Ezekiel 44:5-31 - The People Serving In The New Temple

⁵ So the LORD spake unto me, "O thou son of man, fasten this to thine heart, behold, and take diligent heed to all that I will say unto thee, concerning all the ordinances of the LORD and all his laws: ponder well with thine heart the coming in of the house and the going forth of the Sanctuary:

⁶ And tell that obstinate household of Israel, 'Thus sayeth the LORD God: O house of Israel: yea have now done enough with all your abominations, ⁷ seeing that ye have brought into my Sanctuary strangers having uncircumcised hearts, and flesh, wherethrough my Sanctuary is defiled, when ye offer me bread, fat, and blood. Thus with all your abominations ye have broken my covenant, ⁸ and not kept the holy ordinances of my Sanctuary, but set keepers of my Sanctuary, even after your own mind.

⁹ Therefore thus sayeth the LORD God: Of all the strangers that dwell among the children of Israel, no stranger, whose heart and flesh is not circumcised, shall come within my Sanctuary: ¹⁰ No nor the Levites that are gone back from me, and have deceived the people of Israel with errors, going after their idols: therefore shall they bear their own wickedness. ¹¹ Should they be set and ordained to minister under the doors of the house of my Sanctuary? And to do service in the house: to slay burnt offerings and sacrifices for the people; to stand before them, and to serve them; ¹² seeing the service that they do them, is before their Idols, and cause the house of Israel to stumble through wickedness? For the which cause I have plucked out mine hand over them, sayeth the LORD God, so that now they must bear their own iniquity, ¹³ and not to come nigh me, to serve me with their priesthead in my Sanctuary, and most holiest of all: that they may bear their own shame and abominations, which they have done. ¹⁴ Should I use them to be porters of the house, and to all the service that is done therein?

¹⁵ But the Priests, the Levites the sons of Zadok, that kept the holy ordinances of my Sanctuary, when the children of Israel were gone from me: shall come to me, to do me service, to stand before me, and to offer me the fat and the blood, sayeth the LORD God. ¹⁶ They shall go into my Sanctuary, and tread before my table, to do me service, and to wait upon mine ordinances. ¹⁷ "Now when they go in at the doors of the innermore court: they shall put on linen clothes, so that no woolen come upon them, while they do service under the doors of the innermore court, and within. ¹⁸ They shall have fair linen bonnets upon their heads, and linen breeches upon their loins, which in their labour they shall not put about them. ¹⁹ And when they go forth to the people in to the outward court, they shall put off their clothes, wherein they have ministered, and lay them in the habitation of the Sanctuary, and put on other apparel, lest they unhallow the people with their clothes.

²⁰ They shall not shave their heads, nor nourish the bush of their hair, but round their heads only. ²¹ All the priests that go in to the inmost court, shall drink no wine. ²² They shall marry no widow, neither one that is put from her husband: but a maiden of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that hath had a priest before. ²³ They shall show my people the difference between the holy and unholy, betwixt the clean and unclean.

²⁴ If any discord arise, they shall discern it, and give sentence after my judgments. My solemn feasts, my laws and ordinances shall they keep, and hallow my Sabbaths. ²⁵ They shall come at no dead person, to defile themselves; except it be father or mother, son or daughter, brother or sister that hath had yet no husband: in such they may be defiled. ²⁶ And when he is cleansed, there shall be reckoned unto him seven days: ²⁷ and if he go in to the Sanctuary again to do service, he shall bring a sin offering, sayeth the LORD God.

²⁸ They shall have a heritage; yea, I myself will be their heritage: else shall ye give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession. ²⁹ The meat offering, sin offering, and trespass offering shall they eat, and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. ³⁰ The firstlings of all the first fruits, and all free will offerings shall be the priest's. Ye shall give unto the priest also the firstlings of your dough, that God may prosper the residue. ³¹ But no dead carrion shall the priest eat, nor such as is devoured of wild beasts, fouls or cattle."