Ezekiel 44:9–16

⁹“Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. ¹⁰But the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols when Israel went astray, shall bear their punishment.^{* 11}They shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple and serving in the temple; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall attend on them and serve them.^{* 12}Because they ministered to them before their idols and made the house of Israel stumble into iniquity, therefore I have sworn concerning them, says the Lord God, that they shall bear their punishment.^{* 13}They shall not come near to me, to serve me as priest, nor come near any of my sacred offerings, the things that are most sacred, but they shall bear their shame and the consequences of the abominations that they have committed.^{* 14}Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, to do all its chores, all that is to be done in it.^*

The Levitical Priests

¹⁵“But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me, and they shall attend me to offer me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God.^{* 16}It is they who shall enter my sanctuary; it is they who shall approach my table to minister to me, and they shall keep my charge.