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¹ Then he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looks toward the east; and it was shut.² And Yahweh said to me, This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, neither shall any man enter in by it; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut.³ As for the prince, he shall sit therein as prince to eat bread before Yahweh; he shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.

⁴ Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked and saw that the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh: and I fell on my face.⁵ And Yahweh said to me, Son of man, mark well, and look with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of Yahweh, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entrance of the house, with every egress of the sanctuary.⁶ And you shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: O you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your disgusting behaviors,⁷ in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant, [to add] to all your disgusting behaviors.⁸ And you have not kept the charge of my holy things; but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.⁹ Thus says the Lord Yahweh, No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any foreigners that are among the sons of Israel.

¹⁰ But the Levites that went far from me, when Israel went astray, that went astray from me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity.¹¹ Yet they shall be ministering in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house, and ministering in the house: they shall slay the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols, and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel; therefore I have lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord Yahweh, and they shall bear their iniquity.¹³ And they shall not come near to me, to execute the office of priest to me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their shame, and the disgusting things that they have done.¹⁴ Yet I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.¹⁵ But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me; and they shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord Yahweh:¹⁶ they shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister to me, and they shall keep my charge.

¹⁷ And it shall be that, when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come on them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and inside.¹⁸ They shall have linen tires on their heads, and shall have linen breeches on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with [anything that causes] sweat.¹⁹ And when they go forth into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they minister, and lay them in the holy chambers; and they shall put on other garments, that they do not sanctify the people with their garments.²⁰ Neither shall they shave their heads, nor allow their locks to grow long; they shall only cut off the hair of their heads.²¹ Neither shall any of the priests drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.²² Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away; but they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that is the widow of a priest.²³ And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.²⁴ And in a controversy they shall stand to judge; according to my ordinances they shall judge it: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts; and they shall hallow my Sabbaths.²⁵ And they shall go in to no dead of man to defile themselves; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that has had no husband, they may defile themselves.²⁶ And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days.²⁷ And in the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin-offering, says the Lord Yahweh.²⁸ And they shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession.²⁹ They shall eat the meal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.³⁰ And the first of all the first fruits of every thing, and every oblation of everything, of all your oblations, shall be for the priest: you shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.³¹ The priests shall not eat of anything that dies of itself, or is torn, whether it is bird or beast.