Ezekiel 41-42

GOD’S WORD Translation

The Holy Place in the Temple

41 Then the man brought me into the holy place in the temple and measured the recessed walls. They were 10½ feet wide on each side. ² The entrance was 17½ feet wide, and on each side of the entrance the walls were 9 feet wide. Then he measured the length of the holy place. It was 70 feet long and 35 feet wide.

³ Then the man went inside and measured the passageway. It was 3½ feet thick. The entrance was 10½ feet high and 12 feet wide. ⁴ Then he measured the room at the end of the holy place. It was 35 feet long and 35 feet wide. The man said to me, “This is the most holy place.”

⁵ Next, the man measured the temple wall. It was 10½ feet wide. The width of each side room around the temple was 7 feet. ⁶ The rooms were arranged on three different stories. There were 30 rooms on each story. These rooms had supports all the way around the temple wall, but these supports were not fastened to the temple wall. ⁷ The side rooms grew wider all the way around as they went up, story after story. The surrounding structure went from story to story all around the temple. The structure grew wider as it went higher. A stairway went from the first story through the second story to the third story.

⁸ I also saw a raised base all around the temple. This base was the foundation for the side rooms. It measured the full length of the measuring rod, 10½ feet. ⁹ The outer wall of the side rooms was 9 feet thick. There was an open area between the side rooms connected to the temple ¹⁰ and the priests’ rooms. It was 35 feet wide and went all around the temple. ¹¹ The doors in the side rooms were entrances into the open area. There was one door to the north and another to the south. The base of the open area was 9 feet wide all the way around.

¹² At the far end of the open area, on the west side of the temple, was a building 122½ feet wide. The wall of the building was 9 feet thick all the way around, and it was 157½ feet long.

¹³ Then the man measured the temple. It was 175 feet long. This included the open area with the building and its walls. All together it was 175 feet long. ¹⁴ The eastern side of the temple, including the open area, was also 175 feet wide. ¹⁵ He also measured the length of the building facing the courtyard on the west side along with its corridors on both sides. It was 175 feet long.

The holy place and the most holy place were paneled. ¹⁶ The doorposts, the small windows, and the corridors of all three stories were paneled. The walls, from the floor up to the windows, were paneled. ¹⁷ In the space above the door to the most holy place and on the walls all around it, ¹⁸ there were pictures of angels ^[a] and palm trees. Palm trees were positioned between each of the angels, and each angel had two faces: ¹⁹ the face of a man, which was turned toward a palm tree on one side, and the face of a lion, which was turned toward a palm tree on the other side. These pictures were carved all around the temple. ²⁰ Pictures of angels and palm trees were carved on the walls from the floor to the space above the door.

²¹ The doorframes in the holy place were square. In front of the most holy place was something similar. ²² There was a wooden altar, 5 feet high and 3½ feet wide. Its corners, its base, and its sides were made of wood. Then the man told me, “This is the table that is in the presence of the Lord.”

²³ The holy place and the most holy place had two doors. ²⁴ Each of the doors were double doors that swung open. ²⁵ Pictures of angels and palm trees were carved on the doors of the holy place as on the walls. There was a wooden roof hanging over the outer entrance hall. ²⁶ There were small windows and palm trees on both sides of the entrance hall, on the side rooms of the temple, and on the roofs.

The Courtyards of the Lord’s New Temple

42 Then the man led me out toward the north to the outer courtyard. He brought me to the side rooms opposite both the open area and the northern building. ² The building that faced north was 175 feet long and 87½ feet wide. ³ Opposite the inner courtyard was an area that was 35 feet wide, and opposite the pavement of the outer courtyard were corridors facing corridors on all three stories. ⁴ In front of the side rooms was a walkway, 17½ feet wide and 175 feet long. The doors of these side rooms faced north.

⁵ The side rooms on the third story were narrower than those on the first or second stories of the building because the corridors took space away from them. ⁶ The rooms were in three stories. They didn’t have pillars like the pillars in the courtyards. That is why the rooms on the third story were set farther back than those on the first and second stories. ⁷ There was a wall which ran parallel to the side rooms and the outer courtyard. It ran alongside the side rooms for 87½ feet. ⁸ The row of rooms in the outer courtyard was 87½ feet long. The rooms that faced the temple were 175 feet long. ⁹ These lower side rooms had an entrance on the east side. A person was able to enter the outer courtyard through them.

¹⁰ There were side rooms parallel to the wall of the courtyard on the south side.^[b] They faced the open area and the building. ¹¹ There was a walkway in front of them like the one that was in front of the side rooms on the north side. These side rooms were as long and as wide as the northern rooms. They had the same exits, dimensions, and doors. ¹² The doors to the south rooms were the same as the doors to the north rooms. There was a doorway at the other end of the walkway that was parallel to the corresponding wall that ran eastward. People entered through that doorway.

¹³ Then the man said to me, “The northern and southern side rooms that face the open area are holy rooms. These rooms are where the priests who come near the Lord eat the holiest offerings. Because these rooms are holy, the priests keep the holiest offerings there: the grain offerings, the offerings for sin, and the guilt offerings. ¹⁴ Once the priests enter the holy place, they must not go out of the holy place into the outer courtyard until they leave behind the clothes that they wore as they served. These clothes are holy. The priests must put on other clothes. Then they can go into the area that is for the people.”

¹⁵ When the man had finished measuring the inner part of the temple area, he led me out through the east gate. Then he measured all the way around the outer area. ¹⁶ He measured the east side with a measuring stick. It was 875 feet long according to the measuring stick. ¹⁷ He measured the north side. It was 875 feet long according to the measuring stick. ¹⁸ He measured the south side. It was 875 feet long according to the measuring stick. ¹⁹ He came around to the west side and measured it. It was 875 feet long according to the measuring stick. ²⁰ So he measured all four sides. There was a wall all around it. The wall was 875 feet long and 875 feet wide. It separated what was holy from what was unholy.