Ezekiel 44:1-31 - The Prince, The Levites, And The Priests Described
1 And he turned me back the way of the gate of the holy place with out, looking to the east; and it was shut 2 And Jehovah will say to me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and a man shall not come in through it; because Jehovah God of Israel came in through it and it was shut. 3 The prince, the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before Jehovah; from the way of the porch of the gate he will go in, and from its way he went out
4 And he will bring me the way of the gate of the north to the face of the house: and I shall see, and behold, the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah: and I shall fall upon my face. 5 And Jehovah will say to me, Son of man, set thy heart, and see with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all which I speak to thee concerning all the laws of the house of Jehovah, and concerning all its instructions; and set thy heart to the entering of the house, and all the goings out of the holy place.
6 And thou shalt say to the perverse to the house of Israel, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Enough for you of all your abominations, O house of Israel. 7 In your bringing in the sons of the stranger, uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh, to be in my holy place to profane it, my house, in your bringing near my bread, the fat and the blood, and they will break my covenant by all your abominations. 8 And ye watched not the watches of my holy place: and ye set for watching of my watches in my holy place for yourselves.
9 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Every son of the stranger, uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh, shall not come in to my holy place, to every son of the stranger which is the midst of the sons of Israel. 10 But the Levites who went far off from me, in the going astray of Israel who went astray from me after the blocks; and they bare their iniquity. 11 And they were serving in my holy place, reviewing at the gates of the house, and serving the house: they shall slaughter the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to serve them. 12 Because they will serve them before their blocks, and they were to the house of Israel for a stumbling block of iniquity; for this I lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord Jehovah, and they bare their iniquity. 13 And they shall not come near to me to be priest to me, to come near all my holy things, to the holies of holies: and they bare their shame, and their abominations which they did??14 And I gave them watchers of the watches of the house for all its service, and for all which shall be done in it
15 And the priests the Levites, sons of Zadok, who watched the watches of my holy place in the going astray of the sons of Israel from me, they shall draw near to me to serve me, and they stood before me to bring near to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord Jehovah: 16 They shall come into my holy place, and they shall draw near to my table, to serve me; and they watched my watches. 17 And it was in their going in to the gates of the inner enclosure they shall put on linen garments; and wool shall not come up upon them in their serving in the gates of the inner enclosure, and the house. 18 And linen turbans shall be upon their heads, and linen drawers shall be upon their loins; and they shall not be girded with sweat 19 And in their going forth to the enclosure without, to the enclosure to the people, they shall lay off their garments which they serve in them, and set them in the cells of the holy place, and put on other garments; and they shall not consecrate the people in their garments.
20 And they shall not shave their heads, and shearing, they shall shear their beads. 21 And they shall not drink wine every priest in their going in to the inner enclosure. 22 And they Shall not take a widow and her thrust away, to them for wives: but virgins from the seed of the house of Israel, and a widow which shall be a widow from a priest, shall they take. 23 And they shall point out to my people between the holy to the profane, and they shall cause them to know between the unclean to the clean.
24 And upon contention they shall stand to judge in my judgments, and they judged: and my instructions and my laws in all my appointments, they shall watch; and my Sabbaths shall they consecrate. 25 And to a dead man they shall not come to be defiled: but for father and for mother, and for son and for daughter, for brother, for sister who was not to a husband, they shall be defiled. 26 And after his cleansing they shall number to him seven days. 27 And in the day of his going into the holy place, to the inner court he serve in the holy place, he shall bring near his sin, says the Lord Jehovah.
28 And it was to them for an inheritance; I am their inheritance: and a possession ye shall not give to there in Israel: I am their possession. 29 The gift and the sin and the trespass shall they eat; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be to them. 30 And the first of all the first-fruits of all, and every oblation of all from all your oblations, shall be for the priests: and the first of your grouts ye shall give to the priest to cause blessing to rest upon thy house. 31 Every carcass or torn from bind and from cattle, the priests shall not eat.