This chapter firstly deals with how consecrated food in the tabernacle must be administered. Such food, derived from the people's sacrifices, could only be consumed by the priests their families. However if the priest bought a slave he could also partake, but if a daughter married a non-priest she would loose her right to the sacred food. Nevertheless, if she got divorced or became a childless widow and returned home to her father then she could eat again of her father's food.
It was also stressed that the priests and their families had to be ceremonially clean to be able to partake of the tabernacle's sacred food. Such uncleanliness was classified as anyone with a skin disease, a bodily discharge, had touched a corpse, had had sex, had touched creepy crawlies or eaten something found dead. Such unclean people would need to bathe and would be unclean until the evening.
In the case of someone eating sacred food whilst unclean by mistake then he must replace the consumed part plus a 20% fine.
It was again stressed that any sacrificed animal had to be without defect. No animal which was blind, injured, had warts or sores was fit for sacrifice, but strangely a stunted or deformed cow or sheep would be alright as a freewill offering, though it would not be able to fulfill a vow. Animals were not fit for slaughter prior to being 8 days old but mother and offspring should not be killed on the same day.
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