Eating Holy Food

22 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Tell Aaron and his sons to be very careful with the holy things of the people of Israel, which they consecrate to me, so that they may not defile my holy name. I am the Lord. ³ Tell them these things.”

In future generations, if any man among all your descendants, while he is in a state of uncleanness, approaches the holy things, which the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person is to be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord.

⁴ Any man of Aaron’s descendants who has an impure skin disease or a bodily discharge shall not eat any of the holy things until he is clean.

Any man who touches anything made unclean by a dead person, or any man from whom an emission of semen goes out, ⁵ or any man who touches any swarming creature that makes him unclean, or who touches any human being who makes him unclean, whatever his uncleanness might be— ⁶ that person who touches any of these things will be unclean until sunset and shall not eat any of the holy things unless he has washed his body with water. ⁷ When the sun has gone down, he will be clean. After that he may eat from the holy things, for it is his food. ⁸ But he shall not eat anything that has died naturally or been torn by wild animals, and so become unclean by it. I am the Lord.

⁹ Aaron’s descendants shall therefore keep watch for me, so that they do not become responsible for sin on account of uncleanness and die for it because they have defiled something holy. I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.

¹⁰ No person who is not a member of a priest’s family may eat anything holy. No guest or employee of a priest may eat anything holy. ¹¹ But if a priest purchases anyone with his money, that person may eat from it, and those who are born into his household may eat from his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter has a husband who is not a priest, she may not eat any of the holy things that have been donated as an elevated offering. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced and she has no children and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No person who is not a member of a priest’s family may eat of it.

¹⁴ If anyone eats a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add one fifth of its value to it and give the holy thing to the priest.

¹⁵ The priests shall not defile the holy things that the Israelites donate as an elevated offering to the Lord ¹⁶ by letting other people eat them and so make that person incur the penalty of a restitution offering for the holy things, because I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.