Bible Strands
Leviticus 21:20
or who is a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses instructs the descendants of Aaron on physical qualifications for priestly service. This list of disqualifying conditions follows the prohibition against broken-footed or broken-handed men in Leviticus 21:19.
The words — The Hebrew terms גִבֵּן (gi.Ben) and דַק (Dak) literally denote a hunchbacked man and a thin or stunted man. The phrase תְּבַלֻּל עֵינּוֹ (te.va.Lul 'ei.N/o) translates directly to an eye defect or blemish.
The thread — This restriction on physical blemishes for priestly service echoes the later prohibition against men with crushed or severed testicles entering the assembly in Deuteronomy 23:1. Leviticus 21:21 explicitly ties these conditions to the exclusion of Aaron’s descendants from presenting offerings.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to recognize that physical defects, while not moral sins, permanently disqualified Aaron’s descendants from presenting offerings. It demands acknowledgment that ritual access to God’s presence operated under strict physical criteria in the Mosaic covenant.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 23:1 No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.
- Isaiah 56:3 Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”