Ezekiel 44:9–16

⁹Thus says the Lord God: ^q“No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel.

Laws Governing Priests

^10r“And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. ¹¹Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, ^sas gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; ^tthey shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and ^uthey shall stand before them to minister to them. ¹²Because they ministered to them before their idols and ^vcaused ³the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have ^wraised My hand in an oath against them,” says the Lord God, “that they shall bear their iniquity. ^13xAnd they shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they shall ^ybear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. ¹⁴Nevertheless I will make them ^zkeep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to be done in it.

^15a“But the priests, the Levites, ^bthe sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary ^cwhen the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they ^dshall stand before Me to offer to Me the ^efat and the blood,” says the Lord God. ¹⁶“They shall ^fenter My sanctuary, and they shall come near ^gMy table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.