21:1 These instructions are given to the sons of Aaron, the regular priests. They describe the limits of contracting impurity in mourning the dead. Mourning in ancient Israel is fully embodied and encompassed more than emotion. It is expressed by such physical acts as the rending of garments (Gen. 37:34; Job 1:20), dressing in coarse sackcloth (2 Sam. 3:31), heaping ashes on the head (Josh. 7:6; Jer. 6:26), fasting (2 Sam. 1:12), and lamenting with loud weeping and wailing (Gen. 37:34–35; 2 Sam. 1:11–12; Job 2:12).

The body’s burial is so important that to remain unburied is regarded as being accursed (Deut. 28:26). Nevertheless, death leads to a major impurity that comes about through physical contact with the dead (e.g., when preparing the body for burial) or even through being in a home with the dead body (Num. 19:11, 14). Death’s defilement is ritual (not moral) and temporary, lasting for seven days (Num. 19:11). A common Israelite could intentionally become unclean to bury the dead, so long as he cleansed himself with water for cleansing on the third day (after the burial) and again on the seventh day (at the end of the period of uncleanness; Num. 19:12). During his uncleanness he is not permitted to approach the sanctuary.

21:2 Mourning the loss of a loved one not only is validated in Scripture but comes with the promise that God himself will comfort the mourner (cf. 2 Cor. 1:3–4). The Lord makes provision for a priest to mourn his closest family but limits this provision to kin who are “closest” (Hb. root qarab), that is, blood relatives. The biological family includes those toward whom he has formal responsibilities and who also happen to be those with whom he lives in the paternal household—father, mother, brother, children, and unmarried sisters.242 They are therefore “close” in blood lineage and also in literal proximity.

The family household is the building block of ancient Israelite society and the source of all identity and relationships. In the words of one biblical archaeologist, “The family and household provide the central symbol about which the ancient Israelites created . . . the world in which members of that society expressed their relationships to each other, to their leaders . . . and to the deity.”243 These are the very relationships dealt with in this chapter.

21:3 An unmarried sister is still part of the paternal household and a “near” relative. The obligation to care for her falls to the males in her family (2 Sam. 13:20) until she marries and becomes part of her husband’s household (Gen. 24:58).

21:4 The phrasing of this verse may be elliptical, that is, not fully expressing what is meant by the priest “as a husband” among his people or tribe. Does it mean that he may not mourn his wife or not mourn family relations through marriage? Although a wife is not strictly blood lineage, the Bible assumes husband and wife to share the closest of kinship bonds, expressed as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). Sharing flesh and bone is kinship language (cf. Gen. 29:13–14).244 It may be tacitly understood that a priest’s wife is included in the blood relatives for which he may defile himself; otherwise we would expect a clearer negative prohibition. Practically speaking, defilement would be very difficult to avoid; a priest is not immune from becoming defiled by the sudden death of his wife, with whom he shares a home (Num. 19:14).

It requires reading this verse within the broader context of Scripture to understand the exact prohibition. When the Lord commands Ezekiel not to mourn his wife, it surprisingly departs from common practice, therefore making for an attention-getting prophetic parable (Ezek. 24:15–24). The expression “as a husband” among his people or tribe thus likely prohibits the priest from mourning related to family relations through marriage, such as his in-laws.

21:5–6 The allowance to mourn the nearest of kin comes with the restriction of altering the body: a priest may become defiled but not disfigured. At this point in Israel’s history shaving the head and gashing the body appears to be practiced among Israel’s pagan neighbors (cf. Deut. 14:1). Not only are the Israelites to live distinctly from these neighbors when it comes to these practices, but the priests are to take the lead in doing so because they have been set apart to the Lord to offer (Hb. root qarab, “bring near”) sacrifices at his altar. In the same manner a priest is profaned by identifying with a household other than his own kin (Lev. 21:4), the Lord is profaned if the priest identifies with practices that do not belong in the household of God. A priest’s body represents the Lord and belongs to the Lord’s household.

21:7 Since marriage is a covenant union of “one flesh,” the status of a priest’s wife is of critical importance. Union with a woman who has already had sexual relations with another man—promiscuous, defiled, or divorced—is out of bounds. This may reflect the high concern that any children born to the union must be the priest’s own so that they can properly serve as priests (and thus properly enable worship to continue).

21:8 The voice shifts to addressing the congregation directly with the exhortation to guard priestly holiness. Priests are holy because they have been dedicated to the Lord’s service. They are able to move between the worlds of holy and common, sharing in them both and mediating the relationship between the two, but they are always to be regarded as set apart. The congregation is to help the priests maintain their holy status carefully, thus allowing them to continue to serve as intermediaries between the people and the Lord who sanctifies them.

