Ezekiel 43:13–46:24

Dimensions of the Altar

¹³“These are the measurements of the ^valtar in cubits ^w(the ⁸cubit is one cubit and a handbreadth): the base one cubit high and one cubit wide, with a rim all around its edge of one span. This is the height of the altar: ¹⁴from the base on the ground to the lower ledge, two cubits; the width of the ledge, one cubit; from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge, four cubits; and the width of the ledge, one cubit. ¹⁵The altar hearth is four cubits high, with four ^xhorns extending upward from the ⁹hearth. ¹⁶The altar hearth is twelve cubits long, twelve wide, ^ysquare at its four corners; ¹⁷the ledge, fourteen cubits long and fourteen wide on its four sides, with a rim of half a cubit around it; its base, one cubit all around; and ^zits steps face toward the east.”

Consecrating the Altar

¹⁸And He said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord God: ‘These are the ordinances for the altar on the day when it is made, for sacrificing ^aburnt offerings on it, and for ^bsprinkling blood on it. ¹⁹You shall give ^ca young bull for a sin offering to ^dthe priests, the Levites, who are of the seed of ^eZadok, who approach Me to minister to Me,’ says the Lord God. ²⁰You shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the rim around it; thus you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it. ²¹Then you shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and ^fburn it in the appointed place of the ¹temple, ^goutside the sanctuary. ²²On the second day you shall offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull. ²³When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram from the flock without blemish. ²⁴When you offer them before the Lord, ^hthe priests shall throw salt on them, and they will offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord. ²⁵Every day for ⁱseven days you shall prepare a goat for a sin offering; they shall also prepare a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish. ²⁶Seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it, and so ²consecrate ³it. ^27jWhen these days are over it shall be, on the eighth day and thereafter, that the priests shall offer your burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar; and I will ^kaccept you,’ says the Lord God.”

The East Gate and the Prince

44Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary ^awhich faces toward the east, but it was shut. ²And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, ^bbecause the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. ³As for the ^cprince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to ^deat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.”

Those Admitted to the Temple

⁴Also He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the ¹temple; so I looked, and ^ebehold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord; ^fand I fell on my face. ⁵And the Lord said to me, ^g“Son of man, ²mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears, all that I say to you concerning all the ^hordinances of the house of the Lord and all its laws. Mark well who may enter the house and all who go out from the sanctuary.

⁶“Now say to the ⁱrebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “O house of Israel, ^jlet Us have no more of all your abominations. ^7kWhen you brought in ^lforeigners, ^muncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to defile it—My house—and when you offered ⁿMy food, ^othe fat and the blood, then they broke My covenant because of all your abominations. ⁸And you have not ^pkept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you.” ⁹Thus says the Lord God: ^q“No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel.

Laws Governing Priests

^10r“And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. ¹¹Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, ^sas gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; ^tthey shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and ^uthey shall stand before them to minister to them. ¹²Because they ministered to them before their idols and ^vcaused ³the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have ^wraised My hand in an oath against them,” says the Lord God, “that they shall bear their iniquity. ^13xAnd they shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they shall ^ybear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. ¹⁴Nevertheless I will make them ^zkeep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to be done in it.

^15a“But the priests, the Levites, ^bthe sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary ^cwhen the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they ^dshall stand before Me to offer to Me the ^efat and the blood,” says the Lord God. ¹⁶“They shall ^fenter My sanctuary, and they shall come near ^gMy table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge. ¹⁷And it shall be, whenever they enter the gates of the inner court, that ^hthey shall put on linen garments; no wool shall come upon them while they minister within the gates of the inner court or within the house. ¹⁸ⁱThey shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies; they shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat. ¹⁹When they go out to the outer court, to the outer court to the people, ^jthey shall take off their garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and put on other garments; and in their holy garments they shall ^knot sanctify the people.

^20l“They shall neither shave their heads, nor let their hair grow ^mlong, but they shall keep their hair well trimmed. ²¹ⁿNo priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court. ²²They shall not take as wife a ^owidow or a divorced woman, but take virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or widows of priests.

²³“And ^pthey shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to ^qdiscern between the unclean and the clean. ^24rIn controversy they shall stand as judges, and judge it according to My judgments. They shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed meetings, ^sand they shall hallow My Sabbaths.

²⁵“They shall not defile themselves by coming near a dead person. Only for father or mother, for son or daughter, for brother or unmarried sister may they defile themselves. ^26tAfter he is cleansed, they shall count seven days for him. ²⁷And on the day that he goes to the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, ^uhe must offer his sin offering ^vin the inner court,” says the Lord God.

²⁸“It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I ^wam their inheritance. You shall give them no ^xpossession in Israel, for I am their possession. ^29yThey shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; ^zevery dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. ³⁰The ^abest ⁴of all firstfruits of any kind, and every sacrifice of any kind from all your sacrifices, shall be the priest’s; also you ^bshall give to the priest the first of your ground meal, ^cto cause a blessing to rest on your house. ³¹The priests shall not eat anything, bird or beast, that ^ddied naturally or was torn by wild beasts.

The Holy District

45“Moreover, when you ^adivide the land by lot into inheritance, you shall ^bset apart a district for the Lord, a holy section of the land; its length shall be twenty-five thousand cubits, and the width ten thousand. It shall be holy throughout its territory all around. ²Of this there shall be a square plot for the sanctuary, ^cfive hundred by five hundred rods, with fifty cubits around it for an open space. ³So this is the district you shall measure: twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide; ^din it shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. ⁴It shall be ^ea holy section of the land, belonging to the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to the Lord; it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. ^5fAn area twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide shall belong to the Levites, the ministers of the ¹temple; they shall have ^gtwenty ²chambers as a possession.

Properties of the City and the Prince

^6h“You shall appoint as the property of the city an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand long, adjacent to the district of the holy section; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

⁷ⁱ“The prince shall have a section on one side and the other of the holy district and the city’s property; and bordering on the holy district and the city’s property, extending westward on the west side and eastward on the east side, the length shall be side by side with one of the tribal portions, from the west border to the east border. ⁸The land shall be his possession in Israel; and ^jMy princes shall no more oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel, according to their tribes.”

Laws Governing the Prince

⁹‘Thus says the Lord God: ^k“Enough, O princes of Israel! ^lRemove violence and plundering, execute justice and righteousness, and stop dispossessing My people,” says the Lord God. ¹⁰“You shall have ^mhonest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath. ¹¹The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, so that the bath contains one-tenth of a homer, and the ephah one-tenth of a homer; their measure shall be according to the homer. ¹²The ⁿshekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and…