And he said to me, "Son of man, I am sending you to the {Israelites}, to nations [who are] rebelling, who rebelled against me, they and their ancestors, they transgressed against me {until this very day}.

And Yahweh said, "Thus shall the {Israelites} eat their unclean food among the nations {where I will scatter them}."

I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

“Son of man, speak to the sons of your people [who are exiled in Babylon] and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword on a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman,

because there [has been] to you {an ancient hostility}, and you handed over the {Israelites} to [the] power of [the] sword at the time of their disaster, at the time of {their final punishment}.

"And you, son of man, take for yourself {a piece of wood}, and write on it, 'For Judah and for the {Israelites} his associates,' and take another [piece of] wood, and write on it, 'For Joseph, [the piece of] wood of Ephraim and all of the house of Israel his associates.'

And speak to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] taking the {Israelites} from among {the nations to which they went}, and I will gather them from {everywhere}, and I will bring them to their [own] soil.

And he said to me, "Son of man, [this is] the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet {where I will dwell} in the midst of the {Israelites} to eternity, and they, the house of Israel, they and their kings, will not again defile {my holy name} with their fornication and with their offerings for the dead of their kings [on] their high places.

Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Every {foreigner} uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh shall not come into my sanctuary--[not] any of [the] {foreigners} who [are] in the midst of the {Israelites}.

But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok, who cared for the responsibility of my sanctuary {when the Israelites went astray} from me, they will approach me to serve me, and they will stand {before me} to offer to me fat and blood," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

And you are to make a distribution of it, by the decision of the Lord, for a heritage to you and to the men from other lands who are living among you and who have children in your land: they will be the same to you as if they were Israelites by birth, they will have their heritage with you among the tribes of Israel.

It is for the consecrated priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept My charge and did not go astray as the Levites did when the Israelites went astray.