1. The Lord God said to Moses,
2. “Tell Aaron and his sons: The gifts that the Israelites bring to me become holy. They belong to me, so you priests must show respect for these things. If you don’t, you will show that you don’t respect my holy name. I am the Lord.
3. If any one of your descendants touches these things, that person will become unclean. That person must be separated from me. The Israelites gave these things to me. I am the Lord.
4. “If any of Aaron’s descendants has a serious skin disease or a discharge, he cannot eat the holy food until he becomes clean. This rule is for any priest who becomes unclean. That priest can become unclean from a dead body or from his own semen.
5. He can also become unclean if he touches any unclean crawling animal. And he can become unclean if he touches an unclean person. It doesn’t matter what made that person unclean.
6. If he touches any of these things, he will become unclean until evening. He must not eat any of the holy food. Even if he washes with water, he cannot eat the holy food.
7. He will be clean only after the sun goes down. Then he can eat the holy food because it is his share.
8. “A priest must not eat any animal that died by itself or that was killed by wild animals. If he eats that animal, he will be unclean. I am the Lord.
9. “The priests must be very careful when it comes time to serve me. They must be careful not to dishonor the holy things. If they are careful, they will not die. I, the Lord, have separated them from the rest of the people for this special job.
10. Only a priest’s family can eat the holy food. A visitor staying with the priest or a hired worker must not eat any of the holy food.
11. But if the priest buys a person as a slave with his own money, that person may eat some of the holy things. Slaves who were born in the priest’s house may also eat some of the priest’s food.
12. A priest’s daughter might marry a man who is not a priest. If she does that, she cannot eat any of the holy offerings.
13. A priest’s daughter might become a widow, or she might be divorced. If she does not have any children to support her, and she goes back to her father’s house where she lived as a child, she can eat some of her father’s food. But only people from a priest’s family can eat this food.