Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.

²He caused me to pass all around them, and behold, there were very many [human bones] in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry.

³And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know."

⁴Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.'

⁵Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, 'Behold, I will make breath enter you so that you may come to life.

⁶I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and I will put breath in you so that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'"

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a [thundering] noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

⁸And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on the bones, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.

⁹Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."'"

¹⁰So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

¹¹Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are completely cut off.'

¹²Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will open your graves and make you come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you [back home] to the land of Israel.

¹³Then you will know [with confidence] that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and made you come up out of your graves, My people.

¹⁴I will put My Spirit in you and you will come to life, and I will place you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and fulfilled it," says the LORD.'"

¹⁵The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,

¹⁶"And you, son of man, take a stick and write on it, 'For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.'

¹⁷Then join them together into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand.

¹⁸When your people say to you, 'Will you not tell us what you mean by these?'

¹⁹say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join the stick of Judah with it and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand."'

²⁰The sticks on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes.

²¹"Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am going to take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;

²²and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king over all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, and will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

²³They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all their transgressions in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. So they will be My people, and I will be their God.

²⁴" My servant David will be king over them, and they all will have one shepherd. They will also walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them.

²⁵They will live in the land where your fathers lived, [the land] that I gave to My servant Jacob, and they will live there, they and their children and their children's children, forever; and My servant David will be their leader forever.

²⁶I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will put My sanctuary in their midst forever.

²⁷My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.

²⁸Then the nations will know [without any doubt] that I am the LORD who sets apart and sanctifies Israel [for holy use], when My sanctuary is in their midst forever."'"

¹And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²"Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the chief ruler of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

³and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief ruler of Meshech and Tubal.

⁴I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently clothed in full armor, a great horde with buckler (small shield) and [large] shield, all of them wielding swords;

⁵Persia (Iran), Cush (Ethiopia), and Put (Libya, N. Africa) with them, all of them with shield and helmet;

⁶Gomer and all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north and all its troops—many peoples with you.

⁷You [Gog] be prepared; prepare yourself, you and all your hordes that are assembled around you, and be a guard and a lookout for them.

⁸After many days you will be summoned [for service]; in the latter years you shall come into the land that is restored from [the ravages of] the sword, where people have been gathered out of many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual wasteland; but its people were brought out of the nations, and they are living securely, all of them.

⁹You will go up [against them], you will come like a storm; you shall be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you."

¹⁰'Thus says the Lord GOD, "It will come about on that day that thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan,

¹¹and you will say, 'I will go up against an open country; I will come against those who are at rest and peaceful, who live securely, all of them living without walls and having neither bars nor gates,

¹²to take spoil and seize plunder, to turn your hand against the ruins which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world [Israel].'

¹³Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish (southern Spain), with all its young lions (villages) will say to you, 'Have you come to take spoil? Have you assembled your hordes [of fighting men] to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take great spoil?'"'

¹⁴"Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "On that day when My people Israel live securely, will you not become aware of it [and become active]?

¹⁵You will come from your place in the remote parts of the north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding horses, a great horde, and a mighty army;

¹⁶and you will go up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. In the last days it will come about that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy through you before their eyes, O Gog."

¹⁷'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants, the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you (Gog) against them?

¹⁸It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel," says the Lord GOD, "that My wrath will rise and show on My face.

¹⁹In My zeal and in My blazing rage I declare that on that day there will most certainly be a great earthquake in the land of Israel,

²⁰so that the fishes of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all the creatures that crawl on the earth, and all the men that are on the face of the earth will tremble and shake at My presence; the mountains will crumble, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.

²¹I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains," says the Lord GOD. "Every man's (invading soldier's) sword will be against his brother (ally) [in panic and confusion].

²²With pestilence and with bloodshed I will enter into judgment with Gog; and I will rain on him torrents of rain with [great] hailstones, fire and brimstone on his hordes and on the many nations that are with him.

²³Thus I shall magnify Myself and demonstrate My greatness and sanctify Myself, and I will be recognized and will make Myself known in the sight of many nations; they will know [without any doubt] that I am the LORD."'

¹"And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince (ruler) of Meshech and Tubal;

²and I will turn you around and lead you along, and bring you up from the remotest parts of the north, and I will bring you against the mountains of Israel.

³I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows to fall out of your right hand.

⁴You will fall [dead] on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the nations who are with you. I will give you to every kind of predatory bird and animal of the field as food.

⁵You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken," says the Lord GOD.

⁶I will also send fire on Magog and on those who live securely in the coastlands; and they will know [without any doubt] that I am the LORD.

⁷"I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore; and the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

⁸Behold, it is coming and it will be done," says the Lord GOD. "That is the day of which I have spoken.

