Bible in 90 Days

A prophecy to the mountains of Israel

36 The Lord said, ‘Son of man, speak my message to the mountains of Israel. Say to them: “Listen to the Lord's message, you mountains of Israel. ² This is what the Almighty Lord says: Your enemies have laughed at you. They have said, ‘The old mountains now belong to us!’ ”

³ So now prophesy to those mountains. Tell them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Your enemies attacked you from every side. They won against you, so that you belonged to other nations. People talked about you and they insulted you.

⁴ Because of this, mountains of Israel, listen to this message from me, the Almighty Lord. I say this to the hills, the mountains and the valleys. I say this to the empty places and the towns that have become heaps of stones where nobody lives. This has caused the nations around you to laugh at you and insult you.

⁵ So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I am very angry with those nations and I will punish them. I am even more angry with the people of Edom because they insulted my people. They were happy to take my land for themselves so that their animals could eat the grass.”

⁶ So prophesy to the hills and mountains of Israel, and to its valleys. Tell them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I am very angry because the nations around you have caused you to be ashamed. ⁷ So this is what I, the Almighty Lord, say: I make a strong promise that those nations will soon be ashamed themselves.

⁸ But I say this to you mountains of Israel. Trees will grow on you again and crops will provide much food for my people. My people will soon come home. ⁹ I am your friend and I will take care of you. Men will plough your ground and they will plant seeds in it. ¹⁰ I will cause more and more Israelite people to live on you, and in all the land. They will live in the towns and they will repair the broken buildings. ¹¹ I will make more and more people and animals live on you. They will give birth to many young ones, so that they grow in number. I will cause many people to live on you, as they did a long time ago. I will help you with more good things than you had when you first became a land for my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹² I will cause my people, the Israelites, to walk on you. You will belong to them as the place where they and their descendants live. You will never again cause their children to die.

¹³ This is what the Almighty Lord says: People are saying to you, Israel's land, ‘You destroy people. You take away the nation's children.’ ¹⁴ So now I, the Almighty Lord, tell you this: You will no longer destroy people or take away the nation's children. ¹⁵ People from other nations will no longer insult you or laugh at you. You will no longer cause your nation to suffer. That is what the Almighty Lord says.” ’

¹⁶ The Lord gave this message to me: ¹⁷ ‘Son of man, Israel's people made their own land unclean when they lived there. They lived in a bad way and they did bad things. It made them unclean, like a woman when she bleeds each month. ¹⁸ So I punished them with my great anger. I punished them because they murdered people on their land. And they made the land unclean with idols that they worshipped. ¹⁹ I sent them to live among people of other nations in foreign countries. I punished them as they deserved for the bad things that they did.

²⁰ But among the nations where they went, they continued to bring shame to my holy name. People said, “These are the Lord's people, but they had to leave the land that he gave to them.” ²¹ I wanted them to give honour to my holy name. Instead, Israel's people brought me shame among the nations where they went.

²² So you must say to Israel's people, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will help you, Israel's people. But it is not because you deserve it. I will do it so that people give honour to my holy name. You brought me shame among the nations where you went. ²³ Now I will show them that my name is great and holy. You brought shame to my name. But I will help you so that the nations can see that I am great. When I do that, they will know that I am the Lord. That is what I, the Almighty Lord, say.

²⁴ I will take you out from the nations and all the foreign countries where you have been living. I will bring you back to your own land. ²⁵ You will become pure, as if I splash you with clean water. I will remove all the things that make you unclean. I will take away the idols that you worship. ²⁶ I will give you new thoughts. I will put a new spirit in you. You will no longer refuse to obey me. Instead, you will want to please me. ²⁷ I will put my Spirit in you, so that you obey my commands. You will be careful to obey my laws.

²⁸ At that time, you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will save you from all the things that made you unclean. I will cause the land to give you plenty of grain to eat. You will no longer have any famines. ³⁰ The trees will provide plenty of fruit. And crops will grow well in the fields. Other nations will no longer make you feel ashamed because you have no food to eat. ³¹ Then you will remember the evil way that you lived. You will remember the bad things that you did. You will be ashamed of yourselves because of the sins and the disgusting things that you did. ³² I want you to know that I am not doing this because you deserve it. You should be ashamed, Israel's people. You should feel sorry for the things that you have done. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

³³ This is what the Almighty Lord says: At that time, I will make you clean from all your sins. When I do that, I will send you back to live in your towns. You will build your houses again that had become heaps of stones. ³⁴ You will plough the empty land again to provide food. People who travel there will no longer think that the land is useless. ³⁵ They will say, ‘This land was like a desert, but now it is like the Garden of Eden.^[a] People now live in the cities that had become heaps of stones. The cities now have strong walls.’ ³⁶ Then the nations that still live around you will see what has happened. They will know that I, the Lord, have mended the broken cities. They will know that I have planted crops again in the fields that were empty. I, the Lord, have said this, and I will do it!”

^37-38 This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will listen to what Israel's people are asking me to do for them. I will allow them to grow in number, like a big crowd of sheep. They will be as many as the sheep that people brought to Jerusalem as offerings at a festival. I will fill the broken cities with crowds of people, as many as those sheep. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

The valley of dry bones^[b]

37 The Lord took hold of me with great power. In a vision, the Lord's Spirit took me to the middle of a valley. Bones covered all the ground there. ² The Lord made me walk up and down among the bones. I could see many bones there, on the ground in the valley. They were completely dry.

