The Priests’ Room

42 Then the man led me through the north gate out into the outer courtyard. He led me {west} to a building with many rooms that was west of the restricted area and the building on the north side. ²This building was 100 cubits* long and 50 cubits* wide. People entered it from {the courtyard on} the north side. ³The building was three stories tall and had balconies. The 20-cubit* inner courtyard was between the building and the Temple. On the other side, the rooms faced the pavement of the outer courtyard. ⁴There was a path 10 cubits* wide and 100 cubits* long running along the south side of the building, even though the entrance was on the north side. ^5–6Since this building was three stories tall and did not have columns like the columns of the outer courtyards, the top rooms were farther back than the rooms on the middle and bottom floors. The top floor was narrower than the middle floor which was narrower than the bottom floor because the balconies used this space. ⁷There was a wall outside that was parallel to the rooms and ran along the outer courtyard. It ran in front of the rooms for 50 cubits.* ⁸The row of rooms that ran along the outer courtyard was 50 cubits* long, although the total length of the building, as on the Temple side, was 100 cubits* long. ⁹The entrance was below these rooms at the east end of the building so people could enter from the outer courtyard. ¹⁰The entrance was at the start of the wall beside the courtyard. There were rooms on the south side, by the restricted area and the other building. These rooms had a ¹¹path in front of them. They were like the rooms on the north side. They had the same length and width and the same kind of doors. ¹²The entrance to the lower rooms was at the east end of the building so people could enter from the open end of the path by the wall. ¹³The man said to me, “The north rooms and south rooms across from the restricted area are holy. These rooms are for the priests that offer the sacrifices to the Lord. That is where the priests will eat the most holy offerings. And that is where they will put the most holy offerings. Why? Because this place is holy. The most holy offerings are: the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. ¹⁴The priests who enter the holy area must leave their serving clothes in that holy place before they go out into the outer courtyard. Why? Because these clothes are holy. If a priest wants to go to the part of the temple where the other people are, then he must go to those rooms and put on other clothes.

The Outer Courtyard

¹⁵The man had finished measuring inside the Temple area. Then he brought me out through the east gate and measured all around that area. ¹⁶The man measured the east side with the ruler. It was 500 cubits* long. ¹⁷He measured the north side. It was 500 cubits long. ¹⁸He measured the south side. It was 500 cubits long. ¹⁹He went around to the west side and measured it. It was 500 cubits long. ²⁰He measured the four walls that went all the way around {the temple}. The wall was 500 cubits long and 500 cubits wide. It separated the holy area from the area that is not holy.

altar(s) A stone table or raised area used for offering sacrifices. 2 cubits 3’5 5/16” or 105cm. 3 cubits 5’2” or 157.5cm. 10 cubits 17’2 11/16” or 5.25m. 20 cubits 34’5 3/8” or 10.5m. 50 cubits 86’1 1/2” or 26.25m. 100 cubits 172’3” or 52.5m. 500 cubits 861’3” or 262.5m.

The Lord Will Live Among His People

43 The man led me to the east gate. ²There the Glory of the God of Israel came from the east. God’s voice was loud like the sound of the sea. The ground was bright with the light from the Glory of God. ³The vision* that I saw was like the vision I saw by the Kebar Canal. I bowed with my face to the ground. ⁴The Glory of the Lord came into the temple through the east gate. ⁵Then the Spirit* picked me up and brought me into the inner courtyard. The Glory of the Lord filled the temple. ⁶I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. The man was still standing beside me. ⁷The voice from the temple said to me, “Son of man,* this is the place with my throne and footstool. I will live in this place among the people of Israel forever. The family of Israel won’t ruin my holy name again. The kings and their people won’t bring shame to my name by doing sexual sins* or by burying the dead bodies of their kings in this place. ⁸They won’t bring shame to my name by putting their threshold next to my threshold, and their door post next to my door post. In the past, only a wall separated them from me. So they brought shame to my name every time they sinned and did those terrible things. That is why I became angry and destroyed them. ⁹Now let them take their sexual sins and the dead bodies of their kings far away from me. Then I will live among them forever. ¹⁰“Now, Son of man,* tell the family of Israel about the temple. Then, when they learn about the plans for the temple, they will be ashamed of their sins. ¹¹And they will be ashamed of all the bad things they have done. Let them know the design of the temple. Let them know how it should be built, where the entrances and exits are, and all the designs on it. Teach them about all its rules and all its laws. And write down these things for everyone to see so they can obey all the laws and rules for the temple. ¹²This is the law of the temple: The whole area on the top of the mountain within these boundaries is most holy. This is the law of the temple.

