Beginning

Return of the divine glory

43 Then he led me to the east gate, ² where the glory of Israel’s God was coming in from the east. Its sound was like the sound of a mighty flood, and the earth was lit up with his glory. ³ What appeared when I looked was like what I had seen when he^[a] came to destroy the city, and also like what I saw at the Chebar River, and I fell on my face. ⁴ Then the Lord’s glory came into the temple by way of the east gate. ⁵ A wind picked me up and brought me to the inner courtyard, and there the Lord’s glory filled the temple. ⁶ A man was standing next to me, but the voice that I heard came from inside the temple. ⁷ He said to me, Human one, this is the place for my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, with their disloyalties^[b] and with their kings’ corpses at the shrines. ⁸ When they set their plazas^[c] with mine and their doorposts next to mine, the wall was between us. They defiled my holy name with their detestable practices, so I consumed them in my anger. ⁹ Now let them remove their disloyalties and their kings’ corpses from me, and I will dwell among them forever.

¹⁰ You, human one, describe the temple to the house of Israel. Let them be humiliated because of their guilt when they think about its design. ¹¹ When they feel humiliated by all that they have done, make known to them the shape of the temple and its adornment, its exits and its entrances, its entire plan and all of its regulations.^[d] Write them down in their sight so that they may observe all of its entire plan and all its regulations and perform them.

¹² These are the instructions for the temple: the top of the mountain, as well as its boundaries all around, are most holy. These are the instructions for the temple.

The altar

¹³ These are the dimensions of the altar, according to a twenty-one-inch unit of measure.^[e] The base is twenty-one inches high and twenty-one inches wide, with an outer curb measuring one and a half inches all around. This is the altar’s height. ¹⁴ From the base at ground level to the lower ledge is forty-two inches; the lower ledge is twenty-one inches wide. The distance from the lower to the upper ledge is seven feet; the upper ledge is twenty-one inches wide. ¹⁵ The hearth is seven feet high, with four horns projecting upward from the hearth. ¹⁶ The hearth is twenty-one feet square; each side is equal to the others. ¹⁷ The ledge around the hearth is twenty-four and a half feet long by twenty-four and a half feet wide, a square. Its outer rim is ten and a half inches, and its base all around is twenty-one inches. Its ramp faces east.

Purification of the altar

¹⁸ He said to me, Human one, the Lord God proclaims: These are the regulations established for the altar on the day when it is prepared for making entirely burned offerings and dashing blood on it. ¹⁹ You will provide a young bull as a purification offering to the levitical priests who are descendants of Zadok, the ones who may draw near to minster to me. This is what the Lord God says. ²⁰ You will take some of its blood and set it on the four horns of the altar and on the four sides of the ledge and on the curb all around. So you will purify it and purge it. ²¹ Then you will take the bull selected as the purification offering, and the priests will burn it in a designated place of the temple outside of the sanctuary. ²² On the second day, you will present a flawless male goat as a purification offering. The priests will purify the altar just as they purified the altar with the bull. ²³ When you have completed the purification, you will present a flawless bull from the herd and a flawless ram from the flock. ²⁴ You will present them to the Lord. The priests will throw salt on them and offer them as entirely burned offerings to the Lord. ²⁵ Daily, for seven days, you will present a male goat for a purification offering. You will also present a bull from the herd and a ram from the flock, both flawless. ²⁶ For seven days the priests will purge the altar in order to purify it and to dedicate it. ²⁷ When the seven days are completed, the priests will offer your entirely burned offerings and your well-being sacrifices on the altar from the eighth day on, and I will accept you with pleasure. This is what the Lord God says.

The closed gate

44 He brought me back to the outer sanctuary gate that faces east. It was closed. ² The Lord said to me, This gate remains closed. It shouldn’t be opened. No one should come in through it because the Lord, Israel’s God, has entered through it. It will remain closed. ³ As for the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread in the Lord’s presence. He may come in and go out by way of the gate’s porch.

Foreigners, Levites, Zadokites

⁴ Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked, and suddenly the Lord’s glory filled the Lord’s temple, and I fell on my face. ⁵ Then the Lord said to me: Human one, pay close attention! Use your eyes and ears and listen to all that I say to you concerning the regulations of the Lord’s temple and all its instructions. Pay close attention to the access to the temple through all the sanctuary portals.^{[f] 6} Speak to the rebels, to the house of Israel, The Lord God proclaims: Enough of your detestable practices, house of Israel! ⁷ You made my temple unclean because you brought into my sanctuary foreigners who were physically and spiritually uncircumcised. When you offered my food of fat and blood to me, you^[g] broke my covenant with all your detestable practices. ⁸ You didn’t keep charge of my holy things. On the contrary, you appointed them^[h] to keep charge in my sanctuary for you.

⁹ The Lord God proclaims: Foreigners who are spiritually and physically uncircumcised must not enter my sanctuary; that is, all foreigners among the Israelites. ¹⁰ But the Levites, who went far from me when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, will bear their guilt. ¹¹ They will keep charge in my sanctuary, and they will oversee the temple gates and keep charge of the temple. They will slaughter the entirely burned offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols, they brought about the downfall of the house of Israel. For that reason I made a solemn pledge against them—this is what the Lord God says—and they will bear their guilt. ¹³ They won’t approach me to officiate for me as priests or approach any of my holy things or the most holy place. Though they will bear their humiliation and the consequences of their detestable practices, ¹⁴ I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, all its work, and all that is done in it.