³ He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones become alive again?’

I said, ‘Almighty Lord, only you know the answer.’

⁴ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones. Say to them, “Dry bones, listen to the Lord's message! ⁵ This is what the Almighty Lord says to you bones: Listen! I will put breath into you and you will become alive. ⁶ I will join you together and I will put meat on you. I will cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and you will become alive. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” ’^[c]

⁷ So I prophesied, as the Lord had commanded me to do. While I was still speaking, there was a noise. It was the sound of the bones as they knocked against each other when they joined together. ⁸ While I watched, I saw meat come and join to the bones. Then skin covered them. But there was no breath in them yet.

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Prophesy to the wind, son of man. Speak my message to the wind. Say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Blow from all directions and put breath into these dead bodies! Cause them to become alive again.” ’

¹⁰ So I spoke the message that the Lord had commanded me to speak. Breath went into those dead bodies and they became alive. They stood up on their feet. They were as many as a great army.

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are a picture of all Israel's people. The Israelites are saying, “Our bones are dead and dry. There are no good things that we can hope for. We have come to an end.” ¹² So prophesy and say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Listen, my people! I will soon open up your graves. I will bring you out of your graves. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ When that happens to you, my people, you will know that I am the Lord. ¹⁴ I will put the breath of my Spirit in you, and you will become alive. I will let you live safely in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken. You will know that I have done what I said I would do. That is what the Lordsays.” ’^[d]

¹⁵ The Lord gave this message to me: ¹⁶ ‘Son of man, take a stick and write on it, “This stick belongs to Judah and the Israelite tribes that are with him.” Then take another stick and write on it, “This stick belongs to Joseph's son Ephraim and the Israelite tribes that are with him.”^{[e] 17} Make the two sticks join together to become one stick in your hand. ¹⁸ Your people will ask you, “Please tell us what this means.” ¹⁹ When they ask that, say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will take Joseph's stick that belongs to Ephraim and the Israelite tribes that are with him. I will cause it to join together with Judah's stick. I will make them become one stick in my hand.”

²⁰ Hold the two sticks that you have written words on. Hold them in your hand for the people to see. ²¹ Say to the people, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will take Israel's people out from among the nations where they have gone. I will bring them back together from all those foreign countries. I will bring them to their own land. ²² In that land, I will make them become one nation. They will live on Israel's mountains. They will have one king to rule over them all. They will never again become two nations or two separate kingdoms. ²³ They will no longer worship their disgusting idols and make themselves unclean. They will not refuse to obey me. They have turned away from me and done bad things. But I will save them from all their sins. I will make them clean. They will be my people and I will be their God.

²⁴ My servant David will be their king. There will be one shepherd who takes care of them all. They will carefully obey my rules and my laws. ²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob. It is the land where your ancestors lived. My people, their children and their grandchildren will live there. They will live there for ever. My servant David will rule over them for ever.^[f]

²⁶ I will make a covenant with them to give them peace. It is a promise to my people that will continue for ever. I will cause them to live safely in their land. I will cause them to grow in number. I will put my temple among them, to be with them for ever. ²⁷ I will make my home with them. I will be their God and they will be my people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I, the Lord, have chosen the Israelites as my own people. The nations will see that I have put my temple among my people for ever.” ’

38 The Lord gave this message to me: ² ‘Son of man, turn and look towards Gog, in the land of Magog. He is the most important prince of Meshech and Tubal. Speak my message to warn him. ³ Say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I am your enemy, Gog, prince of Meshech and Tubal. ⁴ I will turn you around. I will put hooks into your mouth and catch you. I will take hold of you and your great army, with its horses and their riders. I will take hold of all your soldiers, who are ready to fight with their swords and their shields. I will pull them all away. ⁵ Soldiers from Persia, Ethiopia and Libya will be there with your army. They all have shields and helmets. ⁶ All the soldiers from Gomer will join you. An army from Beth Togarmah will also come with all its soldiers from far away in the north. So armies from many nations will be with you.”

⁷ Say to Gog, “Prepare to fight! You must be ready to command all the armies that are with you. ⁸ After many days you will have to bring your soldiers together to fight a battle. In the years at the end of time, you will go to attack the land of Israel. It will be a land that has become strong again after war. The people there will have returned from other nations. They will all be living safely in that land that had become heaps of stones. They will all be together on Israel's mountains. ⁹ Then you will attack them. You, with your armies and all the people with you, will attack them like a great storm. You will be like a dark cloud that covers the land.

¹⁰ This is what the Almighty Lord says: On that day you will have evil thoughts. You will decide to do a wicked thing. ¹¹ You will say: ‘We will attack a land where the villages have no walls around them. The people are living quietly in peace and we will attack them. They have no walls or strong gates to keep them safe. ¹² We will fight them and take their things for ourselves. The people there have come back from other nations where they lived. They are living in their homes which had become heaps of stones. Now they have got many animals and valuable things. Their land has become an important place in the middle of everywhere.’

¹³ The people of Sheba and Dedan, and the traders and leaders of Tarshish will ask you questions. They will say, ‘Why have you brought all your armies together? Have you come to attack Israel and take away their valuable things for yourselves? Will you take away their silver and their gold? Will you take their animals and all their things? Will you carry away such a great load of things for yourselves? ’ ”

¹⁴ So, son of man, you must prophesy to Gog. Say to him, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: That is what you will decide to do at that time. You will do it when you see that my people, the Israelites, are living safely. ¹⁵ You will come from your country far away in the north. You will bring many soldiers with you. All of them will be riding on horses. They will be a great army of many soldiers. ¹⁶ Your army will be like a cloud that covers the land when you attack my people, the Israelites. In the days at the end of time I will bring you to attack my land. Yes, Gog, I will use you to show the nations that I am holy. Then they will know who I am.

¹⁷ This is what the Almighty Lord says: In years long ago, I gave my servants, the prophets of Israel, messages about you. At that time they prophesied that I would bring you to attack my people. ¹⁸ I, the Almighty Lord, say this: On the day that Gog attacks the land of Israel, I will become more and more angry. ¹⁹ I promise you this, because I am so very angry. On that day, there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰ Everything that lives will shake with fear when they see what I am doing. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the wild animals, the small animals that move along the ground and all the people on earth will be very afraid. I will make the mountains and hills break into pieces. All the walls in the cities will fall down.

²¹ I will command the soldiers on all the mountains of my land to attack Gog. That is what I, the Almighty Lord, say. Gog's soldiers will fight against each other with their swords. ²² I will judge Gog. I will punish his men with disease and death. I will send storms of rain, hail, fire and sulphur. They will pour down from the sky on him and on his armies. ²³ I will show all the nations that I am great and I am holy. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” ’

39 ‘Son of man, you must tell my message to Gog to warn him. Say to him, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Listen! I am your enemy, Gog, prince of Meshech and Tubal. ² I will turn you around and I will pull you along. I will bring you from the far away places in the north to attack the mountains of Israel. ³ Then I will knock your bow out of your left hand. I will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. ⁴ You will fall to the ground on Israel's mountains. You, your soldiers and the people who are with you will all die there. Vultures and wild animals will eat your dead bodies. ⁵ Your bodies will lie in the fields. I, the Almighty Lord, have said that this will happen.

⁶ I will send fires to burn in Magog. They will burn the people who live safely in towns on the coast of the sea. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

⁷ My people, Israel will know that my name is holy. No longer will I let them say bad things about me. And the nations round you will know that I, the Lord am the holy God in Israel. ⁸ I promise that I will cause this to happen. You can be sure that this day will come, says the Lord God.

I told you that this day would come.

⁹ Then those who live in Israel's towns will go out. They will pick up the weapons and they will burn them. They will burn the small and large shields, the heavy sticks, the throwing sticks and the sharp pointed sticks (swords). They will use them to make their fires. They will have enough wood for seven years of fires. ¹⁰ They will not have to go into the fields or forests to find wood. They will take away the things from those who took their things, says the Lord God.

¹¹ They will bury Gog in the valley east of the sea. They will bury Gog and all his armies there. So men will not be able to walk through this valley. They will call it the valley of Hamon Gog (Gog's army).

¹² Israel's people will need seven months to bury all the dead bodies. Then the land will be clean. ¹³ All the people in the country will bury the dead bodies. They will always remember that day, the day that I won the fight. They will give me glory, says the Lord God.

¹⁴ They will choose some men to clean the land. They will travel through all the country. Other men will bury the dead bodies that remain on the ground. They will begin to do this at the end of the seven months. ¹⁵ The men who walk through the country will find dead men's bones. They will put a sign by each one. Then the men who bury the bodies will bury them in the valley of Hamon Gog. ¹⁶ (A town called Hamonah is also there.) That is how they will make the land clean.”

¹⁷ Son of man, this is what the Lord God says: Shout to all kinds of birds and wild animals, “Come here from all the country to eat the meal that I have prepared for you. It is a great sacrifice on Israel's mountains. There you will eat meat and you will drink blood. ¹⁸ You will eat the meat of great men and you will drink the blood of kings. You will eat them like the fat sheep, cows and animals from Bashan that you eat. ¹⁹ At this sacrifice, you will eat so much fat that you cannot eat any more. You will drink so much blood that you become drunk. ²⁰ I will give you horses and their riders to eat. I will give you great men and many kinds of soldiers to eat,” says the Lord God.

²¹ I will show my glory to all the nations. They will see that I can punish people. And they will know that I decide how and when to punish them. ²² From that time and for all the time after that, Israel's people will know that I am the Lord their God. ²³ And the nations will know that I sent Israel's people away from their country. They will know that I punished my people because of their sin. They had not been faithful to me so I turned away from them. I let their enemies take them and kill them with swords. ²⁴ I punished them because they had not kept themselves clean from sin. I hid myself from them because they had done so many evil things.’

²⁵ So this is what the Lord God says. ‘Now I will bring back Jacob (Israel) from the countries where his people are prisoners. I will be kind to all Israel's people. And I will make them see that I am holy. ²⁶ They will forget that they were ashamed. They will forget that they failed to keep their promises to me. That was when they lived in a safe country. In that country, nobody made them afraid. ²⁷ I will bring them back from the lands where their enemies took them. The nations will see what I have done. So all the nations will know that I am holy. ²⁸ Then Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. I sent my people away to far countries. But I will bring them all back to their own country. I will not leave any behind. ²⁹ No longer will I turn away from them. I will pour my Spirit over Israel's people, says the Lord God.’

