Laws Concerning Holy Things

Click here to read Leviticus 22.

Chapter 22 deals with the disposition of holy things, meaning the Tabernacle and all of its furnishings. The commandment here was to Aaron and his sons, the Priests, who at times would become "unclean". During those times they were not to touch the holy things. If they did, they would be cut off from God's presence. Notice what would make them unclean:

1. Having a leprous disease.
2. Contact with a dead person.
3. Contact with an unclean person.
4. Contact with a creeping thing.

If they become unclean from any of the above, they shall remain unclean until evening, when they would bathe themselves in water and when the sun went down they would be clean. They must not touch any holy thing during that time nor eat of any sacrifice that would normally be theirs.

Other regulations concerning the holy things:

1. They shall not eat of any animal that dies naturally or is killed by another beast.
2. Outsiders or hired servants shall not eat of holy things.
3. A Priest's daughter, married to an outsider, shall not eat of holy things.
4. If she becomes widowed or returns to her father's house, she may eat of the holy things.

The chapter ends with 2 miscellaneous statutes:

1. The offering for the "payment of a vow" or just a "freewill" offering shall be a male bull, goat or sheep, without blemish.
2. A male bull, sheep or goat shall remain with its mother 7 days to be acceptable as a sacrifice.

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