The Duties of the Priests
The sons of Zadok, unlike the unfaithful Levites, may approach the LORD, enter the sanctuary, and minister at His table. Their service is regulated by linen garments, clothing changes when moving among the people, careful grooming, sobriety before entering the inner court, and marriage rules that preserve priestly holiness. Access to God in this restored order is both a privilege and a discipline.
B15ut 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. 16They alone shall enter My sanctuary and draw near to My table to minister before Me. They will keep My charge. 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. 18They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They must not wear anything that makes them perspire. 19When they go out to the outer court, to the people, they are to take off the garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and dress in other clothes so that they do not transmit holiness to the people with their garments. 20They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair. 21No priest may drink wine before he enters the inner court. 22And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but must marry a virgin of the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow of a priest.
The priests are tasked with teaching the difference between the holy and the common, judging disputes by the LORD's ordinances, and keeping His appointed feasts and Sabbaths holy. They must also guard themselves from corpse defilement except in limited family cases, observe a cleansing period afterward, and bring a sin offering when returning to inner-court service. Their role combines instruction, judgment, purity, and worship under strict divine order.
23They are to teach My people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to discern between the clean and the unclean. 24In any dispute, they shall officiate as judges and judge according to My ordinances. They must keep My laws and statutes regarding all My appointed feasts, and they must keep My Sabbaths holy. 25A priest must not defile himself by going near a dead person. However, for a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or an unmarried sister, he may do so, 26and after he is cleansed, he must count off seven days for himself. 27And on the day he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he must present his sin offering, declares the Lord GOD.
The LORD Himself is the priests' inheritance, so they receive no landed possession in Israel. Instead they eat designated offerings, receive devoted things and firstfruits, and are given the first batch of dough so that blessing may rest on the people's homes. Even their diet is regulated, since they may not eat what dies naturally or is torn by beasts.
28In regard to their inheritance, I am their inheritance. You are to give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession. 29They shall eat the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. Everything in Israel devoted to the LORD will belong to them. 30The best of all the firstfruits and of every contribution from all your offerings will belong to the priests. You are to give your first batch of dough to the priest, so that a blessing may rest upon your homes. 31The priests may not eat any bird or animal found dead or torn by wild beasts.[’’]