Ezekiel 42–44

Chapter 42

And he brought me forth into the outward court by the way that leadeth to the north, and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate building, and over against the house toward the north.

²In the face of the north door was the length of hundred cubits, and the breadth of fifty cubits.

³Over against the twenty cubits of the inner court, and over against the pavement of the outward court that was paved with stone, where there was a gallery joined to a triple gallery.

⁴And before the chambers was a walk ten cubits broad, looking to the inner parts of a way of one cubit. And their doors were toward the north.

⁵Where were the store chambers lower above: because they bore up the galleries, which appeared above out of them from he lower parts, and from the midst of the building.

⁶For they were of three stories, and had not pillars, as the pillars of the courts: therefore did they appear above out of the lower places, and out of the middle places, fifty cubits from the ground.

⁷And the outward wall that went about by the chambers, which were towards the outward court on the forepart of the chambers, was fifty cubits long.

⁸For the length of the chambers of the outward court was fifty cubits: and the length before the face of the temple, a hundred cubits.

⁹And there was under these chambers, an entrance from the east, for them that went into them out of the outward court.

¹⁰In the breadth of the outward wall of the court that was toward the east, over against the separate building, and there were chambers before the building.

¹¹And the way before them was like the chambers which were toward the north: they were as long as they, and as broad as they: and all the going in to them, and their fashions, and their doors were alike.

¹²According to the doors of the chambers that were towards the south: there was a door in the head of the way, which way was before the porch, separated towards the east as one entereth in.

¹³And he said to me: The chambers of the north, and the chambers of the south, which are before the separate building: they are holy chambers, in which the priests shall eat, that approach to the Lord into the holy of holies: there they shall lay the most holy things, and the offering for sin, and for trespass: for it is a holy place.

¹⁴And when the priests shall have entered in, they shall not go out of the holy places into the outward court: but there they shall lay their vestments, wherein they minister, for they are holy: and they shall put on other garments, and so they shall go forth to the people.

¹⁵Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate that looked toward the east: and he measured it on every side round about.

¹⁶And he measured toward the east with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

¹⁷And he measured toward the north five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

¹⁸And towards the south he measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

¹⁹And toward the west he measured five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.

²⁰By the four winds he measured the wall thereof on every side round about, five hundred cubits and five hundred cubits broad, making a separation between the sanctuary and the place of the people.

Chapter 43

And he brought me to the gate that looked towards the east.

²And behold the glory of the God of Israel came in by the way of the east: and his voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shone with his majesty.

³And I saw the vision according to the appearance which I had seen when he came to destroy the city: and the appearance was according to the vision which I had seen by the river Chobar: and I fell upon my face.

⁴And the majesty of the Lord went into the temple by the way of the gate that looked to the east.

⁵And the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court: and behold the house was filled with the glory of the Lord.

⁶And I heard one speaking to me out of the house, and the man that stood by me,

⁷Said to me: Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever: and the house of Israel shall no more profane my holy name, they and their kings by their fornications, and by the carcasses of their kings, and by the high places.

⁸They who have set their threshold by my threshold, and their posts by my posts: and there was but a wall between me, and them: and they profaned my holy name by the abominations which they committed: for which reason I consumed them in my wrath.

⁹Now therefore let them put away their fornications, and the carcasses of their kings far from me: and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.

¹⁰But thou, son of man, shew to the house of Israel the temple, and let them be ashamed of their iniquities, and let them measure the building:

¹¹And be ashamed of all that they have done. Shew them the form of the house, and of the fashion thereof, the goings out and the comings in, and the whole plan thereof, and all its ordinances, and all its order, and all its laws, and thou shalt write it in their sight: that they may keep the whole form thereof, and its ordinances, and do them.

¹²This is the law of the house upon the top of the mountain: All its border round about; most holy: this then is the law of the house.

¹³And these are the measures of the altar by the truest cubit, which is a cubit and a handbreadth: the bottom thereof was a cubit, and the breadth a cubit: and the border thereof unto its edge, and round about, one handbreadth: and this was the trench of the altar.

¹⁴And from the bottom of the ground to the lowest brim two cubits, and the breadth of one cubit: and from the lesser brim to the greater brim four cubits, and the breadth of one cubit.

¹⁵And the Ariel itself was four cubits: and from the Ariel upward were four horns.

¹⁶And the Ariel was twelve cubits long, and twelve cubits broad, foursquare, with equal sides.

¹⁷And the brim was fourteen cubits long, and fourteen cubits broad in the four corners thereof: and the crown round about it was half a cubit, and the bottom of it one cubit round about: and its steps turned toward the east.

¹⁸And he said to me: Son of man, thus saith the Lord God: These are the ceremonies of the altar, in what day soever it shall be made: that holocausts may be offered upon it, and blood poured out.

¹⁹And thou shalt give to the priests, and the Levites, that are of the race of Sadoc, who approach to me, saith the Lord God, to offer to me a calf of the herd for sin.

²⁰And thou shalt take of his blood, and shalt put it upon the four horns thereof, and upon the four corners of the brim, and upon the crown round about: and thou shalt cleanse, and expiate it.

²¹And thou shalt take the calf, that is offered for sin: and thou shalt burn him in a separate place of the house without the sanctuary.

²²And in the second day thou shalt offer a he goat without blemish for sin: and they shall expiate the altar, as they expiated it with the calf.

²³And when thou shalt have made an end of the expiation thereof, thou shalt offer a calf of the herd without blemish, and a ram of the flock without blemish.

²⁴And thou shalt offer them in the sight of the Lord, and the priests shall put salt upon them, and shall offer them a holocaust to the Lord.

²⁵Seven days shalt thou offer a he goat for sin daily: they shall offer also a calf of the herd, and a ram of the flock without blemish.

²⁶Seven days shall they expiate the altar, and shall cleanse it: and they shall consecrate it.

²⁷And the days being expired, on the eighth day and thenceforward, the priests shall offer your holocausts upon the altar, and the peace offerings: and I will be pacified towards you, saith the Lord God.

Chapter 44

And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary, which looked towards the east: and it was shut.

²And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut

³For the prince. The prince himself shall sit in it, to eat bread before the Lord: he shall enter in by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.

⁴And he brought me by the way of the north gate, in the sight of the house: and I saw, and behold the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord: and I fell on my face.

⁵And the Lord said to me: Son of man, attend with thy heart and behold with thy eyes, and hear with thy ears, all that I say to thee concerning all the ceremonies of the house of the Lord, and concerning all the laws thereof: and mark well the ways of the temple, with all the goings out of the sanctuary.

⁶And thou shalt say to the house of Israel that provoketh me: Thus saith the Lord God: Let all your wicked doings suffice you, O house of Israel:

⁷In that you have brought in strangers uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, and to defile my house: and you offer my bread, the fat, and the blood: and you have broken my covenant by all your wicked doings.

⁸And you have not kept the ordinances of my sanctuary: but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

⁹Thus saith the Lord God: No stranger uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, no stranger that is in the midst of the children of Israel.

¹⁰Moreover the Levites that went away far from me, when the children of Israel went astray, and have wandered from me after their idols, and have borne their iniquity:

¹¹They shall be officers in my sanctuary, and doorkeepers of the gates of the house, and ministers to the house: they shall slay the holocausts, and the victims of the people: and they shall stand in their sight, to minister to them.

¹²Because they ministered to…