HOLINESS OF PRIESTS
- Leviticus 21: And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the
sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the
dead among his people: But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is,
for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his
daughter, and for his brother, And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh
unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. But he
shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane
himself. They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall
they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their
flesh. They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of
their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of
their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy. They shall not
take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman
put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God. Thou shalt
sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall
be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy. And the
daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she
profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.
And he that is the high
priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured,
and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his
head, nor rend his clothes; Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor
defile himself for his father, or for his mother; Neither shall he go
out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the
crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD. And he
shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or a divorced woman, or
profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a
virgin of his own people to wife. Neither shall he profane his seed
among his people: for I the LORD do sanctify him.
And the LORD spake unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in
their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer
the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he
shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose,
or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,
Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be
scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a
blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the
offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come
nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God,
both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the
vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he
profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them. And Moses
told it unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of
Israel.
MAY EAT OF HOLY
THINGS - Leviticus 22:1-16: And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves
from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they profane
not my holy name in those things which they hallow unto me: I am the
LORD. Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your
generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of
Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul
shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD. What man soever of the
seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a running issue; he shall not eat of
the holy things, until he be clean. And whoso toucheth any thing that is
unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed goeth from him; Or whosoever
toucheth any creeping thing, whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of
whom he may take uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath; The soul
which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even, and shall not
eat of the holy things, unless he wash his flesh with water. And when
the sun is down, he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy
things; because it is his food. That which dieth of itself, or is torn
with beasts, he shall not eat to defile himself therewith: I am the
LORD. They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for
it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I the LORD do sanctify them.
There shall no stranger eat of
the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest, or an hired servant, shall
not eat of the holy thing. But if the priest buy any soul with his
money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they shall
eat of his meat. If the priest's daughter also be married unto a
stranger, she may not eat of an offering of the holy things. But if the
priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is
returned unto her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her
father's meat: but there shall no stranger eat thereof. And if a man eat
of the holy thing unwittingly, then he shall put the fifth part thereof
unto it, and shall give it unto the priest with the holy thing. And they
shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they
offer unto the LORD; Or suffer them to bear the iniquity of trespass,
when they eat their holy things: for I the LORD do sanctify them.
LEVITES ARE THE
LORD'S IN THE STEAD OF EVERY FIRSTBORN IN ISRAEL - Numbers
8:13-19: And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his
sons, and offer them for an offering unto the LORD. Thus shalt thou
separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites
shall be mine. And after that shall the Levites go in to do the service
of the tabernacle of the congregation: and thou shalt cleanse them, and
offer them for an offering. For they are wholly given unto me from among
the children of Israel; instead of such as open every womb, even instead
of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto
me. For all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man
and beast: on the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt
I sanctified them for myself. And I have taken the Levites for all the
firstborn of the children of Israel. And I have given the Levites as a
gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do
the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the
congregation, and to make an atonement for the children of Israel: that
there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of
Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary.
ARE TO JUDGE IN
HARD CASES - Deuteronomy 17:8-13: If there arise a matter too
hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and
plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within
thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which
the LORD thy God shall choose; And thou shalt come unto the priests the
Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire;
and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment: And thou shalt do
according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall
choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all
that they inform thee: According to the sentence of the law which they
shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell
thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they
shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left. And the man that
will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that
standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge,
even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
HOW THEY ARE TO BE
SUPPORTED - Deuteronomy 18:1-8: The priests the Levites, and
all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel:
they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and his
inheritance. Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their
brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them. And
this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a
sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the
priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw. The firstfruit
also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the
fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him. For the LORD thy God hath
chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of
the LORD, him and his sons for ever. And if a Levite come from any of
thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the
desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose; Then he
shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the
Levites do, which stand there before the LORD. They shall have like
portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.