8. And you have not kept charge of my holy things: but you have set others as keepers of my charge in my sanctuary instead of yourselves.
9. Thus says the Lord GOD; No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any foreigner that is among the children of Israel.
10. And the Levites who have gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, who went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.
11. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.
12. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity.
13. And they shall not come near unto me, to serve the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.
14. But I will make them to keep charge of the house, for all its service, and for all that shall be done in it.
15. But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, says the Lord GOD:
16. They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.
17. And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and inside.
18. They shall have linen turbans upon their heads, and shall have linen trousers upon their bodies; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat.
19. And when they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.
20. Neither shall they shave their heads, nor allow their locks to grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads.
21. Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.
22. Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is divorced: but they shall take maidens of the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow of a priest.
23. And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.