Leviticus 22:1-16

Expanded Bible

22 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell Aaron and his sons: ‘The ·people [^Lsons; children] of Israel will give offerings to me. These offerings are ·holy, and they are mine [^Lconsecrated/sanctified to me], so you must ·respect [be scrupulous with] them to show that you ·respect [^Ldo not defile] my holy name. I am the Lord.’ ³ Say to them: ‘If any one of your descendants ·from now on [^Lthroughout your generations] is unclean [^Cin a ritual sense] and comes near the offerings that the Israelites ·made holy for [consecrated/sanctified to] me, that person must be cut off from appearing before me. I am the Lord.

⁴ “‘If one of Aaron’s descendants has a harmful skin disease [13:2], or if he discharges a body fluid [15:1–18], he cannot eat the holy offerings until he becomes clean [^Cin a ritual sense]. He could also become unclean from touching a dead body, from his own semen, ⁵ from touching any unclean crawling animal, or from touching an unclean person (no matter what made the person unclean). ⁶ Anyone who touches those things will become unclean until evening. That person must not eat the holy offerings unless he washes with water. ⁷ He will be clean only after the sun goes down. Then he may eat the holy offerings; the offerings are his food.

⁸ “‘If a priest finds an animal that died by itself or that was killed by some other animal, he must not eat it. If he does, he will become unclean [^Cin a ritual sense]. I am the Lord [11:39–40; 17:15].

⁹ “‘If the priests ·keep [guard] all the rules I have given, they will not become guilty; ·if they are careful, they will not die [or…and die in it/the sanctuary because they defiled it]. I am the Lord who has made them holy. ¹⁰ ·Only people in a priest’s family [^LNo stranger/layperson] may eat the holy offering. A visitor staying with the priest or a hired worker must not eat it. ¹¹ But if the priest buys a slave with his own money, that slave may eat the holy offerings; ·slaves [^Lthose] who were born in his house may also eat his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter marries a ·person who is not a priest [layperson; ^Lstranger], she must not eat any of the holy offerings. ¹³ But if the priest’s daughter becomes widowed or divorced, with no children to support her, and if she goes back to her father’s house where she lived as a child, she may eat some of her father’s food. But ·only people from a priest’s family [no layperson/^Lstranger] may eat this food.

¹⁴ “‘If someone eats some of the holy offering by mistake, that person must pay back the priest for that holy food, adding another one-fifth of the price of that food.

¹⁵ “‘When the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] give their holy offerings to the Lord, ·the priest must not treat these holy things as though they were not holy [^Lno one will profane them]. ¹⁶ The priests must not allow those who are not priests to eat the holy offerings. If they do, they cause the ones who eat the holy offerings to become guilty, and they will have to ·pay for it [^Loffer a penalty/guilt/reparation offering; 5:14–6:7]. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’”