Reflections on Leviticus 21

Leviticus 20 (Contemporary English Version)

1. The LORD told Moses
   
2. to say to the community of Israel: Death by stoning is the penalty for any citizens or foreigners in the country who sacrifice their children to the god Molech.
   
3. They have disgraced both the place where I am worshiped and my holy name, and so I will turn against them and no longer let them belong to my people.
   
4. Some of you may let them get away with human sacrifice,
   
5. but not me. If any of you worship Molech, I will turn against you and your entire family, and I will no longer let you belong to my people.
   
6. I will be your enemy if you go to someone who claims to speak with the dead, and I will destroy you from among my people.
   
7. Dedicate yourselves to me and be holy because I am the LORD your God.
   
8. I have chosen you as my people, and I expect you to obey my laws.
   
9. If you curse your father or mother, you will be put to death, and it will be your own fault.
   
10. If any of you men have sex with another man's wife, both you and the woman will be put to death.
    
11. Having sex with one of your father's wives disgraces him. So both you and the woman will be put to death, just as you deserve.
    
12. It isn't natural to have sex with your daughter-in-law, and both of you will be put to death, just as you deserve.
    
13. It's disgusting for men to have sex with one another, and those who do will be put to death, just as they deserve.
    
14. It isn't natural for a man to marry both a mother and her daughter, and so all three of them will be burned to death.
    
15. If any of you have sex with an animal, both you and the animal will be put to death, just as you deserve.
    
16. (SEE 20:15)
    
17. If you marry one of your sisters, you will be punished, and the two of you will be disgraced by being openly forced out of the community.
    
18. If you have sex with a woman during her monthly period, both you and the woman will be cut off from the people of Israel.
    
19. The sisters of your father and mother are your own relatives, and you will be punished for having sex with any of them.
    
20. If you have sex with your uncle's wife, neither you nor she will ever have any children.
    
21. And if you marry your sister-in-law, neither of you will ever have any children.
    
22. Obey my laws and teachings. Or else the land I am giving you will become sick of you and throw you out.
    
23. The nations I am chasing out did these disgusting things, and I hated them for it, so don't follow their example.
    
24. I am the LORD your God, and I have promised you their land that is rich with milk and honey. I have chosen you to be different from other people.
    
25. That's why you must make a difference between animals and birds that I have said are clean and unclean --this will keep you from becoming disgusting to me.
    
26. I am the LORD, the holy God. You have been chosen to be my people, and so you must be holy too.
    
27. If you claim to receive messages from the dead, you will be put to death by stoning, just as you deserve.
    
    

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    The regulations outlined in this chapter are directed to the priests and high priests.  Prior to this chapter regulations had been given regarding what was clean and unclean. An ordinary person might, even out of necessity, handle something that made him unclean. He was not forbidden to do so, but he was required to follow the rituals for becoming clean which involved washing and waiting. That is, he must wash his clothes and wait until evening before he became clean again.
    
    Priests, on the other hand, were forbidden from doing anything that made them unclean. They were the ones who came before the Lord in the sanctuary to offer sacrifices and therefore must not become ceremonially unclean. Specifically prohibited in this chapter was becoming unclean for a dead person. A priest could become unclean for a dead person who was an immediate family member living within his household, but not for anyone beyond that even though he might be related to them. Being in the same tent with a dead person made one unclean so this would be hard to avoid should there be a death within the family of a priest. It is likely that this is only one example of a priest becoming unclean and that he was to avoid becoming unclean in any manner.
    
    Among other restrictions given the priests were pagan mourning customs. A priest was not to "make bald spots on their heads, shave the edge of their beards, or make gashes on their bodies." (20:5) Neither was a priest to marry a woman who had been a prostitute or was divorced. The high priest was not even to marry a widow. He could marry only a virgin. This restriction was specially to guarantee a pure lineage of the high priest, leaving no chance that by marrying a widow that she might already be pregnant at the time of marriage and the child who would follow him as high priest not be his own.
    
    Neither was a priest to have any physical defect.  A person who would otherwise qualify to be a priest was allowed to eat the food that normally went to the priests, but if he had a physical defect he could not "come near to present the fire offerings to the LORD." (20:21) We are inclined to wonder why such a restriction was made as if a person with a physical defect were a second rate person, but no explanation is given. We can only guess that it was related to the sacrificial system itself. No offering could be made of an animal or bird or grain, etc, that was defective in any way. Only the best was to be given to the Lord. Therefore, it is likely that the same held true for those who brought the offerings before the Lord.