The Babylonian Exile

Because they served them in the presence of their idols and became an occasion of sin for the house of Isra'el, I am raising my hand against them,' says Adonai ELOHIM, 'and they will bear the consequences of their guilt.

They will not approach me to serve me in the office of cohen or approach any of the holy things or the especially holy things; but they will bear their shame for the disgusting practices they committed.

Yet I will put them in charge of the house and all its maintenance and everything to be done in it.

"'However, the cohanim, who are L'vi'im and descendants of Tzadok, who took care of my sanctuary when the people of Isra'el went astray from me - they are the ones who will approach me and serve me; it is they who will attend me and offer me the fat and the blood,' says Adonai ELOHIM.

'They will enter my sanctuary, approach my table to minister to me and perform my service.

"'Once they enter the gates of the inner courtyard, they are to wear linen clothing; they are not to wear any wool while serving at the gates of the inner courtyard or inside it.

They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen underclothes on their bodies, and they are not to wear anything that makes them sweat.

Before going out to the people in the outer courtyard, they are to remove the clothes in which they minister, lay them in the holy rooms, and put on other clothes; so that they won't transmit holiness to the people by means of their clothing.

They are not to shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must keep their hair carefully trimmed.

No cohen is to drink wine when he enters the inner courtyard.

They may not marry a widow or a divorcee but must marry virgins descended from the house of Isra'el or a widow whose deceased husband was a cohen.

"'They are to teach my people the difference between holy and common and enable them to distinguish between clean and unclean.

They are to be judges in controversies, and they are to render decisions in keeping with my rulings. At all my designated festivals they are to keep my laws and regulations, and they are to keep my shabbats holy.

They are not to come to any dead person, because this would make them unclean; however, for father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister who has had no husband they may make themselves unclean.

After a cohen has been purified, he is to wait seven days.

Then, on the day he enters the sanctuary, when he goes into the inner courtyard to minister in the sanctuary, he is to offer his sin offering,' says Adonai ELOHIM.

"'Their inheritance is to be this: I myself am their inheritance. You are not to grant them any possession in Isra'el - I myself am their possession.

They are to eat the grain offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings; and everything in Isra'el devoted [to God] will be theirs.

The first of all the firstfruits of everything, and every voluntary contribution of everything, from all your offerings, will be for the cohanim. You are also to give the cohen the first of your dough, so that a blessing will rest on your house.

The cohanim are not to eat anything, bird or animal, that dies naturally or is torn to death.

"'When you divide the land by lot for inheritance, you are to set aside an offering for ADONAI, a holy portion of the land. Its length is to be 25,000 [cubits, that is, eight miles] and its width 10,000 [three miles]; this entire region is to be holy.

Of this there is to be reserved for the holy place an area 875 [feet] square, with eighty-seven-and-a-half feet for open land around it.

Alongside this region you are to measure a length of eight [miles] and a width of three [miles]; in it is to be the sanctuary, which will be especially holy.

It is a holy portion of the land; it is for the cohanim who serve in the sanctuary, who approach to minister to ADONAI; there will be a place for their houses and a place set aside for the sanctuary.

A portion eight by three [miles] will be owned by the L'vi'im who serve in the house; it will also have twenty [gatekeepers'] rooms.