the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the Lord came upon him.)

Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the Law will be lost from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

Her priests have done violence to My Law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have closed their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am defiled among them.

Then he said to me, “This is the chamber which faces south, intended for the priests who are responsible for the temple;

but the chamber which faces north is for the priests who are responsible for the altar. They are the sons of Zadok, who from the sons of Levi come near to the Lord to serve Him.”

Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separate area, they are the holy chambers where the priests who are near to the Lord shall eat the most holy things. There they shall set the most holy things, the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; for the place is holy.

When the priests enter, they shall not go out into the outer courtyard from the sanctuary without laying their garments there in which they minister, for they are holy. They shall put on other garments; then they shall approach that which is for the people.”

You shall give to the Levitical priests who are from the descendants of Zadok, who come near to Me to serve Me,’ declares the Lord God, ‘a bull as a sin offering.

You shall offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall throw salt on them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

When they have completed the days, it shall be that on the eighth day and onward, the priests shall offer your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you,’ declares the Lord God.”

And they shall not approach Me to serve as priests for Me, nor approach any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed.

Ordinances for the Levites

“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who took responsibility for My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to serve Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood,” declares the Lord God.

Nor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner courtyard.

And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but shall take virgins from the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

And the first of all the first fruits of every kind and every contribution of every kind, from all your contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the first of your dough, to make a blessing rest on your house.

The priests shall not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or has been torn to pieces by animals.

It shall be the holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to serve the Lord, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.

And the priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the door posts of the house, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate of the inner courtyard.

The prince shall enter by way of the porch of the gate from outside and stand by the post of the gate. Then the priests shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate and then go out; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

The Boiling Places

Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests, which faced north; and behold, a place was there at the extreme rear toward the west.

And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, so that they do not bring them out into the outer courtyard and transfer holiness to the people.”

Portion for the Priests

The holy allotment shall be for these, namely for the priests, toward the north twenty-five thousand cubits in length, toward the west ten thousand in width, toward the east ten thousand in width, and toward the south twenty-five thousand in length; and the sanctuary of the Lord shall be in its midst.

It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have taken the responsibility I gave them, who did not go astray when the sons of Israel went astray as the Levites went astray.

And alongside the border of the priests, the Levites shall have twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in width. The entire length shall be twenty-five thousand cubits and the width ten thousand.