⁹And [when you, Gog, no longer exist] those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both the [large] shields and the bucklers (small shields), the bows and the arrows, the war clubs and the spears; and for seven years they will burn them.

¹⁰They will not take any wood from the field or cut down and gather [any] firewood from the forests, because they will make their fires using the weapons. And they will take the spoil from those who despoiled them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them," says the Lord GOD.

¹¹"And on that day I will give Gog a place for burial there in Israel, the valley of those who pass through east of the sea, and it will block the way of those who would pass through. So they will bury Gog there with all his hordes, and they will call it the Valley of Hamon-gog (the multitude of Gog).

¹²For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.

¹³Yes, all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I appear in My glory and brilliance," says the Lord GOD.

¹⁴They will elect men who will constantly go through the land, [men commissioned] to bury those who were passing through, those bodies that lie unburied on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will do a search.

¹⁵As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it, until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog.

¹⁶And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. In this manner they shall cleanse the land."'

¹⁷"As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Say to every kind of bird and to every animal of the field, "Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice that I am slaughtering for you, as a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you will eat flesh and drink blood.

¹⁸You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan [east of the Jordan].

¹⁹So you will eat fat until you are filled and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast which I have prepared for you.

²⁰You will eat your fill at My table with horses and riders, with mighty men, and with all the men of war," says the Lord GOD.

²¹"And I will bring [and manifest] My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment and justice [in the punishment] which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them.

²²So the house of Israel will know [with absolute confidence] that I am the LORD their God from that day forward.

²³And the nations will know [without any doubt] that the house of Israel went into exile for their great sin, because they acted treacherously against Me; and I hid My face (favor, blessing) from them. So I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell [into captivity or were killed] by [the power of] the sword.

²⁴I dealt with them in accordance with their uncleanness and their transgressions, and I hid My face from them."'"

²⁵Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob (Israel) and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine].

²⁶They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery (unfaithfulness) which they perpetuated against Me, when they live securely in their own land and there is no one who makes them afraid.

²⁷When I bring them back from the nations and gather them out of their enemies' lands, then I shall show Myself holy [and My justice and holiness will be vindicated] through them in the sight of many nations.

²⁸Then they will know [without any doubt] that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them to their own land. I will leave none of them there [among the nations] any longer.

²⁹I will not hide My face from them any longer, because I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel," says the Lord GOD.

¹In the twenty-fifth year of our exile [in Babylon], in the beginning of the year, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city [of Jerusalem] was taken, on that [very] same day the hand of the LORD was upon me and He brought me there.

²In the visions of God He brought me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain, on the south side of which there was what seemed to be a structure of a city.

³So He brought me there; and behold, there was a man [an angel] whose appearance was like bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand; and he was standing in the gateway.

⁴The man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and set your heart on all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here that I may show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you see."

⁵And behold, there was a wall all around the outside [area] of the temple (house) [of the LORD], and in the man's hand a measuring rod six cubits long (10.2 ft.), each cubit being longer than the standard one by a hand width. So he measured the thickness of the wall, one rod; and the height, one rod.

⁶Then he went to the gate which faced the east and went up its [seven] steps and measured the threshold of the gate, one rod in width; and the other threshold [of the gate inside the thick wall] was one rod in width.

⁷The guardroom was one rod long and one rod wide, and [the space] between the guardrooms was five cubits. And the threshold of the gate by the porch (portico) of the gate facing inward was one rod.

⁸He also measured the porch of the gate facing inward [toward the temple of the LORD], one rod.

⁹Then he measured the porch of the gate, eight cubits, and its side pillars, two cubits. The porch of the gate faced inward [toward the temple of the LORD].

¹⁰There were three guardrooms on each side of the gate toward the east; the three were the same size, and the side pillars on each side measured the same.

¹¹And he measured the width of the gateway, ten cubits, and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits.

¹²On each side a border (barrier wall) one cubit wide stood in front of the guardrooms on each side; and the guardrooms were six cubits square on each side.

¹³He measured the gate from the roof of one guardroom to the roof of the other, a width of twenty-five cubits from one door to the opposite door.

¹⁴He made [the measurement of] the side pillars sixty cubits high; the gate extended all around to the side pillar of the courtyard.

¹⁵From the front of the entrance gate [on the outside] to the front of the inner porch (portico) of the gate [the distance] was fifty cubits.

¹⁶There were shuttered windows looking toward the guardrooms, and toward their side pillars within the gate all around, and likewise for the porches. And windows were all around inside; and palm tree decorations were on each side pillar.

¹⁷Then he brought me into the outer courtyard, and behold, there were chambers and a pavement made for the courtyard all around; thirty chambers faced the pavement.

