Ezekiel 44:17-45:25

New King James Version

¹⁷And it shall be, whenever they enter the gates of the inner court, that ^(A)they shall put on linen garments; no wool shall come upon them while they minister within the gates of the inner court or within the house. ¹⁸^(B)They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies; they shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat. ¹⁹When they go out to the outer court, to the outer court to the people, ^(C)they shall take off their garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and put on other garments; and in their holy garments they shall ^(D)not sanctify the people.

²⁰^(E)“They shall neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow ^(F)long, but they shall keep their hair well trimmed. ²¹^(G)No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court. ²²They shall not take as wife a ^(H)widow or a divorced woman, but take virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or widows of priests.

²³“And ^(I)they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to ^(J)discern between the unclean and the clean. ²⁴^(K)In controversy they shall stand as judges, and judge it according to My judgments. They shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed meetings, ^(L)and they shall hallow My Sabbaths.

²⁵“They shall not defile themselves by coming near a dead person. Only for father or mother, for son or daughter, for brother or unmarried sister may they defile themselves. ²⁶^(M)After he is cleansed, they shall count seven days for him. ²⁷And on the day that he goes to the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, ^(N)he must offer his sin offering ^(O)in the inner court,” says the Lord God.

²⁸“It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I ^(P)am their inheritance. You shall give them no ^(Q)possession in Israel, for I am their possession. ²⁹^(R)They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; ^(S)every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. ³⁰The ^(T)best^[a] of all firstfruits of any kind, and every sacrifice of any kind from all your sacrifices, shall be the priest’s; also you ^(U)shall give to the priest the first of your ground meal, ^(V)to cause a blessing to rest on your house. ³¹The priests shall not eat anything, bird or beast, that ^(W)died naturally or was torn by wild beasts.

The Holy District

45 “Moreover, when you ^(X)divide the land by lot into inheritance, you shall ^(Y)set apart a district for the Lord, a holy section of the land; its length shall be twenty-five thousand cubits, and the width ten thousand. It shall be holy throughout its territory all around. ²Of this there shall be a square plot for the sanctuary, ^(Z)five hundred by five hundred rods, with fifty cubits around it for an open space. ³So this is the district you shall measure: twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide; ^(AA)in it shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. ⁴It shall be ^(AB)a holy section of the land, belonging to the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to the Lord; it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. ⁵^(AC)An area twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide shall belong to the Levites, the ministers of the ^[b]temple; they shall have ^(AD)twenty^[c] chambers as a possession.

Properties of the City and the Prince

⁶^(AE)“You shall appoint as the property of the city an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand long, adjacent to the district of the holy section; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

⁷^(AF)“The prince shall have a section on one side and the other of the holy district and the city’s property; and bordering on the holy district and the city’s property, extending westward on the west side and eastward on the east side, the length shall be side by side with one of the tribal portions, from the west border to the east border. ⁸The land shall be his possession in Israel; and ^(AG)My princes shall no more oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel, according to their tribes.”

Laws Governing the Prince

⁹‘Thus says the Lord God: ^(AH)“Enough, O princes of Israel! ^(AI)Remove violence and plundering, execute justice and righteousness, and stop dispossessing My people,” says the Lord God. ¹⁰“You shall have ^(AJ)honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath. ¹¹The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, so that the bath contains one-tenth of a homer, and the ephah one-tenth of a homer; their measure shall be according to the homer. ¹²The ^(AK)shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall be your mina.

¹³“This is the offering which you shall offer: you shall give one-sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley. ¹⁴The ordinance concerning oil, the bath of oil, is one-tenth of a bath from a kor. A kor is a homer or ten baths, for ten baths are a homer. ¹⁵And one lamb shall be given from a flock of two hundred, from the rich pastures of Israel. These shall be for grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, ^(AL)to make atonement for them,” says the Lord God. ¹⁶“All the people of the land shall give this offering for the prince in Israel. ¹⁷Then it shall be the ^(AM)prince’s part to give burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the New Moons, the Sabbaths, and at all the appointed seasons of the house of Israel. He shall prepare the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.”

Keeping the Feasts^(AN)

¹⁸‘Thus says the Lord God: “In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and ^(AO)cleanse the sanctuary. ¹⁹^(AP)The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the ^[d]temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the gateposts of the gate of the inner court. ²⁰And so you shall do on the seventh day of the month ^(AQ)for everyone who has sinned unintentionally or in ignorance. Thus you shall make atonement for the temple.

²¹^(AR)“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall observe the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. ²²And on that day the prince shall prepare for himself and for all the people of the land ^(AS)a bull for a sin offering. ²³On the ^(AT)seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the Lord, seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, daily for seven days, ^(AU)and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering. ²⁴^(AV)And he shall prepare a grain offering of one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, together with a hin of oil for each ephah.

²⁵“In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the ^(AW)feast, he shall do likewise for seven days, according to the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil.”