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Leviticus 21

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1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and Say to them, He shall not defile himself as·​·to the soul* among his people;

2 but for his kin, that is near to him, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother,

3 and for his sister, a virgin, that is near to him, who has not had a husband; for her he may defile himself.

4 But he shall not defile himself, being a master* among his people, to profane himself.

5 They shall not make·​·bald a baldness on their head, neither shall they shave·​·off the corner of their beard, nor on their flesh lacerate with a laceration.

6 They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for the fire·​·offerings of Jehovah, and the bread of their God, they do offer: and they shall be holy.

7 They shall not take a woman that is a harlot, and they shall not take a profane woman driven·​·out from her husband; for he is holy to his God.

8 And thou shalt sanctify him; for he offers the bread of thy God; he shall be holy to thee: for I Jehovah, who sanctifies you, am holy.

9 And the daughter of a man a priest, if she profanes herself by committing·​·harlotry, she is profaning her father, she shall be burnt·​·up with fire.

10 And the great priest of his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil was poured, and whose hand is filled to clothe with the garments, his head he shall not expose, and his garments he shall not unstitch;

11 neither shall he go·​·in to any dead soul, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother;

12 neither shall he go·​·out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him; I am Jehovah.

13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity;

14 a widow, and her that is driven·​·out, and a profane harlot, these he shall not take; but he shall take a virgin from his own people for a wife.

15 Neither shall he profane his seed among his people; for I, Jehovah, do sanctify him.

16 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

17 Speak to Aaron, saying, A man of thy seed for their generations who hath in him a blemish, he shall not come·​·near to offer the bread of his God.

18 For whatever man he be who has a blemish, he shall not come·​·near; a blind man, or a lame, or he that is·​·shortened, or too·​·long,

19 or a man that has a broken foot or broken hand,

20 or hunchbacked, or crushed, or confused in his eye, or that has scabies, or warts, or a crumpled testis;

21 Any man, of the seed of Aaron the priest, who has a blemish, shall not approach to offer the fire·​·offerings of Jehovah; he has a blemish; he shall not approach to offer the bread of his God.

22 He shall eat the bread of his God, from the holies of the holies, and from the holies*.

23 Surely he shall not go·​·in to the veil, nor shall he approach the altar, for he has a blemish; that he profane not My sanctuaries; for I, Jehovah, do sanctify them.

24 And Moses spoke it to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the sons of Israel.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Moses

  

At the inmost level, the story of Moses -- like all of the Bible -- is about the Lord and his spiritual development during his human life as Jesus. Moses's role represents establishing forms of worship and to make the people obedient. As such, his primary representation is "the Law of God," the rules God gave the people of Israel to follow in order to represent spiritual things. This can be interpreted narrowly as the Ten Commandments, more broadly as the books of Moses, or most broadly as the entire Bible. Fittingly, his spiritual meaning is complex and important, and evolves throughout the course of his life. To understand it, it helps to understand the meaning of the events in which he was involved. At a more basic level, Moses's story deals with the establishment of the third church to serve as a container of knowledge of the Lord. The first such church -- the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam and centered on love of the Lord -- had fallen prey to human pride and was destroyed. The second -- the Ancient Church, represented by Noah and the generations that followed him -- was centered on love of the neighbor, wisdom from the Lord and knowledge of the correspondences between natural and spiritual things. It fell prey to the pride of intelligence, however -- represented by the Tower of Babel -- and at the time of Moses was in scattered pockets that were sliding into idolatry. On an external level, of course, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt through 40 years in the wilderness to the border of the homeland God had promised them. Along the way, he established and codified their religious system, and oversaw the creation of its most holy objects. Those rules and the forms of worship they created were given as containers for deeper ideas about the Lord, deeper truth, and at some points -- especially when he was first leading his people away from Egypt, a time before the rules had been written down -- Moses takes on the deeper representation of Divine Truth itself, truth from the Lord. At other times -- especially after Mount Sinai -- he has a less exalted meaning, representing the people of Israel themselves due to his position as their leader. Through Moses the Lord established a third church, one more external than its predecessors but one that could preserve knowledge of the Lord and could, through worship that represented spiritual things, make it possible for the Bible to be written and passed to future generations.