Old/New Testament

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.^[a] 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.^[b] 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.^[c] 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.^[d] 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.^{[e] 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.” ’

Jesus is God's message to people

1 We have an important message to tell you. We want to tell you about the person who was already there before the beginning of the world. We have heard him speak. We have seen him with our own eyes. We watched him and we touched him. He is the Word that gives us life with God.^[a]

² He showed himself clearly when he lived on this earth. From long ago he was together with God the Father, and he lives for ever. We saw him and we are telling you what is true. He is the one who has shown himself to us. ³ We also want you to share this new life with us. We share this life with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son. That is why we are telling you about everything that we have seen and heard. ⁴ We are writing to you so that together we all may be completely happy.

God is light

⁵ We are telling you the good news that Jesus Christ told to us. This is the message: God is completely good and clean. He is like light. There is nothing dark about him. ⁶ Do you say that you share in the life that God gives? If you say that, but if you still live in the dark, you are telling a lie. You are not living in God's true way. ⁷ But when we live in a right way, it is like living in the light. God is always in the light. So, if we live in the light, we share together in the life which God gives. And when Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross, he saved us from all our sins. The blood of his sacrifice makes us clean.

⁸ If we say that we never do any wrong thing, we are deceiving ourselves. Even though we may think it is true, it is a lie. ⁹ Instead, we should agree that we have done wrong things and tell that to God. Then God will forgive us for our sins. He always does what he has promised to do. He always does what is right. He will forgive us and he will make us clean again, whatever bad things we may have done. ¹⁰ God says that all people have done wrong things. So, if we say that we have not done any wrong thing, we are saying that God tells lies. It shows that we have not accepted his message at all.