3. Give them the following instructions.“In all future generations, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean when he approaches the sacred offerings that the people of Israel consecrate to the lord, he must be cut off from my presence. I am the lord.
4. “If any of Aaron’s descendants has a skin disease or any kind of discharge that makes him ceremonially unclean, he may not eat from the sacred offerings until he has been pronounced clean. He also becomes unclean by touching a corpse, or by having an emission of semen,
5. or by touching a small animal that is unclean, or by touching someone who is ceremonially unclean for any reason.
6. The man who is defiled in any of these ways will remain unclean until evening. He may not eat from the sacred offerings until he has bathed himself in water.
7. When the sun goes down, he will be ceremonially clean again and may eat from the sacred offerings, for this is his food.
8. He may not eat an animal that has died a natural death or has been torn apart by wild animals, for this would defile him. I am the lord.
9. “The priests must follow my instructions carefully. Otherwise they will be punished for their sin and will die for violating my instructions. I am the lord who makes them holy.
10. “No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offerings. Even guests and hired workers in a priest’s home are not allowed to eat them.
11. However, if the priest buys a slave for himself, the slave may eat from the sacred offerings. And if his slaves have children, they also may share his food.
12. If a priest’s daughter marries someone outside the priestly family, she may no longer eat the sacred offerings.
13. But if she becomes a widow or is divorced and has no children to support her, and she returns to live in her father’s home as in her youth, she may eat her father’s food again. Otherwise, no one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offerings.