No stranger shall enter into my sanctuary To offer any sacrifice or oblation there, (see Ezekiel 44:7,) nor be suffered to go beyond the precincts appointed for proselytes. The Levites that are gone far from me, &c. Many of the Levites departed from God's service, and fell into idolatry; first in the general apostacy of the ten tribes, and afterward under Ahaz, and other wicked kings of Judah: see 2 Kings 23:9. These, God here says, should bear the punishment due to their iniquity, and be degraded from attending upon the higher offices belonging to the priesthood, and thrust down to lower services: see Ezekiel 44:13. Many of the priests and Levites, who had been employed in the service of the first temple, lived to see the second, as appears from Ezra 3:12. But the descendants of former idolatrous priests and Levites may be here meant; or, the ordinances here prescribed were intended to be standing rules, which were to be always observed whenever such a case as that here specified should happen. Yet they shall be ministers, &c., having charge at the gates Performing the office of porters, or other inferior offices belonging to the Levites. They shall slay the burnt-offering, &c. Shall kill and flay the beasts appointed for the sacrifices. And they shall stand before them, &c. They shall be servants to the people, in performing the most servile offices belonging to the temple. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, &c. They led the people into idolatry, by giving them a bad example. Therefore have I lifted up my hand against them I have solemnly sworn that I will punish them for this their sin. They shall not come near me, &c. They shall not offer any sacrifice at my altar, or come into the temple to perform any part of the priestly office there. So Josiah discharged the priests that had been guilty of idolatry from attending upon the service of the altar, 2 Kings 23:9.
Ezekiel 44:9-14
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.