Ezekiel 44

¹Then the man brought me back to the gate that faces east,

⁶Then he came to the gate facing east and climbed its steps. He measured the threshold of the gate to be one rod deep.

¹⁴Once the priests have entered the holy area, they must not go out into the outer court until they have left behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they approach the places that are for the people.”

¹⁷Then he brought me into the outer court, and there were chambers and a pavement laid out all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement,

⁴and the glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east.

⁵In both courtyards of the house of the Lord, he built altars to all the host of heaven.

¹⁰and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

²and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory.

³The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the River Kebar. I fell facedown,

¹In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple.

²Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

²The prince is to enter from the outside through the portico of the gateway and stand by the gatepost, while the priests sacrifice his burnt offerings and peace offerings. He is to bow in worship at the threshold of the gate and then depart, but the gate must not be shut until evening.

²⁵They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?

¹⁹Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁴I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken.

⁵⁴Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. And after they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.

⁹it was eight cubits deep, and its jambs were two cubits thick. And the portico of the gateway faced the temple.

²⁸The appearance of the brilliant light all around Him was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell facedown and heard a voice speaking.

¹⁷When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,

²³So I got up and went out to the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord was present there, like the glory I had seen by the River Kebar, and I fell facedown.

²⁰He also measured the length and width of the gateway of the outer court facing north.

³The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the River Kebar. I fell facedown,

⁴and the glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east.

³And they were calling out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.”

⁴At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁴“Son of man,” he said to me, “look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Report to the house of Israel everything you see.”

¹⁰As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure the plan,

¹¹and if they are ashamed of all they have done, then make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement and its exits and entrances—its whole design along with all its statutes, forms, and laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its complete design and all its statutes and may carry them out.

³²See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

⁴⁶he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.

¹⁹Now set your heart and soul to seek the Lord your God. Begin building the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy articles of God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord.”

⁸Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and enter His courts.

⁹Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth.

³For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

⁹For this is what the Lord God says: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression, and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing My people, declares the Lord God.’

⁹I will make your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or dismayed at their presence, even though they are a rebellious house.”

²⁶I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house.

²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you are to tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’ Whoever listens, let him listen; and whoever refuses, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

⁵And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

⁶But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.

²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair of their temples. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

²⁵Neither you nor a foreigner shall present food to your God from any such animal. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and flawed.’”

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”

⁹This is what the Lord God says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh may enter My sanctuary—not even a foreigner who lives among the Israelites.

¹⁴But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

⁴¹and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

⁷But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.”

⁴⁵Then the man said to me: “The chamber that faces south is for the priests who keep charge of the temple,

⁴⁶and the chamber that faces north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, the only Levites who may approach the Lord to minister before Him.”

³²So the Levites were to carry out the responsibilities for the Tent of Meeting and the Holy Place, and, under their brothers the descendants of Aaron, the service of the house of the Lord.

⁵³you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”

²“Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings that the Israelites have consecrated to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name. I am the Lord.

³Tell them that for the generations to come, if any of their descendants in a state of uncleanness approaches the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person must be cut off from My presence. I am the Lord.

¹I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom:

¹⁷Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

²¹Indeed, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord of Hosts, and all who sacrifice will come and take some pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts.

⁷In addition to all your other abominations, you brought in foreigners uncircumcised in both heart and flesh to occupy My sanctuary; you defiled My temple when you offered My food—the fat and the blood; you broke My covenant.

³Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

⁴“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

⁵Your testimonies are fully confirmed; holiness adorns Your house, O Lord, for all the days to come.

¹¹It will be for the consecrated priests, the descendants of Zadok, who kept My charge and did not go astray as the Levites did when the Israelites went astray.

²⁶Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

⁸Then Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which was to the left of the city gate.

⁹Although the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

¹⁵But the Levitical priests, who are descended from Zadok and who kept charge of My sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from Me, are to approach Me to minister before Me. They will stand before Me to offer Me fat and blood, declares the Lord God.

²²Do not be too quick in the laying on of hands and thereby share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

³¹The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”

⁹Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel and brought you near to Himself to perform the work at the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them?

³⁴However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

¹⁷Since there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for every unclean person to consecrate the lambs to the Lord.

⁴⁵Then the man said to me: “The chamber that faces south is for the priests who keep charge of the temple,

⁶Behold, I Myself have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to perform the service for the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁴Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of all the work for the temple and everything to be done in it.

²⁶So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,

¹⁰Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. On seeing the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction.

¹¹And Uriah the priest built the altar according to all the instructions King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, and he completed it before King Ahaz returned.

³“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?

⁴Therefore speak to them and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him according to his great idolatry,

²³However, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands.

¹⁵Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—

¹⁰Surely the Levites who wandered away from Me when Israel went astray, and who wandered away from Me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their iniquity.

