Ezekiel 44:6-9

Ezekiel was to tell the rebellious Israelites that the Lord had had enough of all their abominations, particularly profaning His Jerusalem temple. They had brought unbelievers into the temple, and they had misused the food brought as sacrifices to Him. They had even appointed foreigners to take care of the temple instead of taking care of it themselves.

"The religions of the ancient Near East frequently used foreign captives as temple servants to aid the priests." [Note: Alexander, "Ezekiel," p. 975.]

The Israelites had done this, too. One of the early instances of it took place when they made the conquered Gibeonites temple servants (Joshua 9:23; Joshua 9:27; cf. Ezra 8:20), though there is no evidence that the Gibeonites served as priests. The Mosaic Law forbade any unauthorized person from serving in the tabernacle or temple as a priest (Numbers 3:10). Believing foreigners could offer sacrifices there and assist the priests, but they could not serve as priests (cf. Numbers 15:14; Isaiah 56:3; Isaiah 56:6-7; Zechariah 14:21). In the millennial temple, foreigners (uncircumcised in heart and flesh, i.e., unbelieving Gentiles) would not be allowed to enter the temple proper and probably not even the temple precincts (Ezekiel 44:9; cf. Ezra 4:1-3; Nehemiah 13:1-9; Acts 21:27-31).