Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 197
20:20–21:8
L e v itic u s
185
sister or your father’s sister. This would dishonor a close relative. Both
parties are guilty and will be punished for their sin.
“If a man has sex with his uncle’s wife, he has violated his uncle. Both the
man and woman will be punished for their sin, and they will die childless.
“If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. He has violated his brother, and the guilty couple will remain childless.
“You must keep all my decrees and regulations by putting them into
practice; otherwise the land to which I am bringing you as your new home
will vomit you out. Do not live according to the customs of the people I
am driving out before you. It is because they do these shameful things
that I detest them. But I have promised you, ‘You will possess their land
because I will give it to you as your possession—a land flowing with milk
and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from all other
people.
“You must therefore make a distinction between ceremonially clean
and unclean animals, and between clean and unclean birds. You must not
defile yourselves by eating any unclean animal or bird or creature that scurries along the ground. I have identified them as being unclean for you. You
must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all
other people to be my very own.
“Men and women among you who act as mediums or who consult the
spirits of the dead must be put to death by stoning. They are guilty of a
capital offense.”
The Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the priests,
the descendants of Aaron.
“A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean by touching the
dead body of a relative. The only exceptions are his closest r elatives—his
mother or father, son or daughter, brother, or his virgin sister who depends on him because she has no husband. But a priest must not defile
himself and make himself unclean for someone who is related to him only
by marriage.
“The priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or cut their
bodies. They must be set apart as holy to their God and must never bring
shame on the name of God. They must be holy, for they are the ones who
present the special gifts to the Lord, gifts of food for their God.
“Priests may not marry a woman defiled by prostitution, and they may
not marry a woman who is divorced from her husband, for the priests are
set apart as holy to their God. You must treat them as holy because they
offer up food to your God. You must consider them holy because I, the
Lord, am holy, and I make you holy.
