Ezekiel 45–48

The ’s Portion of the Country

45When the land is divided to give each tribe a share, one part is to be dedicated to the Lord. It is to be twelve and a half kilometres long by ten kilometres^m wide. The entire area will be holy. ²In this area there is to be a square plot of land for the Temple, 250 metres along each side, entirely surrounded by an open space twenty-five metres wide. ³Half of this area, a section twelve and a half kilometres by five kilometres, is to be measured off; it will contain the Temple, the holiest place of all. ⁴It will be a holy part of the country, set aside for the priests who serve the Lord in his Temple. It will contain their houses and the section of land for the Temple. ⁵The other half of the area is to be set aside as the possession of the Levites, who do the work in the Temple. There will be towns there for them to live in.ⁿ

⁶Next to the holy area, another section, twelve and a half kilometres long and two and a half kilometres wide, is to be set aside for a city where any of the people of Israel may live.

Land for the Prince

⁷Land is also to be set aside for the ruling prince. From the western boundary of the holy area it will extend west to the Mediterranean Sea; and from the eastern boundary it will extend to the eastern border of the country, so that its length will be the same as the length of one of the areas allotted to the tribes of Israel. ⁸This area will be the share the ruling prince will have in the land of Israel, so that he will no longer oppress the people, but will let the rest of the country belong to the tribes of Israel.

Rules for the Price

⁹The Sovereign Lord said, “You have sinned too long, you rulers of Israel! Stop your violence and oppression. Do what is right and just. You must never again drive my people off their land. I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling you this.

^10*“Everyone must use honest weights and measures:

¹¹“The ephah for dry measure is to be equal to the bath for liquid measure. The standard is the homer.^o The resulting measures are as follows:

1 homer = 10 ephahs = 10 baths

¹²“Your weights are to be as follows:

20 gerahs = 1 shekel^p

60 shekels = 1 mina

^13–15“This is the basis on which you are to make your offerings:

Wheat: one sixtieth of your harvest

Barley: one sixtieth of your harvest

Olive oil: one hundredth of the yield of your trees

(Measure it by the bath: 10 baths = 1 homer = 1 kor.)

Sheep: 1 sheep out of every 200 from the meadows of Israel

“You are to bring grain offerings, animals to be burnt whole, and animals for fellowship offerings, so that your sins will be forgiven. I, the Sovereign Lord, command it.

¹⁶“All the people of the land must take^q these offerings to the ruling prince of Israel. ¹⁷It will be his duty to provide the animals to be burnt whole, the grain offerings, and the wine offerings for the whole nation of Israel at the New Moon Festivals, the Sabbaths, and the other festivals. He is to provide the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the offerings to be burnt whole, and the fellowship offerings, to take away the sins of the people of Israel.”

The Festivals

¹⁸The Sovereign Lord said, “On the first day of the first month you are to sacrifice a bull without any defects and purify the Temple. ¹⁹The priest will take some of the blood of this sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the altar, and on the posts of the gateways to the inner courtyard. ²⁰On the seventh day of the month you are to do the same thing on behalf of anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance. In this way, you will keep the Temple holy.

^21*“On the fourteenth day of the first month you will begin the celebration of the Passover Festival. For seven days everyone will eat bread made without yeast. ²²On the first day of the festival the ruling prince must offer a bull as a sacrifice for his sins and for those of all the people. ²³On each of the seven days of the festival he is to sacrifice to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams without any defects and burn them whole. He is also to sacrifice a male goat each day as a sin offering. ²⁴For each bull and each ram that is sacrificed, there is to be an offering of seventeen and a half litres of corn and three litres of olive oil.

^25*“For the Festival of Shelters, which begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the prince will offer on each of the seven days the same sacrifice for sin, the same offerings to be burnt whole, and the same offerings of corn and olive oil.”

The Prince and the Festivals

46The Sovereign Lord says, “The east gateway to the inner courtyard must be kept closed during the six working days, but it is to be opened on the Sabbath and at the New Moon Festival. ²The ruling prince will go from the outer courtyard into the entrance room by the gateway and stand beside the posts of the gate while the priests burn his sacrifices whole and offer his fellowship offerings. There at the gate he must worship and then go out again. The gate must not be shut until evening. ³Each Sabbath and each New Moon Festival all the people are also to bow down and worship the Lord in front of the gate.

