1. The Lord spoke to Moses,
2. “Tell Aaron and his sons that they must respect the holy offerings which the Israelites set apart for me. In this way they will not dishonor my holy name. I am the Lord.
3. “Tell them: In future generations if any of your descendants, while unclean, comes near the holy offerings the Israelites set apart for the Lord, that person must be excluded from my presence. I am the Lord.
4. “No descendant of Aaron who has a skin disease or a discharge may eat any of the holy offerings until he is clean. Any person who has an emission of semen or touches a dead body,
5. an unclean swarming creature or an unclean person
6. will be unclean until evening. He must not eat any of the holy offerings unless he has washed himself.
7. When the sun has set, he will be clean. Then he may eat the holy offerings because they are his food.
8. He must never eat the meat of an animal that dies naturally or is killed by wild animals. It will make him unclean. I am the Lord.
9. The priests must do what I order, or their sin will bring them death because they dishonored a holy offering. I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.
10. “Laypeople must never eat any holy offering, even if they are visiting a priest or are working for him.
11. But if a priest buys a slave, the slave and anyone born in his household may eat the priest’s food.
12. However, if a priest’s daughter marries a layman, she must never eat the food taken from the holy contributions.
13. If a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced, doesn’t have any children, and comes back to live in her father’s home, she may eat her father’s food. But a layperson must never eat it.
14. “Those who eat a holy offering by mistake must give another holy offering to the priest and add one-fifth more to it.