1. Then the man brought me back to the east gate of the Temple area. We were outside the gate and the gate was shut.
2. The Lord said to me, “This gate will stay shut. It will not be opened. No one will enter through it, because the Lord of Israel has entered through it. So it must stay shut.
3. Only the ruler of the people may sit at this gate when he eats a meal with the Lord. He must enter through the porch of the gateway and go out the same way.”
4. Then the man led me through the north gate to the front of the Temple. I looked and saw the Glory of the Lord filling the Lord’S Temple. I bowed with my face touching the ground.
5. The Lord said to me, “Son of man, look very carefully! Use your eyes and ears. Look at these things, and listen very carefully to everything that I tell you about all the rules and laws about the Lord’S Temple. Look carefully at the entrances to the Temple and at all the exits from the holy place.
6. Then give this message to all the people of Israel who refused to obey me. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD said: Family of Israel, I have had enough of the terrible things you have done!
7. You brought foreigners into my Temple who are not circumcised and have not given themselves to me. In this way you made my Temple unclean. You broke our agreement and did terrible things, and then you gave me the offerings of bread, the fat, and the blood. But this only made my Temple unclean.
8. You did not take care of my holy things. No, you let foreigners have responsibility of my holy place!’”
9. This is what the Lord GOD says: “A foreigner who is not truly circumcised must not come into my Temple—not even a foreigner living permanently among the people of Israel. He must be circumcised, and he must give himself completely to me before he can come into my Temple.
10. In the past, the Levites left me when Israel turned away from me. Israel left me to follow their idols. The Levites will be punished for their sin.
11. The Levites were chosen to serve in my holy place. They guarded the gates of the Temple. They served in the Temple. They killed the animals for the sacrifices and burnt offerings for the people. They were chosen to help the people and to serve them.
12. But the Levites helped the people sin against me! They helped the people worship their idols! So I am making this promise against them: ‘They will be punished for their sin.’” This is what the Lord GOD said.
13. “So the Levites will not bring offerings to me like the priests. They will not come near any of my holy things or the things that are most holy. They must carry their shame because of the terrible things that they did.
14. But I will let them take care of the Temple. They will work in the Temple and do the things that must be done in it.