³And they shall attend to your duties and to all the duties of the Tent; but they must not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die.

⁹Although the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

²⁰They will fall among those slain by the sword. The sword is appointed! Let them drag her away along with all her multitudes.

⁶¹Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.

⁷Therefore this is what the Lord God says: I have sworn with an uplifted hand that surely the nations around you will endure reproach of their own.

⁴They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.

²⁸but their duty was to assist the descendants of Aaron with the service of the house of the Lord, being responsible for the courts and chambers, the purification of all the holy things, and the work of the service of the house of God,

²⁹as well as for the rows of the showbread, the fine flour for the grain offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the baking, the mixing, and all measurements of quantity and size.

⁸At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day.

¹¹It will be for the consecrated priests, the descendants of Zadok, who kept My charge and did not go astray as the Levites did when the Israelites went astray.

⁴⁶and the chamber that faces north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, the only Levites who may approach the Lord to minister before Him.”

¹⁹You are to give a young bull from the herd as a sin offering to the Levitical priests who are of the family of Zadok, who approach Me to minister before Me, declares the Lord God.

⁷In addition to all your other abominations, you brought in foreigners uncircumcised in both heart and flesh to occupy My sanctuary; you defiled My temple when you offered My food—the fat and the blood; you broke My covenant.

¹Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

²And the Lord said to Satan: “The Lord rebukes you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you! Is not this man a firebrand snatched from the fire?”

²²There was an altar of wood three cubits high and two cubits square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. And the man told me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.”

⁷By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the table of the Lord is contemptible.

¹²“But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’

⁷But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.”

⁸Then the Lord said to Aaron, “Behold, I have put you in charge of My offerings. As for all the sacred offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute.

⁸Concerning Levi he said: “Give Your Thummim to Levi and Your Urim to Your godly one, whom You tested at Massah and contested at the waters of Meribah.

⁹He said of his father and mother, ‘I do not consider them.’ He disregarded his brothers and did not know his own sons, for he kept Your word and maintained Your covenant.

⁵And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again.

⁸She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.

²⁷For Aaron and his sons they made tunics of fine linen, the work of a weaver,

²⁸as well as the turban of fine linen, the ornate headbands and undergarments of finely spun linen,

⁴³Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die. This is to be a permanent statute for Aaron and his descendants.

³⁹You are to weave the tunic with fine linen, make the turban of fine linen, and fashion an embroidered sash.

⁴⁰Make tunics, sashes, and headbands for Aaron’s sons, to give them glory and splendor.

⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads.

⁴He is to wear the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments. He must tie a linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are holy garments, and he must bathe himself with water before he wears them.

⁴⁰But everything must be done in a proper and orderly manner.

²⁸as well as the turban of fine linen, the ornate headbands and undergarments of finely spun linen,

⁴He is to wear the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments. He must tie a linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are holy garments, and he must bathe himself with water before he wears them.

⁴⁰Make tunics, sashes, and headbands for Aaron’s sons, to give them glory and splendor.

⁴¹After you put these garments on your brother Aaron and his sons, anoint them, ordain them, and consecrate them so that they may serve Me as priests.

⁴Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head.

⁵And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for it is just as if her head were shaved.

²⁰their headdresses, ankle chains, and sashes; their perfume bottles and charms;

²⁰and 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 into the outer court and transmit holiness to the people.”

²⁷Anything that touches its flesh will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in a holy place.

¹⁰And the priest shall put on his linen robe and linen undergarments, and he shall remove from the altar the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire has consumed and place them beside it.

¹¹Then he must take off his garments, put on other clothes, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a ceremonially clean place.

²⁹You are to consecrate them so that they will be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy.

¹⁷You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?

¹⁸And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’

³⁷For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will become most holy; whatever touches the altar will be holy.

¹⁴Doesn’t nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him,

⁵For the entire period of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. He must be holy until the time of his separation to the Lord is complete; he must let the hair of his head grow long.

⁵Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.

⁶They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present to the Lord the food offerings, the food of their God, they must be holy.

¹You are sons of the Lord your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,

⁹“You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink when you enter the Tent of Meeting, or else you will die; this is a permanent statute for the generations to come.

⁷As God’s steward, an overseer must be above reproach—not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for money.

⁸Instead, he must be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

⁸Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued or given to much wine or greedy for money.

²³Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead, because of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

¹⁵for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall never take wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.

⁷A priest must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.

¹³The woman he marries must be a virgin.

¹⁴He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people,

¹¹In the same way, the women must be dignified, not slanderers, but temperate and faithful in all things.

¹²A deacon must be the husband of but one wife, a good manager of his children and of his own household.

⁶An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, having children who are believers and who are not open to accusation of indiscretion or insubordination.

