⁹Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Every foreigner^u uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh shall not come into my sanctuary—not any of the foreigners^v who are in the midst of the Israelites.^w ¹⁰But^x the Levites who removed themselves from me at the going astray of Israel,^y who went astray from me and went after their idols, as a result they will bear their guilt. ¹¹Then they will be^z in my sanctuary, those serving in my sanctuary, as sentries^a at the gates of the temple^b and as those serving the temple;^c they will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they will stand before them^d to serve them, ¹²because^e they used to serve them before^f their idols and they were for the house of Israel like a stumbling block of iniquity. Therefore I swore^g concerning them,” declares^h the Lord Yahweh, “that they will bear their iniquity. ¹³And they shall not approach me to serve as a priest for me and to come near to all ofⁱ my holy objects, to the most holy objects, ^j and they will bear their disgrace and the results of their detestable things they have done. ¹⁴And I will appoint them as the keepers of the responsibility of^k the temple, for all of its work^l and everything ^mwhich will be done in it.

¹⁵But the Levitical priests, the descendantsⁿ of Zadok, who cared for the responsibility of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray^o from me, they will approach me to serve me, and they will stand before me^p to offer to me fat and blood,” declares^q the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁶“They shall come to my sanctuary, and they shall approach my table to serve me, and they will observe my requirement.

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Footnotes

uLiterally “child of a foreign land”
vLiterally “child of a foreign land”
wLiterally “sons/children of Israel”
xLiterally “For if”
yOr “when Israel went astray”
zOr “may be”
aOr “guards”
bOr “house”
cOr “house”
dLiterally “to the face of them”
eLiterally “because that”
fLiterally “to the face of”
gLiterally “I raised my hand”
hLiterally “declaration of”
iOr “any of”
jLiterally “to the holy objects of the holy objects”
kOr “toward”
lOr “tasks”
mLiterally “all”
nOr “sons”
oLiterally “at going astray the children of Israel”
pLiterally “to the face of me”
qLiterally “declaration of”