⁴“On the Sabbath the prince is to bring to the Lord, as sacrifices to be burnt whole, six lambs and one ram, all without any defects. ⁵With each ram he is to bring an offering of seventeen and a half litres of corn, and with each lamb he is to bring whatever he wants to give. For each such grain offering he is to bring three litres of olive oil. ⁶At the New Moon Festival he will offer a young bull, six lambs, and a ram, all without any defects. ⁷With each bull and each ram the offering is to be seventeen and a half litres of corn, and with each lamb the offering is to be whatever the prince wants to give. Three litres of olive oil are to be offered with each such grain offering of corn. ⁸The prince must leave the entrance room of the gateway and go out by the same way as he went in.

⁹“When the people come to worship the Lord at any festival, those who enter by the north gate are to leave by the south gate after they have worshipped, and those who enter by the south gate are to leave by the north gate. No one may go out by the same way as he entered, but must leave by the opposite gate. ¹⁰The prince is to come in when the people come, and leave when they leave. ¹¹On the feast days and at the festivals the grain offering will be seventeen and a half litres with each bull or ram, and whatever the worshipper wants to give with each lamb. Three litres of olive oil are to be offered with each such grain offering.

¹²“When the ruling prince wants to make a voluntary offering to the Lord, either an offering to be burnt whole or a fellowship offering, the east gate to the inner courtyard will be opened for him. He is to make the offering in the same way as he does on the Sabbath, and the gate is to be closed after he goes out again.”

The Daily Offering

¹³The Lord says, “Every morning a one-year-old lamb without any defects is to be burnt whole as an offering to the Lord. This offering must be made every day. ¹⁴Also an offering of two kilogrammes of flour is to be made every morning, together with one litre of olive oil for mixing with the flour. The rules for this offering to the Lord are to be in force for ever. ¹⁵The lamb, the flour, and the olive oil are to be offered to the Lord every morning for ever.”

The Prince and the Land

¹⁶The Sovereign Lord commands: “If the ruling prince gives any of the land he owns to one of his sons as a present, it will belong to that son as a part of his family property. ^17*But if the ruling prince gives any of his land to anyone who is in his service, it will become the prince’s property again when the Year of Restoration^r comes round. It belongs to him, and only he and his sons can own it permanently. ¹⁸The ruling prince must not take any of the people’s property away from them. Any land he gives to his sons must be from the land that is assigned to him, so that he will not oppress any of my people by taking their land.”

The Temple Kitchens

¹⁹Then the man took me to the entrance of the rooms facing north near the gate on the south side of the inner courtyard. These are holy rooms for the priests. He pointed out a place on the west side of the rooms ²⁰and said, “This is the place where the priests are to boil the meat offered as sacrifices for sin or as repayment offerings, and to bake the offerings of flour, so that nothing holy is carried to the outer courtyard, where it might harm the people.”^s

^21–22Then he led me to the outer courtyard and showed me that in each of its four corners there was a smaller^t courtyard, twenty metres long and fifteen metres wide. ²³Each one had a stone wall round it, with fireplaces built against the wall. ²⁴The man told me, “These are the kitchens where the temple servants are to boil the sacrifices the people offer.”

The Stream Flowing from the Temple

47^*The man led me back to the entrance of the Temple. Water was coming out from under the entrance and flowing east, the direction the Temple faced. It was flowing down from under the south part of the temple past the south side of the altar. ²The man then took me out of the temple area by way of the north gate and led me round to the gate that faces east. A small stream of water was flowing out at the south side of the gate. ³With his measuring rod the man measured five hundred metres downstream to the east and told me to wade through the stream there. The water came only to my ankles. ⁴Then he measured another five hundred metres, and the water came up to my knees. Another five hundred metres further down, the water was up to my waist. ⁵He measured five hundred metres more, and there the stream was so deep I could not wade through it. It was too deep to cross except by swimming. ⁶He said to me, “Mortal man, note all this carefully.”

Then the man took me back to the bank of the river, ⁷and when I got there I saw that there were very many trees on…