us, a proselyte of Antioch. ⁶ These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them.

⁷ And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

The Arrest of Stephen

⁸ And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹ Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyre′nians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cili′cia and Asia, arose and disputed with Stephen. ¹⁰ But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. ¹¹ Then they secretly instigated men, who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹² And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, ¹³ and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law; ¹⁴ for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” ¹⁵ And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.