¹ Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looks toward the east and it was shut. ² Then said the LORD to me; This gate will be shut, it will not be opened, and no man will enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered in by it, therefore it will be shut. ³ It is for the prince; the prince, he will sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he will enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and will go out by the way of the same. ⁴ Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, see, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell on my face. ⁵ And the LORD said to me, Son of man, mark well, and see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws of it; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forward of the sanctuary. ⁶ And you will say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, So says the Lord GOD; O you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, ⁷ In that you have brought into my sanctuary strangers , uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. ⁸ And you have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves. ⁹ So says the Lord GOD; No stranger , uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, will enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel. ¹⁰ And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they will even bear their iniquity. ¹¹ Yet they will be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they will kill the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, says the Lord GOD, and they will bear their iniquity. ¹³ And they will not come near to me, to do the office of a priest to me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they will bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. ¹⁴ But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service of it, and for all that will be done in it. ¹⁵ 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 will come near to me to minister to me, and they will stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord GOD ¹⁶ They will enter into my sanctuary, and they will come near to my table, to minister to me, and they will keep my charge. ¹⁷ And it will come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they will be clothed with linen garments; and no wool will come on them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. ¹⁸ They will have linen bonnets on their heads, and will have linen breeches on their loins; they will not gird themselves with any thing that causes sweat. ¹⁹ And when they go forward into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they will put off their garments in which they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they will put on other garments; and they will not sanctify the people with their garments. ²⁰ Neither will they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they will only poll their heads. ²¹ Neither will any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court. ²² Neither will they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they will take young women of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before. ²³ And they will teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. ²⁴ And in controversy they will stand in judgment and they will judge it according to my judgments: and they will keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies and they will holy my sabbaths. ²⁵ And they will come at no dead person 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 will reckon to him seven days. ²⁷ And in the day that he goes into the sanctuary, to the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he will offer his sin offering, says the Lord GOD. ²⁸ And it will be to them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance: and you will give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession. ²⁹ They will eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every dedicated thing in Israel will be theirs. ³⁰ And the first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, will be the priest's: you will also give to the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in your house. ³¹ The priests will not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.