When they enter the gates of the inner court means when the priests go through the gateways into the inner courtyard to conduct the sacred rituals there and in the Temple building.

They shall wear linen garments means they have to take off the clothes they are wearing and “put on linen clothing” (Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). For linen, which is a fine white cloth made from the fibers of flax, see the comments on 9.2. Linen garments may be rendered “clothing made from the flax plant.”

They shall have nothing of wool on them may be translated “They must not wear anything made of wool” (Good News Translation). Wool is the hair of sheep that is cut off and woven into clothes (see the comments on 27.18).

While they minister at the gates of the inner court, and within: Minister means to conduct the sacred rituals (see verses 15-16). Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version say “are on duty.” The translations differ on exactly where the priests serve. Some take at the gates of the inner court to refer to the inner courtyard (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), but most think this phrase refers to the gateways themselves (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, Complete Jewish Bible, Moffatt). This raises the question of what the priests did at the gateways. In 40.38-43 Ezekiel described how the animals to be sacrificed were killed in the rooms by the north gateway. This is unlikely to be the only thing God is referring to, but there is no clue as to what else may have been involved. Within refers to either inside the inner courtyard (so Revised English Bible and Complete Jewish Bible with “inside it”) or inside the Temple building at the center of the inner courtyard (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, New King James Version , New American Standard Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Christian Community Bible). It makes most sense to take within as referring to inside the Temple. A model for this whole clause is “when they are on duty at the gateways of the inner courtyard or in the Temple.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .