The Daily Audio Bible

The Outer Gate

44 Then the man brought me back to the east gate of the Temple area. We were outside the gate and the gate was shut. ² The Lord said to me, “This gate will stay shut. It will not be opened. No one will enter through it, because the Lord of Israel has entered through it. So it must stay shut. ³ Only the ruler of the people may sit at this gate when he eats a meal with the Lord. He must enter through the porch of the gateway and go out the same way.”

The Holiness of the Temple

⁴ Then the man led me through the north gate to the front of the Temple. I looked and saw the Glory of the Lord filling the Lord’s Temple. I bowed with my face touching the ground. ⁵ The Lord said to me, “Son of man,^[a] look very carefully! Use your eyes and ears. Look at these things, and listen very carefully to everything that I tell you about all the rules and laws about the Lord’s Temple. Look carefully at the entrances to the Temple and at all the exits from the holy place. ⁶ Then give this message to all the people of Israel who refused to obey me. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God said: Family of Israel, I have had enough of the terrible things you have done! ⁷ You brought foreigners into my Temple who are not circumcised and have not given themselves to me.^[b] In this way you made my Temple unclean. You broke our agreement and did terrible things, and then you gave me the offerings of bread, the fat, and the blood. But this only made my Temple unclean. ⁸ You did not take care of my holy things. No, you let foreigners have responsibility of my holy place!’”

⁹ This is what the Lord God says: “A foreigner who is not truly circumcised must not come into my Temple—not even a foreigner living permanently among the people of Israel. He must be circumcised, and he must give himself completely to me before he can come into my Temple. ¹⁰ In the past, the Levites left me when Israel turned away from me. Israel left me to follow their idols. The Levites will be punished for their sin. ¹¹ The Levites were chosen to serve in my holy place. They guarded the gates of the Temple. They served in the Temple. They killed the animals for the sacrifices and burnt offerings for the people. They were chosen to help the people and to serve them. ¹² But the Levites helped the people sin against me! They helped the people worship their idols! So I am making this promise against them: ‘They will be punished for their sin.’” This is what the Lord God said.

¹³ “So the Levites will not bring offerings to me like the priests. They will not come near any of my holy things or the things that are most holy. They must carry their shame because of the terrible things that they did. ¹⁴ But I will let them take care of the Temple. They will work in the Temple and do the things that must be done in it.

¹⁵ “The priests are all from the tribe of Levi. But only priests from Zadok’s family took care of my holy place when the people of Israel turned away from me. So only Zadok’s descendants will bring offerings to me. They will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood from the animals they sacrifice.” This is what the Lord God said! ¹⁶ “They will enter my holy place and come near my table to serve me. They will take care of the things I gave them. ¹⁷ When they enter the gates of the inner courtyard, they will wear linen clothes. They will not wear wool while they serve at the gates of the inner courtyard and in the Temple. ¹⁸ They will wear linen turbans on their heads, and they will wear linen underwear. They will not wear anything that makes them sweat. ¹⁹ Before they go out into the outer courtyard to the people, they will take off the clothes they wear while serving me. They will put these clothes away in the holy rooms. Then they will put on other clothes. In this way they will not let people touch those holy clothes.

²⁰ “These priests will not shave their heads or let their hair grow long.^[c] The priests may only trim the hair of their heads. ²¹ None of the priests may drink wine when they go into the inner courtyard. ²² The priests must not marry a widow or a divorced woman. No, they must only marry a virgin from the family of Israel or a woman whose dead husband was a priest.

²³ “Also, the priests must teach my people the difference between things that are holy and things that are not holy. They must help my people know what is clean and what is unclean. ²⁴ The priests will be the judges in court. They will follow my laws when they judge people. They will obey my laws and my rules at all my special feasts. They will respect my special days of rest and keep them holy. ²⁵ They will not go near a dead person to make themselves unclean. But they may make themselves unclean if the dead person is their father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or a sister who is not married. ²⁶ After the priest has been made clean, he must wait seven days. ²⁷ Then he can go back into the holy place. But on the day he goes into the inner courtyard to serve in the holy place, he must offer a sin offering for himself.” This is what the Lord God said.

