Ezekiel44

¹Then He brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut.

²And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.

³As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the porch of the gate and shall go out by the same way.”

⁴Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell on my face.

⁵And the Lord said to me, “Son of man, pay attention, see with your eyes and hear with your ears everything that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of the Lord and all its laws; and pay attention to the entrance of the house, with all the exits of the sanctuary.

⁶You shall say to the rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Enough of all your abominations, house of Israel,

⁷when you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, My house, when you offered My food, the fat, and the blood and they broke My covenant—this in addition to all your abominations.

⁸And you have not taken responsibility for My holy things yourselves, but you have appointed foreigners to take responsibility for My sanctuary.”

⁹‘This is what the Lord God says: “No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary.

¹⁰But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me following their idols, shall suffer the punishment for their wrongdoing.

¹¹Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

¹²Since they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of wrongdoing to the house of Israel, for that reason I have sworn against them,” declares the Lord God, “that they shall suffer the punishment for their wrongdoing.

¹³And they shall not approach Me to serve as priests for Me, nor approach any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed.

¹⁴Nevertheless I will appoint them to take responsibility for the house, of all its service and of everything that shall be done in it.

¹⁵“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who took responsibility for My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to serve Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood,” declares the Lord God.

¹⁶“They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to serve Me and assume the responsibility I give them.

¹⁷And it shall be that when they enter at the gates of the inner courtyard, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and wool shall not be worn by them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner courtyard or in the house.

¹⁸Linen turbans shall be on their heads and linen undergarments shall be around their waists; they shall not put on anything that makes them sweat.

¹⁹And when they go out into the outer courtyard, into the outer courtyard to the people, they shall take off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments, so that they will not transfer holiness to the people with their garments.

²⁰Also they shall not shave their heads, yet they shall not let their locks grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads.

²¹Nor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner courtyard.

²²And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but shall take virgins from the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

²³Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the common, and teach them to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.

²⁴In a dispute they shall take their stand to judge; they shall judge it according to My ordinances. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed feasts, and sanctify My Sabbaths.

²⁵They shall not go to a dead person to defile themselves; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may defile themselves.

²⁶And after he is cleansed, seven days shall elapse for him.

²⁷On the day that he goes into the sanctuary, to the inner courtyard to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering,” declares the Lord God.

²⁸“And it shall be regarding an inheritance for them, that I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no property in Israel—I am their property.

²⁹They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; and everything banned from secular use in Israel shall be theirs.

³⁰And the first of all the first fruits of every kind and every contribution of every kind, from all your contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the first of your dough, to make a blessing rest on your house.

³¹The priests shall not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or has been torn to pieces by animals.