¹ Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.

² Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

³ It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.

⁴ Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face.

⁵ And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.

⁶ And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,

⁷ In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.

⁸ And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

⁹ Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.

¹⁰ And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.

¹¹ Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.

¹² Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity.

¹³ And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.

¹⁴ But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.

¹⁵ But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:

¹⁶ They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.

¹⁷ And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.

¹⁸ They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.

¹⁹ And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.

²⁰ Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.

²¹ Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.

²² Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.

²³ And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

²⁴ And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.

²⁵ And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves.

²⁶ And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.

²⁷ And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord GOD.

²⁸ And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.

²⁹ They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs.

³⁰ And the first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house.

³¹ The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,

² "Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and you shall give suburbs for the cities around them to the Levites.

³ The cities shall they have to dwell in; and their suburbs shall be for their livestock, and for their substance, and for all their animals.

⁴ "The suburbs of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits around it.

⁵ You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. This shall be to them the suburbs of the cities.

⁶ "The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to: and besides them you shall give forty-two cities.

⁷ All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their suburbs.

⁸ Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few: everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his cities to the Levites."

⁹ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁰ "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

¹¹ then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

¹² The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

¹³ The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.

¹⁴ You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge.

¹⁵ For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

¹⁶ "'But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷ If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸ Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁹ The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death: when he meets him, he shall put him to death.

²⁰ If he thrust him of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died,

²¹ or in enmity struck him with his hand, so that he died; he who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when he meets him.

²² "'But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,

²³ or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm;

²⁴ then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances;

²⁵ and the congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he was fled: and he shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶ "'But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees,

²⁷ and the avenger of blood find him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kill the manslayer; he shall not be guilty of blood,

²⁸ because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return into the land of his possession.

²⁹ "'These things shall be for a statute [and] ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

³⁰ "'Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die.

³¹ "'Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death.

³² "'You shall take no ransom for him who is fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.

³³ "'So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him who shed it.

³⁴ You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell: for I, Yahweh, dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.'"