441 And he took me back to the outer doorway of the holy place, looking to the east; and it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, This doorway is to be shut, it is not to be open, and no man is to go in by it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has gone in by it; and it is to be shut. 3 But the ruler will be seated there to take his food before the Lord; he will go in by the covered way to the door, and will come out by the same way.

4 And he took me to the north doorway in front of the house; and, looking, I saw that the house of the Lord was full of the glory of the Lord; and I went down on my face. 5 And the Lord said to me, Son of man, take to heart, and let your eyes see and your ears be open to everything I say to you about all the rules of the house of the Lord and all its laws; and take note of the ways into the house and all the ways out of the holy place. 6 And say to the uncontrolled children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: O you children of Israel, let it be enough for you, among the disgusting things which you have done, 7 To have let men from strange lands, without circumcision of heart or flesh, come into my holy place, making my house unclean; and to have made the offering of my food, even the fat and the blood; and in addition to all your disgusting ways, you have let my agreement be broken. 8 And you have not taken care of my holy things; but you have put them as keepers to take care of my work in my holy place. 9 For this cause the Lord has said, No man from a strange land, without circumcision of heart and flesh, of all those who are living among the children of Israel, is to come into my holy place.

10 But as for the Levites, who went far from me, when Israel went out of the right way, turning away from me to go after their images; their punishment will come on them. 11 But they may be caretakers in my holy place, and overseers at the doors of the house, doing the work of the house: they will put to death the burned offering and the beasts offered for the people, and they will take their place before them as their servants. 12 Because they did this work for them before their images, and became a cause of sin to the children of Israel; for this cause my hand has been lifted up against them, says the Lord, and their punishment will be on them. 13 And they will not come near me to do the work of priests to me, or come near any of my holy things, or the things which are most holy: but their shame will be on them, and the punishment for the disgusting things which they have done. 14 But I will make them responsible for the care of the house and all its work and everything which is done in it. 15 But as for the priests, the sons of Zadok, who took care of my holy place when the children of Israel were turned away from me, they are to come near me to do my work, they will take their places before me, offering to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord; 16 They are to come into my holy place and they are to come near to my table, to do my work and have the care of my house.

17 And when they come in by the doorways of the inner square, they are to be clothed in linen robes; there is to be no wool on them while they are doing my work in the doorway of the inner square and inside the house. 18 They are to have linen head-dresses on their heads and linen trousers on their legs, and they are to have nothing round them to make their skin wet with heat. 19 And when they go out into the outer square to the people, they are to take off the robes in which they do the work of priests, and put them away in the holy rooms, and put on other clothing, so that the people may not be made holy by their robes. 20 They are not to have all the hair cut off their heads, and they are not to let their hair get long, but they are to have the ends of their hair cut. 21 The priests are not to take wine when they go into the inner square. 22 And they are not to take as wives any widow or woman whose husband has put her away: but they may take virgins of the seed of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 23 And they are to make clear to my people the division between what is holy and what is common, and to give them the knowledge of what is clean and what is unclean. 24 In any cause, they are to be in the position of judges, judging in harmony with my decisions: they are to keep my laws and my rules in all my fixed feasts; and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy. 25 They are not to come near any dead person so as to become unclean: but for a father or mother or son or daughter or brother or for a sister who has no husband, they may make themselves unclean. 26 And after he has been made clean, seven days are to be numbered for him. 27 And on the day when he goes into the inner square, to do the work of the holy place, he is to make his sin-offering, says the Lord. 28 And they are to have no heritage; I am their heritage: you are to give them no property in Israel; I am their property. 29 Their food is to be the meal offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error; and everything given specially to the Lord in Israel will be theirs. 30 And the best of all the first-fruits of everything, and every offering which is lifted up of all your offerings, will be for the priests: and you are to give the priest the first of your bread-making, so causing a blessing to come on your house. 31 The priests may not take for food any bird or beast which has come to a natural death or whose death has been caused by another animal.

31 And he said to me, Son of man, take this roll for your food, and go and say my words to the children of Israel. 2 And, on my opening my mouth, he made me take the roll as food. 3 And he said to me, Son of man, let your stomach make a meal of it and let your inside be full of this roll which I am giving you. Then I took it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth. 4 And he said to me, Son of man, go now to the children of Israel, and say my words to them. 5 For you are not sent to a people whose talk is strange and whose language is hard, but to the children of Israel; 6 Not to a number of peoples whose talk is strange and whose language is hard and whose words are not clear to you. Truly, if I sent you to them they would give ear to you. 7 But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart. 8 See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your brow hard against their brows. 9 Like a diamond harder than rock I have made your brow: have no fear of them and do not be overcome by their looks, for they are an uncontrolled people. 10 Then he said to me, Son of man, take into your heart all my words which I am about to say to you, and let your ears be open to them. 11 And go now to those who have been taken away as prisoners, to the children of your people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said; if they give ear or if they do not. 12 Then I was lifted up by the wind, and at my back the sound of a great rushing came to my ears when the glory of the Lord was lifted up from his place. 13 And there was the sound of the wings of the living beings touching one another, and the sound of the wheels at their side, the sound of a great rushing. 14 And the wind, lifting me up, took me away: and I went in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong on me. 15 Then I came to those who had been taken away as prisoners, who were at Telabib by the river Chebar, and I was seated among them full of wonder for seven days.

A Watchman to Israel

16 And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the children of Israel: so give ear to the word of my mouth, and give them word from me of their danger. 18 When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; and you give him no word of it and say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his evil way, so that he may be safe; that same evil man will come to death in his evil-doing; but I will make you responsible for his blood. 19 But if you give the evil-doer word of his danger, and he is not turned from his sin or from his evil way, death will overtake him in his evil-doing; but your life will be safe. 20 Again, when an upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, and I put a cause of falling in his way, death will overtake him: because you have given him no word of his danger, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, and there will be no memory of the upright acts which he has done; but I will make you responsible for his blood. 21 But if you say to the upright man that he is not to do evil, he will certainly keep his life because he took note of your word; and your life will be safe.

The Prophet Made Dumb

22 And the hand of the Lord was on me there; and he said, Get up and go out into the valley and there I will have talk with you. 23 Then I got up and went out into the valley; and I saw the glory of the Lord resting there as I had seen it by the river Chebar; and I went down on my face. 24 Then the spirit came into me and put me on my feet; and he had talk with me and said to me, Go and keep yourself shut up inside your house. 25 But see, O son of man, I will put bands on you, prisoning you in them, and you will not go out among them: 26 And I will make your tongue fixed to the roof of your mouth, so that you have no voice and may not make protests to them: for they are an uncontrolled people. 27 But when I have talk with you I will make your mouth open, and you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Let the hearer give ear; and as for him who will not, let him keep his ears shut: for they are an uncontrolled people.