The eastern gate must stay closed
1The man took me back to the outer gate of the temple-ground, the gate at the eastern side. The gate was closed. 2The Lord said to me: ‘This gate must always stay closed. No person may open it and go through it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has gone through it. It must stay closed. 3Only the king may sit there and he may eat there, in front of the Lord. He may do it because he is the ruler. He must go through the porch into the gate and go out the same way.’
Who may go to the temple and the altar?
4Then the man took me to the northern gate, to the front of the temple and I saw the glory of the Lord. It filled the temple of the Lord. I bowed down and lay with my face to the ground.
5The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, you must look with your eyes and listen with your ears and make sure that you understand everything that I tell you about what you must do in the temple of the Lord and how you must do it. You must look carefully where a person may come in and where he may go out of the temple-ground. 6You must tell the rebellious people of Israel: “The Lord God says: Israelites, you must stop doing all the wrong things that I hate. 7You have taken people, who were not Israelites, into my temple-ground, people who don't belong to Me and are uncircumcised. They made my temple impure when you sacrificed food, fat and blood to Me. You broke my covenant with you when you did all these things that I hate. 8You have not done the work in my temple-ground yourselves. You let those people come into my temple-ground and do the work.”
9The Lord God says: “Someone who is not an Israelite, and who does not belong to Me and is uncircumcised, may not come into my temple-ground. No person who lives among you and is not an Israelite may go in there.
10Only the Levites may come in. But the Levites turned away from Me when they made the Israelites do wrong. The Israelites did wrong when they served their idols. That is why I will punish the Levites for the sins that they did. 11The Levites may work in my temple-ground. They may be guards at the gates of the temple and they may work at the temple. The Levites must kill the animals for the burnt-offerings and other offerings of the people. They may do the work for the people. 12But the Levites were also working for the people when they started to serve_idols. They made the people sin and that is why I decided to punish them. They must be punished for the wrong things that they did. 13They may not come near my altar to be priests, and they may not touch anything that is consecrated to Me or anything that is most_holy. They must know that I have humiliated them for the wrong things they did, things that I hate. 14I will appoint the Levites to work in my house. They must do all the work that must be done in the temple.” ’
The Levi priests
15‘Only the priests who are Levites and are descendants of Zadok may come near the altar to work for Me. They were the priests who did the work in my holy place when the Israelites turned away from Me. Only they may do the work for Me to sacrifice fat and blood.’ This is what the Lord God said.
16‘Only they may come into my temple and sacrifice on my altar and serve Me in my temple. 17When the priests come through the gates of the inner courtyard, they must wear linen robes. They may not wear any clothes made of wool when they come through the gates of the inner courtyard to do their work at the temple. 18The priests must wear linen turbans on their heads and linen underclothes. They must not wear anything that makes them sweat. 19And when they go out to the outer courtyard where the people are, they must take off their priestly clothes that they wore when they were working. They must take off those clothes and put them in the holy rooms. They must put on other clothes, so that the people can not touch their holy robes.
20The priests may not cut off all their hair or grow it too long. They must cut their hair neatly.
21A priest may not drink wine before he goes into the inner courtyard.
22Priests may not marry widows or women who are divorced. They must marry only young girls who are Israelites, or widows of priests. 23The priests must teach my people what is holy and what is not holy. They must also teach my people what is impure and what is pure.
24When people accuse each other, the priests must judge between them as I want and as my laws say. On all their feasts they must do what I want and what I said. They must make sure that people keep my Sabbath day holy.
25A priest may not go near a dead person, because he will become impure. He may touch only the dead bodies of his parents, his children, his brothers and his sisters who are not married. He may touch them and become impure with them. 26After he has purified himself again, he must wait for 7 days, 27and then he may go into the temple-ground, to the inner courtyard to do his work there, and then he must bring a sin-offering.’ This is what the Lord God said.
28‘Priests do not get their own land, but they will have Me. Do not give them land in the land_of_Israel. I will belong to them. 29Their food is the wheat-offerings and the sin-offerings and the guilt-offerings and all the other things that are consecrated to the Lord in the land_of_Israel. It belongs to them. 30The first fruits and wheat, and all the gifts that people bring to the temple, belong to the priests. You must also give the first dough that you mix to the priests. If you do this, the Lord will bless your homes.
31The priests may not eat the meat of an animal that has died by itself, and also not the meat of an animal that was killed by wild animals.’