A vision of the temple

40 In the 25th year that we had been prisoners in Babylon, the Lord took hold of me with great power. It happened on the tenth day of the first month of the year. It was 14 years since Babylonian soldiers had destroyed the city of Jerusalem. In a vision, the Lord took me there. ² In the vision, he took me to the land of Israel. He put me on a very high mountain. When I looked towards the south, I saw a group of buildings that looked like a city. ³ The Lord took me there. Then I saw a man who shone brightly like bronze. He was standing at the entrance of a building. He held a linen rope and a stick in his hand. He used them to measure things. ⁴ The man said to me, ‘Son of man, watch and listen carefully to me. Remember everything that I will show you. God has brought you here so that I can show these things to you. Tell Israel's people about everything that you see.’

The east gate

⁵ I saw a wall all the way round the place where the temple was. The stick in the man's hand was 3 metres long. He used it to measure the wall. The wall was 3 metres wide and 3 metres high.

⁶ Then he went to the gate on the east side. He climbed its steps and he measured the size of the entrance. It was 3 metres deep. ⁷ Beyond this was a passage with three rooms on each side. They were rooms for the guards. Each of these rooms was 3 metres long and 3 metres wide. The walls between the rooms were 2½ metres thick. Beyond them was a passage that was 3 metres long. This went to an entrance room to the yard of the temple. ⁸ The man measured the entrance room at the end of the passage. ⁹ It was 4 metres long. It had pillars that were 1 metre thick. It was the nearest part of the gate to the temple. ¹⁰ The three rooms on each side of the passage at the east gate were all the same size. The walls that were between each room were also the same size.

¹¹ Then the man measured the passage that went through the gate's entrance. The passage was 6½ metres wide. The gate's entrance itself was 5 metres wide. ¹² There was a low wall in front of the rooms on each side of the passage. It was ½ metre high. The rooms were 3 metres square. ¹³ The man also measured between the back wall of one room and the back wall of the room opposite. It was 12½ metres from one wall to the other wall, across the passage. ¹⁴ The entrance room had pillars on the outside that were 30 metres high. The yard was all around three sides of the room. ¹⁵ The passage was 25 metres long, from the gate at the front to the entrance room into the yard. ¹⁶ The rooms for the guards all had small windows in their outside walls. The walls between the rooms also had small windows. The entrance room to the yard also had windows of the same kind. Men had cut pictures of palm trees on the inside walls of the passage.^[g]

The outside yard

¹⁷ The man took me through the entrance gate into the outside yard of the temple. I saw 30 rooms there, all along the wall of the yard. A path of flat stones was in front of the rooms. ¹⁸ The path went all around the yard and it covered the space between the gates. It was called the lower path.

¹⁹ The man measured across the outside yard. He measured from the lower gate to the higher gate that went into the inside yard. The man measured 50 metres between the two gates.

The north gate

²⁰ Then the man measured the gate on the north side of the outside yard. ²¹ He measured the three rooms on each side of the passage and the walls between them. He also measured the entrance room itself. They all measured the same as those in the east gate. The whole entrance was 25 metres long and it was 12½ metres wide. ²² The entrance room, the windows and the pictures of palm trees were the same as those in the east gate. Seven steps went up to the north gate. The entrance room into the yard was at the end of the passage. ²³ Opposite this gate, across the yard, was the gate to the inside yard. It was the same as on the east side. The man measured 50 metres between the two gates.

The south gate

²⁴ Next, the man took me to the south side of the yard. I saw another gate there. The man measured the walls and the rooms in that entrance. They were the same size as the other walls and rooms. ²⁵ The rooms in this entrance had windows that were the same as those in the other entrances. The whole entrance was 25 metres long and it was 12½ metres wide. ²⁶ Seven steps went up to it. The entrance room to the yard was at the end of the passage. There were pictures of palm trees on the inside walls of the passage. ²⁷ The inside yard of the temple also had a gate on the south side. The man measured 50 metres between the two gates.

The south gate of the inside yard

²⁸ The man took me through the south gate into the inside yard. He measured the gate. It was the same size as the gates in the outside wall. ²⁹ The rooms for the guards, the walls between them and theentrance room were the same size as the ones at the other gates. There were windows along its walls and in the entrance room. As at the other gates, the whole entrance was 25 metres long and 12½ metres wide. ³⁰ The entrance rooms around the inside yard were 12½ metres wide and 2½ metres long. ³¹ The entrance room of this gate opened towards the outside yard. There were pictures of palm trees on the walls of the passage. Eight steps went up to this gate.

The east gate of the inside yard

³² The man took me to the east side the inside yard. He measured the gate. It was the same size as the other gates. ³³ The rooms for the guards, the walls between them and theentrance room were the same size as the ones at the other gates. There were windows along its walls and in the entrance room. The whole entrance was 25 metres long and 12½ metres wide. ³⁴ The entrance room of this gate opened towards the outside yard. There were pictures of palm trees on the walls of the passage. Eight steps went up to this gate.

The north gate of the inside yard

³⁵ Then the man took me to the north gate. He measured it. It was the same size as the other gates, ³⁶ with rooms for the guards, their walls and an entrance room with windows. The whole entrance was 25 metres long and 12½ metres wide. ³⁷ The door of the entrance room opened towards the outside yard. There were pictures of palm trees on the walls of the passage, on both sides. Eight steps went up to this gate.

