Ezekiel 44 - LSB Bible Online

Ezekiel 44

The Gate of the Prince

Then He brought me back by the way of the ^aouter gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut. 2 Yahweh said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for ^aYahweh, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. 3 As for the ^aprince, he shall sit in it as prince to ^beat bread before Yahweh; he shall ^center by way of the ^dporch of the gate and shall go out ¹by the same way.”
4 Then He brought me by way of the ^anorth gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the ^bglory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh, and I ^cfell on my face. 5 Then Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, ^aset your heart on and see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ^bstatutes of the house of Yahweh and concerning all its laws; and set your heart on the entrance of the house, with all exits of the sanctuary. 6 And you shall say to the ¹^arebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^bEnough of all your abominations, O house of Israel, 7 when you brought in ^aforeigners, ^buncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you ^cbrought near My food, the fat and the blood. So they ^dmade My covenant void—this in addition to all your abominations. 8 And you have not ^akept the responsibility of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners as keepers of the responsibility given by Me for My sanctuary.”
9 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^aNo foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary. 10 But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who ^awent astray from Me after their idols, shall ^bbear the punishment for their iniquity. 11 Yet they shall be ^aministers in My sanctuary, having ^boversight at the gates of the house and ^cministering in the house; they shall ^dslaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall ^estand before them to minister to them. 12 Because they ministered to them ^abefore their idols and became a ^bstumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have ¹^csworn against them,” declares Lord Yahweh, “that they shall ^dbear the punishment for their iniquity. 13 And they shall ^anot approach Me to minister as a priest to Me, nor approach any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will ^bbear their dishonor and their abominations which they have done. 14 Yet I will ¹appoint them as ^akeepers of the responsibility for the house, of all its service and of all that shall be done in it.

The Levitical Responsibilities

15 “But the ^aLevitical priests, the sons of ^bZadok, who ^ckept the responsibility of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel ^dwent astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall ^estand before Me to bring near to Me the ^ffat and the blood,” declares Lord Yahweh. 16 “They shall ^aenter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My ^btable to minister to Me and keep the responsibility given by Me. 17 And it will be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with ^alinen garments; and wool shall not ¹be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house. 18 Linen ^aheaddresses shall be on their heads, and ^blinen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat. 19 And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall ^aput off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments so that they will ^bnot transmit holiness to the people with their garments. 20 Also they shall ^anot shave their heads, yet they shall not ^blet their locks ¹grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads. 21 ^aNor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner court. 22 And they shall not ¹take a widow or a ^adivorced woman as a wife but shall ^btake virgins from the seed of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 23 Moreover, they shall instruct My people about the ^adifference between the holy and the profane, and make them know the difference between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in a dispute, ^athey shall take their stand to judge; they shall judge it according to My judgments. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My ^bappointed times and ^ckeep My sabbaths holy. 25 But ¹^athey shall not go to a dead person to make themselves unclean; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may make themselves unclean. 26 And after he is ^acleansed, seven days shall be counted for him. 27 And on the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the ^ainner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall bring near his ^bsin offering,” declares Lord Yahweh.
28 “And it shall be with regard to an inheritance for them, that ^aI am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel—I am their possession. 29 They shall ^aeat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; and every ¹^bdevoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30 And the first of all the ^afirst fruits of every kind and every ¹contribution of every kind, from all your ¹contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the ^bfirst of your ²dough to cause a ^cblessing to rest on your house. 31 The priests shall not eat any bird or beast that has ^adied of itself or has been torn to pieces.

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