2. Then the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it. Because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it, therefore it shall be shut.
3. As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate and shall go out by the same way.
4. Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the temple. And I looked, and the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell upon my face.
5. The Lord said to me: Son of man, mark well, and see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord and all its laws. And mark well those who may enter the house, with all exits of the sanctuary.
6. You shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, let all your abominations suffice;
7. you brought foreigners into My sanctuary, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to pollute it, even My house, when you offered My food, the fat and the blood. For they have broken My covenant because of all your abominations.
8. You have not kept the charge of My holy things. But you have set foreigners to keep charge of My sanctuary.
9. Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary, of any foreigner who is among the sons of Israel.
10. But the Levites who have gone far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray away from Me after their idols, they shall bear the punishment of 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 to them.
12. Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have lifted up My hand against them, says the Lord God, that they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity.
13. They shall not come near to Me to do the office of a priest to 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.