Beginning

Restoration of the Temple

Chapter 43

The Lord’s Return.^1 [a]Then the man brought me to the gate that faces the east, ² and there I beheld the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. The sound of his coming was like the sound of a mighty torrent of waters, and the earth shone with his glory.

³ The vision I beheld was like the man I had seen when he had come to destroy the city, and like the vision I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell prostrate.

⁴ As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by way of the east gate, ⁵ the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the inner court, and I beheld the glory of the Lord fill the temple.

⁶ While the man stood beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from the temple. ⁷ He said to me: Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will dwell forever among the Israelites. Never again will the house of Israel defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their whoring and by the corpses of their kings.

⁸ When they placed their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall separating me and them, they were defiling my holy name by the loathsome practices in which they engaged. Therefore, I will destroy them in my anger.^{[b] 9} From now on, they must cease their harlotry and remove the corpses of their kings from my presence. Then I will dwell among them forever.

¹⁰ The Temple Law. As for you, son of man, describe this temple to the house of Israel, so that they will be truly ashamed of their iniquities. ¹¹ And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design and arrangement of the temple, its exits and entrances, its shape, and all its ordinances. ¹² This is the law of the temple: all the surrounding area on the top of the mountain shall be most holy. Such is the law of the temple.

¹³ Measurements of the Altar.^[c]These were the dimensions of the altar in cubits of one cubit and a handbreadth. Its base was one cubit high and one cubit wide, with a rim of one span around its edge. This was the height of the altar. ¹⁴ From its base on the ground up to the lower ledge, it was two cubits high and one cubit wide, and from the lower ledge to the upper ledge, it was four cubits high and again one cubit wide.

¹⁵ The altar hearth was four cubits high, and from the hearth, four horns projected upward. ¹⁶ The hearth was a square, twelve cubits long by twelve cubits wide. ¹⁷ The upper ledge was also a square, fourteen cubits long by fourteen cubits wide, with a rim around it a half cubit wide and a surrounding base of one cubit. The steps of the altar face the east.

¹⁸ Then he said to me: Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are the regulations for the altar when it has been erected for the offering of holocausts upon it and for the sprinkling of blood upon it. ¹⁹ You are to present a young bull as a sin offering to the Levitical priests of the family of Zadok who are authorized to draw near me in order to minister to me, says the Lord God.

²⁰ You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the ledge and upon the surrounding rim. Thus, you will purify it and make atonement for it. ²¹ Then take the bull designated for the sin offering and immolate it in the designated part of the temple area outside the sanctuary.

²² On the second day, you are to present an unblemished male goat as a sin offering, and the altar must be purified again, as was done with the bull. ²³ When you have finished purifying it, choose an unblemished young bull and an unblemished ram from the flock. ²⁴ After you present them before the Lord, the priests will throw salt on them and offer them to the Lord as burnt offerings.

²⁵ For seven days you are to offer a male goat for a sin offering, as well as a young bull and an unblemished ram from the flock. ²⁶ In this way, they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, and thereby consecrate it.

²⁷ Once these days have been completed, from the eighth day onward the priests will offer your burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, says the Lord.

Chapter 44

The Shut Gate. ¹ Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary that faces east, but it was shut. ² The Lord said to me: This gate will remain closed. It shall not be opened, and no one may enter through it. ³ Only the prince himself may sit inside the gate to eat his meal in the presence of the Lord. He must enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and he must depart by the same way.

The New Law

Admittance to the Temple. ⁴ Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. And when I looked, I beheld the glory of the Lord filling the Lord’s temple, and I fell upon my face. ⁵ Then he said to me: Son of man, pay attention, look carefully, and listen closely to everything that I will tell you in regard to all the ordinances of the temple of the Lord and all its laws. Also, mark carefully those who are admitted to the temple and those who are to be excluded from the sanctuary.

⁶ Say to the rebels of the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: I have endured enough of these abominable practices in which you engage, O house of Israel. ⁷ You have allowed foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and body, to enter my sanctuary and profane it when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. Thus, you have broken my covenant with all of your loathsome practices.

⁸ Instead of taking charge of my sacred offerings, you have assigned foreigners to serve me in my sanctuary in your place. ⁹ Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, shall be permitted to enter my sanctuary, not even those foreigners who dwell among the Israelites.

¹⁰ Levites. But as for the Levites who abandoned me when Israel strayed far from me by following its idols, they must suffer the consequences for their iniquity. ¹¹ They may be permitted to serve as ministers in my sanctuary, with the responsibility of guarding the gates of the temple and serving in the temple. They may be allowed to slaughter the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for the people as well as attending to the needs of the people and serving them.

¹² However, because they used to minister to them in front of their idols and thereby caused the house of Israel to fall into a state of sin, therefore, I have sworn an oath against them, says the Lord God, that they shall be punished for their iniquity. ¹³ They may never again be permitted to approach me in order to serve as priests, nor will they be allowed to come near any of my holy things or my most sacred offerings. Rather, they must bear the shame of their abominable deeds. ¹⁴ However, I will assign them the responsibility of service to the temple and for all the work that has to be done in it.