¹If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

²If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife,

⁴An overseer must manage his own household well and keep his children under control, with complete dignity.

⁵For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for the church of God?

²⁶Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

¹⁰You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean,

¹¹so that you may teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has given them through Moses.”

²⁴And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.

²⁵He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

⁶True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

⁷For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

⁴Her prophets are reckless, faithless men. Her priests profane the sanctuary; they do violence to the law.

⁴“Of these,” said David, “24,000 are to oversee the work of the house of the Lord, 6,000 are to be officers and judges,

⁸Moreover, Jehoshaphat appointed in Jerusalem some of the Levites, priests, and heads of the Israelite families to judge on behalf of the Lord and to settle disputes. And they lived in Jerusalem.

⁹He commanded them, saying, “You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the Lord.

²⁶Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

¹⁵in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

⁶³The governor ordered them not to eat the most holy things until there was a priest to consult the Urim and Thummim.

⁸If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the Lord your God will choose.

⁹You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case.

⁴If a descendant of Aaron has a skin disease or a discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything defiled by a corpse or by a man who has an emission of semen,

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them that a priest is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people,

²except for his immediate family—his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother,

²¹Another of His disciples requested, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

²²But Jesus told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

⁵⁹Then He said to another man, “Follow Me.” The man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰But Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You, however, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

¹⁶So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

¹³Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.

¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.

¹³For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,

¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!

¹¹Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days.

¹²He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean.

¹⁰On the eighth day he must bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

¹¹And the priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement for him, because he has sinned by being in the presence of the dead body. On that day he must consecrate his head again.

⁹If someone suddenly dies in his presence and defiles his consecrated head of hair, he must shave his head on the day of his cleansing—the seventh day.

¹⁰On the eighth day he must bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁴Moses then brought the bull near for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

¹⁵Moses slaughtered the bull, took some of the blood, and applied it with his finger to all four horns of the altar, purifying the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it so that atonement could be made on it.

²⁶Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

²⁷Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people; He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself.

¹⁷When they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to wear linen garments; they must not wear anything made of wool when they minister at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple.

³If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the Lord a young bull without blemish as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.

⁴He must bring the bull to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the Lord, lay his hand on the bull’s head, and slaughter it before the Lord.

³³To the tribe of Levi, however, Moses had given no inheritance. The Lord, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, just as He had promised them.

²⁰Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

¹The Levitical priests—indeed the whole tribe of Levi—shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They are to eat the food offerings to the Lord; that is their inheritance.

²Although they have no inheritance among their brothers, the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.

⁹That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.

⁴It will be a holy portion of the land to be used by the priests who minister in the sanctuary, who draw near to minister before the Lord. It will be a place for their houses, as well as a holy area for the sanctuary.

⁹The special portion you set apart to the Lord shall be 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide.

¹⁰This will be the holy portion for the priests. It will be 25,000 cubits long on the north side, 10,000 cubits wide on the west side, 10,000 cubits wide on the east side, and 25,000 cubits long on the south side. In the center will be the sanctuary of the Lord.

¹⁴Every devoted thing in Israel belongs to you.

²¹When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy, like a field devoted to the Lord; it becomes the property of the priests.

²⁸Nothing that a man sets apart to the Lord from all he owns—whether a man, an animal, or his inherited land—can be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the Lord.

²⁹Any male among the priests may eat it; it is most holy.

¹⁴Now this is the law of the grain offering: Aaron’s sons shall present it before the Lord in front of the altar.

¹⁵The priest is to remove a handful of fine flour and olive oil, together with all the frankincense from the grain offering, and burn the memorial portion on the altar as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

⁶Every male among the priests may eat of it. It must be eaten in a holy place; it is most holy.

³⁵We will also bring the firstfruits of our land and of every fruit tree to the house of the Lord year by year.

³⁶And we will bring the firstborn of our sons and our livestock, as it is written in the Law, and will bring the firstborn of our herds and flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God.

¹²I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the Lord as their firstfruits.

¹³The firstfruits of everything in their land that they bring to the Lord will belong to you. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat them.

⁴You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock.

¹⁹and you eat the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the Lord.

²⁰From the first of your dough, you are to lift up a cake as a contribution; offer it just like an offering from the threshing floor.

¹⁰and Azariah, the chief priest of the household of Zadok, answered him, “Since the people began to bring their contributions into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat, and there is plenty left over, because the Lord has blessed His people; this great abundance is what is left over.”

¹⁸He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.

⁸He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, which would make him unclean. I am the Lord.

³¹You are to be My holy people. You must not eat the meat of a mauled animal found in the field; you are to throw it to the dogs.

²¹You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²⁰Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block.

¹⁴“Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

¹⁵And any person, whether native or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean.