Study Desk

when you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you brought near My food, the fat and the blood. So they made My covenant void—this in addition to all your abominations.

Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn against them," declares Lord Yahweh, "that they 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.

"They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and keep the responsibility given by Me.

And it will be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and wool shall not be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house.

Linen headdresses shall be on their heads, and linen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat.

And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments so that they will not transmit holiness to the people with their garments.

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.

Moreover, they shall instruct My people about the difference between the holy and the profane, and make them know the difference between the unclean and the clean.

And in a dispute, they shall take their stand to judge; they shall judge it according to My judgments. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed times and keep My sabbaths holy.

They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.

So when they go in, the prince shall go in among them; and when they go out, he shall go out.

Thus they shall provide the lamb, the grain offering, and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering."

Then he said to me, "This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order that they may not bring them out into the outer court to transmit holiness to the people."

Then he said to me, "These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the Arabah; then they go toward the sea, being made to flow out to the sea, and the waters of the sea will be healed.

But its marshes and swamps will not be healed; they will be left for salt.

And by the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows out from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing."

And it will be that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance among yourselves and among the sojourners who sojourn in your midst, who bring forth sons in your midst. And they shall be to you as the native-born among the sons of Israel. They shall be allotted an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.