Leviticus 20:22-21:9

English Standard Version

You Shall Be Holy

²²^(A)“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not ^(B)vomit you out. ²³^(C)And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. ²⁴But ^(D)I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land ^(E)flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, ^(F)who has separated you from the peoples. ²⁵^(G)You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. ²⁶^(H)You shall be holy to me, ^(I)for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

²⁷^(J)“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be ^(K)stoned with stones; ^(L)their blood shall be upon them.”

Holiness and the Priests

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ^(M)No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ²except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). ⁴He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ⁵^(N)They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. ⁶They shall be holy to their God and ^(O)not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord's food offerings, ^(P)the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ⁷^(Q)They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman ^(R)divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^(S)I, the Lord, who sanctify you, ^(T)am holy. ⁹And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; ^(U)she shall be burned with fire.