Commentary - Leviticus 21:10-15

Bird's-eye view

In this section of Leviticus, the Lord narrows His focus from the general priests to the high priest himself. If the regular priests were to be set apart, the high priest was to be set apart from the set apart. The regulations governing his life were far stricter, because his office was a direct foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people have always needed a mediator, one who could stand between a holy God and a sinful people. The high priest in the Old Covenant was the man designated for that role, but the role itself was always a stand-in, a placeholder, until the true and perfect High Priest arrived.

These verses lay out specific prohibitions for the high priest concerning mourning and marriage. He is not to engage in the customary signs of grieving, even for his closest relatives, because his dedication to the sanctuary of God must be absolute and uninterrupted. His life is not his own. Likewise, his marriage is not his own. He must marry a virgin from his own people, ensuring the purity of his lineage. Every aspect of his life was a sermon, a living parable. These laws were not arbitrary burdens; they were living pictures of the holiness, dedication, and purity that would find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, and by extension, in His relationship to His bride, the Church.

Outline

Context In Leviticus

Leviticus is the book of holiness. The central refrain is, "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). Having established the sacrificial system, God now details the holiness required of the priests who administer that system. Chapter 21 provides the standards for the priesthood. Verses 1-9 deal with the priests in general, and our text, verses 10-15, elevates the standard for the high priest. This progression is logical. The closer one gets to the holy things of God, the higher the standard of consecration. The people were to be holy, the priests were to be holier, and the high priest was to be the holiest of all. This entire structure was designed to teach Israel about the absolute holiness of God and the sheer impossibility of approaching Him on our own terms. It was a system designed to make them yearn for a perfect priest.

Verse by Verse Commentary

10 ‘And the priest who is the highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes;

The text begins by identifying the man in question. He is the "highest among his brothers." This is not a statement about his intrinsic personal worth, but about his office. God establishes hierarchy, and the high priest stood at the pinnacle of Israel's worship. His unique status is marked by two things: the anointing oil and the special garments. The oil signifies the outpouring of God's Spirit for this particular task. The garments were not just fancy vestments; they were symbolic, representing his role as Israel's representative before God. Because of this high calling, he is forbidden from the common expressions of grief. Uncovering the head or tearing clothes were visceral, public ways of showing sorrow and devastation. But the high priest, as a type of Christ, represents a perpetual and unbroken fellowship with God. Our High Priest, Jesus, is never so overcome by death that He is distracted from His ministry. He has conquered death, and the one who represents Him must live in the light of that reality.

11 nor shall he approach any dead person nor defile himself even for his father or his mother;

The prohibition is now intensified. It's not just about outward appearances of mourning, but about the source of that mourning. Death is the wages of sin, and it brings ritual defilement. While regular priests could defile themselves for immediate family (v. 2-3), the high priest could not. Not even for his father or mother. This is a stark and demanding requirement. It teaches us that our duties to God trump even our most sacred and natural human affections. The high priest's consecration to God was absolute. This points us to Christ, who, in order to do the will of His Father, had to be separated from His people in His death. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He entered into the ultimate defilement of death, not for His own, but for ours, in order to cleanse us from it. The high priest could not touch death because he was a picture of the one who would defeat death.

12 nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the dedication of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am Yahweh.

Here is the reason for the previous prohibitions. His place is in the sanctuary. To leave it for a funeral would be to profane it, to treat it as common. The "dedication," or Naziriteship, of the anointing oil is upon him. He is marked, set apart, and owned by God for a particular purpose. His life is tethered to the house of God. He cannot abandon his post. This is a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus. He has entered the true sanctuary, heaven itself, and He ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25). He never leaves His post. His ministry on our behalf is constant, uninterrupted by anything. The anointing He received from the Father at His baptism is forever upon Him. And God seals this command with His own name: "I am Yahweh." This is the final authority. This is the way it is because He is the one who is.

13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity.

The focus now shifts from death to life, from mourning to marriage. The high priest's life was not to be one of sterile isolation. He was to marry and have children, but his marriage, like his mourning, was governed by the principle of holiness. He must take a wife "in her virginity." This was a requirement for purity at the headwaters. The high priest's family was to be a model of covenantal faithfulness, and that begins with the marriage bed. The wife of the high priest was to be as untouched by the world as he was to be untouched by death. This is a clear type of Christ and His church. The apostle Paul tells us that Christ is sanctifying His bride, the church, "that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). The church is to be a virgin bride for Christ.

14 A widow or a divorced woman or one who is profaned by harlotry, these he may not take; but rather he shall take a virgin of his own people as a wife,

The command is now stated in the negative for emphasis. A widow, a divorced woman, or a prostitute are all off-limits. This is not a statement about the moral worth of these women. It is a symbolic requirement for the office. Each of these categories represents a previous union or a defilement. The high priest's wife was to have known no other man, picturing the church's exclusive devotion to Christ. The Lord will not have a bride who has a divided heart or a sullied past that has not been cleansed. He makes His bride new. The requirement that she be "of his own people" is also crucial. This points to the incarnation. Christ took on our flesh; He became one of us in order to redeem us. He did not redeem angels, but the seed of Abraham (Heb. 2:16). He marries one of His own.

15 so that he will not profane his seed among his people; for I am Yahweh who makes him holy.’ ”

Here is the purpose clause. The purity of the marriage protects the purity of the offspring. The high priestly line was to be kept holy, set apart from any hint of scandal or compromise. To "profane his seed" means to treat it as common, to mix what is holy with what is not. This was not about genetic snobbery; it was about maintaining the integrity of the type. The entire life of the high priest was a picture, and you don't scribble on a masterpiece. The verse concludes where it must, with God Himself. "For I am Yahweh who makes him holy." The high priest's holiness was not his own achievement. He didn't make himself holy by following these rules. Rather, he followed these rules because God had made him holy. His obedience was the result of his sanctification, not the cause of it. This is bedrock gospel truth. God sets us apart by grace, and then He calls us to live out that reality in grateful obedience.

Application

So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we must see Christ in it. The impossible standards placed on the high priest were meant to show us our need for a perfect High Priest. Jesus fulfills every one of these types. He is the one anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. He was not deterred by death but conquered it. He has entered the heavenly sanctuary and will never leave it. And He is preparing for Himself a pure bride, the Church, washed in His own blood.

Second, we who are in Christ are now a "royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9). The principles of holiness that applied to the high priest apply to us, not in the letter of the Levitical code, but in the spirit of the new covenant. We are to be separate from the world's defilement. Our grief is not to be like that of the world, which has no hope. Our marriages are to be pictures of Christ and the church. We are to pursue purity, not in order to make ourselves holy, but because God in Christ has already made us holy. He is Yahweh who makes us holy, and our lives are to be a testimony to that glorious fact.