Old/New Testament
40 Early in April of the twenty-fifth year of our exile—the fourteenth year after Jerusalem was captured—the hand of the Lord was upon me, 2 and in a vision he took me to the land of Israel and set me down on a high mountain where I saw what appeared to be a city opposite me. 3 Going nearer, I saw a man whose face shone like bronze, standing beside the Temple gate,[a] holding in his hand a measuring tape and a measuring stick.
4 He said to me: “Son of dust, watch and listen and take to heart everything I show you, for you have been brought here so I can show you many things; and then you are to return to the people of Israel to tell them all you have seen.” 5 The man began to measure the wall around the outside of the Temple area with his measuring stick, which was 10-1/2 feet long. He told me, “This wall is 10-1/2 feet high and 10-1/2 feet wide.” 6 Then he took me over to the passageway that goes through the eastern wall. We climbed the seven steps into the entrance, and he measured the entry hall of the passage; it was 10-1/2 feet wide.
7-12 Walking on through the passageway I saw that there were three guardrooms on each side; each of these rooms was 10-1/2 feet square, with a distance of 8-3/4 feet along the wall between them. In front of these rooms was a low barrier 18 inches high and 18 inches wide.[b] Beyond the guardrooms was a 10-1/2-foot doorway opening into a 14-foot hall with 3-1/2-foot columns. Beyond this hall, at the inner end of the passageway, was a vestibule 22-3/4 feet wide and 17-1/2 feet long.
13 Then he measured the entire outside width of the passageway, measuring across the roof from the outside doors of the guardrooms; this distance was 43-3/4 feet. 14 Then he estimated the pillars on each side of the porch to be about 100 feet high. 15 The full length of the entrance passage was 87-1/2 feet from one end to the other. 16 There were windows that narrowed inward through the walls along both sides of the passageway and along the guardroom walls. The windows were also in the exit and in the entrance halls. The pillars were decorated with palm tree decorations.
17 And so we passed through the passageway to the court inside. A stone pavement ran around the inside of the walls, and thirty rooms were built against the walls, opening onto this pavement. 18 This was called “the lower pavement.” It extended out from the walls into the court the same distance as the passageway did.
19 Then he measured across to the wall on the other side of this court (which was called “the outer court” of the Temple)[c] and found that the distance was 175 feet. 20 As I followed, he left the eastern passageway and went over to the passage through the northern wall and measured it. 21 Here, too, there were three guardrooms on each side, and all the measurements were the same as for the east passageway—87-1/2 feet long and 43-3/4 feet from side to side across the top of the guardrooms. 22 There were windows, an entry hall, and the palm tree decorations just the same as on the east side. And there were seven steps leading up to the doorway to the entry hall inside.
23 Here at the north entry, just as at the east, if one walked through the passageway into the court and straight across it, he came to an inner wall and a passageway through it to an inner court. The distance between the two passageways was 175 feet. 24 Then he took me around to the south gate and measured the various sections of its passageway and found they were just the same as in the others. 25 It had windows along the walls as the others did, and an entry hall. And like the others, it was 87-1/2 feet long and 43-3/4 feet wide. 26 It, too, had a stairway of seven steps leading up to it, and there were palm tree decorations along the walls. 27 And here again, if one walked through the passageway into the court and straight across it, he came to the inner wall and a passageway through it to the inner court. And the distance between the passageways was 175 feet.
28 Then he took me over to the inner wall and its south passageway. He measured this passageway and found that it had the same measurements as the passageways of the outer wall.[d] 29-30 Its guardrooms, pillars, and entrance and exit hall were identical to all the others, and so were the windows along its walls and entry. And, like the others, it was 87-1/2 feet long by 43-3/4 feet wide.[e] 31 The only difference was that it had eight steps leading up to it instead of seven. It had palm tree decorations on the pillars, just as the others.
32 Then he took me along the court to the eastern entrance of the inner wall, and measured it. It, too, had the same measurements as the others. 33 Its guardrooms, pillars, and entrance hall were the same size as those of the other passageways, and there were windows along the walls and in the entry hall; and it was 87-1/2 feet long by 43-3/4 feet wide. 34 Its entry hall faced the outer court, and there were palm tree decorations on its columns, but there were eight steps instead of seven going up to the entrance.
35 Then he took me around to the north gate of the inner wall, and the measurements there were just like the others: 36 The guardrooms, pillars, and entry hall of this passageway were the same as the others, with a length of 87-1/2 feet and a width of 43-3/4 feet. 37 Its entry hall faced toward the outer court; it had palm tree decorations on the walls of each side of the passageway, and there were eight steps leading up to the entrance.
38 But a door led from its entry hall into a side room where the flesh of the sacrifices was washed before being taken to the altar; 39 on each side of the entry hall of the passageway there were two tables where the animals for sacrifice were slaughtered for the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings to be presented in the Temple. 40 Outside the entry hall, on each side of the stairs going up to the north entrance, there were two more tables. 41 So, in all there were eight tables, four inside and four outside, where the sacrifices were cut up and prepared. 42 There were also four stone tables where the butchering knives and other implements were laid. These tables were about 2-5/8 feet square and 1-3/4 feet high. 43 There were hooks, 3 or 4 inches long, fastened along the walls of the entry hall, and on the tables the flesh of the offering was to be laid.
44 In the inner court there were two one-room buildings, one beside the northern entrance, facing south, and one beside the southern entrance, facing north.
