New regulations for worship
1 He brought me back to the outer east gate of the sanctuary. It was
shut.
2 Yahweh said to me, ¡°This gate will be kept shut. No one will open it
or go through it, since Yahweh the God of Israel has been through it.
And so it must be kept shut.
3 The prince himself, however, may sit there to take his meal in the
presence of Yahweh. But he is to enter through the entrance of the gate
and leave through the same way.¡±
4 He led me through the north gate to the front of the House. I looked;
I saw the Glory of Yahweh filling his House, and I threw myself to the
ground.
5 Yahweh said to me, ¡°Son of man, pay attention, look carefully and
listen closely to everything while I explain to you all the rules of the
House of Yahweh and all its laws. Be careful about which men are
admitted to the House and which are excluded from the sanc tuary.
6 And say to the rebels of the people of Israel, the Lord Yahweh says
this: There has been enough of all your filthy practices, House of
Israel.
7 You let aliens enter, uncircumcised in heart and body, to frequent my
sanctuary and profane my Temple when you gave me for my food the fat and
the blood; and you broke my covenant with all your filthy practices
8 when you let them perform your duties in my sanctuary.
9 For, the Lord Yahweh said this: No alien, uncircumcised in heart and
body, is to enter my sanctuary, none of those aliens living among the
Israelites.
10 The Levites who abandoned me when Israel strayed far from me, and
followed their idols, must bear the weight of their own sin.
11 They are to be servants in my sanctuary, responsible for guarding the
gates and serving the House. They will kill the burnt offering and the
sacrifice for the people, and hold themselves at the service of the
people.
12 But since they used to be at their service in front of their idols
and made Israel sin, (and I have raised my hand against them) it is
Yahweh who speaks ¨C they must bear the weight of their sin.
13 They are never to approach me again to perform the priestly office in
my presence, or to touch my holy things and my most holy things; they
must bear the disgrace of their filthy practices.
14 I shall let them work in the House and serve it and do everything to
be done in it.
15 The levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who did their duty to me in
the sanctuary when the Israelites strayed far from me, may still
approach me to serve me. They may stand in my presence to offer me the
fat and blood ¨C it is Yahweh who speaks.
16 They may enter my sanctuary and approach my table to serve me; they
may perform my liturgy.
17 Once they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to wear linen
garments; they are to wear no wool when they serve inside the gates of
the inner court and in the House.
18 They are to wear linen caps on their heads, and linen breeches about
their loins; they are not to wear belts that may make them sweat.
19 When they go out to the people in the outer court, they are to remove
the garments in which they have performed the liturgy and leave them in
the rooms of the Holy Place, and put on other clothes, so as not to
hallow the people with their vestments.
20 They are neither to shave their heads nor to let their hair grow
long, but must cut their hair to a reasonable length.
21 No priest is to drink wine on the day he enters the inner court.
22 They are not to marry widows or divorced women, but only virgins of
the race of Israel; they may, however, marry widows, if it is the widow
of a priest.
23 They are to teach my people what is sacred and what is profane and
make them know what is clean and what is unclean.
24 They are to be judges in disputes; they must judge in the spirit of
my statutes; they must follow my laws and ordinances at all my feasts
and keep my sabbaths holy.
25 They are not to go near a dead person, lest they become unclean,
except for father, mother, daughter, son, brother or unmarried sister.
26 After one of them has been purified, seven days must elapse;
27 then on the day when he enters the sanctuary ¨C the inner court, to
minister in the sanctuary, he is to offer his sacrifice for sin ¨C it is
Yahweh who speaks.
28 They are to have no inheritance in Israel; I myself will be their
inheritance. You are to give them no patrimony in Israel; I myself will
be their patrimony.
29 Their food is to be the offering, the sacrifice for sin and the
sacrifice of repayment. Everything in Israel con secrated by anathema
shall be for them.
30 The best of all your first fruits of every sort and of all that you
offer, is to go to the priests; and the best of your dough you are also
to give to the priests, so that a blessing may rest on your houses.
31 Priests are not to eat the flesh of anything that has died a natural
death or been savaged, neither the flesh of a bird nor of any other
creature.