¹⁸The pavement (that is, the lower pavement) was by the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates.

¹⁹Then he measured the width from the front of the lower gate to the front of the exterior of the inner court, a hundred cubits [both] on the east and on the north.

²⁰And as for the gate of the outer courtyard which faced the north he measured [both] its length and its width.

²¹Its guardrooms, three on each side, and its side pillars and its porches had the same measurement as the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits and the width was twenty-five cubits.

²²Its windows and its porches and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as the gate that faced toward the east. It was reached by going up seven steps, and its porch was in front of them.

²³The inner courtyard had a gate opposite the gate on the north as well as the gate on the east; and he measured a hundred cubits from gate to gate.

²⁴Then he led me toward the south, and behold, there was a gate toward the south; and he measured its side pillars and its porches, and they measured the same as the others.

²⁵The gate and its porches had windows all around like those windows [in the other gateways]; the length was fifty cubits and the width was twenty-five cubits.

²⁶There were seven steps going up to the gate, and its porches were in front of them; and it had palm tree decorations [carved] on its side pillars, one on each side.

²⁷The inner courtyard had a gate toward the south; and he measured from gate to gate toward the south, a hundred cubits.

²⁸Then the man (angel) brought me to the inner courtyard by the south gate; and he measured the south gate according to those same measurements.

²⁹Its guardrooms also, its side pillars and its porches measured the same as the others. And the gate and its porches had windows all around; the length was fifty cubits and the width was twenty-five cubits.

³⁰There were porches all around, twenty-five cubits long and five cubits wide.

³¹Its porches faced the outer courtyard; and palm tree decorations were [carved] on its side pillars, and its stairway had eight steps.

³²He brought me into the inner courtyard toward the east, and he measured the gate; it measured the same as the others.

³³Its guardrooms also, its side pillars and its porches measured the same as the others. The gate and its porches had windows all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

³⁴Its porches faced the outer courtyard; and palm tree decorations were [carved] on either side of its side pillars, and its stairway had eight steps.

³⁵Then he brought me to the north gate and he measured it; the measurements were the same as those of the other gates,

³⁶with its guardrooms, its side pillars, its porches; and the gate had windows all around. The length was fifty cubits and the width was twenty-five cubits.

³⁷Its side pillars faced the outer courtyard, and palm tree decorations were [carved] on them on either side. And its stairway had eight steps.

³⁸A chamber with its doorway was by the side pillars of the gates; there the burnt offering was to be washed.

³⁹In the porch (portico) of the gate were two tables on each side, on which to slaughter the burnt offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering.

⁴⁰On the outer side, as one went up to the gateway toward the north, were two tables; and on the other side of the porch of the gate were two tables.

⁴¹Four tables were on each side next to the gate; [a total of] eight tables on which they slaughter sacrifices.

⁴²Moreover, there were four tables of hewn stone (ashlar) for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and one cubit high, on which they lay the instruments with which they slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice.

⁴³The double hooks, one hand width in length were installed in the house all around. The meat of the offering was [to be placed] on the tables.

⁴⁴From the outside to the inner gate were chambers for the singers in the inner courtyard, one of which was beside the north gate, with its front toward the south, and one beside the south gate facing toward the north.

⁴⁵He [who was guiding me] said to me, "This is the chamber which faces toward the south; it is for the priests who have the responsibility and take care of the temple;

⁴⁶but the chamber which faces toward the north is for the priests who have the responsibility and take care of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who [alone] from the sons of Levi come near to the LORD to minister to Him."

⁴⁷He measured the courtyard, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, a perfect square; and the altar was in front of the temple.

⁴⁸Then he brought me to the porch of the temple, and he measured each side pillar of the porch, five cubits on each side; and the width of the gate was three cubits on each side.

⁴⁹The length of the porch was twenty cubits and the width eleven cubits; and at the stairway by which it was ascended, there were [two] columns beside the side pillars, one on each side [of the entrance].

¹Then he (the angel) brought me to the nave (outer sanctuary) and measured the side pillars; six cubits wide on each side was the width of the side pillar.

²The width of the entrance was ten cubits and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side; and he measured its length, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits.

³Then he went inside [the inner sanctuary] and measured each side pillar of the doorway, two cubits, and the doorway, six cubits [high], and the width of the doorway, seven cubits.

⁴He measured the length [of the interior of the inner sanctuary], twenty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits, opposite the nave (outer sanctuary); and he said to me, "This is the Most Holy Place."

⁵Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits [thick, to accommodate side chambers]; and the width of every side chamber, four cubits, all around the temple on every side.

