Study Desk

Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool; ye kill them that are fattened: [but] ye feed not the flock.

The weak have ye not strengthened, nor have ye healed the sick, and ye have not bound up [what was] broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought for that which was lost; but with harshness and with rigour have ye ruled over them.

[As] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, verily because my sheep have been a prey, and my sheep have been meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds searched not for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock,

I will seek the lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up the broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong: I will feed them with judgment.

Is it too small a thing unto you to have eaten up the good pastures, but ye must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures; and to have drunk of the settled waters, but ye must foul the rest with your feet?

And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the beast of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell in safety, and none shall make them afraid.

But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations whither they went.

Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye went.

And I looked, and behold, sinews and flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

After many days shalt thou be visited; at the end of years thou shalt come into the land brought back from the sword [and] gathered out of many peoples, upon the mountains of Israel which have been a perpetual waste: but it is brought forth out from the peoples, and they shall all of them be dwelling in safety.

And the side-chambers were three, chamber over chamber, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which the house had for the side-chambers round about, that they might have hold; but they had not hold in the wall of the house.

For they were in three [stories], but had not pillars as the pillars of the courts; therefore [the third story] was straitened more than the lowest and the middle-most from the ground.

for the length of the cells that were against the outer court was fifty cubits; but behold, before the temple it was a hundred cubits.

When the priests enter in, they shall not go forth from the sanctuary into the outer court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister, for they are holy; and they shall put on other garments, and shall approach to that which is for the people.

And ye have not kept the charge of my holy things, but have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

But the Levites who went away far from me, when Israel went astray, going astray from me after their idols, they shall even bear their iniquity;

but they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house, and doing the service of the house: they shall slaughter the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.

And they shall not draw near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to draw near to any of my holy things, [even] to the most holy; but they shall bear their confusion, and their abominations which they have committed.

But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall approach unto me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to present unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah.

And they shall not take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away; but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that is the widow of a priest.