Beginning
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.’
The river from the temple
47 The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple. There I saw water that was pouring out from under the entrance. It was pouring towards the east. (The front entrance of the temple opened towards the east.) The river of water came from under the south side of the temple. It went past the south side of the altar. 2 The man took me out through the north gate of the temple. We went around the outside to the gate that opens towards the east. There I saw a small stream of water. It was coming out from the south side of the gate.
3 The man went towards the east. He measured 500 metres in that direction. He took me through the water there. The water was as high as my ankles. 4 Then he measured another 500 metres along the stream. He took me through the water again. Here, the water was as high as my knees. He measured another 500 metres. He took me through the water and it was now as high as my belt. 5 Then he measured another 500 metres. Here the water had become a deep river. It was too deep for me to go across. Nobody could walk through it. They would need to swim.
6 The man said to me, ‘Son of man, you must remember what you have seen.’
Then he took me back to the river's edge. 7 When I got there, I saw very many trees. They were on each side of the river. 8 He said to me, ‘This river of water goes towards the land in the east. It goes into the valley of the Jordan River. Then the water goes into the Salt Sea. When it goes into the sea there, the water becomes pure instead of salty.[c] 9 Wherever the river goes, many kinds of animals and fish will live. There will be lots of fish in the Salt Sea because the water that goes in there will make it pure. There will be many living things in places where the river goes. 10 Men will stand on the edge of the sea to catch fish. They will use their nets to catch fish, all the way from En-Gedi to En-Eglaim. They will catch many kinds of fish, like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. 11 But the water in the pools and the wet places around the Salt Sea will not become pure. There will still be salt for people there. 12 All kinds of fruit trees will live on each side of the river. Their leaves will never become dry. They will always give fruit every month. This is because the water that feeds them comes from the holy temple. The fruit from these trees will provide food. And their leaves will make sick people well.’
The borders of Israel's land
13 This is what the Almighty Lord says: ‘This is the land that you will share among Israel's 12 tribes. Give one part to each tribe, but Joseph's descendants will have two parts.[d] 14 Share the land in equal parts for each tribe. I promised your ancestors that I would give them this land to live in. So now it will belong to you and your descendants.
15 These will be the borders of your land:
The north border goes from the Mediterranean Sea to the city of Hethlon. It continues to go east, past Lebo-Hamath and to Zedad. 16 From there, it continues through Berothah and Sibraim. Those towns are on the border between Damascus and Hamath. Then it goes as far as Hazer-Hattikon, which is on the border of Hauran. 17 The border goes from the Mediterranean Sea to Hazar-Enan. The border of Hamath is on the north side and the border of Damascus is on the south side. That is the north border of your land.
18 On the east side, the border of your land is the Jordan River. It starts between Hauran and Damascus. It goes between the region of Gilead and Israel's land, past the Salt Sea as far as Tamar. That is the east border.
19 On the south side, the border goes from Tamar to the springs of water near Meribath Kadesh. Then it goes along the Stream at Egypt's border to the Mediterranean Sea. That is the south border.
20 On the west side, the Mediterranean Sea is the border of your land. It goes north to a place on the west side of Lebo-Hamath. That is the north border of your land.
21 You must share this land among yourselves so that each tribe of Israel receives a part. 22 Each part that you receive will belong to you and to the foreigners who live among you. Those foreigners have given birth to their own children among you. Accept them as if they were born as Israelites. They must receive land for themselves among Israel's tribes. 23 Give them land among the tribe where they have decided to live.’
That is what the Almighty Lord says.
Each tribe gets its part of the land
48 ‘This is the list of Israel's tribes, with the land that each tribe will receive:
Dan will receive land at the north border of Israel. Their north border goes east from the Mediterranean Sea along the road to Hethlon, as far as Lebo-Hamath. From there, it goes to Hazar-Enan, on the border between Damascus and Hamath.
