Ezekiel 46

EasyEnglish Bible

46 ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: The gate of the temple's inside yard that opens to the east must stay shut for the six days that you work. You must only open it on each Sabbath day and on the day of each new moon. ² On those days, the ruler will go through the entrance room for this gate. It is his way in from the outside yard. He must stand beside the posts of the gate. The priests will then offer the ruler's burnt offering and his friendship offerings. The ruler will bend down low to worship me while he stands at the gate. Then he will go out. But they must not shut the gate until the evening. ³ On Sabbath days and on new moon days, the people must stand in front of the east gate. They will bend down low to worship me, the Lord.

⁴ Every Sabbath day, the ruler will bring six lambs and a male sheep as a burnt offering to the Lord. These animals must have nothing wrong with them. ⁵ The ruler will also bring grain offerings. He will offer an ephah of grain with the male sheep. For each of the lambs, he may give as much grain as he chooses. For each ephah of grain, he will offer a hin of olive oil.^[a]

⁶ On the day of the new moon the ruler must offer a young bull, six lambs and a male sheep. These animals must have nothing wrong with them. ⁷ He will also bring grain offerings. He will offer an ephah of grain with the bull and an ephah with the sheep. For each of the lambs, he may give as much grain as he chooses. For each ephah of grain, he will offer a hin of olive oil. ⁸ When the ruler goes in, he must go through the gate's entrance room. And he must go out the same way.

⁹ The people will come to the temple to worship the Lord at the times of the festivals. If they come in through the north gate they must go out through the south gate. And if they come in through the south gate they must go out through the north gate. Nobody may go out of the gate through which he came in. He must go out by the opposite gate. ¹⁰ When the people go in, the ruler will go in with them. When the people go out, the ruler will also go out. ¹¹ At the times of festivals and on other special days, the grain offering with each bull and each sheep will be an ephah. For each of the lambs, a person may give as much grain as they choose. They will give a hin of olive oil with each ephah of grain.

¹² The ruler may choose to make a special gift to the Lord. It may be a burnt offering or a friendship offering. They must open the east gate of the inside yard for the ruler. He will make his offering at the gate, as he does on Sabbath days. Then he must go out. After he has left, they will shut the gate.

¹³ Every day, you must provide a lamb that is one year old and that has nothing wrong with it. Offer it to the Lord as a burnt offering. You must do that every morning, day after day. ¹⁴ With the lamb, you must give a grain offering. It will be one sixth of an ephah of grain. Mix a third of a hin of olive oil with the flour. This rule about the grain offering to the Lord will never change. ¹⁵ You must offer the lamb, with the grain offering and the olive oil, for a burnt offering every morning.

¹⁶ This is what the Almighty Lord says: The ruler may choose to give some of his land as a gift to one of his sons. If he does that, the land will belong to his son and to his descendants. It will always belong to their family. ¹⁷ The king may also choose to give some of his land to one of his servants. If he does that, the servant can keep the land until the year of Jubilee.^[b] After that, the land will belong to the ruler again. The ruler's land will always belong to the ruler and to his descendants. ¹⁸ The king must not take for himself any land that belongs to the people. He must not take them away from their own land. He can only give his own land to his sons. Nobody may take any of my people away from the land that belongs to them.’

¹⁹ The man took me through the entrance beside the gate. We came to the holy rooms that belong to the priests. These rooms opened to the north. He showed me a place at the west end of these rooms. ²⁰ He said to me, ‘This is the place where the priests will cook the meat for the sin offerings and for the guilt offerings. They will bake the grain offerings here, too. In this way, they will not have to take these holy things into the outside yard. If they did that, someone might touch them and become holy.’

²¹ Then the man took me to the outside yard. He took me around the yard to see its four corners. In each corner I saw that there was a small yard ²² These four small yards were 20 metres long and 15 metres wide. They were all the same size. ²³ They had stone walls around them. At the bottom of the walls they had made places for fires to burn.

²⁴ The man said to me, ‘The temple servants will use these kitchens to cook meat that the people bring for sacrifices.’