⁶The side chambers were three stories [high], one above another, and thirty chambers in each story; and the side chambers extended to the wall which stood on their inward side all around, so that they would be attached, but not attached to the wall of the temple itself.

⁷The side chambers became wider at each successive level as they encompassed the temple. Because the structure surrounding the temple went higher by stages on all sides of the temple, for that reason the width of the temple increased as it went higher; and thus one went up from the lowest story to the highest one by way of the second story.

⁸I also saw that the temple (house) had a raised platform all around it; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full rod of six long cubits in height.

⁹The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. But the free space between the side chambers belonging to the temple

¹⁰and the outer chambers was a width of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side.

¹¹The doorways of the side chambers toward the free space were one doorway toward the north and another doorway toward the south; and the width of the free space was five cubits all around.

¹²The building that was in front of the separate area on the side toward the west was seventy cubits wide; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.

¹³Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; the separate area and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long.

¹⁴Also the width of the front of the temple and the separate areas along the east side totaled a hundred cubits.

¹⁵He (the angel) measured the length of the building along the front of the separate area behind it, with a gallery on each side, a hundred cubits; he also measured the inner sanctuary and the porches (porticoes) of the courtyard.

¹⁶The thresholds, the latticed windows, and the galleries all around their three stories, opposite the threshold, were paneled with wood all around, and from the ground to the windows (but the windows were covered),

¹⁷over the entrance, and to the inner room, and on the outside, and on all the wall all around inside and outside, by measurement.

¹⁸It was carved with [figures of] cherubim and palm trees; so that a palm decoration was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces,

¹⁹so that the face of a man was toward the palm decoration on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm decoration on the other side. It was carved [this way] on the entire house (temple) all around.

²⁰From the floor to [the space] above the entrance cherubim and palm decorations were carved, and also on the wall of the nave [the Holy Place].

²¹The doorposts of the nave were square; as for the front of the sanctuary, the appearance of one doorpost was like that of the other.

²²The altar was of wood, three cubits high and two cubits long; and its corners, its base, and its sides were wood. And he said to me, "This is the table that is before the LORD."

²³The nave (Holy Place) and the sanctuary (Holy of Holies) each had a double door.

²⁴Each of the doors had two leaves, two swinging (folding) leaves; two leaves for the one door and two leaves for the other.

²⁵And there were carved on them, on the doors of the nave, cherubim and palm decorations like those carved on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the front of the porch outside.

²⁶There were latticed windows and palm decorations on one side and on the other, on the sides of the porch. Thus were the side chambers and the thresholds of the house.

¹Then he (the angel) brought me out into the outer courtyard, toward the north; and he led me to the [attached] chamber which was opposite the separate area and opposite the building to the north.

²Along the length, one hundred cubits, was the north door; and the width was fifty cubits.

³Opposite the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner courtyard, and opposite the pavement which belonged to the outer courtyard, was gallery (balcony) corresponding to gallery in three stories.

⁴In front of the [attached] chambers was an inner walkway ten cubits wide and one hundred cubits long; and their entrances were on the north.

⁵Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took away more space from them than from the chambers on the lower and middle stories of the building;

⁶for they were in three stories and did not have pillars like the pillars of the [outer] courtyards; therefore the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones.

⁷And the outer wall, by the side of the chambers, toward the outer courtyard facing the chambers, was fifty cubits long.

⁸For the length of the chambers which were in the outer courtyard was fifty cubits, while the length of those facing the temple was a hundred cubits.

⁹Below these chambers was the entrance on the east side, as one enters them from the outer courtyard.

¹⁰In the width of the wall of the courtyard toward the east, facing the separate area and facing the building, were chambers;

¹¹and a passage in front of them was like the appearance of the [attached] chambers on the north, and they had the same length and width, and all their exits were like both their arrangements and their entrances.

¹²And like the entrances of the chambers that were toward the south there was an entrance at the head of the walkway, the walkway in front of the dividing wall toward the east, as one enters them.

¹³Then he (the angel) said to me, "The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separate area, are the holy chambers where the priests who are close to the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall place the most holy things—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy.

¹⁴When the priests enter [the Holy Place], they shall not go out from the sanctuary into the outer court unless they lay there their garments in which they minister, for these are holy (set apart). They shall put on other garments before they approach that which is for the people."

¹⁵Now when he had finished measuring the inner temple, he brought me out toward the gate which faced east and measured the outer area all around.

¹⁶He measured the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred rods by the measuring rod.

¹⁷He measured the north side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod.

¹⁸He measured the south side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod.

¹⁹He turned about to the west side and measured five hundred rods by the measuring rod.

²⁰He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, the length five hundred and the width five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy [the temple proper] and that which was common [the outer area].

