“Say to Aaron, ‘For the generations to come, none of your descendants who has a physical defect may approach to offer the food of his God.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Say to Aaron, ‘None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect may approach to offer the bread of his God.
- KJV Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
- NKJV “Speak to Aaron, saying: ‘No man of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his God.
- NASB “Speak to Aaron, saying, ‘None of your descendants throughout their generations who has an impairment shall approach to offer the food of his God.
- NLT “Give the following instructions to Aaron: In all future generations, none of your descendants who has any defect will qualify to offer food to his God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
No descendant of Aaron with a physical defect may offer the bread of his God. The priest who served at the altar was to symbolize wholeness and perfection.
Overview
This regulation concerned ritual fitness to serve, not personal worth or salvation, for such priests still ate the holy food (v. 22). The requirement of physical wholeness pointed to the perfection befitting God's holy service. It anticipates the unblemished High Priest, Jesus, who is perfect in every way and offers Himself as the spotless sacrifice (Heb. 7:26-28; 1 Pet. 1:19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Lev 10:3Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when He said: ‘To those who come near Me I will show My holiness, and in the sight of all the people I will reveal My glory.’” But Aaron remained silent.
- Ps 65:4Blessed is the one You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts! We are filled with the goodness of Your house, the holiness of Your temple.
- Num 16:5Then he said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the LORD will reveal who belongs to Him and who is holy, and He will bring that person near to Himself. The one He chooses, He will bring near to Himself.
- Lev 21:21No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall approach to present the offerings made by fire to the LORD. Since he has a defect, he is not to come near to offer the food of his God.
- 1 Tim 3:2An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
- Lev 22:20–25You must not present anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.
- 1 Th 2:10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed.
- Heb 7:26Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
- Lev 3:16Then the priest is to burn the food on the altar as an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the LORD’s.
- Lev 3:11Then the priest is to burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
- Lev 21:6They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present to the LORD the offerings made by fire, the food of their God, they must be holy.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 21:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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