Beginning
God’s Glory Returns to the Temple
43 Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate facing east. 2 And the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. And His voice was like a noise of many waters. And the earth shone with His glory. 3 It was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw, when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision that I saw by the River Kebar. And I fell upon my face. 4 The glory of the Lord came into the temple by the way of the gate facing east. 5 So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court. And the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
6 Then I heard one speaking to me out of the temple. And a man stood by me. 7 He said to me: Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel forever. And My holy name shall the house of Israel defile no more, nor they nor their kings by their harlotry, nor by the corpses of their kings when they die. 8 By setting their threshold by My threshold and their post by My posts and the wall between Me and them, they have even defiled My holy name by their abominations that they have committed. Therefore I have consumed them in My anger. 9 Now let them put away their harlotry and the corpses of their kings far from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.
10 As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. And let them measure the pattern. 11 If they are ashamed of all that they have done, show them the design of the temple and its fashion and exits and its entrances and all its forms and all its ordinances and all its laws. And write it in their sight so that they may keep its whole form and all its ordinances and do them.
12 This is the law of the temple: The whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. This is the law of the temple.
The Altar Restored
13 These are the measurements of the altar by cubits[a] (the cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth): The base shall be a cubit, and the width a cubit, and its border by its edge all around shall be a span.[b] And this shall be the height of the altar: 14 From the bottom on the ground even to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the width one cubit.[c] And from the lesser ledge even to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the width one cubit.[d] 15 So the altar shall be four cubits. And from the altar and upward shall be four horns. 16 The altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve wide,[e] square in its four corners. 17 The ledge shall be fourteen cubits[f] long and fourteen wide in the four squares. And the border about it shall be half a cubit.[g] And its bottom shall be a cubit all around. And its stairs shall face east.
18 He said to me: Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it to offer burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it. 19 You shall give to the priests the Levites that are of the seed of Zadok who approach Me to minister to Me, says the Lord God, a young bull as a sin offering. 20 You shall take of its blood and put it on its four horns, and on the four corners of the ledge and on the rim all around. Thus you shall cleanse and purge it. 21 You shall take the bull also of the sin offering, and it shall be burned in the appointed place of the temple, outside the sanctuary.
22 On the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish as a sin offering. And they shall cleanse the altar as they cleansed it with the bull. 23 When you have made an end of cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish and a ram out of the flock without blemish. 24 You shall offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord.
25 For seven days you shall prepare every day a goat as a sin offering. They shall also prepare a young bull and a ram out of the flock, without blemish. 26 For seven days they shall purge the altar and purify it. So they shall consecrate it. 27 When they have completed the days, it shall be that on the eighth day and forward, the priests shall present your burnt offerings and your peace offerings upon the altar. And I will accept you, says the Lord God.
The East Gate for the Prince
44 Then he brought me back to the gate of the outer sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. 2 Then the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it. Because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it, therefore it shall be shut. 3 As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate and shall go out by the same way.
4 Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the temple. And I looked, and the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell upon my face.
5 The Lord said to me: Son of man, mark well, and see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord and all its laws. And mark well those who may enter the house, with all exits of the sanctuary. 6 You shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, let all your abominations suffice; 7 you brought foreigners into My sanctuary, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to pollute it, even My house, when you offered My food, the fat and the blood. For they have broken My covenant because of all your abominations. 8 You have not kept the charge of My holy things. But you have set foreigners to keep charge of My sanctuary. 9 Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary, of any foreigner who is among the sons of Israel.
Laws for the Priests
10 But the Levites who have gone far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray away from Me after their idols, they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. 11 Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house and ministering to the house. They shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. 12 Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have lifted up My hand against them, says the Lord God, that they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. 13 They shall not come near to Me to do the office of a priest to Me, nor to come near to any of My holy things in the Most Holy Place. But they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. 14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the temple for all its service and for all that shall be done in it.
15 But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister to Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. 16 They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.
