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The Inner Temple

41 Then he (the angel) brought me to the nave (outer sanctuary) and measured the side pillars; six cubits wide on each side was the width of the [a]side pillar. The width of the entrance was ten cubits and the [b]sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side; and he measured its length, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits. Then he went inside [the inner sanctuary] and measured each side pillar of the doorway, two cubits, and the doorway, six cubits [high], and the width of the doorway, seven cubits.(A) He measured the length [of the interior of the inner sanctuary], twenty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits, [c]opposite the nave (outer sanctuary); and he said to me, “This is the [d]Most Holy Place.”

Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits [thick, to accommodate side chambers]; and the width of every side chamber, four cubits, all around the temple on every side. The side chambers were three stories [high], one above another, and thirty chambers in each story; and the side chambers extended to the wall which stood on their inward side all around, so that they would be attached, but not attached to the wall of the temple itself. The side chambers became wider at each successive level as they encompassed the temple. Because the structure surrounding the temple went higher by stages on all sides of the temple, for that reason the width of the temple increased as it went higher; and thus one went up from the lowest story to the highest one by way of the [e]second story. I also saw that the temple (house) had a raised platform all around it; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full rod of six long cubits in height. The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. But the free space between the side chambers belonging to the temple 10 and the outer chambers was a width of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side. 11 The doorways of the side chambers toward the free space were one doorway toward the north and another doorway toward the south; and the width of the free space was five cubits all around.

12 The building that was in front of the separate area on the side toward the west was seventy cubits wide; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.

13 Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; the separate area and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long. 14 Also the width of the front of the temple and the separate areas along the east side totaled a hundred cubits.

15 He (the angel) measured the length of the building along the front of the separate area behind it, with a gallery on each side, a hundred cubits; he also measured the inner sanctuary and the porches (porticoes) of the courtyard. 16 The thresholds, the latticed windows, and the galleries all around their three stories, opposite the threshold, were paneled with wood all around, and from the ground to the windows (but the windows were covered), 17 over the entrance, and to the inner [f]room, and on the outside, and on all the wall all around inside and outside, by measurement. 18 It was [g]carved with [figures of] cherubim and palm trees; so that a palm decoration was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces, 19 so that the face of a man was toward the palm decoration on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm decoration on the other side. It was carved [this way] on the entire house (temple) all around. 20 From the [h]floor to [the space] above the entrance cherubim and palm decorations were carved, and also on the wall of the nave [the Holy Place].

21 The doorposts of the nave were square; as for the front of the sanctuary, the appearance of one doorpost was like that of the other. 22 The [i]altar was of wood, three cubits high and two cubits long; and its corners, its [j]base, and its [k]sides were wood. And he said to me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.” 23 The nave (Holy Place) and the sanctuary (Holy of Holies) each had a double door. 24 Each of the doors had two leaves, two swinging (folding) leaves; two leaves for the one door and two leaves for the other. 25 And there were carved on them, on the doors of the nave, cherubim and palm decorations like those carved on the walls; and there was a [l]threshold of wood on the front of the porch outside. 26 There were latticed windows and palm decorations on one side and on the other, on the sides of the porch. Thus were the side chambers and the [m]thresholds of the house.

Chambers of the Temple

42 Then he (the angel) brought me out into the outer courtyard, toward the north; and he led me to the [attached] chamber which was opposite the separate area and opposite the building to the north. Along the length, one hundred cubits, was the north door; and the width was fifty cubits. Opposite the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner courtyard, and opposite the pavement which belonged to the outer courtyard, was gallery (balcony) corresponding to gallery in three stories. In front of the [attached] chambers was an inner walkway ten cubits wide [n]and one hundred cubits long; and their entrances were on the north. Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took away more space from them than from the chambers on the lower and middle stories of the building; for they were in three stories and did not have pillars like the pillars of the [outer] courtyards; therefore the upper chambers were [o]set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones. And the outer wall, by the side of the chambers, toward the outer courtyard facing the chambers, was fifty cubits long. For the length of the chambers which were in the outer courtyard was fifty cubits, [p]while the length of those facing the temple was a hundred cubits. Below these chambers was the entrance on the east side, as one enters them from the outer courtyard.

10 In the width of the wall of the courtyard toward the east, facing the separate area and facing the building, were chambers; 11 and a passage in front of them was like the appearance of the [attached] chambers on the north, and they had the same length and width, and all their exits were like both their [q]arrangements and their entrances. 12 And like the entrances of the chambers that were toward the south there was an entrance at the head of the walkway, the walkway in front of the [r]dividing wall toward the east, as one enters them.

13 Then he (the angel) said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separate area, are the holy chambers where the priests who are close to the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall place the most holy things—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy. 14 When the priests enter [the Holy Place], they shall not go out from the sanctuary into the outer court [s]unless they lay there their garments in which they minister, for these are holy (set apart). They shall put on other garments before they approach that which is for the people.”

15 Now when he had finished measuring the inner temple, he brought me out toward the gate which faced east and measured the outer area all around. 16 He measured the east side with the measuring [t]rod, five hundred rods by the measuring rod. 17 He measured the north side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod. 18 He measured the south side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod. 19 He turned about to the west side and measured five hundred rods by the measuring rod. 20 He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, the length five hundred and the width five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy [the temple proper] and that which was common [the outer area].

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 41:1 MT reads tent.
  2. Ezekiel 41:2 Lit shoulders.
  3. Ezekiel 41:4 Or before; lit to the front of.
  4. Ezekiel 41:4 Lit Holy of Holies.
  5. Ezekiel 41:7 Lit middle.
  6. Ezekiel 41:17 Lit house.
  7. Ezekiel 41:18 Lit made, and so throughout.
  8. Ezekiel 41:20 Lit ground.
  9. Ezekiel 41:22 Not the altar of sacrifice (43:13-17); apparently the only piece of furniture in the sanctuary.
  10. Ezekiel 41:22 Lit length.
  11. Ezekiel 41:22 Lit walls.
  12. Ezekiel 41:25 Or canopy...over.
  13. Ezekiel 41:26 Or canopies.
  14. Ezekiel 42:4 Lit a way of...cubits; and.
  15. Ezekiel 42:6 Lit shortened.
  16. Ezekiel 42:8 Lit and behold.
  17. Ezekiel 42:11 Or floor plans.
  18. Ezekiel 42:12 Or protecting.
  19. Ezekiel 42:14 Lit but they shall.
  20. Ezekiel 42:16 Lit reed, and so throughout the chapter.

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