September 22
Ezekiel 44:1 — 46:24

44 And he proceeded to bring me back by way of the gate of the sanctuary, the outer one facing east, and it was shut. 2 Then Jehovah said to me: “As regards this gate, shut is how it will continue. It will not be opened, and no mere man will come in by it; for Jehovah himself, the God of Israel, has come in by it, and it must continue shut. 3 However, the chieftain—as chieftain he himself will sit in it, in order to eat bread before Jehovah. By way of the porch of the gate he will come in, and by way of it he will go out.”

4 And he now brought me by way of the north gate to before the House, that I might see, and, look! the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah. And I went falling on my face. 5 Then Jehovah said to me: “Son of man, set your heart and see with your eyes, and with your ears hear all that I am speaking with you regarding all the statutes of the house of Jehovah and regarding all its laws, and you must set your heart upon the entryway of the House with all the exits of the sanctuary. 6 And you must say to Rebelliousness, to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “That is enough of YOU because of all YOUR detestable things, O house of Israel, 7 when YOU bring in the foreigners uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, in order to come to be in my sanctuary so as to profane it, even my house; when YOU present my bread, fat and blood, while they keep breaking my covenant on account of all YOUR detestable things. 8 Neither have YOU taken care of the obligation of my holy things, nor would YOU post [others] as caretakers of my obligation in my sanctuary for yourselves.”’

9 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, may come into my sanctuary, that is, any foreigner who is in the midst of the sons of Israel.”’

10 “‘But as for the Levites who got far away from me when Israel, who wandered away from me, wandered after their dungy idols, they must also bear their error. 11 And in my sanctuary they must become ministers at posts of oversight over the gates of the House and ministers at the House. They themselves will slaughter the whole burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they themselves will stand before them to minister to them. 12 For the reason that they kept ministering to them before their dungy idols and became to the house of Israel a stumbling block into error, that is why I have raised my hand against them,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘and they must bear their error. 13 And they will not approach to me to act as priest to me or to approach to any holy things of mine, to the most holy things, and they must bear their humiliation and their detestable things that they did. 14 And I shall certainly make them caretakers of the obligation of the House, as regards all its service and as regards all that should be done in it.’

15 “‘And as for the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who took care of the obligation of my sanctuary when the sons of Israel wandered away from me, they themselves will come near to me to minister to me, and they must stand before me to present to me fat and the blood,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 16 ‘They are the ones that will come into my sanctuary, and they themselves will come near to my table to minister to me, and they must take care of the obligation to me.

17 “‘And it must occur that when they come into the gates of the inner courtyard, linen garments they should wear, and no wool should come up on them when they minister in the gates of the inner courtyard and inside. 18 Linen headdresses are what should prove to be on their head, and linen drawers are what should prove to be upon their hips. They should not gird themselves with [what causes] sweat. 19 And when they go forth to the outer courtyard, [even] to the outer courtyard to the people, they should strip off their garments in which they were ministering, and they must deposit them in the holy dining rooms and put on other garments, that they may not sanctify the people with their garments. 20 And their head they should not shave, and the hair of the head they should not wear loose. They should by all means clip [the hair of] their heads. 21 And no wine should any priests drink when they come into the inner courtyard. 22 And no widow or divorced woman should they take for themselves as wives, but virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel or the widow who happens to be the widow of a priest they may take.’

23 “‘And my people they should instruct in the difference between a holy thing and a profane thing; and the difference between what is unclean and what is clean they should cause them to know. 24 And in a legal case they themselves should stand in order to judge; with my judicial decisions they must also judge it. And my laws and my statutes in regard to all my festal seasons they should keep, and my sabbaths they should sanctify. 25 And to a dead person of mankind he should not come in so as to become unclean, but for father or for mother or for son or for daughter [or] for brother or for a sister that has not become a husband’s they may make themselves unclean. 26 And after his purification, seven days they should number off for him. 27 And on the day of his coming into the holy place, into the inner courtyard, to minister in the holy place, he should present his sin offering,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

28 “‘And it must become theirs as an inheritance: I am their inheritance. And no possession should YOU people give them in Israel: I am their possession. 29 The grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering—they are the ones who will eat them. And every devoted thing in Israel—theirs it will become. 30 And the first of all the first ripe fruits of everything and every contribution of everything out of all YOUR contributions—to the priests it will come to belong; and the firstfruits of YOUR coarse meals YOU should give to the priest, in order to cause a blessing to rest upon your house. 31 No body [already] dead and no creature torn to pieces of the flying creatures or of the beasts should the priests eat.’


