1. He brought me back to the outer sanctuary gate that faces east. It was closed.
2. The Lord said to me, This gate remains closed. It shouldn’t be opened. No one should come in through it because the Lord, Israel’s God, has entered through it. It will remain closed.
3. As for the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread in the Lord’s presence. He may come in and go out by way of the gate’s porch.
4. Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked, and suddenly the Lord’s glory filled the Lord’s temple, and I fell on my face.
5. Then the Lord said to me: Human one, pay close attention! Use your eyes and ears and listen to all that I say to you concerning the regulations of the Lord’s temple and all its instructions. Pay close attention to the access to the temple through all the sanctuary portals.
6. Speak to the rebels, to the house of Israel, The Lord God proclaims: Enough of your detestable practices, house of Israel!
7. You made my temple unclean because you brought into my sanctuary foreigners who were physically and spiritually uncircumcised. When you offered my food of fat and blood to me, you broke my covenant with all your detestable practices.
8. You didn’t keep charge of my holy things. On the contrary, you appointed them to keep charge in my sanctuary for you.
9. The Lord God proclaims: Foreigners who are spiritually and physically uncircumcised must not enter my sanctuary; that is, all foreigners among the Israelites.
10. But the Levites, who went far from me when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, will bear their guilt.
11. They will keep charge in my sanctuary, and they will oversee the temple gates and keep charge of the temple. They will slaughter the entirely burned offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them.