8. And you did not observe the responsibility of my sanctuary, but you appointed them as the keepers of my responsibility in my sanctuary for you.”
9. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Every foreigner uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh shall not come into my sanctuary—not any of the foreigners who are in the midst of the Israelites.
10. But the Levites who removed themselves from me at the going astray of Israel, who went astray from me and went after their idols, as a result they will bear their guilt.
11. Then they will be in my sanctuary, those serving in my sanctuary, as sentries at the gates of the temple and as those serving the temple; they will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they will stand before them to serve them,
12. because they used to serve them before their idols and they were for the house of Israel like a stumbling block of iniquity. Therefore I swore concerning them,” declares the Lord Yahweh, “that they will bear their iniquity.
13. And they shall not approach me to serve as a priest for me and to come near to all of my holy objects, to the most holy objects, and they will bear their disgrace and the results of their detestable things they have done.
14. And I will appoint them as the keepers of the responsibility of the temple, for all of its work and everything which will be done in it.
15. But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok, who cared for the responsibility of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, they will approach me to serve me, and they will stand before me to offer to me fat and blood,” declares the Lord Yahweh.
16. “They shall come to my sanctuary, and they shall approach my table to serve me, and they will observe my requirement.
17. And then when they come to the gates of the inner courtyards, they shall put on their inner linen garments and not wear wool garments when they serve in the gates of the inner courtyard and inside the temple.
18. Linen turbans shall be on their head and linen undergarments shall be on their waists; they shall not gird themselves with material causing perspiration.
19. When they go out to the outer courtyard to the people, they must take off their garment in which they were serving, and they must place them in the holy chambers, and they must put on other garments, so that they will not make the people holy with their garments.
20. And their head they shall not shave, or long hair they shall not let grow; short they shall clip their heads.