Study Desk

"As I live," declares Lord Yahweh, "surely because My flock has become plunder, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not seek for My flock, but rather the shepherds shepherded themselves and did not shepherd My flock;

‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will seek My flock from their hand and make them cease from shepherding the flock. So the shepherds will not shepherd themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth so that they will not be food for them."'"

"I will search for the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with judgment.

They will no longer be plunder to the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not devour them; but they will live securely, and no one will make them tremble.

But you, O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come.

But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, to which you have come.

And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh came up upon them, and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.

They also will no longer defile themselves with their idols or with their detestable things or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all their places of habitation in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

After many days you will be mustered; in the last years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many peoples to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the peoples, and they are living securely, all of them.

but the chamber which faces toward the north is for the priests who keep the responsibility of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who from the sons of Levi come near to Yahweh to minister to Him."

The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. But the free space between the side chambers belonging to the house

The thresholds, the latticed windows, and the galleries round about their three stories, opposite the threshold, were paneled with wood all around, and from the ground to the windows (but the windows were covered),

And you have not kept the responsibility of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners as keepers of the responsibility given by Me for My sanctuary."

But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity.

And they shall not 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 bear their dishonor and their abominations which they have done.

"But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the responsibility of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to bring near to Me the fat and the blood," declares Lord Yahweh.

And they shall not take a widow or a divorced woman as a wife but shall take virgins from the seed of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

But they 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.

This shall be his land for a possession in Israel; so My princes shall no longer mistreat My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes."