The Lord Returns to the Temple

43 The man took me to the gate that faces east, ^2 (A)and there I saw coming from the east the dazzling light of the presence of the God of Israel. God's voice sounded like the roar of the sea, and the earth shone with the dazzling light. ³ This vision was like the one I had seen when God came to destroy Jerusalem, and the one I saw by the Chebar River. Then I threw myself face downward on the ground. ⁴ The dazzling light passed through the east gate and went into the Temple.

⁵ The Lord's spirit lifted me up and took me into the inner courtyard, where I saw that the Temple was filled with the glory of the Lord. ⁶ The man stood beside me there, and I heard the Lord speak to me out of the Temple: ⁷ “Mortal man, here is my throne. I will live here among the people of Israel and rule them forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again disgrace my holy name by worshiping other gods or by burying the corpses of^[a] their dead kings. ⁸ The kings built the doorsills and doorposts of their palace right against the doorsills and doorposts of my Temple, so that there was only a wall between us. They disgraced my holy name by all the disgusting things they did, and so in my anger I destroyed them. ⁹ Now they must stop worshiping other gods and remove the corpses of^[b] their kings. If they do, I will live among them forever.”

¹⁰ And the Lord continued, “Mortal man, tell the people of Israel about the Temple, and let them study its plan. Make them ashamed of their sinful actions. ¹¹ Then if they are ashamed of what they have done, explain the plan of the Temple to them: its design, its entrances and exits, its shape, the arrangement of everything, and all its rules and regulations. Write all this down for them so that they can see how everything is arranged and can carry out all the rules. ¹² This is the law of the Temple: All the area surrounding it on the top of the mountain is sacred and holy.”