Ezekiel 44:1-14

English Standard Version

The Gate for the Prince

44 Then he brought me ^(A)back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, ^(B)which faces east. And it was shut. ² And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for ^(C)the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut. ³ Only ^(D)the prince may sit in it ^(E)to eat bread before the Lord. He ^(F)shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.”

⁴ Then he brought me by way of ^(G)the north gate to the front of the temple, and I looked, and behold, ^(H)the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord. And ^(I)I fell on my face. ⁵ And the Lord said to me, ^(J)“Son of man, mark well, ^(K)see with your eyes, ^(L)and hear with your ears all that I shall tell you concerning ^(M)all the statutes of the temple of the Lord and all its laws. And mark well ^(N)the entrance to the temple and all the exits from the sanctuary. ⁶ And say to ^(O)the rebellious house,^[a] to the ^(P)house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, ^(Q)enough of all your abominations, ⁷ in ^(R)admitting foreigners, ^(S)uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, ^(T)profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You^[b] have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. ⁸ And ^(U)you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary.

⁹ “Thus says the Lord God: ^(V)No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. ¹⁰ But ^(W)the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols ^(X)when Israel went astray, ^(Y)shall bear their punishment.^{[c] 11} They shall be ^(Z)ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight ^(AA)at the gates of the temple and ministering in the temple. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and ^(AB)they shall stand before the people, to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols and became ^(AC)a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have ^(AD)sworn concerning them, declares the Lord God, and they shall bear their punishment. ¹³ They ^(AE)shall not come near to me, to serve me as priest, nor come near any of my holy things and the things that are most holy, but ^(AF)they shall bear their shame and the abominations that they have committed. ¹⁴ Yet I will appoint them to keep ^(AG)charge of the temple, ^(AH)to do all its service and all that is to be done in it.