¹⁵ As for the priests of the levitical family of Zadok who did keep charge of my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed away from me, they will draw near to me to serve me. They will stand in my presence to present fat and blood to me. This is what the Lord God says. ¹⁶ They will come into my sanctuary, and they will approach my table to minister to me. They will keep my charge. ¹⁷ When they come through the gates to the inner courtyard, they will wear linen garments. They won’t wear any wool when they minister at the gates of the inner courtyard or in the temple. ¹⁸ They will have linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They won’t wear anything that makes them sweat. ¹⁹ When they go out to the outer courtyard to the people, they will remove the garments in which they were ministering. They will lay them aside in the holy chambers and wear other clothing. They must not transfer holiness to the people through their clothing. ²⁰ They must neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long, but they will trim the hair on their heads. ²¹ None of the priests should drink wine when they come into the inner courtyard. ²² They must not marry widows or divorced women, but only Israelite virgins. Priests may, however, marry the widows of other priests. ²³ They must teach my people the difference between the holy and the ordinary, and show them the difference between clean and unclean. ²⁴ They must execute judgments according to my case laws in cases of civil conflict. They must observe my instructions and my regulations regarding all my festivals. They must keep my sabbaths holy. ²⁵ In order to avoid uncleanness, they must not approach the dead. They may, however, become unclean for their father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister. ²⁶ Once the priest is clean again, he must count off seven days. ²⁷ On the day that he comes into the holy place, the inner courtyard, to minister in the holy place, he will present his purification offering. This is what the Lord God says. ²⁸ As for their inheritance, I am their inheritance. They won’t be given family property in Israel; I am their family property. ²⁹ They will eat the grain offerings, the purification offerings, and the compensation offerings. Every dedicated thing in Israel belongs to them. ³⁰ The best of the early produce of every kind, and every contribution, all of them, belong to the priests. You will give the best of your bread dough to the priest so that a blessing may come to rest on your household. ³¹ The priests must not eat any bird or animal that dies naturally or is torn apart by prey.

The holy portion

45 When you distribute the land as an inheritance, you will set aside a holy portion of land for the Lord. It will be 7.1 miles long and 5.68 miles^[i] wide. It will be holy throughout the entire area. ² Out of this portion, an area seven hundred fifty feet by seven hundred fifty feet square will be for the sanctuary. All around it will be an open space seventy-five feet wide. ³ Beginning with this measurement, you will measure out an area 7.1 miles long and 2.84 miles wide. The sanctuary, the most holy place, will lie on it. ⁴ It is holy, set apart from the land, and it belongs to the priests who draw near to minister in the Lord’s sanctuary. It will be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the sanctuary. ⁵ The area 7.1 miles long and 2.84 miles wide will be for the Levites who minister in the temple. Twenty chambers are theirs as their property. ⁶ As the property for the city, you will set aside an area 1.42 miles wide and 7.1 miles long next to the holy portion. It will be for the whole house of Israel. ⁷ The territory for the prince will be on both sides of the holy portion and the city property, alongside the holy portion and alongside the city property, from their western boundaries westward and from their eastern boundaries eastward. Its length will equal one tribal portion, from the western border to the eastern border. ⁸ The land will be his property in Israel, and my princes will no longer oppress my people. They will give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

⁹ The Lord God proclaims: Enough, princes of Israel! Turn aside from violence and oppression. Establish justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people! This is what the Lord God says: ¹⁰ You must use fair scales, a fair ephah,^[j] and a fair bath.^{[k] 11} The ephah and the bath must be the same size. Both should be calibrated to the homer: each will contain one-tenth of a homer. ¹² The shekel must weigh twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels will equal one maneh for you.

Sacrificial offerings and gifts

¹³ These are your prescribed contributions: one-sixth of an ephah for each homer of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah for each homer of barley; ¹⁴ a regular amount of oil,^[l] one-tenth of a bath for each kor^[m] (each kor^[n] contains ten baths); ¹⁵ and one sheep from the flock for every two hundred from Israel’s pastureland, for grain offerings, for entirely burned offerings, and for well-being sacrifices to make reconciliation for them. This is what the Lord God says. ¹⁶ All the people will make this contribution on behalf of the prince in Israel. ¹⁷ The prince will be responsible for the entirely burned offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the festivals, new moons, and sabbaths, all the appointed festivals of the house of Israel. He will offer the purification offering, the grain offering, the entirely burned offering, and the well-being sacrifice to make reconciliation on behalf of the house of Israel.

Festivals

¹⁸ The Lord God proclaims: On the first day of the first month,^[o] you will take a flawless young bull from the herd, and you will purify the sanctuary. ¹⁹ The priest will take some of the blood from the purification offering, and he will set it on the doorposts of the temple and on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on the doorposts of the gate to the inner courtyard. ²⁰ You will do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins through inadvertence or ignorance. So you will purge the temple. ²¹ Your Passover will be on the fourteenth day of the first month. Unleavened bread will be eaten during the seven days of the festival. ²² On that day, the prince will provide a young bull as the purification offering for himself and for the people of the land. ²³ For the seven days of the festival, he will provide seven flawless bulls and seven flawless rams, one for each day of the festival, as the entirely burned offering for the Lord, and, for the purification offering, one male goat for each day. ²⁴ He will also provide the grain offerings, one ephah^[p] for each bull, and one ephah for each ram, with one hin^[q] of oil for each ephah. ²⁵ For the festival that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,^[r] he will make the same provisions for the purification offerings, entirely burned offerings, grain offerings, and oil, for all seven days of the festival.