45 “‘And when YOU people allot the land as an inheritance, YOU should offer a contribution to Jehovah, a holy portion out of the land; as to length, twenty-five thousand [cubits] in length, and as to width, ten thousand. It will be a holy portion in all its boundaries round about. 2 From this there will prove to be for the holy place five hundred by five hundred, it being made square round about; and fifty cubits it will have as pasture ground on each side. 3 And out of this measurement you should measure the length of twenty-five thousand and the width of ten thousand, and in it the sanctuary will come to be, something most holy. 4 As a holy portion out of the land it will come to be for the priests themselves, the ministers of the sanctuary, those approaching to minister to Jehovah. And for them it must prove to be a place for houses, and a sacred place for the sanctuary.

5 “‘There will be twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in width. It will become the Levites’, the ministers of the house. As a possession they will have twenty dining rooms.

6 “‘And as the possession of the city, YOU people will give five thousand in width and a length of twenty-five thousand, exactly as the holy contribution. To all the house of Israel it will come to belong.

7 “‘And for the chieftain there will be on this side and on that side of the holy contribution and of the possession of the city, beside the holy contribution and beside the possession of the city, something on the west side westward and something on the east side eastward. And the length will be exactly as one of the shares, from the western boundary to the eastern boundary. 8 As regards the land, it will become his as a possession in Israel. And no more will my chieftains maltreat my people, and the land they will give to the house of Israel with respect to their tribes.’

9 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘That is enough of YOU, O chieftains of Israel!’

“‘Remove the violence and the despoiling, and do justice and righteousness themselves. Lift YOUR expropriations off my people,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 10 ‘Accurate scales and an accurate ephah and an accurate bath measure YOU men should come to have. 11 As regards the ephah and the bath measure, there should come to be but one fixed amount, for the bath to carry a tenth of a homer and the tenth of the homer an ephah; with reference to the homer, its required amount should prove to be. 12 And the shekel is twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels should prove to be the maneh for YOU.’

13 “‘This is the contribution that YOU should offer, the sixth part of the ephah from the homer of wheat, and the sixth part of the ephah from the homer of barley; 14 and as for the allowance of the oil, there is the bath measure of the oil. The bath is a tenth of the cor. Ten baths are a homer; because ten baths are a homer. 15 And one sheep out of the flock, out of two hundred from the livestock of Israel, for the grain offering and for the whole burnt offering and for the communion sacrifices, in order to make atonement for them,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

16 “‘As for all the people of the land, they will be responsible for this contribution to the chieftain in Israel. 17 And upon the chieftain will devolve the whole burnt offerings and the grain offering and the drink offering during the festivals and during the new moons and during the sabbaths, during all the festal seasons of the house of Israel. He will be the one to provide the sin offering and the grain offering and the whole burnt offering and the communion sacrifices, in order to make atonement in behalf of the house of Israel.’

18 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘In the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, you should take a young bull, a son of the herd, a sound one, and you must purify the sanctuary from sin. 19 And the priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it upon the doorpost of the House and upon the four corners of the surrounding ledge belonging to the altar and upon the doorpost of the gate of the inner courtyard. 20 And that is how you will do on the seventh [day] in the month because of any man making a mistake and because of any inexperienced one; and YOU people must make atonement for the House.

21 “‘In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, there should occur for YOU the passover. As a festival for seven days unfermented cakes are what should be eaten. 22 And on that day, in his own behalf and in behalf of all the people of the land, the chieftain must provide a young bull as a sin offering. 23 And for the seven days of the festival he should provide as a whole burnt offering to Jehovah seven young bulls and seven rams, sound ones, daily for the seven days, and as a sin offering a buck of the goats daily. 24 And as a grain offering an ephah for the young bull and an ephah for the ram he should provide, and, as regards oil, a hin to the ephah.