The Altar

¹³“And these are the measurements of the altar* in cubits using the long measurement.* There was a gutter all the way around the base of the altar. It was 1 cubit* deep, and {each side} was 1 cubit wide. There was a rim around the edge 1 span* high. And this was how tall the altar was: ¹⁴From the ground to the lower ledge, the base measures 2 cubits.* It was 1 cubit* wide. It measures 4 cubits* from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge. It was 2 cubits wide. ¹⁵The place for the fire on the altar was 4 cubits high. The four corners were shaped like horns. ¹⁶The place for the fire on the altar was 12 cubits* long by 12 cubits wide. It was perfectly square. ¹⁷The ledge was also square, 14 cubits* long by 14 cubits wide. The border around it was 1/2 cubit* wide. (The gutter around the base was 2 cubits wide.) The steps going up to the altar were on the east side.” ¹⁸Then the man said to me, “Son of man,* the Lord and Master says these things: ‘These are the rules for the altar:* At the time you build the altar, use these rules to offer burnt offerings and to sprinkle blood on it. ¹⁹You will give a young bull as a sin offering to the men from Zadok’s family. These men are the priests from the family group of Levi. They are the men who serve me by bringing the offerings to me.’” The Lord my Master said these things. ²⁰“You will take some of the bull’s blood and put it on the altar’s four horns, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the rim around it. In this way, you will make the altar pure. ²¹Then take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the proper place in the temple area, outside the Temple building. ²²On the second day you will offer a male goat that has nothing wrong with it. It will be for a sin offering. The priests will make the altar* pure the same way they made it pure with the bull. ²³When you have finished making the altar pure you will offer a young bull that has nothing wrong with it and a ram* from the flock that has nothing wrong in it. ²⁴Then you will offer them before the Lord. The priests will sprinkle salt on them. Then the priests will offer the bull and ram up as a burnt offering to the Lord. ²⁵You will prepare a goat every day for seven days for a sin offering. Also, you will prepare a young bull and a ram from the flock. These animals must have nothing wrong with them. ²⁶For seven days the priests will make the altar pure and ready for use in worshiping God. ²⁷After seven days, on the eighth day, the priests must offer your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you.” The Lord my Master said these things.

vision Something like a dream that God used to speak to people. Spirit Or “spirit,” or “wind.” Son of man This was usually just a way of saying “a person,” or “a human being.” But here this is a title for the man, Ezekiel. sexual sins This might also mean “turning away from God and being unfaithful to him.” altar(s) A stone table or raised area used for offering sacrifices. long measurement Literally, “a cubit and a handbreadth.” 1 span The distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger, about 9” or 22cm. ram(s) A male sheep. Cubit Measurements: 1/2 cubit 10 5/16” or 26.25cm. 1 cubit 1’ 8 5/8” or 52.5cm. 2 cubits 3’5 5/16” or 105cm. 4 cubits 6’10 5/8” or 2.1m. 12 cubits 20’8” or 6.3m. 14 cubits 24’1 3/8” or 7.35m.

The Outer Gate

44 Then the man brought me back to the east gate of the temple area. We were outside the gate and the gate was shut. ²The Lord said to me, “This gate will stay shut. It won’t be opened. No one will enter through it. Why? Because the Lord of Israel has entered through it. So it must stay shut. ³Only the ruler of the people may sit at this gate when he eats a meal with the Lord. He must enter through the porch of the gateway and go out the same way.”