17 It shall come to pass that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments. And no wool shall come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. 18 They shall have linen turbans on their heads and shall have linen breeches on their loins. They shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat. 19 When they go out into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they ministered and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments. And they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.
20 Nor shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long. They shall only trim the hair of their heads. 21 Nor shall any priest drink wine when they enter the inner court. 22 Nor shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her who has been put away. But they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who had a priest before. 23 They shall teach My people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
24 In controversy they shall stand in judgment. And they shall judge it according to My judgments. And they shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My assemblies. And they shall hallow My Sabbaths.
25 They shall not go to a dead person to defile themselves. But for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that has had no husband, they may defile themselves. 26 After he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days. 27 In the day that he goes into the sanctuary, to the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, says the Lord God.
28 It shall be to them for an inheritance. I am their inheritance. And you shall give them no possession in Israel. I am their possession. 29 They shall eat the grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering. And every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30 The first of all the first fruits of all things and every oblation of all of every sort of your oblations shall be the priest’s. You shall also give to the priest the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest in your house. 31 The priests shall not eat any bird or beast that has died naturally or was torn to pieces.
The Holy District
45 Moreover, when you divide by lot the land for inheritance, you shall offer an allotment to the Lord, a holy portion of the land. The length shall be the length of twenty-five thousand cubits,[h] and the width shall be twenty thousand.[i] It shall be holy throughout its territory all around. 2 Of this there shall be a square plot for the sanctuary, five hundred by five hundred cubits,[j] with fifty cubits[k] for an open space around it. 3 Of this measure you shall measure the length of twenty-five thousand cubits and the width of ten thousand cubits.[l] And in it shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 4 The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who shall come near to minister to the Lord. And it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 An area twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in width shall be for the Levites, the ministers of the temple, and for their possession cities in which to dwell.
6 You shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand cubits[m] wide and twenty-five thousand cubits long adjacent to the allotment of the holy portion. It shall be for the whole house of Israel.
The Portion for the Prince
7 A portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the holy allotment and property of the city, adjacent to the holy allotment and the property of the city, from the west side westward and from the east side eastward. And the length shall correspond to one of the tribal portions, from the west border to the east border. 8 In the land shall be his possession in Israel. And My officials shall no more oppress My people. And the rest of the land they shall give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
Laws Governing the Prince
9 Thus says the Lord God: Let it suffice you officials of Israel. Remove violence and destruction, and execute justice and righteousness. Take away your exactions from My people, says the Lord God. 10 You shall have just balances and a just ephah[n] and a just bath.[o] 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure so that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer,[p] and the ephah the tenth part of a homer. Their measure shall be after the homer. 12 The shekel[q] shall be twenty gerahs.[r] Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall be your mina.[s]
13 This is the offering that you shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah[t] of a homer of wheat, and you shall give the sixth part of an ephah[u] of a homer of barley. 14 Concerning the ordinance of oil that is the bath of oil, you shall offer the tenth part of a bath[v] out of the kor,[w] which is a homer or ten baths, for ten baths are a homer. 15 And one lamb shall be out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the watering places of Israel, as a grain offering and as a burnt offering and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, says the Lord God. 16 All the people of the land shall give this offering for the prince in Israel. 17 It shall be the prince’s part to give burnt offerings and grain offerings and drink offerings in the feasts and in the New Moons and in the Sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel. He shall prepare the sin offering and the grain offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
Observing the Feasts
18 Thus says the Lord God: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary. 19 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple and on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court. 20 So you shall do the seventh day of the month for everyone who errs and for him who is naive. So you shall make atonement for the temple.
21 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days. Unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 On that day the prince shall prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bull as a sin offering. 23 For seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the Lord, seven bulls and seven rams without blemish daily for the seven days, and a male of the goats daily as a sin offering. 24 He shall prepare a grain offering of an ephah for a bull and an ephah for a ram and a hin[x] of oil for an ephah.
25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, he shall do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the grain offering, and according to the oil.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.