25 “‘In the seventh [month], on the fifteenth day of the month, during the festival, he should provide the same as these for the seven days, the same as the sin offering, as the whole burnt offering, and as the grain offering and as the oil.’”

46 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘As regards the gate of the inner courtyard that is facing east, it should continue shut for the six workdays, and on the sabbath day it should be opened, and on the day of the new moon it should be opened. 2 And the chieftain must come in by the way of the porch of the gate, from outside, and stand by the doorpost of the gate; and the priests must render up his whole burnt offering and his communion sacrifices, and he must bow down upon the threshold of the gate, and he must go out, but the gate itself should not be shut until the evening. 3 And the people of the land must bow down at the entrance of that gate on the sabbaths and on the new moons, before Jehovah.

4 “‘And the whole burnt offering that the chieftain should present to Jehovah on the sabbath day should be six sound male lambs and a sound ram; 5 and as a grain offering an ephah for the ram, and for the male lambs a grain offering as he is able to give, and, as regards oil, a hin to the ephah. 6 And on the day of the new moon there should be a young bull, the son of the herd, a sound one, and six male lambs and a ram; sound ones they should prove to be. 7 And an ephah for the young bull and an ephah for the ram he should render up as a grain offering, and for the male lambs according to what he is able to afford; and, as regards oil, a hin to the ephah.

8 “‘And when the chieftain comes in, by the way of the porch of the gate he should come in, and by the way of it he should go out. 9 And when the people of the land come in before Jehovah in the festal seasons, the one coming in by the way of the north gate in order to bow down should go out by the way of the south gate; and the one coming in by the way of the south gate should go out by the way of the gate to the north. No one should go back by the way of the gate by which he came in, for he should go out straight ahead of him. 10 And as regards the chieftain in their midst, when they come in, he should come in; and when they go out, he should go out. 11 And in the festivals and in the festal seasons the grain offering should prove to be an ephah for the young bull and an ephah for the ram, and for the male lambs as he is able to give; and, as regards oil, a hin to the ephah.

12 “‘And in case the chieftain should provide as a voluntary offering a whole burnt offering, or communion sacrifices as a voluntary offering to Jehovah, one must also open to him the gate that is facing east, and he must provide his whole burnt offering and his communion sacrifices just as he does on the sabbath day. And he must go out, and one must shut the gate after his going out.

13 “‘And a sound male lamb, in its first year, you should provide as a whole burnt offering daily to Jehovah. Morning by morning you should provide it. 14 And as a grain offering you should provide with it morning by morning the sixth of an ephah and, as regards oil, the third of a hin for sprinkling the fine flour. The grain offering to Jehovah is an indefinitely lasting statute, constantly. 15 And they must provide the male lamb and the grain offering and the oil morning by morning as a constant whole burnt offering.’

16 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘In case the chieftain should give a gift to each one of his sons as his inheritance, it itself will become the property of his sons themselves. It is their possession by inheritance. 17 And in case he should give a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it must also become his until the year of liberty; and it must return to the chieftain. Only his inheritance—as regards his sons—is what should continue to belong to their own selves. 18 And the chieftain should not take any of the inheritance of the people so as to force them out of their possession. From his own possession he should give his sons an inheritance, to the end that my people may not be scattered each one from his possession.’”

19 And he proceeded to bring me in by the entryway that was by the side of the gate to the holy dining rooms, those belonging to the priests, that were facing to the north, and, look! there was a place there on both rear sides to the west. 20 And he proceeded to say to me: “This is the place where the priests will boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, [and] where they will bake the grain offering, in order to carry nothing out to the outer courtyard so as to sanctify the people.”

21 And he proceeded to bring me out to the outer courtyard and make me pass along to the four corner posts of the courtyard, and, look! there was a courtyard by [this] corner post of the courtyard, a courtyard by [that] corner post of the courtyard. 22 At the four corner posts of the courtyard there were small courtyards, forty [cubits] in length and thirty in width. The four of them with corner structures had the same measurement. 23 And there was a row round about them, round about the four of them, and there were boiling places made beneath the rows round about. 24 Then he said to me: “These are the houses of those doing the boiling, where the ministers of the House boil the sacrifice of the people.”