Ezekiel 43:13–46:24

The Altar and Offerings

¹³“And these are the measurements of the ^aaltar by cubits (the ^bcubit being a ¹cubit and a ²handbreadth): the ³base shall be a cubit and the width a cubit, and its border on its edge round about one ⁴span; and this shall be the height of the ⁵base of the altar.

¹⁴“And from the base on the ground to the lower ^aledge shall be two ¹cubits and the width one cubit; and from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge shall be four cubits and the width ²one cubit.

¹⁵“And the ¹altar hearth shall be four cubits; and from the ²altar hearth shall extend upwards four ^ahorns.

¹⁶“Now the ¹altar hearth shall be ²twelve cubits long by twelve wide, ^asquare in its four sides.

¹⁷“The ledge shall be ¹fourteen cubits long by fourteen wide in its four sides; the border around it shall be half a cubit, and its base shall be a cubit round about; and its ^asteps shall ^2bface the east.”

¹⁸And He said to me, “^aSon of man, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is made, to offer ^bburnt offerings on it and to ^csplash blood on it.

¹⁹‘And you shall give to the Levitical priests who are from the seed of ^aZadok, who draw ^bnear to Me to minister to Me,’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘a ^cbull from the herd for a ^dsin offering.

²⁰‘You shall also take some of its blood and put it on its four ^ahorns and on the four corners of the ^bledge and on the border round about; thus you shall ^cpurify it and make atonement for it.

²¹‘And you shall take the bull for the sin offering, and it shall be ^aburned in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary.

²²‘Now on the second day you shall bring near a ^amale goat without blemish for a sin offering, and they shall ^bpurify the altar as they purified it with the bull.

²³‘When you have finished purifying it, you shall present a ^abull from the herd without blemish and a ^bram without blemish from the flock.

²⁴‘And you shall bring them near before Yahweh, and the priests shall throw ^asalt on them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to Yahweh.

²⁵‘^aFor seven days you shall offer daily a goat for a sin offering; also a bull from the herd and a ram from the flock, without blemish, shall be offered.

²⁶‘For seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it; so shall they ¹ordain it.

²⁷‘So they will complete the days. And it shall be that on the ^aeighth day and onward, the priests shall ¹offer on the altar your burnt offerings and your ^bpeace offerings; and I will ^caccept you,’ declares Lord Yahweh.”

CHAPTER 44

The Gate of the Prince

¹Then He brought me back by the way of the ^aouter gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut.

²Yahweh said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for ^aYahweh, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.

³“As for the ^aprince, he shall sit in it as prince to ^beat bread before Yahweh; he shall ^center by way of the ^dporch of the gate and shall go out ¹by the same way.”

⁴Then He brought me by way of the ^anorth gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the ^bglory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh, and I ^cfell on my face.

⁵Then Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, ^aset your heart on and see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ^bstatutes of the house of Yahweh and concerning all its laws; and set your heart on the entrance of the house, with all exits of the sanctuary.

⁶“And you shall say to the ^1arebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^bEnough of all your abominations, O house of Israel,

⁷when you brought in ^aforeigners, ^buncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you ^cbrought near My food, the fat and the blood. So they ^dmade My covenant void—this in addition to all your abominations.

⁸“And you have not ^akept the responsibility of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners as keepers of the responsibility given by Me for My sanctuary.”

⁹‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^aNo foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary.

¹⁰“But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who ^awent astray from Me after their idols, shall ^bbear the punishment for their iniquity.

¹¹“Yet they shall be ^aministers in My sanctuary, having ^boversight at the gates of the house and ^cministering in the house; they shall ^dslaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall ^estand before them to minister to them.

¹²“Because they ministered to them ^abefore their idols and became a ^bstumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have ^1csworn against them,” declares Lord Yahweh, “that they shall ^dbear the punishment for their iniquity.

¹³“And they shall ^anot approach Me to minister as a priest to Me, nor approach any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will ^bbear their dishonor and their abominations which they have done.

¹⁴“Yet I will ¹appoint them as ^akeepers of the responsibility for the house, of all its service and of all that shall be done in it.

The Levitical Responsibilities

¹⁵“But the ^aLevitical priests, the sons of ^bZadok, who ^ckept the responsibility of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel ^dwent astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall ^estand before Me to bring near to Me the ^ffat and the blood,” declares Lord Yahweh.

¹⁶“They shall ^aenter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My ^btable to minister to Me and keep the responsibility given by Me.

¹⁷“And it will be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with ^alinen garments; and wool shall not ¹be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house.

¹⁸“Linen ^aheaddresses shall be on their heads, and ^blinen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat.

¹⁹“And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall ^aput off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments so that they will ^bnot transmit holiness to the people with their garments.

²⁰“Also they shall ^anot shave their heads, yet they shall not ^blet their locks ¹grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads.

²¹“^aNor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner court.

²²“And they shall not ¹take a widow or a ^adivorced woman as a wife but shall ^btake virgins from the seed of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

²³“Moreover, they shall instruct My people about the ^adifference between the holy and the profane, and make them know the difference between the unclean and the clean.

²⁴“And in a dispute, ^athey shall take their stand to judge; they shall judge it according to My judgments. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My ^bappointed times and ^ckeep My sabbaths holy.

²⁵“But ^1athey shall not go to a dead person to make themselves unclean; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may make themselves unclean.

²⁶“And after he is ^acleansed, seven days shall be counted for him.

²⁷“And on the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the ^ainner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall bring near his ^bsin offering,” declares Lord Yahweh.

²⁸“And it shall be with regard to an inheritance for them, that ^aI am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel—I am their possession.

²⁹“They shall ^aeat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; and every ^1bdevoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.

³⁰“And the first of all the ^afirst fruits of every kind and every ¹contribution of every kind, from all your ²contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the ^bfirst of your ³dough to cause a ^cblessing to rest on your house.

³¹“The priests shall not eat any bird or beast that has ^adied of itself or has been torn to pieces.

CHAPTER 45

Yahweh’s Portion of the Land

¹“And when you ^adivide by lot the land for inheritance, you shall offer a ^bcontribution to Yahweh, a ^choly portion of the land; the length shall be the length of ¹25,000 ^dcubits, and the width shall be ²20,000. It shall be holy within all its boundary round about.

²“Out of this there shall be for the holy place a square round about ^1afive hundred by five hundred cubits, and ²fifty cubits for its ^3bopen space round about.

³“And from this ¹area you shall measure a length of 25,000 cubits and a width of ²10,000 cubits; and in it shall be the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies.

⁴“It shall be the holy portion of the land; it shall be for the ^apriests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who ^bcome near to minister to Yahweh, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.

⁵“And an area ^a25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 in width shall be for the Levites, the ministers of the house, and for their possession as ¹cities to dwell in.

⁶“And you shall give the ^acity possession of an area ¹5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long, alongside the contribution of the holy portion; it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

The Prince’s Portion of the Land

⁷“Now the ^aprince shall have land on either side of the holy contribution and the city’s possession of land, adjacent to the holy contribution and the city’s possession of land, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border.

⁸“This shall be his land for a possession in Israel; so My princes shall no longer ^amistreat My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel ^baccording to their tribes.”

⁹‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^aEnough, you…