Dan's part of the land goes all the way from Israel's border in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
2 South of Dan's land will be the land for Asher.
3 South of Asher's land will be the land for Naphtali.
4 South of Naphtali's land will be the land for Manasseh.
5 South of Manasseh's land will be the land for Ephraim.
6 South of Ephraim's land will be the land for Reuben.
7 South of Reuben's land will be the land for Judah.
8 South of Judah's land will be a special part of the land, with the temple in the middle of it. From east to west, it will be the same size as the parts of the land for Israel's tribes. From north to south, it will be 12½ kilometres.
9 The part that belongs to the Lord for his temple will be 12½ kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide. 10 The priests will have a part of this holy land. Their part will measure 12½ kilometres from east to west. It will measure 5 kilometres from north to south. The Lord's temple will be in the middle of this part. 11 This holy part of the land will belong to the priests who are descendants of Zadok. They are the priests who served me faithfully. They did not turn away from me as the other Levites did when Israel's people did not obey me. 12 So the priests will have that special part of the land, next to the part for the Levites. The priests' part will be the most holy part of the land.
13 The Levites will also have a special part, south of the part for the priests. It will be the same size. It will measure 12½ kilometres from east to west, and 5 kilometres from north to south. So the land for the priests and for the Levites will be 12½ kilometres from east to west and 10 kilometres from north to south. 14 The special part of the land that belongs to the Lord is the best of the whole land. You must not give his land to anyone else or sell it to anyone else. It is holy and it belongs to the Lord.
15 The other part of the special land is 12½ kilometres from east to west and 2½ kilometres from north to south. That part is not holy. Ordinary people may use it. They may live there and use the fields. There will be a city in the middle of it. 16 The city will be square, 2,250 metres long on each side. 17 You must leave an open space 125 metres wide on each side of the city. 18 There will be two other pieces of land south of the special holy land. There will be a piece 2.5 kilometres wide on the east side of the city and a piece 2.5 kilometres wide on the west side. People who live in the city may use these pieces of land to grow crops. 19 There will be people from the different tribes of Israel who live in the city. Any of them may use the land to grow things.
20 The whole of the special land, including the holy part and the part for the city, will be a square. Each side will be 12½ kilometres.
21 The parts of land on each side of the square will belong to the ruler. The part on the east side will go as far as Israel's border in the east. The part on the west side will go as far as the Mediterranean Sea. The holy part of land where the temple is will be in the middle, between them. 22 The land that belongs to the Levites and the priests, as well as the city, will be between the two parts of land that belong to the ruler. The land for Judah will be on the north side of these lands. The land for Benjamin's will be on the south side.
23 The other tribes will each have a part of the land that is south of this special part. The land for each of these tribes will go all the way from Israel's border in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
South of the special land will be the land for Benjamin.
24 South of the Benjamin's land will be the land for Simeon.
25 South of Simeon's land will be the land for Issachar.
26 South of Issachar's land will be the land for Zebulun.
27 South of Zebulun's land will be the land for Gad.
28 The border on the south side of Gad's land goes from Tamar to the springs of water near Meribath Kadesh. From there, it goes along the stream at Egypt's border to the Mediterranean Sea.
29 That is how you must share the land among Israel's tribes. Each part will belong to one tribe and their descendants. I, the Almighty Lord, say this.
The gates of the city
30 These will be the entrance gates on each side of the city. The wall on the north side of the city will be 2,250 metres long. 31 There will be three gates on that side. Each gate will have the name of one of Israel's tribes, one for Reuben, the next for Judah, and the next for Levi. 32 The wall on the east side will also be 2,250 metres long. The three gates on that side will be for Joseph, for Benjamin and for Dan. 33 The wall on the south side will also be 2,250 metres long. The three gates on that side will be for Simeon, for Issachar and for Zebulun. 34 The wall on the west side will also be 2,250 metres long. The three gates on that side will be for Gad, for Asher and for Naphtali. 35 So the walls all around the city will measure 9,000 metres.
From that time on, the name of the city will be, “The Lord is there.” ’
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