Be a widow, or divorced, and have no child. — An exception, however, to this rule is, when the priest’s married daughter loses her husband either by death or by divorce, and has no children; under such circumstances she may resume her family ties under her paternal roof. Having lost her bread supplier, she may eat again her father’s bread. She could, however, only eat of the heave-offerings, but not of the wave-breast and heave-shoulder.
Returned unto her father’s house, as in her youth. — As an inference from these words, two canons were enacted during the second Temple. (1) If thus left a widow without children, her departed husband has a surviving brother, who, according to the law, must marry his sister-in-law (see Leviticus 18:16), and she is reserved for him, she cannot partake of the holy things, though she has temporarily “returned unto her father’s house.” Hence the Chaldee version renders this clause, “returned to her father’s house, and is not reserved for her husband’s brother.” And (2) if she is with child at the death of her husband, and on her return home, she must not eat of the holy things. If the child dies she then is permitted to be incorporated again in her father’s family.