September 21
Ezekiel 41:1 — 43:27

41 And he proceeded to bring me into the temple, and he went measuring the side pillars, six cubits being the width over here and six cubits the width over there, the width of the side pillar. 2 And the width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sides of the entrance were five cubits over here and five cubits over there. And he went measuring its length, forty cubits; and the width, twenty cubits.

3 And he went inside and proceeded to measure the side pillar of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the width of the entrance was seven cubits. 4 And he went measuring its length, twenty cubits; and [its] width, twenty cubits, before the temple. Then he said to me: “This is the Most Holy.”

5 And he proceeded to measure the wall of the house, six cubits. And the width of the side chamber was four cubits, round about; all around the house it was, round about. 6 And the side chambers were side chamber upon side chamber, three [stories], and for thirty times; and they were entering into the wall that belonged to the house, that is, the side chambers all around, in order that they might be held in, but they were not held in in the wall of the house. 7 And there was a widening out and turning around upward and upward to the side chambers, for the winding passage of the house was upward and upward all around the house. Therefore there was a widening to the house upward, and from the lowest [story] one could go up to the uppermost [story], by the middle [story].

8 And I saw that there was a high platform for the house all around. As regards the foundations of the side chambers, there was a full reed of six cubits to the joining. 9 The width of the wall that belonged to the side chamber, to the outside, was five cubits. And there was a space left open [by] the construction of the side chambers that belonged to the house.

10 And between the dining rooms the width was twenty cubits round about the house, all around. 11 And the entrance of the side chamber was to the space left open, one entrance being toward the north and one entrance to the south; and the width of the area of the space left open was five cubits, all around.

12 And the building that was before the separated area, the side [of which] was toward the west, was seventy cubits wide. And the wall of the building was five cubits in width, it being all around; and its length was ninety cubits.

13 And he measured the house, a hundred cubits in length; and the separated area and the building and its walls, a hundred cubits in length. 14 And the width of the front of the house and the separated area to the east was a hundred cubits.

15 And he measured the length of the building before the separated area that was behind it and its galleries on this side and on that side, a hundred cubits.

Also the temple [and] the inner place and the porches of the courtyard; 16 the thresholds, and the windows with narrowing frames, and the galleries were round about the three of them. In front of the threshold there was paneling of wood all around, and [from] the floor up to the windows; and the windows were covered ones. 17 To above the entrance and as far as the inner house and on the outside and upon the whole wall all around, on the inner [house] and on the outside, there were measurements, 18 even carved cherubs and palm-tree figures, with a palm-tree figure between a cherub and a cherub, and the cherub had two faces. 19 And the face of a man was toward the palm-tree figure on this side, and the face of a maned young lion was toward the palm-tree figure on that side, they being carved on the whole house all around. 20 From the floor to above the entrance there were carved cherubs and palm-tree figures, [on] the wall of the temple.

21 As for the temple, the doorpost was squared; and [in] front of the holy place there was an appearance like the [following] appearance: 22 the wooden altar was three cubits high, and its length was two cubits, and it had its corner posts. And its length and its walls were of wood. And he proceeded to speak to me: “This is the table that is before Jehovah.”

23 And the temple and the holy place had two doors. 24 And two door leaves belonged to the doors, the two being turnable. One door had two door leaves, and the other had two door leaves. 25 And there were made upon them, upon the doors of the temple, cherubs and palm-tree figures, like those made for the walls, and there was a canopy of wood over the front of the porch outside. 26 And there were windows of narrowing frames and palm-tree figures over here and over there along the sides of the porch and the side chambers of the house and the canopies.

42 And he gradually brought me forth to the outer courtyard by the way toward the north. And he proceeded to bring me to the dining-room [block] that was in front of the separated area and that was in front of the building to the north. 2 Before the length of a hundred cubits there was the north entrance, and the width was fifty cubits. 3 In front of the twenty [cubits] that belonged to the inner courtyard and in front of the pavement that belonged to the outer courtyard there was gallery opposite gallery in three [stories]. 4 And before the dining rooms there was a walkway ten cubits in width to the inside, a way of one cubit, and their entrances were to the north. 5 And as for the dining rooms, the uppermost ones were shorter, for the galleries took away from them, more than the lowest ones and than the middle ones, as regards [the] building. 6 For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the courtyards. That is why more room was taken away than from the lowest ones and from the middle ones from the floor.

7 And the stone wall that was outside was close by the dining rooms toward the outer courtyard before the [other] dining rooms. Its length was fifty cubits. 8 For the length of the dining rooms that were toward the outer courtyard was fifty cubits, and, look! before the temple it was a hundred cubits. 9 And from below these dining rooms the entryway was to the east, when one comes in to them from the outer courtyard.

10 In the width of the stone wall of the courtyard toward the east, before the separated area and before the building, there were dining rooms. 11 And there was a way before them like the appearance of the dining rooms that were toward the north, so their length was [and] so their width was; and all their exits [were alike], and their plans alike and their entrances alike. 12 And like the entrances of the dining rooms that were toward the south was the entrance at the head of the way, the way before the corresponding stone wall toward the east, when one comes in to them.