Buildings near the north gate

³⁸ There was a small building joined to the entrance room of the north gate. There was a door between this building and the entrance room. In that building, the priests washed the dead bodies of animals for burnt offerings. ³⁹ In the entrance room there were four tables, two on each side of the room. They killed the animals for sacrifices on these tables. They were animals for burnt offerings and also for sin offerings and for guilt offerings.

⁴⁰ There were four more tables outside the entrance room of the north gate. Two tables were on each side of the steps at the entrance. ⁴¹ So there were eight tables on which they killed animals for sacrifices. Four tables were in the yard outside the entrance. Four tables were inside the entrance room. ⁴² They had used stone to make four tables for the burnt offerings. These tables were 50 centimetres high. Their tops were 75 centimetres square. They put the knives and the other tools that they used to kill the animals on these tables. ⁴³ They put the meat for the offerings on the stone tables. There were hooks all around the inside walls of the room. Each hook was 7½ centimetres long.

⁴⁴ There were two rooms for singers that had doors to the inside yard. One was beside the north gate and its door opened towards the south. The other room was beside the south gate and its door opened towards the north. ⁴⁵ The man said to me, ‘The room beside the north gate is for the priests who take care of the temple. ⁴⁶ The room beside the south gate is for the priests who serve God at the altar. These priests are descendants of Zadok.^[h] They are the only descendants of Levi who may come near to the Lord to serve him.’

⁴⁷ The man measured the inside yard. It was square, 50 metres long and 50 metres wide. There was an altar in front of the temple.

The temple building

⁴⁸ The man took me into the entrance room of the temple building. He measured the walls on each side of the entrance. They were 2½ metres thick. The entrance was 7 metres wide. The walls on each side of the entrance were 1½ metres wide. ⁴⁹ The entrance room was 10 metres wide and 6 metres long. Steps went up to the entrance room. There were two pillars, one on each side of the entrance.

41 Then the man took me into the big hall of the temple.^[i] He measured the walls on each side of the entrance. They were 3 metres thick. ² The entrance itself was 5 metres wide. The walls on each side were 2½ metres wide. The big hall was 20 metres long and 10 metres wide.

³ Then he went into the inside room. He measured the walls at the entrance. They were 1 metre thick. The entrance was 3 metres wide. The walls on each side were 3½ metres wide. ⁴ He measured the inside room. It was 10 metres long and 10 metres wide. It was at the back of the big hall. The man said to me, ‘This is the Most Holy Place.’^[j]

⁵ Then the man measured the wall of the temple. It was 3 metres thick. There were small rooms along the outside of the wall, all around the temple. Each room was 2 metres wide. ⁶ The side rooms were on three levels. Each level had 30 rooms. The temple's wall at each level was less thick than the wall below. So the wall itself held up each level of rooms. They did not have to fix the side rooms into the temple's wall. ⁷ The side rooms at each level were wider than the rooms on the level below them, because the temple's wall was less thick. There was a set of stairs that went from the lowest level to the middle level and up to the top level.

⁸ I saw that there was a stone base all around the temple. The side rooms stood on this base as their foundation. It was 3 metres high. ^9-10 The outside wall of the side rooms was 2½ metres thick. There was an open space between these rooms and the rooms that the priests used. It was 10 metres wide, all around the temple building. ¹¹ There were two doors for the side rooms. One door opened towards the north. The other door opened towards the south. They opened into a space that was 2½ metres wide.^[k]

¹² There was a large building at the west side of the temple yard. It was 37 metres wide and 47 metres long. Its walls were 2½ metres thick.

¹³ Then the man measured the outside of the temple building. It was 50 metres long. He measured from the back of the temple across the open space to the back wall of the large building. That was also 50 metres. ¹⁴ He measured the front of the temple building and the open space on each side. That was 50 metres too. ¹⁵ He measured the building at the back of the temple yard, on the west side. That was also 50 metres, including the side rooms at each end.

Wooden boards covered the walls of the big hall, the inside room and the entrance room of the temple. ¹⁶ The boards covered the walls from the floor up to the windows, and above the windows. They used wood to make the edges of the windows. They also covered the windows. ^17-18 Workers had cut pictures in the wood above the doors and all over the walls. They were pictures of palm trees and cherubs. There was a picture of a palm tree between each cherub. They covered all the inside walls of the temple. Each cherub had two faces. ¹⁹ A human face looked towards the palm tree on one side. A lion's face looked towards the palm tree on the other side. Workers had cut these pictures on the walls around the inside of the whole temple building. ²⁰ The pictures of cherubs and palm trees covered all the walls, from the floor up to above the doors.

²¹ There were square posts on each side of the entrance to the temple's big hall. The entrance to the Most Holy Place seemed the same.

²² There was an altar that was made of wood. It was 1½ metres high and 1 metre wide on each side. Its corners, its sides and its base were all made of wood. The man said to me, ‘This is the table that stands here in front of the Lord.’

