Ezekiel 43-44

Complete Jewish Bible

43 After this, he brought me to the gate facing east. ² There I saw the glory of the God of Isra’el approaching from the east. His voice was like the sound of rushing water, and the earth shone with his glory. ³ The vision seemed like the vision I had seen when I came to destroy the city; also the visions were like the vision I had seen by the K’var River; and I fell on my face. ⁴ Adonai’s glory entered the house through the gate facing east.

⁵ Next, a spirit took me up and brought me into the inner courtyard, and I saw Adonai’s glory fill the house. ⁶ I heard someone speaking to me from the house, and a man was standing by me. ⁷ He said, “Human being, this is the place for my throne, the place for the soles of my feet, where I will live among the people of Isra’el forever. The house of Isra’el, both they and their kings, will never again defile my holy name by their prostitution, by [burying] the corpses of their kings [on] their high places, ⁸ or by placing their threshold next to my threshold and their door-frames next to my door-frames, with only a common wall between me and them. Yes, they defiled my holy name by the disgusting practices they committed; which is why I destroyed them in my anger. ⁹ So now, they should put their prostitution at a distance and the corpses of their kings far away from me; then I will live among them forever.

¹⁰ “You, human being, describe this house to the house of Isra’el, so that they will be ashamed of their crimes. And let them measure accurately. ¹¹ If they become ashamed of all they have done, show them the elevation and plan of the house, its exits and entrances, all its details and decorations, and all its specifications, its design and its Torah. Sketch it for them to see, so that they can observe the entire design with its specifications, and carry them out. ¹² This is Torah for the house: the whole surrounding area on the mountaintop will be especially holy. This is Torah for the house.”

¹³ These are the measurements of the altar in cubits (a cubit here is defined as a normal cubit [eighteen inches] plus a handbreadth [three inches]): the base, one cubit [twenty-one inches] deep and one cubit wide; with the molding surrounding it at its rim about a hand-span [nine inches] in width. The height of the altar is thus: ¹⁴ from the base on the ground to the lower ledge, three-and-a-half feet, with the width twenty-one inches; from the lower ledge to the upper ledge, seven feet, with the width again twenty-one inches. ¹⁵ The hearth measures seven feet [high], with four horns on top of the hearth. ¹⁶ The hearth is a square twenty-one feet on each of its four sides. ¹⁷ The ledge measures a square twenty-four-and-a-half feet on each of its four sides; the molding around it ten-and-a-half inches [across]; and its base twenty-one inches [larger than the rest, all the way] around. Its steps face east.

¹⁸ He said to me, “Human being, Adonai Elohim says, ‘These are the regulations for the altar when the time comes to construct it, offer burnt offerings on it and splash the blood against it: ¹⁹ you are to give to the cohanim, who are L’vi’im descended from Tzadok and who approach to serve me,’ says Adonai Elohim, ‘a young bull as a sin offering. ²⁰ You are to take its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge and on the molding all the way around; this is how you will purify it and make atonement for it. ²¹ You are also to take the bull which is the sin offering and have it burned up at the designated place [on the grounds] of the house, outside the sanctuary. ²² On the second day you are to offer a male goat without defect as a sin offering, and they are to purify the altar as they purified it with the bull. ²³ When you have finished purifying it, you are to offer a young bull without defect and a ram from the flock without defect. ²⁴ You are to present them before Adonai, and the cohanim will throw salt on them and offer them as a burnt offering to Adonai. ²⁵ Every day, for seven days, you are to prepare a goat as a sin offering; they are also to prepare a young bull and a ram from the flock without defect. ²⁶ For seven days, they are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; in this way they are to consecrate it. ²⁷ When these days are over, then, on the eighth day and afterwards, the cohanim will present your burnt offerings on the altar and your peace offerings; and I will accept you,’ says Adonai Elohim.”

44 Then he brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east; and it was shut. ² Adonai said to me, “This gate will remain shut; it will not be opened, and no one will go through it; because Adonai, the God of Isra’el, has gone through it. Therefore, it is to be kept shut. ³ Only the prince, since he is a prince, is to sit there to eat his meal before Adonai; he is to enter through the vestibule of the gate and leave the same way.”