²⁸ “About the land that will belong to the Levites: I am their property. You will not give the Levites any land in Israel. I am their share in Israel. ²⁹ They will have the right to eat the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. Also, anything in Israel that is a special gift to God^[d] will belong to them. ³⁰ And the first part of the harvest from every kind of crop will be for the priests. You will also give the priests the first part of your flour. This will bring blessings to your house. ³¹ The priests must not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or has been torn to pieces by a wild animal.

The Division of the Land for Holy Use

45 “You will divide the land for the Israelite tribes by throwing lots. At that time you will separate out a part of the land. It will be a holy part for the Lord. The land will be 25,000 cubits^[e] long and 20,000 cubits^[f] wide.^[g] All this land will be holy. ² A square area that is 500 cubits^[h] long on each side will be for the Temple. There will be an open space around the Temple that is 50 cubits^[i] wide. ³ In the holy area you will measure 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits^[j] wide. The Temple will be in this area. The Temple area will be the Most Holy Place.

⁴ “This holy part of the land will be for the priests, the servants of the Temple. This is where they approach the Lord to serve him. It will be a place for the priests’ houses and a place for the Temple. ⁵ Another area, 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide, will be for the Levites who serve in the Temple. This land will also become cities for the Levites.

⁶ “And you will give the city an area that is 5000 cubits^[k] wide and 25,000 cubits long. It will be along the side of the holy area. It will be for all the family of Israel. ⁷ The ruler will have land on both sides of the holy area and the land belonging to the city. It will be next to the holy area and the area belonging to the city. It will be the same width as the land that belongs to a tribe. It will go all the way from the west border to the east border. ⁸ This land will be the ruler’s property in Israel. So he will not need to make life hard for my people anymore. But they will give the land to the Israelites for their tribes.”

⁹ This is what the Lord God said: “Enough, you rulers of Israel! Stop being cruel and stealing things from people! Be fair and do what is right! Stop forcing my people out from their homes!” This is what the Lord God said.

¹⁰ “Stop cheating people. Use accurate scales and measures! ¹¹ The ephah and the bath must be the same size: A bath and an ephah must both equal 1/10 homer.^[l] Those measures will be based on the homer. ¹² A shekel^[m] must equal 20 gerahs. A mina must equal 60 shekels. It must be equal to 20 shekels plus 25 shekels plus 15 shekels.

1 Greetings from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

To God’s chosen people who are away from their homes—people scattered all over the areas of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. ² God planned long ago to choose you and to make you his holy people, which is the Spirit’s work. God wanted you to obey him and to be made clean by the blood sacrifice^[a] of Jesus Christ.

I pray that you will enjoy more and more of God’s grace and peace.

A Living Hope

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has great mercy, and because of his mercy he gave us a new life. This new life brings us a living hope through Jesus Christ’s resurrection from death. ⁴ Now we wait to receive the blessings God has for his children. These blessings are kept for you in heaven. They cannot be ruined or be destroyed or lose their beauty.

⁵ God’s power protects you through your faith, and it keeps you safe until your salvation comes. That salvation is ready to be given to you at the end of time. ⁶ I know the thought of that is exciting, even if you must suffer through different kinds of troubles for a short time now. ⁷ These troubles test your faith and prove that it is pure. And such faith is worth more than gold. Gold can be proved to be pure by fire, but gold will ruin. When your faith is proven to be pure, the result will be praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ comes.

⁸ You have not seen Christ, but still you love him. You can’t see him now, but you believe in him. You are filled with a wonderful and heavenly joy that cannot be explained. ⁹ Your faith has a goal, and you are reaching that goal—your salvation.

¹⁰ The prophets studied carefully and tried to learn about this salvation. They spoke about the grace that was coming to you. ¹¹ The Spirit of Christ was in those prophets. And the Spirit was telling about the sufferings that would happen to Christ and about the glory that would come after those sufferings. The prophets tried to learn about what the Spirit was showing them—when it would happen and what the world would be like at that time.

¹² It was made clear to them that their service was not for themselves. They were serving you when they told about the things you have now heard. You heard them from those who told you the Good News with the help of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even the angels would like very much to know more about these things you were told.

Gimel

Daleth

⁸ If you get rich by charging high interest rates, your wealth will go to someone who is kind to the poor.

⁹ When people do not listen to God’s teachings, he does not listen to their prayers.

¹⁰ Those who plan to hurt good people will fall into their own traps, but good things will happen to those who are good.