Ezekiel 40:28-41:26 (Contemporary English Version)

The Gates Leading to the Inner Courtyard

 ²⁸We then went into the inner courtyard, through the gate on the south side of the temple. The man measured the gate, and it was the same size as the gates in the outer wall. ^29-30In fact, everything along the passageway was also the same size, including the guardrooms, the walls separating them, the entrance room at the far end, and the windows. This gate, like the others, was eighty-five feet long and forty-two feet wide. ³¹The entrance room of this gate faced the outer courtyard, and carvings of palm trees decorated the walls of the passageway. Eight steps led up to this gate.

    ³²Next, we went through the east gate to the inner courtyard. The man measured this gate, and it was the same size as the others. ³³The guardrooms, the walls separating them, and its entrance room had the same measurements as the other gates. The guardrooms and the entrance room had windows, and the gate was eighty-five feet long and forty-two feet wide. ³⁴The entrance room faced the outer courtyard, and the walls in the passageway were decorated with carvings of palm trees. Eight steps also led up to this gate.

    ³⁵Then the man took me to the north gate. He measured it, and it was the same size as the others, ³⁶including the guardrooms, the walls separating them, and the entrance room. There were also windows in this gate. It was eighty-five feet long and forty-two feet wide, ³⁷and like the other inner gates, its entrance room faced the outer courtyard, and its walls were decorated with carvings of palm trees. Eight steps also led up to this gate.

   

The Rooms for Sacrificing Animals

 ^38-39Inside the entrance room of the north gate, I saw four tables, two on each side of the room, where the animals to be sacrificed were killed. Just outside ^[a] this room was a small building used for washing the animals before they were offered as sacrifices to please the LORD ^[b] or sacrifices for sin ^[c] or sacrifices to make things right. ^{[d] 40}Four more tables were in the outer courtyard, two on each side of the steps leading into the entrance room. ⁴¹So there was a total of eight tables, four inside and four outside, where the animals were killed, ^42-43and where the meat was placed until it was sacrificed on the altar. ^[e] Next to the tables in the entrance room were four stone tables twenty inches high and thirty inches square; the equipment used for killing the animals was kept on top of these tables. All around the walls of this room was a three inch shelf. ^[f]

The Rooms Belonging to the Priests

 ⁴⁴The man then took me to the inner courtyard, where I saw two buildings, one beside the inner gate on the north and the other beside the inner gate on the south. ^{[g] 45}He said, "The building beside the north gate belongs to the priests who serve in the temple, ⁴⁶and the building beside the south gate belongs to those who serve at the altar. All of them are descendants of Zadok and are the only Levites allowed to serve as the LORD's priests."

The Inner Courtyard and the Temple

 ⁴⁷Now the man measured the inner courtyard; it was one hundred seventy feet square. I also saw an altar in front of the temple.

    ⁴⁸We walked to the porch of the temple, and the man measured the doorway of the porch: It was twenty-four feet long, ^[h] eight feet wide, and the distance from the doorway to the wall on either side was five feet. ⁴⁹The porch itself was thirty-four feet by twenty ^[i] feet, with steps ^[j] leading up to it. There was a column on each side of these steps.

Ezekiel 41

 ¹Next we went into the main room of the temple. The man measured the doorway of this room: It was ten feet wide, ^{[k] 2}seventeen feet long, and the distance from the doorway to the wall on either side was eight feet. The main room itself was sixty-eight feet by thirty-four feet. ^3-4Then the man walked to the far end of the temple's main room and said, "Beyond this doorway is the most holy place." He first measured the doorway: It was three feet wide, ten feet long, and the distance from the doorway to the wall on either side was twelve feet. Then he measured the most holy place, and it was thirty-four feet square.

   

The Storage Rooms of the Temple

 ⁵The man measured the wall of the temple, and it was ten feet thick. Storage rooms seven feet wide were built against the outside of the wall. ⁶There were three levels of rooms, with thirty rooms on each level, and they rested on ledges that were attached to the temple walls, so that nothing was built into the walls. ⁷The walls of the temple were thicker at the bottom than at the top, which meant that the storage rooms on the top level were wider than those on the bottom level. ^[l] Steps led from the bottom level, through the middle level, and into the top level. ⁸The temple rested on a stone base ten feet high, which also served as the foundation for the storage rooms. ⁹The outside walls of the storage rooms were eight feet thick; there was nothing between these walls ¹⁰and the nearest buildings thirty-four feet away. ¹¹One door led into the storage rooms on the north side of the temple, and another door led to those on the south side. The stone base extended eight feet beyond the outside wall of the storage rooms.

   

The West Building and the Measurements of the Temple

 ¹²I noticed another building: It faced the west end of the temple and was one hundred seventeen feet wide, one hundred fifty feet long, and had walls over eight feet thick.

    ¹³The man measured the length of the temple, and it was one hundred seventy feet. He then measured from the back wall of the temple, across the open space behind the temple, to the back wall of the west building; it was one hundred seventy feet. ¹⁴The distance across the front of the temple, including the open space on either side, was also one hundred seventy feet.

    ¹⁵Finally, the man measured the length of the west building, including the side rooms on each end, and it was also one hundred seventy feet.

   The inside walls of the temple's porch and main room ^[m]

The Inside of the Temple

 ¹⁶were paneled with wood all the way from the floor to the windows, while the doorways, the small windows, and the three side rooms were trimmed in wood. ^{[n] 17}The paneling stopped just above the doorway. These walls were decorated ^{[o] 18-20}with carvings of winged creatures and had a carving of a palm tree between the creatures. Each winged creature had two faces: A human face looking at the palm tree on one side, and a lion's face looking at the palm tree on the other side. These designs were carved into the paneling all the way around the two rooms. ²¹The doorframe to the temple's main room was in the shape of a rectangle.

   In front of the doorway to the most holy place was something that looked like

The Wooden Altar

 ²²a wooden altar. It was five feet high and four feet square, ^[p] and its corners, its base, ^[q] and its sides were made of wood. The man said, "This is a reminder that the LORD is constantly watching over his temple."

The Doors in the Temple

 ²³Both the doorway to the main room of the temple and the doorway to the most holy place had two doors, ²⁴and each door had two sections that could fold open. ²⁵The doors to the main room were decorated with carvings of winged creatures and palm trees just like those on the walls, and there was a wooden covering over the porch just outside these doors. ²⁶The walls on each side of this porch had small windows and were also decorated with carvings of palm trees.