The Holiness of the Temple

⁴Then the man led me through the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked and saw the Glory of the Lord filling the Lord’s temple. I bowed with my face touching the ground. ⁵The Lord said to me, “Son of man,* look very carefully! Use your eyes and ears. Look at these things. And listen very carefully to everything that I tell you about all the rules and laws about the Lord’s temple. Look carefully at the entrances to the temple and at all the exits from the holy place. ⁶Then give this message to all the people of Israel that refused to obey me. Tell them, ‘The Lord my Master says these things: Family of Israel, I have had enough of the terrible things you have done! ⁷You brought foreigners into my temple—and those people were not truly circumcised* —they did not give themselves completely to me. In this way you made my temple unclean. You broke our agreement and did terrible things, and then you gave me the offerings of bread, the fat, and the blood. But this only made my temple unclean. ⁸You did not take care of my holy things. No, you let foreigners have responsibility of my holy place!’” ⁹The Lord my Master says these things, “A foreigner that is not truly circumcised* must not come into my temple—not even a foreigner living permanently among the people of Israel. He must be circumcised and he must give himself completely to me {before he can come into my temple}. ¹⁰In the past, the Levites left me when Israel turned away from me. Israel left me to follow their idols.* The Levites will be punished for their sin. ¹¹The Levites were chosen to serve in my holy place. They guarded the gates of the temple. They served in the temple. They killed the animals for the sacrifices and burnt offerings for the people. They were chosen to help the people and to serve them. ¹²But those Levites helped the people sin against me! They helped the people worship their idols! So I am making this promise against them: ‘They will be punished for their sin.’” The Lord my Master said this. ¹³“So the Levites will not bring offerings to me like the priests. They won’t come near any of my holy things or the things that are most holy. They must carry their shame because of the terrible things that they did. ¹⁴But I will let them take care of the temple. They will work in the temple and do the things that must be done in it. ¹⁵“The priests are all from the family group of Levi. But only priests from Zadok’s family took care of my holy place when the people of Israel turned away from me. So only Zadok’s descendants will bring offerings to me. They will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood from the animals they sacrifice.” The Lord my Master said those things! ¹⁶“They will enter my holy place. They will come near my table to serve me. They will take care of the things I gave them. ¹⁷When they enter the gates of the inner courtyard, they will wear linen clothes. They won’t wear wool while they serve at the gates of the inner courtyard and in the temple. ¹⁸They will wear linen turbans* on their heads. And they will wear linen underwear. They won’t wear anything that makes them sweat. ¹⁹Before they go out into the outer courtyard to the people, they will take off the clothes they wear while serving me. They will put these clothes away in the holy rooms. Then they will put on other clothes. In this way, they will not let people touch those holy clothes. ²⁰“These priests won’t shave their heads or let their hair grow long. {This would show they are sad, and the priests must be happy about serving the Lord.} The priests may only trim the hair of their heads. ²¹None of the priests may drink wine when they go into the inner courtyard. ²²The priests must not marry a widow* or a divorced woman. No, they must marry only a virgin* from the family of Israel or a woman whose dead husband was a priest. ²³“Also, the priests must teach my people the difference between the holy things and the things that are not holy. They must help my people know what is clean and what is unclean. ²⁴The priests will be the judges in court. They will follow my laws when they judge people. They will obey my laws and my rules at all my special feasts. They will respect my special days of rest and keep them holy. ²⁵They won’t go near a dead person to make themselves unclean. But they may make themselves unclean if the dead person is their father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or a sister that is not married. ²⁶{This will make the priest unclean.} After the priest has been made clean, he must wait seven days. ²⁷Then he can go back into the holy place. But on the day he goes into the inner courtyard to serve in the holy place, he must offer a sin offering for himself.” The Lord my Master said these things. ²⁸“About the land that will belong to the Levites: I am their property. You won’t give the Levites any property (land) in Israel. I am their share in Israel. ²⁹They will get to eat the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. Everything the people in Israel give to the Lord will be theirs. ³⁰And the first part of the harvest from every kind of crop will be for the priests. You will also give the priests the first of your dough. This will bring blessings to your house. ³¹The priests must not eat any bird or animal that died a natural death or had been torn to pieces {by a wild animal}.

Son of man This was usually just a way of saying “a person,” or “a human being.” But here this is a title for the man, Ezekiel. truly circumcised Literally, “they were not circumcised in their heart or in their body.” This was done to every male to show he shared in the Agreement God made with Israel. See Gen. 17:9–14. idols Statues of false gods that people worshiped. turban(s) A head covering made by wrapping a long piece of cloth around the head or around a cap worn on the head. widow A woman whose husband has died. virgin A pure young woman that has not had sexual relations with anyone.