⁴ Then he brought me through the north gate to the front of the house. I looked, saw Adonai’s glory filling the house of Adonai, and fell on my face. ⁵ Adonai said to me, “Human being, pay attention; see with your eyes and hear with your ears everything I tell you about all the regulations of Adonai’s house and about all its Torah; pay attention to who can enter the house and who must be excluded from the sanctuary. ⁶ You are to tell the rebels, the house of Isra’el, that this is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘House of Isra’el, enough of all your disgusting practices! ⁷ You brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary and profane it — yes, my house — when you offered my food, the fat and the blood; thus in addition to all your disgusting practices, they broke my covenant. ⁸ Instead of taking care of my holy things yourselves, you have put these people in charge of my sanctuary.’ ⁹ Here is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘No foreigner, uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, is to enter my sanctuary — no foreigner living among the people of Isra’el.

¹⁰ “‘Rather, the L’vi’im, who went far away from me when Isra’el went astray, going astray after their idols — they will bear the consequences of their guilt, ¹¹ but they are to serve in my sanctuary. They will have charge of the gates of the house and of serving in the house; they will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people; and they will attend and serve them. ¹² Because they served them in the presence of their idols and became an occasion of sin for the house of Isra’el, I am raising my hand against them,’ says Adonai Elohim, ‘and they will bear the consequences of their guilt. ¹³ They will not approach me to serve me in the office of cohen or approach any of the holy things or the especially holy things; but they will bear their shame for the disgusting practices they committed. ¹⁴ Yet I will put them in charge of the house and all its maintenance and everything to be done in it.

¹⁵ “‘However, the cohanim, who are L’vi’im and descendants of Tzadok, who took care of my sanctuary when the people of Isra’el went astray from me — they are the ones who will approach me and serve me; it is they who will attend me and offer me the fat and the blood,’ says Adonai Elohim. ¹⁶ ‘They will enter my sanctuary, approach my table to minister to me and perform my service.

¹⁷ “‘Once they enter the gates of the inner courtyard, they are to wear linen clothing; they are not to wear any wool while serving at the gates of the inner courtyard or inside it. ¹⁸ They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen underclothes on their bodies, and they are not to wear anything that makes them sweat. ¹⁹ Before going out to the people in the outer courtyard, they are to remove the clothes in which they minister, lay them in the holy rooms, and put on other clothes; so that they won’t transmit holiness to the people by means of their clothing. ²⁰ They are not to shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must keep their hair carefully trimmed. ²¹ No cohen is to drink wine when he enters the inner courtyard. ²² They may not marry a widow or a divorcee but must marry virgins descended from the house of Isra’el or a widow whose deceased husband was a cohen.

²³ “‘They are to teach my people the difference between holy and common and enable them to distinguish between clean and unclean. ²⁴ They are to be judges in controversies, and they are to render decisions in keeping with my rulings. At all my designated festivals they are to keep my laws and regulations, and they are to keep my shabbats holy. ²⁵ They are not to come to any dead person, because this would make them unclean; however, for father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister who has had no husband they may make themselves unclean. ²⁶ After a cohen has been purified, he is to wait seven days. ²⁷ Then, on the day he enters the sanctuary, when he goes into the inner courtyard to minister in the sanctuary, he is to offer his sin offering,’ says Adonai Elohim.

²⁸ “‘Their inheritance is to be this: I myself am their inheritance. You are not to grant them any possession in Isra’el — I myself am their possession. ²⁹ They are to eat the grain offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings; and everything in Isra’el devoted [to God] will be theirs. ³⁰ The first of all the firstfruits of everything, and every voluntary contribution of everything, from all your offerings, will be for the cohanim. You are also to give the cohen the first of your dough, so that a blessing will rest on your house. ³¹ The cohanim are not to eat anything, bird or animal, that dies naturally or is torn to death.