"The list has a brief introduction (v. 1) and ends with the introduction to the next list (v. 16). There are fourteen (7 x 2) laws in the list."244
21:1-6 The priest was not to defile himself ceremonially by touching a corpse except in the case of his nearest relatives. Shaving the head or beard and self-mutilation were practices of pagan priests who demonstrated personal distress in these ways (cf. 1 Kings 18:28).
"As in other parts of the ancient Near East [besides Sumeria] priests' heads were normally shaved and no beard was worn."245
Defacing the human body was unacceptable because physical perfection symbolized holiness. The priests of Israel were neither to appear nor to behave as pagan priests.
21:7-9 The priests' marriages and home life were to be in keeping with their holy vocation.
"Very awful is your responsibility if you diminish your zeal, love, spirituality, by marrying one who has more of earth and a present world in her person and spirit, than of heaven and a coming eternity."246
Priests could not marry prostitutes or divorced women but only virgins or widows of spotless character.247
"However innocent the divorced woman was in fact, her reputation was likely to have been affected by the divorce."248
The bride of a priest could not be a Canaanite or an idolater, but she could be a foreigner. The priests' children were to lead upright lives too.
"The conduct of the family is noticed by the world, and they lay the blame of their [the children's] misdeeds at the door of their parents. . . . They [the children] hinder the usefulness of their father, who loses influence in the eyes of the world if his counsels and walk have not succeeded in drawing his own family to God [cf. 1 Tim. 3:11; Titus 1:6]."249
21:10-15 It was inappropriate for the high priest to uncover his head in mourning since the holy oil had anointed it. He was not to tear his clothes either (cf. Matt. 26:65). He could not marry a widow or a foreigner as the other priests could. He was not to abandon his duties to conduct other business temporarily. He was not to "profane his offspring"(v. 15) by marrying someone unsuitable to his position before God.
