Imamat 21:1-4

Rules for the Priests

21:1 The Lord said to Moses: “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron – say to them, ‘For a dead person ¹  no priest ²  is to defile himself among his people, ³  21:2 except for his close relative who is near to him: ⁴  his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 21:3 and his virgin sister who is near to him, ⁵  who has no husband; he may defile himself for her. 21:4 He must not defile himself as a husband among his people so as to profane himself. ⁶ 

Imamat 21:10-12

Rules for the High Priest

21:10 “‘The high ⁷  priest – who is greater than his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured, who has been ordained ⁸  to wear the priestly garments – must neither dishevel the hair of his head nor tear his garments. ⁹  21:11 He must not go where there is any dead person; ¹⁰  he must not defile himself even for his father and his mother. 21:12 He must not go out from the sanctuary and must not profane ¹¹  the sanctuary of his God, because the dedication of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am the Lord.

[21:1]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 19:28 above and the literature cited there).

[21:1]  ² tn Heb “no one,” but “priest” has been used in the translation to clarify that these restrictions are limited to the priests, not to the Israelites in general (note the introductory formula, “say to the priests, the sons of Aaron”).

[21:1]  ³ tc The MT has “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[21:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “except for his flesh, the one near to him.”

[21:3]  ⁵ tn Cf. v. 2a.

[21:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “He shall not defile himself a husband in his peoples, to profane himself.” The meaning of the line is disputed, but it appears to prohibit a priest from burying any relative by marriage (as opposed to the blood relatives of vv. 2-3), including his wife (compare B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 142-43 with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 343, 348).

[21:10]  ⁷ tn The adjective “high” has been supplied in the translation for clarity, as in many English versions.

[21:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he has filled his hand.” For this expression see the note on Lev 8:33.

[21:10]  ⁹ tn Regarding these signs of mourning see the note on Lev 10:6. His head had been anointed (v. 10a) so it must not be unkempt (v. 10b), and his garments were special priestly garments (v. 10a) so he must not tear them (v. 10b). In the translation “garments” has been employed rather than “clothes” to suggest that the special priestly garments are referred to here; cf. NRSV “nor tear his vestments.”

[21:11]  ¹⁰ tc Although the MT has “persons” (plural), the LXX and Syriac have the singular “person” corresponding to the singular adjectival participle “dead” (cf. also Num 6:6).

[21:12]  ¹¹ sn Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.