¹Then he (the angel) led me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east.

²And behold, the glory and brilliance of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east; and His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory.

³And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision I saw beside the River Chebar [near Babylon]; and I fell face downward.

⁴And the glory and brilliance of the LORD entered the temple by way of the gate facing toward the east.

⁵Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner courtyard; and behold, the glory and brilliance of the LORD filled the temple.

⁶And I heard One speaking to me from the temple, while a man was standing beside me.

⁷And He [the LORD] said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the sons (descendants) of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their [idolatrous] prostitution and by the corpses and monuments of their kings in their graves,

⁸by setting their threshold by My threshold and their doorpost beside My doorpost, with [only] the wall between Me and them. They have defiled and desecrated My holy name by the vile atrocities which they have committed. So I have consumed them in My anger.

⁹Now let them put far away from Me their [idolatrous] prostitution and the corpses and monuments of their kings, and I will dwell in their midst forever.

¹⁰"As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they will be ashamed of their sins; and let them measure its plan [in detail].

¹¹If they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple (house), its layout, its exits, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes, and all its laws. And write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its whole design and all its statutes and do them.

¹²This is the law of the temple: Its entire area all around on the top of the mountain(Mount Moriah) shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple.

¹³"And these are the measurements of the altar [of burnt offering] in cubits (the cubit being a [long] cubit [the length of a forearm] and a hand width): the base shall be a cubit [long] and a cubit wide, with its border on its edge all around it of a span [in width]. And this shall be the height of the base of the altar.

¹⁴From the base on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits and the width one cubit; and from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge shall be four cubits and the width one cubit.

¹⁵The altar hearth shall be four cubits high, and from the altar hearth shall extend upwards four horns [one from each corner, each one cubit high].

¹⁶Now the altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve wide, square in its four sides.

¹⁷The ledge shall be fourteen cubits long by fourteen wide on its four sides, and the border around it shall be half a cubit; and its base shall be a cubit all around, and its steps shall face the east."

¹⁸And He [the LORD] said to me, "Son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, 'These are the statutes and regulations for [the use of] the altar on the day that it is built, to offer burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it.

¹⁹You shall give to the priests, the Levites who are from the descendants of Zadok, who are close to Me to minister to Me,' says the Lord GOD, 'a young bull for a sin offering [as a memorial to Christ's sacrifice].

²⁰And you shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns [of the altar of burnt offering] and on the four corners of the ledge and on the border all around; thus you shall cleanse it (from sin) and make atonement for it.

²¹You shall also take the bull for the sin offering, and it shall be burned in the appointed place of the temple, outside the sanctuary.

²²'On the second day you shall offer a male goat 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.

²⁴You shall present them before the LORD, and the priests shall throw salt on them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD.

²⁵For seven days you shall prepare daily a goat for a sin offering; also a young bull and a ram from the flock, without blemish, shall be prepared.

²⁶For seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it; so the priests shall consecrate it [to receive offerings].

²⁷When they have completed these days, on the eighth day and from then onward, the priests shall offer your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you,' says the Lord GOD."

¹Then He brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut.

²Then the LORD said to me, "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.

³As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the porch (portico) of the gate and shall go out the same way."

⁴Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the house; I looked, and behold, the glory and brilliance of the LORD filled the house of the LORD, and I fell face downward.

⁵The LORD said to me, "Son of man, pay careful attention, see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of the LORD and all its laws; and pay careful attention to the entering of the house [by people], with all the departures from the sanctuary [of people, those who are allowed to enter the temple and all those who are excluded from the sanctuary].

⁶You shall say to the rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Enough of all your repulsive acts, O house of Israel!

⁷In that you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to pollute and profane it—My house—when you offered My bread, the fat, and the blood; and they made My covenant void —this in addition to all your other repulsive acts.

⁸And you have not kept charge of My holy things yourselves, but you have chosen foreigners [to please yourselves] and have set them in charge of My sanctuary."

⁹'Thus says the Lord GOD, "No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary.

¹⁰But the Levites who went far away from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, they shall bear the punishment for their sin and guilt.

¹¹Yet they shall minister in My sanctuary, having oversight [as guards] at the gates of the temple and ministering in the temple. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

¹²Because the priests ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of sin to the house of Israel, therefore I have lifted up My hand and have sworn [an oath] against them," says the Lord GOD, "that they shall bear the punishment for their sin and guilt.

¹³And they shall not come near to Me to serve as priests to Me, nor come near to any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their shame and their disgrace and [the consequences of] their repulsive acts which they have committed.

¹⁴Yet I will appoint them as caretakers of the temple, for all its service and for all that shall be done in it.

