Old/New Testament
45 “When you divide the land among the tribes of Israel, you shall first give a section of it to the Lord as his holy portion. This piece shall be 8-1/3 miles long and 6-2/3 miles wide. It shall all be holy ground.
2 “A section of this land, 875 feet square, shall be designated for the Temple. An additional 87-1/2-foot strip all around is to be left empty. 3 The Temple shall be built within the area which is 8-1/3 miles long and 3-1/3 miles wide. 4 All this section shall be holy land; it will be used by the priests, who minister in the sanctuary, for their homes and for my Temple.
5 “The strip next to it, 8-1/3 miles long and 3-1/3 miles wide, shall be the residence area for the Levites who work at the Temple. 6 Adjacent to the holy lands will be a section 8-1/3 miles by 1-2/3 miles for a city open to everyone in Israel.
7 “Two special sections of land shall be set apart for the prince—one on each side of the holy lands and city; it is contiguous with them in length, and its eastern and western boundaries are the same as those of the tribal sections. 8 This shall be his allotment. My princes shall no longer oppress and rob my people but shall assign all the remainder of the land to the people, giving a portion to each tribe.”
9 For the Sovereign Lord says to the rulers: “Quit robbing and cheating my people out of their land and expelling them from their homes. Always be fair and honest. 10 You must use honest scales, honest bushels, honest gallons. 11 A homer (about five bushels) shall be your standard unit of measurement for both liquid and dry measure. Smaller units shall be the ephah (about a half bushel) for dry measure, and the bath (about seventeen quarts) for liquid. 12 The unit of weight shall be the silver shekel (about half an ounce); it must always be exchanged for twenty gerahs, no less; five shekels shall be valued at five shekels, no less; and ten shekels at ten shekels! Fifty shekels[a] shall always equal one mina.
13 “This is the tax you must give to the prince: a bushel of wheat or barley for every sixty you reap; 14 and one percent of your olive oil; 15 from each 200 sheep in all your flocks in Israel, give him one sheep. These are the meal offerings, burnt offerings, and thank offerings to make atonement for those who bring them,” says the Lord God. 16 “All the people of Israel shall bring their offerings to the prince.
17 “The prince shall be required to furnish the people with sacrifices for public worship—sin offerings, burnt offerings, meal offerings, drink offerings, and thank offerings—to make reconciliation for the people of Israel. This shall be done at the time of the religious feasts, the new moon ceremonies, the Sabbaths, and all other similar occasions.”
18 The Lord God says: “On each New Year’s Day[b] sacrifice a young bull with no blemishes, to purify the Temple. 19 The priest shall take some of the blood of this sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, upon the four corners of the base of the altar, and upon the walls at the entry of the inner court. 20 Do this also on the seventh day of that month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance, and so the Temple will be cleansed.
21 “On the fourteenth day of the same month, you shall celebrate the Passover. It will be a seven-day feast. Only bread without yeast shall be eaten during those days. 22 On the day of Passover the prince shall provide a young bull for a sin offering for himself and all the people of Israel. 23 On each of the seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the Lord. This daily offering will consist of seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish. A male goat shall also be given each day for a sin offering. 24 And the prince shall provide a half bushel of grain with each bullock and ram for a meal offering, and three quarts of olive oil.
25 “Early in October during each of the seven days of the annual festival of shelters, he shall provide these same sacrifices for the sin offering, burnt offering, meal offering, and oil offering.”
46 The Lord God says: “The inner wall’s eastern entrance shall be closed during the six work days but open on the Sabbath and on the days of the new moon celebrations. 2 The prince shall enter the outside entry hall of the passageway and proceed to the inner wall at the other end while the priest offers his burnt offering and peace offering. He shall worship inside the passageway and then return back to the entrance, which shall not be closed until evening. 3 The people shall worship the Lord in front of this passageway on the Sabbaths and on the days of the new moon celebrations.
4 “The burnt offering that the prince sacrifices to the Lord on the Sabbath days shall be six lambs and a ram, all unblemished. 5 He shall present a meal offering of a half bushel of flour to go with the ram and whatever amount he is willing to give with each lamb. And he shall bring three quarts of olive oil for each half bushel of flour. 6 At the new moon celebration, he shall bring one young bull in perfect condition, six lambs, and one ram, all without any blemish. 7 With the young bull, he must bring a half bushel[c] of flour for a meal offering. With the ram he must bring a half bushel of flour. With the lamb he is to bring whatever he is willing to give. With each half bushel of grain he is to bring three quarts of olive oil.
8 “The prince shall go in at the entry hall of the passageway and out the same way; 9 but when the people come in through the north passageway to sacrifice during the religious feasts, they must go out through the south passageway. Those coming in from the south must go out by the north. They must never go out the same way they come in, but must always use the opposite passageway. 10 The prince shall enter and leave with the common people on these occasions.
