Bible Commentaries

Then said the LORD to me; This gate shall be ^a 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.

(a) Meaning, from the common people, but not from the priests nor the prince, read (Ezekiel 46:8-9).

In that ye have brought [into my sanctuary] ^b 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.

(b) For they had brought idolaters who were from other countries, to teach them their idolatry, (Ezekiel 23:40).

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

(c) You have not offered to me according to my Law.

And the ^d Levites that have gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.

(d) The Levites who had committed idolatry were put from their dignity and could not be received into the priests office although they had been of the house of Aaron, but must serve in the inferior offices as to watch and to keep the doors, read (2 Kings 23:9).

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

(e) Who observed the law of God and did not fall to idolatry.

Neither shall they ^f shave their heads, nor allow their locks to grow long; they shall only cut [the hair of] their heads.

(f) As did the infidels and heathen.

And they shall come near 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 ^g defile themselves.

(g) They may be at their burial which was a defiling.