²³ The big hall of the temple and the Most Holy Place both had doors that were in two parts. ²⁴ The doors were fixed on both sides of each entrance and they opened in the middle. ²⁵ Workers had cut pictures on the doors of the big hall. They were pictures of palm trees and cherubs, like the pictures on the walls. There was a roof over the outside of the door to the entrance room. It was made of wood. ²⁶ The entrance room had narrow windows in the walls on each side. The windows had pictures of palm trees on each side. Workers had cut shapes of palm trees on its walls. The side rooms around the temple also had roofs over the outside of their doors.

Two buildings near the temple

42 Then the man took me out through the north gate of the inside yard of the temple. We went into the outside yard. We arrived at a building that was in the north wall of the inside yard. ² This building was 50 metres long and 25 metres wide. Its entrance was towards the north. ³ There was a 10 metre space between one side of this building and the temple in the inside yard. The building's other side was opposite the path in the outside yard. It had three levels of rooms in two rows that were opposite each other. ⁴ A path went between the two rows of rooms. It was 50 metres long and 5 metres wide. The entrances to the rooms were on the north side. ⁵ The rooms at the top level were not as wide as the rooms below them. And the rooms at the middle level were not as wide as the rooms at the lowest level. This was because the higher rooms needed more space in front of them. ⁶ They did not have pillars to hold them up as other rooms in the temple yards did. Instead, the walls of the lower rooms held up the rooms above them. So the rooms of each level were smaller than the rooms below them. ⁷ There was a wall that went across the outside yard in front of the lowest rooms. The wall was 25 metres long. ⁸ The row of rooms in the outside yard was also 25 metres long. But the other row of rooms in the inside yard, opposite the temple, was 50 metres long. ⁹ The lowest level of rooms had an entrance from the outside yard at the east end of the building. ¹⁰ This entrance was at the end of the wall in the outside yard.

There was another building like this one on the south side of the temple. It was opposite the other building and it also had two rows of rooms. ¹¹ There was path between the two rows. They looked the same as the rooms on the north side. The size of the rooms and the entrances were the same as those of the other building. ¹² There was an entrance in the wall opposite the doors of the inside row of rooms. There was also an entrance at the east end of the path between the rows of rooms.

¹³ Then the man said to me, ‘These rooms that are on the north and south sides of the temple's inside yard are holy. They are for the priests who serve the Lord in his temple. In these rooms, the priests will eat the most holy sacrifices that they offer to the Lord. They will put the most holy offerings there. It is where they will put the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings. The priests will do that because the rooms are holy.

¹⁴ When the priests go into the holy place of the temple, they must not leave until they change their clothes. Before they go into the outside yard, they must take off the special clothes that they wear to serve the Lord. Those clothes are holy, so they must put on other clothes. Then they can go out to the places where the people meet.’

¹⁵ The man finished measuring everything inside the place where the temple was. Then he took me out through the east gate. He measured all around the outside of the temple yards. ¹⁶ He used his stick to measure the wall on the east side. It was 250 metres. ^17-19 Then he measured the north side and the south side and the west side. Each side measured the same as the east side. ²⁰ So the wall made a square around the place where the temple was. Each side was 250 metres. The wall made the holy place separate from the ordinary places around it.

The Lord returns to the temple

43 Then the man brought me to the east gate. ² There I suddenly saw the bright glory of the God of Israel as it came from the east. His voice was like the noise of lots of water that pours along a river. The land around shone with the bright light of his glory. ³ I had seen a vision like this when I was beside the Kebar River.^[l] I had also seen a vision like this when God came to destroy Jerusalem. I bent down low with my face on the ground. ⁴ The Lord's bright glory went through the east gate into the temple. ⁵ Then a spirit lifted me up and took me into the temple's inside yard.^[m] As I watched, the Lord's glory filled the temple.

⁶ While the man stood beside me, I heard a voice come from inside the temple.

⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, this is the place where I sit on my throne. It is my home where I will live among Israel's people. Israel's people and their kings will never again spoil the honour of my holy name. They will not turn away from me and worship other gods. They will not put the graves of their kings in this place. ⁸ Their kings built their palaces too near to my holy temple. There was only a wall between me and them. They did many disgusting things that spoiled the honour of my holy name. As a result, I became very angry with them and I destroyed them. ⁹ Now they must be faithful to me. They must no longer worship other gods. The must not give honour to the graves of their kings. If they stop doing these things, I will live among them for ever.

¹⁰ Son of man, you must describe the temple to Israel's people. It should make them ashamed of their sins. They must study the plan of the temple. ¹¹ Then they will be ashamed of everything that they have done. Explain the temple's plan to them. Describe its shape, its entrances, and everything about it. Explain its rules and its laws. You must write all this down while they watch you. Then they can study the temple's plan and they can obey its rules.

¹² This is the most important law about the temple: All the top of the mountain around the temple will be most holy.

The great altar

¹³ This is the size of the altar.^[n] There is a hole, 50 centimetres deep and 50 centimetres wide, all around the altar. There is a border around its outside edge, 25 centimetres high. ¹⁴ The lowest part of the altar, from its base up, is 1 metre high. The part above that is 2 metres high. It is 50 centimetres smaller than the part below it, all around. The top part of the altar is also 50 centimetres smaller than the middle part. ¹⁵ This top part is 2 metres high. They burn the sacrifices on this top part. Its four corners have points like horns that go up. ¹⁶ The top of the altar is square, with each side 6 metres long. ¹⁷ The middle part is also square, with each side 7 metres long. It has a border around its edge that is 25 centimetres high. There is a hole all around that is 50 centimetres wide. There are steps up to the top of the altar on the east side.’

