and the chamber which faces north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the descendants of Zadok, from the descendants of Levi, who may approach the Lord to minister to him.”

you will give a young bull for a sin offering to the Levitical priests who are descended from Zadok, who approach me to minister to me, declares the sovereign Lord.

They approach him, all the while plotting against him. Their hearts are like an oven; their anger smolders all night long, but in the morning it bursts into a flaming fire.

“When a foreigner lives ¹  with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, ²  and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land ³  – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

These must be on Aaron and his sons when they enter ¹  to the tent of meeting, or when they approach ²  the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they bear no iniquity and die. ³  It is to be a perpetual ordinance for him and for his descendants ⁴  after him. ⁵ 

Moses then said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and make your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement on behalf of yourself and on behalf of the people; ¹  and also make the people’s offering and make atonement on behalf of them just as the Lord has commanded.”

It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of ¹  Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company – just as the Lord had spoken by the authority ²  of Moses.

then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. ¹  She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!” ² 

Saul said, “Let’s go down after the Philistines at night; we will rout ¹  them until the break of day. ²  We won’t leave any of them alive!” ³  They replied, “Do whatever seems best to you.” ⁴  But the priest said, “Let’s approach God here.”

David said on that day, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must approach the ‘lame’ and the ‘blind’ who are David’s enemies ¹  by going through the water tunnel.” ²  For this reason it is said, “The blind and the lame cannot enter the palace.” ³ 

Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers which face the courtyard are holy chambers where the priests ¹  who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings – the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, because the place is holy.

“‘But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok ¹  who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, will approach me to minister to me; they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the sovereign Lord.

It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. ¹