¹⁵"But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who performed the duty of My sanctuary when the children (descendants) of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood," declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁶They shall enter into My sanctuary; and they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and they shall perform [the priestly] duty to me.

¹⁷It shall be that when they enter the gates of the inner courtyard, they shall be clothed in linen garments; no wool shall be on them while they minister at the gates of the inner courtyard and within the temple (house).

¹⁸They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments on their loins; they shall not dress themselves with anything which makes them sweat.

¹⁹When they go out into the outer court, into the outer courtyard to the people, they shall take off the garments in which they have been ministering and leave them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other clothing so that they will not transmit holiness to the people with their [ceremonial] garments.

²⁰Also they shall not shave their heads, yet they shall not allow their hair to grow long; they shall only cut short or trim their hair.

²¹Nor shall any priest drink wine when he enters the inner courtyard.

²²And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman; but they shall marry virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow who was previously married to a priest.

²³The priests shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the common, and teach them to distinguish between the (ceremonially) unclean and the clean.

²⁴In a controversy they shall take their stand to act as judges; they shall judge it in accordance with My ordinances. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed feasts and sanctify My Sabbaths.

²⁵They shall not go to a dead person to defile themselves; except for father or for mother, for son or for daughter, for brother or for sister who has had no husband; they may defile themselves.

²⁶After he is cleansed [from the defilement of a corpse], seven days more shall elapse for him [before returning to the temple].

²⁷On the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner courtyard to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering," says the Lord GOD.

²⁸"It [their ministry to Me] shall be as an inheritance to them, for I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no property (land) in Israel, for I am their possession.

²⁹They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering; and every devoted thing (offering) in Israel [dedicated by a solemn vow to God] shall be theirs.

³⁰The first of all the first fruits of every kind, and every contribution and offering of every kind, from all your contributions and offerings, shall belong to the priests. You shall also give to the priest the first of your coarse meal and bread dough, so that a blessing may rest on your house.

³¹The priests shall not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or has been torn to pieces.

¹"Moreover, when you divide the land by lot for inheritance, you shall [set apart and] offer an allotment (contribution) to the LORD, a holy portion of the land [to be used for sacred purposes]. The length shall be 25,000 cubits, and the width shall be 20,000 cubits. It shall be holy (set apart for sacred use) within its every area.

²Of this there shall be a square plot five hundred by five hundred cubits in perimeter for the holy place, and fifty cubits for the open space around it.

³And in this area you shall measure off a portion 25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 cubits in width. And in it shall be the sanctuary which is most holy.

⁴It shall be the holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to the LORD, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.

⁵And another portion of land 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide shall be for the Levites, the ministers of the temple (house), and they shall possess it as a place in which to live.

⁶"You shall give the city possession of an area 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long, alongside the portion set aside as a holy section. It shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

⁷"The prince shall have land on either side of the portion set aside as a holy section and the property of the city, adjacent to the holy section and the property of the city, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border.

⁸This shall be his land for a possession in Israel; so My princes shall no longer oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes."

⁹'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness. Stop your forceful seizure of property from My people," says the Lord GOD.

¹⁰"You shall have just balances and weights [on your scales and just measures], a just ephah [dry volume measure] and a just bath [liquid measure].

¹¹The ephah and the bath [measures] shall be the same quantity, the bath containing one tenth of a homer and the ephah one tenth of a homer; their standard [measure] shall be according to the homer.

¹²The shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels [added together, a total of sixty] shall be your maneh (mina).

¹³"This is the offering that you shall offer: a sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat; a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley;

¹⁴and the prescribed portion of oil, (namely, the bath of oil), a tenth part of a bath [of oil] from each kor (which is ten baths or a homer, for ten baths make a homer);

¹⁵and [you shall offer] one sheep out of every flock of two hundred from the watering places of Israel—for a grain offering, for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings to make atonement for [those who brought] them," says the Lord GOD.

¹⁶"All the people of the land shall give to this offering for the prince in Israel.

¹⁷It shall be the prince's responsibility to provide the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the drink offerings at the feasts, on the New Moons and on the Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He shall prepare and provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering and the peace offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel."

¹⁸'Thus says the Lord GOD, "In the first month, on the first of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary (from sin).

¹⁹The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the door posts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate of the inner courtyard.

²⁰You shall do this on the seventh [day] of the month for everyone who goes astray [and sins through error or ignorance] and for him who is naive; so shall you make atonement for the temple (house).

²¹"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

²²On that day the prince shall provide for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.

²³And for the seven days of the feast he shall provide as a burnt offering to the LORD seven bulls and seven rams without blemish on every day for the seven days, and a male goat daily for a sin offering.

