Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Leviticus 21:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse requires the high priest to marry a virgin.
Read It With
- Leviticus 21:10-15
Track the movement across 21:10-15. When Leviticus 21:13 requires the high priest to marry a virgin, it contributes to this complete claim: The high priest may not dishevel hair, tear clothes, approach any corpse, leave the sanctuary, or marry outside the specified virgin-from-his-people requirement.
Why This Verse Appears Here
This verse requires the high priest to marry a virgin. The surrounding movement keeps that contribution inside Leviticus 21:10-15.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens the case or movement named “The high priest receives stricter mourning and marriage rules.”
- The high priest may not dishevel hair, tear clothes, approach any corpse, leave the sanctuary, or marry outside the specified virgin-from-his-people requirement.
- Office restrictions do not make grief, widowhood, divorce, or mixed family history morally contaminating. That boundary keeps ritual status, moral guilt, ancient description, enduring truth, and modern application from being collapsed.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Leviticus 21:13 does not stand apart from Leviticus 21:10-15; office restrictions do not make grief, widowhood, divorce, or mixed family history morally contaminating.
What Remains True
Requires the high priest to marry a virgin. Within Leviticus 21:10-15, this contributes to the larger claim that the high priest may not dishevel hair, tear clothes, approach any corpse, leave the sanctuary, or marry outside the specified virgin-from-his-people requirement.
How It Can Shape Life
- When teaching Leviticus 21:13, keep the verse inside Leviticus 21:10-15. Hold this boundary: Office restrictions do not make grief, widowhood, divorce, or mixed family history morally contaminating. Apply only the noncoercive truth the complete unit supports.
Teach It Back
Explain Leviticus 21:13's contribution to Leviticus 21:10-15. Name the category involved, what the surrounding verses add, any material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Leviticus 21:10-15 — The high priest receives stricter mourning and marriage rulesSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Interpreters disagree over Priestly and Holiness composition, legal scope, ancient enforcement, kinship structures, sexual acts and rationales, moral versus ritual categories, resident-outside status, and how Jews and Christians should reason from these texts today. Material alternatives are stated without pretending the ethical stakes disappear.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 21:10-15, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 21:10-15
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 21:10-15
Open source ↗