Study Desk

"You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken," declares the Lord GOD.

"Behold, it is coming and it shall be done," declares the Lord GOD. "That is the day of which I have spoken.

"They will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will take the spoils of those who plundered them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them," declares the Lord GOD.

"And all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I appear in My glory," declares the Lord GOD.

"Now as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Say to every kind of bird and to every animal of the field: "Assemble and come, gather from every direction to My sacrifice, which I am going to sacrifice for you as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel; and you will eat flesh and drink blood.

"You will eat your fill at My table with horses and charioteers, with warriors and all the men of war," declares the Lord GOD.

"And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God, from that day onward.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on all the house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name.

"Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then I gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer.

"I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD.

In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, and on it to the south there was something like a structure of a city.

and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone from His glory.

And He said to me, "Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: 'These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is built, to offer burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it.

'You shall give to the Levitical priests who are from the descendants of Zadok, who come near to Me to serve Me,' declares the Lord GOD, 'a bull as a sin offering.

'When they have completed the days, it shall be that on the eighth day and onward, the priests shall offer your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you,' declares the Lord GOD."

And the LORD said to me, "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.

"You shall say to the rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: "Enough of all your abominations, house of Israel,

'This is what the Lord GOD says: "No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary.

"Since they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of wrongdoing to the house of Israel, for that reason I have sworn against them," declares the Lord GOD, "that they shall suffer the punishment for their wrongdoing.

"But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who took responsibility for My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to serve Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood," declares the Lord GOD.