²⁴He shall provide as a grain offering [to be offered] with each bull an ephah [of grain], an ephah with each ram, and a hin of oil with each ephah [of grain].

²⁵In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month at the feast, he shall provide [offerings] like these for the seven days, as the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil."

¹'Thus says the Lord GOD, "The gate of the inner courtyard that faces east shall be shut during the six working days, but it shall be opened on the Sabbath day and opened on the day of the New Moon.

²The prince shall enter by the porch (portico) of the gate from outside and stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall prepare and provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate and then go out; but the gate shall not be shut until evening.

³The people of the land shall also worship at the entrance of that gate before the LORD on the Sabbaths and on the New Moons.

⁴The burnt offering which the prince shall offer to the LORD on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish.

⁵The grain offering shall be an ephah with the ram, and the grain offering with the lambs as much as he is able to give, and a hin of oil with an ephah.

⁶On the day of the New Moon he shall offer a young bull without blemish, also six lambs and a ram, without blemish.

⁷And he shall provide a grain offering, an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he is able, and a hin of oil with an ephah.

⁸When the prince enters, he shall enter by way of the porch of the gate and go out by the same way.

⁹But when the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, he who enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go out by way of the south gate. And he who enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate. No one shall return by way of the gate through which he entered, but shall go out straight ahead [through the opposite gate].

¹⁰When they go in, the prince shall go in among them; and when they go out, he shall go out.

¹¹"At the feasts and the appointed festivals the grain offering shall be an ephah with a bull and an ephah with a ram, and with the lambs as much as one is able to give, and a hin of oil with an ephah.

¹²When the prince provides a freewill offering, a burnt offering, or peace offerings voluntarily to the LORD, the gate that faces east shall be opened for him, and he shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he goes out the gate shall be shut.

¹³"And you [priests] shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD each day; morning by morning you shall provide it.

¹⁴Also you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one-sixth of an ephah with one-third of a hin of oil to sprinkle on the finely-milled flour. This is a perpetual ordinance for a continual grain offering to the LORD.

¹⁵Thus they shall provide the lamb, the grain offering and the oil every morning as a continual burnt offering."

¹⁶'Thus says the Lord GOD, "If the prince gives a gift to any of his sons from his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons [permanently]; it is their possession by inheritance.

¹⁷But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his until the year of liberty [the Year of Jubilee]; after that it shall be returned to the prince. His inheritance shall be only his sons' [permanently]; it shall belong to them.

¹⁸Moreover, the prince shall not take from the people's inheritance by oppression and by evicting them from their property; he shall give his sons an inheritance from his own possession, so that My people will not be scattered, anyone from his possession."'"

¹⁹Then he [my guide] brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests, which faced the north; and behold, a place was there at their extreme westward end.

²⁰He said to me, "This is the place where the priests shall boil (cook) the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, so that they do not bring them out into the outer courtyard to transmit holiness to the people."

²¹Then he brought me out into the outer courtyard and led me across to the four corners of the courtyard; and behold, in every corner of the courtyard there was a small courtyard.

²²In the four corners of the courtyard there were enclosed courtyards, forty cubits long and thirty wide; these four in the corners were the same size.

²³There was a row of masonry all around inside them, around [each of] the four courtyards, and it was made with cooking hearths under the rows all around.

²⁴Then he said to me, "These are the kitchens of the cooks, where the ministers (Levites) of the temple shall boil (cook) the sacrifices of the people."

¹Then he [my guide] brought me back to the door of the house [the temple of the LORD]; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house (temple) toward the east, for the front of the temple was facing east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar.

²Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate by the way of the gate that faces east. And behold, water was spurting out from the south side [of the gate].

³When the man went out toward the east with a measuring line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water that was ankle-deep.

⁴Again he measured a thousand [cubits] and led me through the water, water that was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand [cubits] and led me through the water, water reaching the hips.

⁵Again he measured a thousand [cubits]; and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be crossed [by wading].

⁶And he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen this?" Then he brought me back to the bank of the river.

⁷Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.

⁸Then he said to me, "These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the Arabah (the Jordan Valley); then they go toward the sea, being made to flow into the sea, and the waters of the Dead Sea shall be healed and become fresh.

⁹It will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live. And there will be a very great number of fish, because these waters go there so that the waters of the sea are healed and become fresh; so everything will live wherever the river goes.

¹⁰And it will come about that fishermen will stand beside it [at the banks of the Dead Sea]; from Engedi to Eneglaim there will be dry places to spread nets. Their fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great [Mediterranean] Sea.

