“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.”
They must not marry women defiled by prostitution or divorced from their husbands, because priests are holy to their God. The priestly marriage restrictions reflect the holiness of the priestly household: the priest's wife must not be someone whose sexual history compromises the priestly family's ritual status. The prohibition on marrying a divorced woman alongside the prohibition on marrying a prostitute communicates that the priestly household's holiness is maintained through the wife's status as well as the priest's. The priest's family is the priestly community's expression of covenant wholeness in household form.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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