Chapter 21 urges the priests and even more so the high priest not to contaminate themselves by improper contact with the dead or by taking improper wives, lest they be cut off from priestly service. In addition no one who was disabled or disfigured could serve as a priest bringing offerings before the Lord. This may offend our modern sensibilities, seeming almost as if God were demeaning the handicapped, but something else is going on here.