      13 And he proceeded to say to me: “The dining rooms of the north [and] the dining rooms of the south that are before the separated area, they are the holy dining rooms, where the priests who are approaching Jehovah eat the most holy things. There they deposit the most holy things and the grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering, because the place is holy. 14 When they, the priests, have come in, they will not also go out from the holy place to the outer courtyard, but there they will deposit their garments in which they customarily minister, for they are something holy. They will clothe themselves with other garments, and must approach to what has to do with the people.”

15 And he finished the measurements of the inner house, and he brought me out by the way of the gate the front of which was toward the east, and he measured it all around.
      16 He measured the eastern side with the measuring reed. It was five hundred reeds, by the measuring reed, round about.
      17 He measured the northern side, five hundred reeds, by the measuring reed, round about.
      18 The southern side he measured, five hundred reeds, by the measuring reed.
      19 He went around to the western side. He measured five hundred reeds, by the measuring reed.
      20 For the four sides he measured it. It had a wall all around, with a length of five hundred [reeds] and a width of five hundred [reeds], to make a division between what is holy and what is profane.

43 Then he made me go to the gate, the gate that is facing toward the east. 2 And, look! the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the direction of the east, and his voice was like the voice of vast waters; and the earth itself shone because of his glory. 3 And it was like the appearance of the vision that I had seen, like the vision that I saw when I came to bring the city to ruin; and there were appearances like the appearance that I saw by the river Chebar, and I went falling upon my face.

4 And the glory of Jehovah itself came into the House by way of the gate the front of which was toward the east. 5 And a spirit proceeded to raise me up and bring me into the inner courtyard, and, look! the House had become full of the glory of Jehovah. 6 And I began to hear someone speaking to me out of the House, and [the] man himself had come to be standing beside me. 7 And He went on to say to me:

“Son of man, [this is] the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I shall reside in the midst of the sons of Israel to time indefinite; and no more will they, the house of Israel, defile my holy name, they and their kings, by their fornication and by the carcasses of their kings at their death, 8 by their putting their threshold with my threshold and their doorpost beside my doorpost, with the wall between me and them. And they defiled my holy name by their detestable things that they did, so that I went exterminating them in my anger. 9 Now let them remove their fornication and the carcasses of their kings far from me, and I shall certainly reside in the midst of them to time indefinite.

10 “As for you, O son of man, inform the house of Israel about the House, that they may feel humiliated because of their errors, and they must measure the pattern. 11 And if they actually feel humiliated because of all that they have done, the ground plan of the House, and its arrangement and its exits and its entryways, and all its ground plans and all its specifications, and all its ground plans and all its laws do you make known to them and write before their eyes, in order that they may observe all its ground plan and all its specifications and may actually carry them out. 12 This is the law of the House. On the top of the mountain its entire territory all around is something most holy. Look! This is the law of the House.

13 “And these are the measurements of the altar in cubits, a cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth. And [its] bottom is a cubit. And a cubit is the width. And its border is upon its lip round about, one span. And this is the base of the altar. 14 And from the bottom on the floor to the lower surrounding ledge there are two cubits, and the width is one cubit. And from the small surrounding ledge to the big surrounding ledge there are four cubits, and [its] width is a cubit. 15 And the altar hearth is four cubits, and out from the altar hearth and upward there are the four horns. 16 And the altar hearth is twelve [cubits] in length, with twelve [cubits] of width, squared on its four sides. 17 And the surrounding ledge is fourteen [cubits] in length, with fourteen [cubits] of width, on its four sides; and the border surrounding it is half a cubit, and its bottom is a cubit round about.

“And its steps are facing east.”

18 And he proceeded to say to me: “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘These are the statutes of the altar on the day of its being made, in order to offer upon it whole burnt offerings and to sprinkle upon it blood.’

19 “‘And you must give to the Levitical priests, who are of the offspring of Zadok, the ones approaching me,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘to minister to me, a young bull, the son of [the] herd, as a sin offering. 20 And you must take some of its blood and put [it] upon its four horns and upon the four corners of the surrounding ledge and upon the border round about and purify it from sin and make atonement for it. 21 And you must take the young bull, the sin offering, and one must burn it in the appointed place of the House, outside the sanctuary. 22 And on the second day you will bring near a buck of the goats, a sound one, as a sin offering; and they must purify the altar from sin the same as they purified [it] from sin with the young bull.’

23 “‘On your making an end of the purifying from sin you will bring near a young bull, the son of [the] herd, a sound one, and a ram from the flock, a sound one. 24 And you must bring them near before Jehovah, and the priests must throw salt upon them and offer them up as a whole burnt offering to Jehovah. 25 For seven days you will render up a he-goat as a sin offering for the day; and a young bull, the son of [the] herd, and a ram out of the flock, perfect ones, they will render up. 26 For seven days they will make atonement for the altar, and they must cleanse it and install it. 27 And they will complete the days. And it must occur on the eighth day and from then on that the priests will render upon the altar the whole burnt offerings of YOU people and YOUR communion sacrifices; and I shall certainly find pleasure in YOU,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”