Ezekiel gives special injunctions to the priests. They are to perform the lioly service, clothed in linen, not in wool, in order to avoid sweat (44"'). This official dress they are to put otl' when they go or.t to the outer court, that they may not sanctity the people with their holy garments (v."). In like manner, in order to avoid sanctifying the people, it is enacted that the priests are to boil the guilt- oti'ering and tlie sin-oiVering and to bake the minhdh in chambers of the inner court, but not to bring them into the outer court (46""). Their hair they are neither to let grow long nor to shave off, but to cut; when they go into the inner court they may not drink wine (44™'-). They may not marry a divorced woman, but only a virgin of the hou.se of Israel or the widow of a priest (v.*-). They are not to defiie themselves with dead bodies except in the case of the nearest relations ; in the event of such defilement the priest is not to be allowed to enter the inner court and present his sin-offering till the seventh day after his purification (v.^"'). An injunction, which was indeed of general application (cf. Ex 22-''°), is addressed with special emphasis to the priests, namely that they are not to eat of animals that have died of themselves or been torn (v."). Amongst the functions assimed to the priests, besides the oil'ering of sacrifice, there is the instruction of the people in the difference between holy and iirofano, clean and unclean, as well as the givin" of judicial decisions (v.'-'"-).
The principle alreadj' laid down in Dt, and re- peated by Ezekiel, that the priests are to have no inheritance in the land of Israel, that Jahwch is their inheritance (44-*), is not carried through consistently by Ezekiel. He assigns to the priests the land immediately surrounding the temple, as a holy tiriimdh or ' portion ' to dwell on (4,')"'- 48'"''-) ; the Levites receive the district toucliing on the priests' land (45° 48"). The land of the priests and Levites is an inalienable possession (48"). Be- sides this the priests have, as in Dt, but after a dilVerent arrangement, definite portions assigned them of the sacrifices and sacred gifts. The iiiin- fydh, the sinolVering and the guilt-oflering they have to consume in the chamliers of Mie teiiiple (42" 44*"). Every ' devoted thing' in Israel falls
to them (44^), and, in the case of the consecrated gifts, the best (the rc'shith) of all tlie first-fruits of everything, and of every heave-otlering (tiru- mdh), of everything of all heave-oll'erings, along with which special mention is made, further, oi tlie best (the rc'shith.) of the dough (44»"). By the lieaveoff'erin'' appears to be meant vegetable proiluots of the land, along with the first-fruits already mentioned. Of the heave-ofVering also only the re'skUh is a.ssigned to the priest. What is to be done with the rest is not indicated, per- ha]is it goes to the State (Gesch. p. 126 f.).
7. The Priesthood from Ezekiel to Ezra. — Ezekiel's ordinances were of an ideal character, calculated upon a hoped - for restoration of the theocracy. During the Exile, when there was no holy service performed, we learn nothing about the condition of the priestly arrangements. Only Deutero-Isaiali speaks of ' holy princes ' (43^), by which probably priest-princes are meant, and in that case a priestliood organized in different grades is jiresupposed, such as we make acquaintance with in Kings. A propliet \vriting in the period after the Ketum, wlio appears to have belonged to the school of Deutero-Lsaiah, but can scarcely have been identical with him, rises to the broail-minded expectation that Jahweh in the future will take to Himself even Gentiles ' for priests, for Levites ' (Is Gt)-', where read D'l'?^ D':nj) ; see Gesch. p. 249 f. ). Whether the prophet understands the terms ' priests ' and ' Levites ' to be identical in mean- ing, or distinguishes between tliem (so, recently, again. Van Hoonacker, Snccrdoce, etc. p. 206 fi'.), is not perfectly clear ; but the probabUity is that the two terms are regarded as equivalent, as other- wise there would be an anti-climax in the order ' priests, Levites.' The statement assumes the simplest character if one emends (with Kuenen, Duhm [ad loc.}, Kittel [adloc.'}, and Cheyne [Introd. to the Book of Isaiah, London, 1895, p. 377]) O'm'i) C'.i^' for Levite priests.'
From the post-exilic community we have authen- tic information about the condition of the priest- hood, first of all from Haggai and Zecliariah in the second jear of king Darius (Hystaspis), B.C. 520. Both these prophets speak of Josliua, the head of the priestly body, as ' high priest ' {ha- kOhen ha-aadvl. Hag !'• '". », Zee V-" al.), a designa- tion of which we have found hitherto only isolated occurrences in Kings, without having any guarantee from these that we are entitled to look upon it as a pre-exilic title. When, in the vision of Zeihariah, the Satan accuses the high priest, his comjilaint is repelled by tlie angel of Jaliweh, in the name of Jahweh ' wlio has tliosen Jerusalem ' (Zee 3-'). The high priest then is clearly viewed as the represen- tative of Jerusalem, and thus, in all probability, of the whole community. Without the liigh priest, Zechariah cannot portray the consummation of all things under the Zemah, i.e. the Messiah. He thinks of a priest as standing on the right (LXX) of the future king (G"). In another passage in this same prophet, the Messiah himself appears to be rei>resente<l as in possession of priestly preroga- tives, when it is said of Joshua and his companions, i.e. tlie rest of the priests, that they are ' men ot the sign,' in allusion to the coming of i\\c /.cmoh, under whom tlie sin of the land is to be taken away in one day (:!"'■). To Joshua the promise is made that, if he will walk in Jahweh's ways and kee]i His charge, he sliall judge Jahweh's house (i.e. Israel ; tudin wouKl scarcely be used of the management of the temple [Wellliausen, Nowack], although the tenijile ajipears to suit better the mention of 'courts' in the same context), keep His court«, and have a place to walk among those who stand befiire ( lod (:t'). Joshua is thus thought of aa the culminating head of the people, the directs'