21:9 In the same way a priest must not join his flesh to a prostitute, his daughter, an extension of his flesh and blood, must not become a prostitute. A priest’s family shares in his holiness by virtue of blood kinship and through the holy priestly portions from the Lord’s table (10:14).245 A daughter who profanes her body does more than merely damage her father’s reputation; she profanes him, compromising his own embodied sanctity and showing utter disregard for the Holy One he represents. The only way to cleanse such profaning of the holy is through the same punishment meted out to Nadab and Abihu, that of burning (10:2).

21:10–12 Different holiness requirements between regular priests and the high priest reflect the different spheres of ministry to which they each have access within the tabernacle. Since the high priest ministers closest to God’s throne and personal presence, he must embody a higher standard of holiness. A priest’s body is holy; the high priest’s body is holier still.

The high priest must not dishevel his hair nor tear the garments that ordained him to service, even for father or mother (cf. Lev. 10:6; cf. Matt. 12:48). He must not defile himself with mourning, since the oil of anointing has been lavishly poured upon his head to consecrate him—“precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes” (Ps. 133:2; cf. Lev. 4:3). He shares in the sanctuary’s holiness through anointing with oil and blood (Lev. 8:10–12, 23–24). He is dressed in layered garments that replicate the holy fabrics of the tent’s coverings so that his body appears as a scaled-down tent.246 He is naturally allowed to leave the tent for many reasons, not least of which would be carrying on regular family life at home. But in the case of death his holy status means he is not allowed to leave the tent of the Lord (21:12) to go into a tent to mourn the dead of his paternal household (v. 11); if he does so, he profanes the sanctuary he represents. To remain in the Lord’s tent after the death of a close relative is an act that embodies a statement of allegiance declaring that the Lord is his nearest kin and that the tabernacle is his Father’s household (cf. Luke 2:49).247

21:13–15 Instructions regulating the marriage of the high priest are stated in both the negative and the positive. Negatively, he is prohibited from marrying the women unsuitable for regular priests, with the addition of the widow. Positively, the only suitable wife is a virgin from a priestly family. Since the two will become one flesh, she must present a bodily wholeness comparable to his. What was inferred above (Lev. 21:7) is made explicit now: priestly lineage and the hereditary priestly office must be kept holy.

21:16–23 These instructions are addressed to Aaron as head of his family and chief minister in God’s house. He is responsible to ensure that those with physical blemishes do not “draw near, approach” (Hb. qarab) the altar (vv. 17, 18, 21).

A “blemish” may be understood as a physical abnormality caused by a congenital birth defect (i.e., blindness), disease (i.e., boils), or an external agent (i.e., a broken arm). The following list of twelve blemishes that disqualify a priest from service are virtually identical with those that disqualify animals from being offered as sacrifices on the altar (22:22–25). (A possible implication is that, if the body of a priest is as the body of a sacrificial offering, then priestly service must be envisioned as a living sacrifice.)

The reason priests with physical blemishes are prohibited from ministering at the altar is because doing so would “profane” the Lord’s holy precincts (v. 23), that is, treat them as an ordinary thing instead of as sacred space. But why would such profanation be the end result? While the text does not say, the underlying rationale may be that wholeness is a symbolic sign of the nature of holy space and the Holy One who indwells it. The inner sanctuary behind the veil is the place of his enthronement (Ex. 40:38), and the altar in the courtyard is the place where his fiery presence alighted (Lev. 9:24). Both are regarded as “most holy” (Ex. 26:33; 29:37) because they are places where heaven touches earth. The place of the Lord’s presence is must not lack wholeness in any way. Thus a priest with a bodily defect is prohibited from ministering in the places most directly identified with the Lord’s manifest presence.

While these verses might read to many today as being prejudiced against the physically disabled, the Lord includes instructions here to make sure that these priests are still treated with great honor and respect, especially by emphasizing that disabled priests are prohibited only from presenting sacrificial offerings; they are otherwise welcomed to the Lord’s table in order to feast with him and the rest of their kin from the most holy and holy offerings of the sanctuary.248

21:24 The chapter closes with Moses’ obedience to relay the instructions to Aaron and his household as well as to the household of Israel. While the instructions concern the priesthood, they are delivered before all the people. In the Lord’s kindness the responsibility for priestly purity is shared alike by priests, their families, and all Israel, which will be affected by the priesthood’s consecration in marriage, mourning, and all matters of life.