Ordinances for the Levites

¹⁵ “But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who performed the duty of My sanctuary when the children (descendants) of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” declares the Lord God. ¹⁶ “They shall enter into My sanctuary; and they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and they shall perform [the priestly] duty to me. ¹⁷ It shall be that when they enter the gates of the inner courtyard, they shall be clothed in linen garments; no wool shall be on them while they minister at the gates of the inner courtyard and within the temple (house). ¹⁸ They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments on their ^[a]loins; they shall not dress themselves with anything which makes them sweat. ¹⁹ When they go out into the outer court, into the outer courtyard to the people, they shall take off the garments in which they have been ministering and leave them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other clothing so that they will not transmit holiness to the people with their [ceremonial] garments. ²⁰ Also they shall not shave their heads, yet they shall not allow their hair to grow long; they shall only cut short or trim their hair. ²¹ Nor shall any priest drink wine when he enters the inner courtyard. ²² And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman; but they shall marry virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow who was previously married to a priest. ²³ The priests shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the common, and teach them to distinguish between the (ceremonially) unclean and the clean. ²⁴ In a controversy they shall take their stand to act as judges; they shall judge it in accordance with My ordinances. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed feasts and sanctify My Sabbaths. ²⁵ They shall not go to a dead person to ^[b]defile themselves; except for father or for mother, for son or for daughter, for brother or for sister who has had no husband; they may defile themselves.^{(A) 26} After he is cleansed [from the defilement of a corpse], seven days more shall elapse for him [before returning to the temple]. ²⁷ On the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner courtyard to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering,” says the Lord God.

²⁸ “It [their ministry to Me] shall be as an inheritance to them, for I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no property (land) in Israel, for I am their possession.^{(B) 29} They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering; and every devoted thing (offering) in Israel [dedicated by a solemn vow to God] shall be theirs. ³⁰ The first of all the first fruits of every kind, and every contribution and offering of every kind, from all your contributions and offerings, shall belong to the priests. You shall also give to the priest the first of your coarse meal and bread dough, so that a blessing may rest on your house. ³¹ The priests shall not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or has been torn to pieces.