Ezekiel 44:11

11 These Levites are to be servants in my Holy Place. They may guard the gates of the Temple and serve in the Temple area. They may kill the animals for the burnt offering and the sacrifices for the people. They may stand before the people to serve them.

Ezekiel 44:11 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 44:11

Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary
Though degraded from their office as priests and ministers of the word, yet being restored from their sins and errors, shall have a place in the house of God, and do their work there in a less honourable and a more servile way; as in former times, when ministers had sinned foully, and were degraded from their office, upon repentance they were not restored to that, but only admitted to lay communion; see ( 2 Kings 23:9 ) : having charge at the gates of the house;
like those sort of Levites who were porters and doorkeepers in the temple, or like our sextons or pew openers now: and ministering to the house;
employed as the Gibeonites were in hewing wood and bringing water for the use of the sanctuary, or in repairing of it; learning and exercising the business of smiths, masons, and carpenters: they shall slay the burnt offering, and the sacrifice for the people;
not bring it to the altar, and offer it there; only slay it, and skin it for the priests; which is not to be understood literally, there being no such sacrifice in Gospel times; but to denote the menial service and inferior post that such shall be employed in; if they have no trade, they shall learn one, in order to get a livelihood for themselves, and be serviceable to the interest of religion in a lower way; but ministers of the word they shall not be: and they shall stand before them to minister unto them;
either before the priests, whose servants they shall be, or before the people; signifying that those that sin publicly shall be rebuked before all.

Ezekiel 44:11 In-Context

9 This is what the Lord God says: Foreigners who are not circumcised in flesh and who do not give themselves to serving me may not enter my Temple. Not even a foreigner living among the people of Israel may enter.

10 "'But the Levites who stopped obeying me when Israel left me and who followed their idols must be punished for their sin.

11 These Levites are to be servants in my Holy Place. They may guard the gates of the Temple and serve in the Temple area. They may kill the animals for the burnt offering and the sacrifices for the people. They may stand before the people to serve them.

12 But these Levites helped the people worship their idols and caused the people of Israel to fall, so I make this promise: They will be punished for their sin, says the Lord God.

13 They will not come near me to serve as priests, nor will they come near any of my holy things or the most holy offerings. But they will be made ashamed of the things they did that I hate.