Ezekiel - The Old Testament

¹ ' "When you draw lots to divide the country by heritage, you must set a sacred portion of the country aside for Yahweh: twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand wide. The whole of this land must be sacred,

² and of this an area five hundred by five hundred cubits must be for the sanctuary, with a boundary fifty cubits wide right round.

³ Out of this area you must also measure a section twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits, in which will be the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies.

⁴ This will be the sacred portion of the country, belonging to the priests who officiate in the sanctuary and approach Yahweh to serve him. It will contain room for their houses and room for the sanctuary.

⁵ A portion twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits will be owned by the Levites serving the Temple, with towns for them to live in.

⁶ You must give the city possession of an area five thousand by twenty-five thousand cubits, near the land belonging to the sanctuary; this must be for the whole House of Israel.

⁷ "The prince must have a territory either side of the sacred portion and of the property of the city, adjacent to the sacred portion and the property of the city, stretching westwards from the west and eastwards from the east, its size equal to one of the portions between the west and the east frontiers

⁸ of the country. This will be his property in Israel. Then my princes will no longer oppress my people; they must leave the rest of the country for the House of Israel, for its tribes.

⁹ "The Lord Yahweh says this: Enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and plundering, do what is upright and just, stop crushing my people with taxation -- declares the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁰ Have fair scales, a fair ephah, a fair bat.

¹¹ Let the ephah and bat be equal, let the bat hold one-tenth of a homer and the ephah one-tenth of a homer. Let the measures be based on the homer.

¹² The shekel must be twenty gerah. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels and fifteen shekels must make one mina.

¹³ "This is the offering that you must levy: the sixth of an ephah for every homer of wheat, and the sixth of an ephah for every homer of barley.

¹⁴ The dues on oil: one bat of oil out of every ten bat or out of every kor (which is equal to ten bat or one homer, since ten bat equal one homer).

¹⁵ You must levy one sheep on every flock of two hundred from the pastures of Israel for the oblation, the burnt offerings and the communion sacrifice. This must form your expiation -- declares the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁶ Let all the people of the country be subject to this due for the prince of Israel.

¹⁷ The prince must make himself responsible for providing the burnt offerings, the oblation and the libations for feasts, New Moons, Sabbaths and all the solemn festivals of the House of Israel. He must provide the sacrifice for sin, the oblation, the burnt offerings and the communion sacrifices to make expiation for the House of Israel.

¹⁸ "The Lord Yahweh says this: On the first day of the first month, you must take a young bull without blemish, to purify the sanctuary.

¹⁹ The priest must take blood from the sacrifice for sin and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the altar plinth and on the doorposts of the gates of the inner court.

²⁰ You must do the same on the seventh of the month, on behalf of anyone who has sinned through inadvertence or ignorance. This is how you must make expiation for the Temple.

²¹ On the fourteenth day of the first month, you must celebrate the feast of the Passover. For seven days everyone must eat unleavened loaves.

²² On that day, the prince must offer a bull as a sacrifice for sin, for himself and all the people of the country.

²³ For the seven days of the feast, he must offer Yahweh burnt offerings of seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, daily for a week, and one he-goat daily as a sacrifice for sin,

²⁴ and as an oblation, one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil for every ephah.

²⁵ "For the feast that falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he must do the same for seven days, offering the sacrifice for sin, the burnt offerings, the oblation and the oil." '