Leviticus 21:4

The LORD gives these words to Moses to pass on to “the priests the sons of Aaron”. The name used, Yᵉhôvâh, is God’s covenant name, rendered “the LORD” in the KJV, so these rules carry his own authority. The word for priest, kôhên, means “priest”, the one who officiated at the altar, and Israel’s priests came only from Aaron’s family. Through Leviticus 17–27 God teaches all Israel to live holy lives, under the command “Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Leviticus 21 then turns to the men who served him most closely, with rules for their mourning, their marriages and the bodily blemishes that kept a priest from the altar (Leviticus 21:17–23).

The first rule is “There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people.” The words “for the dead” are literally lᵉnephesh, “for a soul”. The word nephesh means a breathing creature, a life, a soul or a person, and in this phrase it stands for a person who has died. “Among his people” points to the Israelites around him. When one of them died, the priest was to keep away from the body and the burial, and the verses that follow name the few he might mourn.

To be defiled, ṭâmêʼ, is to be or become unclean. Anyone in Israel who touched a dead body, or was in the tent where someone died, was unclean for seven days and had to be cleansed with the water of separation (Numbers 19:11–16), and the whole of Numbers 19 sets out that cleansing. An unclean person was shut out of worship at the tabernacle until he was clean again. For an ordinary Israelite that was an interruption. For a priest, whose whole work lay at the altar, it halted his service.

Death defiled because it is the opposite of the life that comes from God. The tabernacle was the dwelling of the living God, and death came into the world through sin (Romans 5:12). Keeping the priests from the dead taught Israel, in a way they could see, that the holy God and death belong apart, and that those who serve him belong to him before every other tie. A Nazirite under his vow lived by a similar rule and kept away from a dead body even for his father or mother (Numbers 6:6–7). The high priest was held to the strictest rule of all and was forbidden to defile himself even for his father or his mother (Leviticus 21:11). The closer a man stood to the holy things, the further he was kept from death.

Verse 2 names the exceptions: “his kin, that is near unto him”, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter and his brother. The word for kin, shᵉʼêr, means flesh, and figuratively kindred by blood, so these are a man’s own flesh and blood. “Near”, qârôwb, is the ordinary word for being near in place, time or kinship, and here it means close kin. The father, ʼâb, stands in the list with the mother, the children and the brother, the closest bonds a man has. The list is exact, so every priest knew where the limit lay.

Verse 3 adds one more: “his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband”. The word bᵉthûwlâh means a virgin, a young woman who is unmarried. “Nigh” here is qârôwb again, the same word as “near” in verse 2. An unmarried daughter lived in the care of her father and brothers, and when she died the duty of burying her fell to them. A married sister belonged to her husband’s household, and he would see to her burial, so she is left off the list. The priests of the temple Ezekiel saw were given the same list, “but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves” (Ezekiel 44:25).

These exceptions show God’s kindness. He set his priests apart, and he still let them weep at the graves of the people they loved most. The law that guarded his holiness also honoured the grief of a son for his mother and a brother for his sister. Only the high priest gave up even this.

Verse 4 reads, “But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.” The word behind “chief man” is baʻal, which means a master or owner, and here a man of standing. A priest’s rank among his people gave him no extra freedom. A leading priest had all the more reason to keep the rule, since others watched his example, and his defilement would bring disrepute on the priesthood and on the God he served.

To profane, châlal, is to treat what is holy as common, to dishonour it. A priest belonged to God, so to defile himself outside the leave of verses 2 and 3 would make a holy man common. The English word “profane” runs on through the passage: God’s name in verse 6, the woman a priest may not marry in verse 7 (where it translates another word, châlâl), and the daughter who profanes herself and her father in verse 9.

Scripture holds leaders to this stricter account throughout. Numbers sets out the weight of responsibility the priests and Levites carried for the sanctuary (Numbers 18:1–7), and Ezekiel says the priests “shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 44:23). James carries the same principle to teachers in the church: “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” (James 3:1).

Verse 5 forbids three marks of mourning: “They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.” Baldness, qorchâh, is a bald patch shaved or plucked on the head. The corner, pêʼâh, means an edge or side, here the edges of the beard on the cheeks and temples. Cuttings, sereṭ, are gashes in the skin. The peoples around Israel used all three to show grief for the dead or devotion to their gods, and the rule is aimed at those marks. It leaves the ordinary trimming of a beard alone.

The prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel show what such worship looked like: “And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them” (1 Kings 18:28). The same customs were forbidden to every Israelite (Leviticus 19:27–28), and Moses gives the reason: “Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead” (Deuteronomy 14:1). Here the law repeats them for the priests. God’s people grieved as people who belong to him, and the body he made was to be honoured, even at a graveside. Israel was called to be “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6), and the priests showed that calling in their own bodies.

Verse 6 gives the reason behind all of these rules: “They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.” Holiness stands at both ends of the verse, and the reason sits in the middle. The word qôdesh means a sacred thing, or holiness itself, and said of the priests it means they were set apart from common use for God alone.

God’s name stands for God himself, his character, his authority and his renown. To profane that name, châlal once more, is to treat God as common. A careless priest did that before all Israel, as though God were less than holy and his commands of little weight. The third commandment guards the same honour: “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain” (Exodus 20:7).

“The offerings of the LORD made by fire”, in Hebrew ishei Yᵉhôvâh, are the sacrifices burned on the altar, the burnt offerings, meat offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings and trespass offerings set out in Leviticus 1–7. “The bread of their God” uses lechem, which means bread or food. The law itself calls the offerings God’s food, as when the fat of the peace offering is “the food of the offering made by fire unto the LORD” (Leviticus 3:11). The word is a picture: the offering is God’s portion, which he accepts, and through it he has fellowship with his people. The men who handled his portion had to be holy.