11 “To summarize: At the special feasts and sacred festivals the meal offering shall be a half bushel with the young bull; a half bushel with the ram; as much as the prince is willing to give with each lamb; and three quarts of oil with each half bushel of grain. 12 Whenever the prince offers an extra burnt offering or peace offering to be sacrificed to the Lord, the inner eastern gate shall be opened up for him to enter, and he shall offer his sacrifices just as on the Sabbaths. Then he shall turn around and go out, and the passage shall be shut behind him.
13 “Each morning a yearling lamb must be sacrificed as a burnt offering to the Lord. 14-15 And there must be a meal offering each morning—five pounds of flour with one quart of oil with which to mix it. This is a permanent ordinance—the lamb, the grain offering, and the olive oil shall be provided every morning for the daily sacrifice.”
16 The Sovereign Lord says: “If the prince gives a gift of land to one of his sons, it will belong to him forever. 17 But if he gives a gift of land to one of his servants, the servant may keep it only until the Year of Release (every seventh year) when he is set free; then the land returns to the prince. Only gifts to his sons are permanent. 18 And the prince may never take anyone’s property by force. If he gives property to his sons, it must be from his own land, for I don’t want my people losing their property and having to move away.”
19-20 After that, using the door through the wall at the side of the main passageway, he led me through the entrance to the block of sacred chambers that faced north. There, at the extreme west end of these rooms, I saw a place where, my guide told me, the priests boil the meat of the trespass offering and sin offering and bake the flour of the flour offerings into bread. They do it here to avoid the necessity of carrying the sacrifices through the outer court, in case they harm the people.
21-22 Then he brought me out to the outer court again and led me to each of the four corners of the court. I saw that in each corner there was a room 70 feet long by 52-1/2 feet wide, enclosed by walls. 23 Around the inside of these walls there ran a line of brick boiling vats with ovens underneath. 24 He said these rooms were where the Temple assistants—the Levites—boil the sacrifices the people offer.
2 My little children, I am telling you this so that you will stay away from sin. But if you sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good and who pleases God completely. 2 He is the one who took God’s wrath against our sins upon himself and brought us into fellowship with God; and he is the forgiveness for our sins,[a] and not only ours but all the world’s.
3 And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By looking within ourselves: are we really trying to do what he wants us to?
4 Someone may say, “I am a Christian; I am on my way to heaven; I belong to Christ.” But if he doesn’t do what Christ tells him to, he is a liar. 5 But those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian. 6 Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as Christ did.
7 Dear brothers, I am not writing out a new rule for you to obey, for it is an old one you have always had, right from the start. You have heard it all before. 8 Yet it is always new, and works for you just as it did for Christ; and as we obey this commandment, to love one another, the darkness in our lives disappears and the new light of life in Christ shines in.
9 Anyone who says he is walking in the light of Christ but dislikes his fellow man is still in darkness. 10 But whoever loves his fellow man is “walking in the light” and can see his way without stumbling around in darkness and sin. 11 For he who dislikes his brother is wandering in spiritual darkness and doesn’t know where he is going, for the darkness has made him blind so that he cannot see the way.
12 I am writing these things to all of you, my little children, because your sins have been forgiven in the name of Jesus our Savior. 13 I am saying these things to you older men because you really know Christ, the one who has been alive from the beginning. And you young men, I am talking to you because you have won your battle with Satan. And I am writing to you younger boys and girls because you, too, have learned to know God our Father.
14 And so I say to you fathers who know the eternal God, and to you young men who are strong with God’s Word in your hearts, and have won your struggle against Satan: 15 Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God; 16 for all these worldly things, these evil desires—the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance—these are not from God. They are from this evil world itself. 17 And this world is fading away, and these evil, forbidden things will go with it, but whoever keeps doing the will of God will live forever.
18 Dear children, this world’s last hour has come. You have heard about the Antichrist who is coming—the one who is against Christ—and already many such persons have appeared. This makes us all the more certain that the end of the world is near. 19 These “against-Christ” people used to be members of our churches, but they never really belonged with us or else they would have stayed. When they left us it proved that they were not of us at all.
20 But you are not like that, for the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you know the truth. 21 So I am not writing to you as to those who need to know the truth, but I warn you as those who can discern the difference between true and false.
22 And who is the greatest liar? The one who says that Jesus is not Christ. Such a person is antichrist, for he does not believe in God the Father and in his Son. 23 For a person who doesn’t believe in Christ, God’s Son, can’t have God the Father either. But he who has Christ, God’s Son, has God the Father also.
24 So keep on believing what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will always be in close fellowship with both God the Father and his Son. 25 And he himself has promised us this: eternal life.
26 These remarks of mine about the Antichrist are pointed at those who would dearly love to blindfold you and lead you astray. 27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, in your hearts, so that you don’t need anyone to teach you what is right. For he teaches you all things, and he is the Truth, and no liar; and so, just as he has said, you must live in Christ, never to depart from him.
28 And now, my little children, stay in happy fellowship with the Lord so that when he comes you will be sure that all is well and will not have to be ashamed and shrink back from meeting him. 29 Since we know that God is always good and does only right, we may rightly assume that all those who do right are his children.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.