Leviticus 22:1-16

1Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

2“Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy things (offerings, gifts) which the children of Israel dedicate to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name; I am the Lord.

3Say to them, ‘Any one of your descendants throughout your generations who approaches the holy things which the Israelites dedicate to the Lord, while he is [ceremonially] unclean, that person shall be cut off from My presence and excluded from the sanctuary; I am the Lord.

4No man of the descendants of Aaron who is a leper or has a discharge may eat the holy things [the offerings and the showbread] until he is clean. And whoever touches any person or thing made unclean by contact with a corpse or a man who has had a seminal emission,

5or whoever touches any crawling thing by which he is made unclean, or any person by whom he is made unclean, whatever it may be,

6the person who touches any such thing shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water.

7When the sun sets, he will be clean, and afterward he may eat the holy things, for it is his food.

8He shall not eat that which dies [of natural causes] or is torn by a predator, becoming unclean by it; I am the Lord.

9Therefore the priests shall observe My ordinance, so that they will not bear sin because of it and die if they profane it; I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

10‘No layman [that is, someone outside of Aaron’s family] is to eat the holy gift [which has been offered to God]; a foreigner residing with the priest or a hired man shall not eat the holy thing.

11But if a priest buys a slave as his property with his money, the slave may eat the holy thing, and those who are born in the priest’s house; they may eat his food.

12If a priest’s daughter is married to a layman [one not part of the priestly tribe], she shall not eat the offering of the holy things.

13But if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child, and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she shall eat her father’s food; but no layman shall eat it.

14But if a person unknowingly eats a holy gift [which has been offered to God], then he shall add one-fifth of its value to it and give the holy gift to the priest.

15The priests shall not profane the holy things the Israelites offer to the Lord,

16and so cause them [by neglect of any essential observance] to bear the punishment of guilt when they eat their holy things; for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’ ”