Ezekiel 44:6-14

English Standard Version

⁶ And say to ^(A)the rebellious house,^[a] to the ^(B)house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, ^(C)enough of all your abominations, ⁷ in ^(D)admitting foreigners, ^(E)uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, ^(F)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 ^(G)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: ^(H)No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. ¹⁰ But ^(I)the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols ^(J)when Israel went astray, ^(K)shall bear their punishment.^{[c] 11} They shall be ^(L)ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight ^(M)at the gates of the temple and ministering in the temple. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and ^(N)they shall stand before the people, to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols and became ^(O)a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have ^(P)sworn concerning them, declares the Lord God, and they shall bear their punishment. ¹³ They ^(Q)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 ^(R)they shall bear their shame and the abominations that they have committed. ¹⁴ Yet I will appoint them to keep ^(S)charge of the temple, ^(T)to do all its service and all that is to be done in it.