4
Then he brought me through the north gate to the front of the house. I looked, saw ADONAI's glory filling the house of ADONAI, and fell on my face.
5
ADONAI said to me, "Human being, pay attention; see with your eyes and hear with your ears everything I tell you about all the regulations of ADONAI's house and about all its Torah; pay attention to who can enter the house and who must be excluded from the sanctuary.
6
You are to tell the rebels, the house of Isra'el, that this is what Adonai ELOHIM says: 'House of Isra'el, enough of all your disgusting practices!
7
You brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary and profane it - yes, my house - when you offered my food, the fat and the blood; thus in addition to all your disgusting practices, they broke my covenant.
8
Instead of taking care of my holy things yourselves, you have put these people in charge of my sanctuary.'
9
Here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: 'No foreigner, uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, is to enter my sanctuary - no foreigner living among the people of Isra'el.
10
"'Rather, the L'vi'im, who went far away from me when Isra'el went astray, going astray after their idols - they will bear the consequences of their guilt,
11
but they are to serve in my sanctuary. They will have charge of the gates of the house and of serving in the house; they will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people; and they will attend and serve them.
12
Because they served them in the presence of their idols and became an occasion of sin for the house of Isra'el, I am raising my hand against them,' says Adonai ELOHIM, 'and they will bear the consequences of their guilt.
13
They will not approach me to serve me in the office of cohen or approach any of the holy things or the especially holy things; but they will bear their shame for the disgusting practices they committed.
14
Yet I will put them in charge of the house and all its maintenance and everything to be done in it.