Israel had already seen what happens when priests treat holy things lightly. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire and died before the LORD, and God said, “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified” (Leviticus 10:1–3). In the same chapter the priests are told to “put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean” (Leviticus 10:10). Behind it all stands God’s own word to Israel: “ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44–45).

Verse 7 reads, “They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God.” The first word, zânâh, means to commit adultery or fornication, and figuratively to go after idols, and here it names a woman who has lived as a harlot. The second, châlâl, is used of persons slain and, in a separate sense, of persons profaned or dishonoured, which is its sense here. It may mean a woman involved in idolatry or cult prostitution, or one whose life had otherwise made her common in the eyes of the law. “Put away” is gârash, to drive out, expel or divorce.

Divorce was allowed in Israel under the conditions of Deuteronomy 24:1–4, and a divorced woman might marry again. A priest was held to a higher rule. In Israel a wife’s good name was bound up with her husband’s and with his household, and a divorce could leave questions about a woman’s past that would cling to a priest’s house and his office. The high priest was given even stricter rules for his marriage (Leviticus 21:10–15).

The verse closes with the reason: “for he is holy unto his God.” The word qâdôwsh means sacred, set apart, and the same word is used of God himself, of angels and of saints. A priest’s holiness reached into his marriage and his home.

Verse 8 turns to Israel: “Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy.” The verb qâdash means to make, pronounce or treat as holy. God had already set the priest apart through his consecration (Exodus 29:1–9), and Israel was to treat him as set apart: to honour his office, to provide for his needs, and to see that nothing compromised his service. His holiness was given for the sake of his work, and he did nothing to earn it.

The reason is his work at the altar. “He offereth the bread of thy God”, lechem again, the offerings that are God’s portion. The priests also taught the law and sought God’s will through the Urim and Thummim, but this verse rests the people’s duty on the offerings. “Thy God” is ʼĕlôhîym, plural in form and, when it names the true God, a plural of majesty, with its verbs usually singular. If the priest was defiled or careless, his service was spoiled and judgment could fall on the people, as it fell on Nadab and Abihu.

Then God speaks of himself: “I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy.” The verb qâdash and the adjective qâdôwsh come from the same root, and the verse uses them again and again: sanctify him, holy unto thee, which sanctify you, am holy. The LORD sanctifies the whole nation, and all holiness in Israel flows from him. The priest’s holiness and the people’s honour for him both rest on who God is.

Verse 9 reads, “And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.” The word for daughter, bath, is the feminine of the word for son, from a root meaning “to build”. A priest’s daughter lived in a house set apart for God, and her conduct reflected on her father’s office.

“Profane herself” is châlal, and “playing the whore” is zânâh, the word used in verse 7. Elsewhere it often pictures Israel’s idolatry, as when Hosea says, “they have gone a whoring from under their God” (Hosea 4:12), but here it means harlotry in fact. The law forbade cult prostitution to every daughter of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:17–18), and Israel’s sin with the women of Moab at Peor shows how closely harlotry and idolatry ran together, and how heavily God judged them (Numbers 25:1–9).

“She profaneth her father” shows that her sin was shared in its shame. In Israel the honour of one member of a household fell on the whole of it, and above all on its head. A priest’s daughter who sold herself made her father’s consecrated house common in the eyes of God and the people.

The sentence is burning, sâraph, “to burn”. The law names the same death for a man who takes a wife and her mother (Leviticus 20:14), and Judah had once ordered it for Tamar. Adultery was punished by death (Leviticus 20:10), and a bride found to have played the whore in her father’s house was stoned (Deuteronomy 22:21). Fire also consumed things that defiled the camp. Achan was stoned and then burned with all that he had (Joshua 7:25), and Moses burned the golden calf (Exodus 32:20).

Every rule in these verses points to a priest who needed none of them. The priests of Aaron’s line were many, “because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death”, and they offered first for their own sins and then for the people’s. Jesus is the high priest we needed: “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:23–27). He is our great high priest who was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, and through him we come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14–16).

The priests of Leviticus kept away from the dead. Jesus went to them and gave them life. He took Jairus’s daughter by the hand and she arose (Mark 5:41–42). He touched the bier of the widow’s son at Nain and the young man sat up (Luke 7:14–15). He called Lazarus out of the grave (John 11:43–44). He touched a leper and the leper was clean (Mark 1:41, Matthew 8:3). Uncleanness passed from the dead to a priest, and from Christ life passed to the dead, because he is “the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25).

At the cross he went into death itself. God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), the priest who offered himself without spot to God and by his own blood obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11–14). The LORD of verse 8 said, “I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy”, and Hebrews says of Christ, “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10–14). So we draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:19–22). The judgment that burned in verse 9 he bore for us, and “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Death has lost its sting, and God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:54–57).

For this reason the rules of these verses belong to the old covenant, and Christians are freed from them. Jesus came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17), its ceremonies were “a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16–17), and believers live under grace (Romans 6:14). What the ceremonies pointed to stands in full: God is holy, and those who draw near to him must be made holy.

In Christ every believer has been made a priest. Peter calls the church “an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5), and “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9). The call of Leviticus comes to us in his words, “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). Our offerings are our bodies presented as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1), a mind renewed and unconformed to this world (Romans 12:2), and “the sacrifice of praise to God continually” (Hebrews 13:15). Paul draws the same line from God’s promises to our lives: “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). And the whole church together is being built into “an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19–22), as the tabernacle once was.

These verses show us a God who guards his name, who will be sanctified in those who come near him, and who sanctifies them himself. They also show a God who let his priests mourn their mothers and fathers, their children and their unmarried sisters. His holiness and his kindness stand together in the same law. The priest who serves us now is holy beyond any son of Aaron, and he has wept at a grave and raised the dead.