They must make the altar holy

¹⁸ Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, this is what the Almighty Lord says: These are the rules about the altar. On the day that it is ready to use, the priests will offer burnt offerings on it. They will alsosplash blood from the sacrifices on it. ¹⁹ You must give a young bull to the priests to offer as a sacrifice to me. The priests must belong to Zadok's family in the tribe of Levi. They are the only men who can come near to me to serve me. That is what I, the Almighty Lord, say. ²⁰ You will take some of the bull's blood and put it on the four horns on the top of the altar. Also put some blood on the corners of the middle part of the altar. And put some on the border around the edge of the altar. Do that to make the altar clean and pure for me. ²¹ You must take the bull to burn as a sin offering. Burn it in the proper place in the temple yard, outside the temple building.

²² The next day, choose a male goat that has nothing wrong with it. Offer it as a sin offering. Use its blood to make the altar clean and pure, as you did with the bull's blood. ²³ After you have done that, choose a young bull and a male sheep that have nothing wrong with them. ²⁴ Bring them to me, the Lord. The priests will throw salt on them. Then they will offer them to me as a burnt offering.

²⁵ Each day for seven days, you must offer a male goat as a sin offering. You must also choose a young bull and a male sheep each day as sacrifices. They must all have nothing wrong with them. ²⁶ The priests will make the altar clean and pure on each of those seven days. That will make it ready for holy use.

²⁷ When the seven days have finished, the priests can begin to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar. They can do this for you on the eighth day and after that. Then I will accept you as my own people. That is what I, the Almighty Lord, say.’

Rules about the temple

44 Then the man brought me back to the outside gate on the east side of the temple yard. But the gate was shut.

² The Lord said to me, ‘This gate must stay shut. Nobody may go through it. Nobody may open it again. The Lord, Israel's God, has gone through it. So it must stay shut. ³ Only Israel's ruler is allowed to sit in the gate's entrance. He may sit there to eat a holy meal in front of the Lord. He may only go in and out through the entrance room of that gate.’

⁴ Then the man took me through the north gate of the temple yard. We went to the front of the temple building. As I watched, I saw that the Lord's glory filled his temple. I bent down low with my face on the ground.

⁵ The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, listen to what I tell you. Think carefully about it. These are the rules and laws about the Lord's temple. Understand about its entrances and the people who are allowed to go in and out of the temple. ⁶ Israel's people refuse to obey me. Say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Israel's people, you have done too many disgusting things! ⁷ You brought foreigners into my temple. They were not circumcised and they did not want to belong to me. In that way, you made my own temple unclean. You did that when you offered food, fat and blood to me there. You did not obey my covenant with you, when you did all these disgusting things. ⁸ You did not take care of my holy things yourselves. Instead you chose foreigners to take care of my holy place on your behalf. ⁹ This is what the Almighty Lord God says: No foreigner may go into my holy place if he is not circumcised and he does not want to obey me. Even if that foreigner lives among my people, the Israelites, he must not go in there.

¹⁰ As well as other Israelites, some Levite men turned away from me to worship idols. I will punish them as they deserve for their sin. ¹¹ But they may continue to serve me in the work of the temple. They can be guards at the temple gates. They can kill the animals that people bring for burnt offerings and other sacrifices. They can help the people who come to worship me. ¹² But I promise that I will punish them as they deserve for their sin. That is because they helped the people to worship their idols. In that way, they caused Israel's people to do bad things. I, the Almighty Lord, promise that I will punish them. ¹³ They must not come near to me to serve me as the priests do. They must not touch any of my holy things or the most holy offerings. Instead, they must be ashamed of the disgusting things that they have done. ¹⁴ But I will allow them to take care of the temple and all the ordinary work that is done there.

¹⁵ Only the priests who are descendants of Zadok, the Levite, may come near to me and serve me.^[o] When Israel's people turned away from me, only the priests of Zadok's family faithfully served me in my temple. So now Zadok's descendants may offer to me the fat and the blood of sacrifices. That is what the Almighty Lord says. ¹⁶ Only they can come into my holy place and serve me at the altar. They will do what I tell them to do.

¹⁷ When they come through the gates into the inside yard, they must wear linen clothes. The clothes that they wear while they serve me must not have any wool in them. They must wear linen clothes when they work at the gates of the inside yard or in the temple. ¹⁸ They must wear linen cloths around their heads. The trousers that they wear next to their skin must also be made of linen. They must not tie anything around their body that makes them sweat.^{[p] 19} Before they go out to the outside yard to meet the ordinary people, they must take off their special clothes. They must leave the clothes that they wore when they were serving me in one of the rooms in the holy place. They must put on other clothes before they go out. Then their special clothes will not touch the people and make them holy.

²⁰ The priests must not cut all the hair off their heads. They must not let it grow long either. They must keep their hair short. ²¹ When a priest goes into the inside yard of the temple, he must not drink anywine. ²² Priests must not marry a widow, or a woman whose husband has sent her away. They may only marry Israelite women who have never had sex. Or they may marry a widow whose husband had been a priest. ²³ They must teach my people that holy things are different from ordinary things. They must also show them how to know if something is clean or unclean.

