“Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord.”
Say to them: for the generations to come, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person must be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. The cut off from my presence penalty — separation from the covenant relationship — for the ritually impure priest who accesses the sacred offerings is the most severe non-death penalty in the Levitical system. The priest who ignores his ritual impurity and approaches the holy food is cut off from the divine presence that the priestly service is designed to mediate. The mediator who violates the conditions of his mediation loses access to the presence he mediates.
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