45 And he said to me: “The building beside the inner northern gate is for the priests who supervise the maintenance. 46 The building beside the inner southern entrance is for the priests in charge of the altar—the descendants of Zadok—for they alone of all the Levites may come near to the Lord to minister to him.”
47 Then he measured the inner court in front of the Temple[f] and found it to be 175 feet square, and there was an altar in the court, standing in front of the Temple. 48-49 Then he brought me to the entrance hall of the Temple. Ten steps led up to it from the inner court. Its walls extended up on either side to form two pillars, each of them 8-3/4 feet thick. The entrance was 24-1/2 feet wide with 5-1/4-foot walls. Thus the entry hall was 35 feet wide and 19-1/4 feet long.
41 Afterward he brought me into the nave, the large main room of the Temple, and measured the pillars that formed its doorway. They were 10-1/2 feet square. 2 The entrance hall was 17-1/2 feet wide and 8-3/4 feet deep. The nave itself was 70 feet long by 35 feet.
3 Then he went into the inner room at the end of the nave and measured the columns at the entrance and found them to be 3-1/2 feet thick; its doorway was 10-1/2 feet wide, with a hallway 12-1/4 feet deep behind it. 4 The inner room was 35 feet square. “This,” he told me, “is the Most Holy Place.”
5 Then he measured the wall of the Temple and found that it was 10-1/2 feet thick, with a row of rooms along the outside. Each room was 7 feet wide. 6 These rooms were in three tiers, one above the other, with thirty rooms in each tier. The whole structure was supported by girders and not attached to the Temple wall for support. 7 Each tier was wider than the one below it, corresponding to the narrowing of the Temple wall as it rose higher. A stairway at the side of the Temple led up from floor to floor.
8 I noticed that the Temple was built on a terrace and that the bottom row of rooms extended out 10-1/2 feet onto the terrace. 9 The outer wall of these rooms was 8-3/4 feet thick, leaving a free space of 8-3/4 feet out to the edge of the terrace, the same on both sides.
10 Thirty-five feet away from the terrace, on both sides of the Temple, was another row of rooms down in the inner court. 11 Two doors opened from the tiers of rooms to the terrace yard, which was 8-3/4 feet wide; one door faced north and the other south.
12 A large building stood on the west, facing the Temple yard, measuring 122-1/2 feet wide by 157-1/2 feet long. Its walls were 8-3/4 feet thick. 13 Then he measured the Temple and its immediately surrounding yards. The area was 175 feet square. 14 The inner court at the east of the Temple was also 175 feet wide, 15-16 and so was the building west of the Temple, including its two walls.
The nave of the Temple and the Holy of Holies and the entry hall were paneled, and all three had recessed windows. The inner walls of the Temple were paneled with wood above and below the windows. 17-18 The space above the door leading into the Holy of Holies was also paneled. The walls were decorated with carvings of Guardian Angels, each with two faces, and of palm trees alternating with the Guardian Angels. 19-20 One face—that of a man—looked toward the palm tree on one side, and the other face—that of a young lion—looked toward the palm tree on the other side. And so it was, all around the inner wall of the Temple.
21 There were square doorposts at the doors of the nave, and in front of the Holy of Holies was what appeared to be an altar, but it was made of wood. 22 This altar was 3-1/2 feet square and 5-1/4 feet high; its corners, base, and sides were all of wood. “This,” he told me, “is the Table of the Lord.”[g]
23 Both the nave and the Holy of Holies had double doors, 24 each with two swinging sections. 25 The doors leading into the nave were decorated with cherubim and palm trees, just as on the walls. And there was a wooden canopy over the entry hall. 26 There were recessed windows and carved palm trees on both sides of the entry hall, the hallways beside the Temple, and on the canopy over the entrance.
3 1-2 This is my second letter to you, dear brothers, and in both of them I have tried to remind you—if you will let me—about facts you already know: facts you learned from the holy prophets and from us apostles who brought you the words of our Lord and Savior.
3 First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will come scoffers who will do every wrong they can think of and laugh at the truth. 4 This will be their line of argument: “So Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? He’ll never come! Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly as it was since the first day of creation.”
5-6 They deliberately forget this fact: that God did destroy the world with a mighty flood long after he had made the heavens by the word of his command and had used the waters to form the earth and surround it. 7 And God has commanded that the earth and the heavens be stored away for a great bonfire at the judgment day, when all ungodly men will perish.
8 But don’t forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord. 9 He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent. 10 The day of the Lord is surely coming, as unexpectedly as a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the heavenly bodies will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be burned up.
11 And so since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives we should be living! 12 You should look forward to that day and hurry it along—the day when God will set the heavens on fire, and the heavenly bodies will melt and disappear in flames. 13 But we are looking forward to God’s promise of new heavens and a new earth afterwards, where there will be only goodness.[a]
14 Dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen and for him to come, try hard to live without sinning; and be at peace with everyone so that he will be pleased with you when he returns.
15-16 And remember why he is waiting. He is giving us time to get his message of salvation out to others. Our wise and beloved brother Paul has talked about these same things in many of his letters. Some of his comments are not easy to understand, and there are people who are deliberately stupid, and always demand some unusual interpretation—they have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of the Scripture—and the result is disaster for them.
17 I am warning you ahead of time, dear brothers, so that you can watch out and not be carried away by the mistakes of these wicked men, lest you yourselves become mixed up too. 18 But grow in spiritual strength and become better acquainted with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be all glory and splendid honor, both now and forevermore. Good-bye.
Peter
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.