²⁴ If people have an argument, the priests must be their judges. They must use my laws to decide who is right. They must obey the rules about my special festivals. They must respect Sabbath days as holy.

²⁵ A priest must not go near to a dead person. It would make him unclean. But if the dead person is his father, his mother, his son, his daughter, his brother or his sister who has not married, he may go near them. It makes him unclean but he may do that. ²⁶ After this, he must make himself clean. Then he must wait seven days. ²⁷ Then he can go into the inside yard of the temple to serve me there. On the day that he goes back there, he must make a sin offering for himself. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

²⁸ Do not give the priests their own land in Israel to keep for their descendants. I myself will be the gift that they receive. I will take care of them and their families. ²⁹ They will receive the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings. They are allowed to eat some of those offerings that the people bring. All the special things that people give to the Lord will belong to the priests. ³⁰ The best of all the first crops from people's land and all their special gifts will belong to the priests. You must also give to the priests the first flour that you make from your grain. Then I will bless the people who live in your house. ³¹ The priests must not eat any bird or any animal that people find dead. They must not eat anything that a wild animal has killed.” ’

Special land for the Lord

45 ‘You must divide the land into different parts to belong to each tribe. When you do this, you must give one part to the Lord. It will belong to the Lord as a holy piece of land. It will be 12½ kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide. All of this land will be holy. ² Part of this land will be for the temple. It will be 250 metres long and 250 metres wide. Keep an empty space 25 metres wide all around this piece of land. ³ Inside the holy piece of land, measure a part that is 12½ kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide. This part will contain the temple, the most holy place. ⁴ The priests will have this holy part of the land. They are the men who work in the temple and come near to the Lord to serve him. The priests' houses will be there, as well as the temple. ⁵ The other half of the holy piece of land will be for the Levites, who work in the temple. They will have towns there to live in. Their land will be 12½ kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide.

⁶ There will also be a piece of land for the city, 12½ kilometres long and 2½ kilometres wide. It will be beside the holy piece of land. Any of Israel's people may live there.

⁷ There will be two pieces of land for the ruler. One piece will be on the east side of the holy piece of land and the land for the city. The other piece will be on the west side. The piece on the west side will go as far as the sea. The piece on the east side will go as far as the border of the land. So his land will be as long as a part of the land that belongs to each tribe. ⁸ This will be the part of Israel's land that belongs to the ruler. Because my rulers will have their own land, they will no longer need to make my people suffer. They will give to each tribe a part of the land that will belong to them.

⁹ The Almighty Lord says this: Rulers of Israel, stop cheating my people and making them suffer! You have done enough bad things! Instead, do things that are right and fair. Stop chasing my people off their land. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

¹⁰ You must use correct measures for size and for weight. ¹¹ The ephah that you use to measure dry things must be the same measure that you use for wet things. Ten ephahs will be equal to one homer. ¹² 20 gerahs will be equal to one shekel. 60 shekels will be equal to one mina.^[q]

Offerings and holy days

¹³ This is the offering that you must give. Take from your harvest one homer from every 60 homers of wheat or barley. ¹⁴ Take one litre of olive oil from every 100 litres. ¹⁵ Take one sheep from every 200 sheep that feed on the grass in Israel. These gifts will be for grain offerings, for burnt offerings and for friendship offerings. These offerings will cause me to forgive you for your sins. I, the Almighty Lord, tell you to do this.

¹⁶ All Israel's people must bring these offerings to the ruler of Israel. ¹⁷ The ruler must provide the animals for the burnt offerings. He must provide the grain for the grain offerings and the wine for the wine offerings. He must provide these things for the holy festivals that I have chosen for Israel's people. Those include feasts for the new moon and for the Sabbath days. He must provide these things for the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the burnt offerings and the friendship offerings. They will cause me to forgive the sins of Israel's people.

¹⁸ This is what the Almighty Lord says: Each year, on the first day of the first month, you must offer a young bull as a sacrifice. It must not have anything wrong with it. This sacrifice will cause the temple to be clean. ¹⁹ The priest will take some of the blood of this sin offering and he will put it on the posts of the temple doors. He must also put some of the blood on the four corners on the top of the altar. He must also put some blood on the gate posts at the entrance to the inside yard of the temple. ²⁰ You must also do this on the seventh day of the first month. That will cause me to forgive anyone who has done a wrong thing by mistake. Perhaps they did not know that it was a sin. In this way you will make the temple a clean place for me.

²¹ Each year, on the 14th day of the first month, you must start the Passover festival. The festival will continue for seven days.^[r] During that time you must not eat any bread that hasyeast in it.

²² On the first day of the festival, the ruler must provide a bull as a sin offering. It is an offering for himself and for all the people of Israel. ²³ Every day of the feast he must provide seven young bulls and seven male sheep for burnt offerings to the Lord. The animals must have nothing wrong with them. Each day of the festival, he must also give a male goat as a sin offering. ²⁴ With each bull and each sheep, the ruler must also provide an ephah of grain. He must provide a hin of olive oil with each ephah of grain.^[s]

²⁵ You will have another festival that starts on the 15th day of the 7th month. It will continue for seven days. Each day, the ruler must provide the same things for sin offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, as well as the olive oil.’

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.^[t]

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.^[u] 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.^{[v] 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.’