¹⁵ Priests. As for the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok, who continued to fulfill faithfully their responsibility for caring for my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed far from me, they shall draw near me in order to minister to me, and they will stand in my presence to offer me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. ¹⁶ They are the ones who will enter my sanctuary, the ones who will approach my table to minister to me and serve me.

¹⁷ Whenever they approach the gates of the inner court, the priests are to wear linen vestments. They must not wear any garment of wool when they minister at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple. ¹⁸ They are to have linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments on their loins, and they may not wear anything that might cause them to perspire.

¹⁹ Before they go out to the people in the outer court, they are to remove the clothes in which they have been performing their ministry, and they are then to put on other garments so that they will not communicate holiness to the people with their garments.

²⁰ Priests are not permitted to shave their heads or to let their hair grow long. Rather, they must keep their hair carefully trimmed, ²¹ nor are they allowed to drink wine on the day they are to enter the inner court.

²² Priests may not marry either widows or divorced women, but only virgins of the race of Israel. However, they may marry women who are the widows of priests. ²³ They shall teach my people to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and they shall make known to them the difference between what is clean and what is unclean.

²⁴ In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges, and they shall render their decisions according to my decrees. They must observe my laws and my statutes for all of my appointed feasts, and they shall keep my Sabbaths holy.

²⁵ Priests may not make themselves unclean by coming near a dead person. However, if the deceased is a father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister, then they are permitted to defile themselves. ²⁶ After such a priest has been purified, he must wait a further seven days. ²⁷ On the day that he enters the inner court of the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer a sin offering for himself, says the Lord God.

²⁸ Priests will have no inheritance. I, myself, will be their inheritance. You will not give them any possession in Israel. I, myself, am their possession. ²⁹ They will eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. Everything in Israel that is dedicated by vow to God will be theirs.

³⁰ The best of all the firstfruits of every kind and the best of all your offerings of every kind shall belong to the priests. Likewise, you shall give to the priests the best of your dough so that a blessing may rest upon your house. ³¹ In addition, the priests must not eat the flesh of a bird or animal that has died a natural death or been killed by a wild animal.

Chapter 45

The Sacred Plot. ¹ When you draw lots to divide the country as an inheritance, you shall set aside a sacred portion of the land for the Lord, twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand cubits wide. Its entire area will be regarded as sacred. ² Of this land, a plot, five hundred cubits square, shall be set aside for the sanctuary, and that plot will be surrounded by an open space of fifty cubits.

³ Out of this area you must also set aside a section twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide, within which will be the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. ⁴ This will be the sacred portion of the land belonging to the priests who minister in the sanctuary and approach the Lord to serve him. It will be both a place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.

⁵ Another section, twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide, will be set apart for the Levites who minister at the temple, so that they will have towns in which to live. ⁶ Near the land belonging to the sanctuary, you are to grant the city possession of an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand cubits long. This shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

⁷ To the prince will belong the land that borders on both sides of the sacred district and the property of the city, extending westward from the west and eastward from the east, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions and extending from the western to the eastern borders ⁸ of the land. This will be his property in Israel. Therefore, the princes of Israel will no longer oppress my people, but they will grant the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

Weights and Measures. ⁹ Thus says the Lord God: Enough, you princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression and do what is right and just. Stop evicting my people from their land, says the Lord God.

^10 [d]You must use scales that are accurate, and have an honest ephah and an accurate liquid measure. ¹¹ The ephah and the liquid measure must be of equal size. The liquid measure must contain one-tenth of a homer, and the ephah must contain one-tenth of a homer. The homer will be the standard measure for both. ¹² The shekel must consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels will constitute one mina.

¹³ Grain Offerings. This is the special offering you shall make: one-sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley. ¹⁴ The prescribed portion of oil: one-tenth of a measure for every measure of oil, consisting of ten liquid measures to a kor (or a homer, since ten liquid measures equal one homer).

¹⁵ In addition, you must take from the pastures of Israel one sheep from every flock of two hundred. These will be used for sacrifice—burnt offerings and peace offerings and fellowship offerings—to make atonement for the people, says the Lord God.

¹⁶ All the people of the land will be required to contribute to this offering for the prince of Israel. ¹⁷ The prince himself has the obligation to provide the holocausts, the cereal offerings, and the libations for all of the feasts, new moons, Sabbaths, and appointed festivals of the house of Israel. He, himself, must provide the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the burnt offerings, and the fellowship offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

¹⁸ The Feast of Passover. Thus says the Lord God: On the first day of the first month you shall sacrifice an unblemished young bull to purify the sanctuary. ¹⁹ The priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorposts of the gates of the inner court. ²⁰ You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned inadvertently or because of ignorance. In this way, you will make atonement for the temple.

²¹ On the fourteenth day of the first month, you must celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days, everyone must eat unleavened bread. ²² On that day the prince must provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land.

²³ On each of the seven days of the feast, the prince must offer as a holocaust to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, and as a sin offering, he must offer one male goat each day. ²⁴ He also is to provide as a grain offering one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, as well as a hin^[e] of oil for each ephah.

²⁵ The Feast of Booths. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and for the entire seven days of the festival, he shall provide the same sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.