1. The Lord said to Moses,
2. “Tell Aaron and his sons: ‘The people of Israel will give offerings to me. These offerings are holy, and they are mine, so you must respect them to show that you respect my holy name. I am the Lord.’
3. Say to them: ‘If any one of your descendants from now on is unclean and comes near the offerings that the Israelites made holy for me, that person must be cut off from appearing before me. I am the Lord.
4. “ ‘If one of Aaron’s descendants has a harmful skin disease, or if he discharges a body fluid, he cannot eat the holy offerings until he becomes clean. He could also become unclean from touching a dead body, from his own semen,
5. from touching any unclean crawling animal, or from touching an unclean person (no matter what made the person unclean).
6. Anyone who touches those things will become unclean until evening. That person must not eat the holy offerings unless he washes with water.
7. He will be clean only after the sun goes down. Then he may eat the holy offerings; the offerings are his food.
8. “ ‘If a priest finds an animal that died by itself or that was killed by some other animal, he must not eat it. If he does, he will become unclean. I am the Lord.
9. “ ‘If the priests keep all the rules I have given, they will not become guilty; if they are careful, they will not die. I am the Lord who has made them holy.
10. Only people in a priest’s family may eat the holy offering. A visitor staying with the priest or a hired worker must not eat it.
11. But if the priest buys a slave with his own money, that slave may eat the holy offerings; slaves who were born in his house may also eat his food.