¹¹But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh [and wholesome for animal life]; they will [as the river subsides] be left encrusted with salt.

¹²By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They shall bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing."

¹³Thus says the Lord GOD, "This shall be the boundary by which you shall divide the land as an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph shall have two portions.

¹⁴You shall divide it as an inheritance, each one equally with the other. I lifted up My hand and swore to give it to your fathers, and this land shall fall to you as an inheritance.

¹⁵"And this shall be the boundary of the land on the north side: from the Great [Mediterranean] Sea by way of Hethlon to the entrance of Zedad,

¹⁶Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; [as far as] Hazer-hatticon, which is on the border of Hauran.

¹⁷So the boundary will extend from the [Mediterranean] Sea to Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, and on the north, northward, is the border of Hamath. This is the north side.

¹⁸"The east side, from between Hauran, Damascus, Gilead, and the land of Israel, shall be the Jordan; from the north border to the eastern sea you shall measure. This is the east side.

¹⁹"The south side, southward, from Tamar [near the Dead Sea] shall extend as far as the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the Brook of Egypt and to the Great [Mediterranean] Sea. This is the south side toward the south.

²⁰"The west side shall be the Great [Mediterranean] Sea, from the south border to a point opposite Lebo-hamath [north of Mount Hermon]. This is the west side.

²¹"So you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel.

²²You shall divide it by lot as an inheritance among yourselves and among the foreigners who stay among you, who give birth to sons among you. They shall be to you as the native-born [in the country] among the children (descendants) of Israel; they shall be allotted an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.

²³In whatever tribe the foreigner resides, there shall you give him his inheritance," says the Lord GOD.

¹"Now these are the names of the tribes: from the north end, beside the way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan, which is on the northern border of Damascus, beside Hamath, and running from the east to the west, Dan, one portion.

²Beside the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one portion.

³Beside the border of Asher, from the east side to the west side, Naphtali, one portion.

⁴Beside the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one portion.

⁵Beside the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one portion.

⁶Beside the border of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side, Reuben, one portion.

⁷Beside the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one portion.

⁸"And beside the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the allotment and contribution of land which you shall set apart and offer, 25,000 cubits in width, and in length like one of the [tribal] portions, from the east side to the west side; and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.

⁹The allotment [of land] that you shall set apart and offer to the LORD shall be 25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 in width.

¹⁰The holy allotment shall be for these, namely for the priests, toward the north 25,000 cubits in length, and toward the west 10,000 in width, and toward the east 10,000 in width, and toward the south 25,000 in length; and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst of it.

¹¹It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept My charge, and who did not go astray when the children (descendants) of Israel went astray as the [other] Levites did.

¹²And this [land offering] shall be an allotment to them from the allotment of the land, a most holy portion beside the border of the [other] Levites.

¹³Alongside the border of the priests, the [other] Levites shall have 25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 in width. The whole length shall be 25,000 cubits and the width 10,000.

¹⁴And they shall not sell any of it or exchange it, or allow this choice portion of land to pass to others; for it is holy to the LORD.

¹⁵"The remaining [strip of] 5,000 cubits in width and 25,000 in length shall be for the city's common (secular) use, for a place in which to live and for open country. The city shall be in the midst of it.

¹⁶These shall be the measurements of it: the north side 4,500 cubits, the south side 4,500, the east side 4,500, and the west side 4,500.

¹⁷The city shall have open country: toward the north 250 cubits, and toward the south 250, toward the east 250, and toward the west 250.

¹⁸The remainder of the length alongside the holy allotment shall be 10,000 cubits to the east and 10,000 to the west; and it shall be beside the holy allotment. The produce from it shall be food for the workers of the city.

¹⁹The workers of the city, from all the tribes of Israel shall cultivate it.

²⁰The whole allotment shall be 25,000 by 25,000 cubits; you shall set apart the holy allotment, a square, with the property of the city.

²¹"The remainder, on both sides of the holy allotment and of the property possessed by the city, shall belong to the prince. In front of the 25,000 cubits of the allotment toward the east border and westward in front of the 25,000 toward the west border, alongside the [tribal] portions, it shall be for the prince. The holy allotment with the sanctuary of the temple shall be in the midst of it.

²²Exclusive of the property of the Levites and of the property of the city, which are in the middle of that which belongs to the prince, everything between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin shall be for the prince.

²³"As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin, one portion.

²⁴Beside the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon, one portion.

²⁵Beside the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar, one portion.

²⁶Beside the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun, one portion.

²⁷Beside the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad, one portion.

²⁸And beside the border of Gad, at the south side, southward, the border shall extend from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the Brook [of Egypt], to the Great [Mediterranean] Sea.

²⁹This is the land which you shall divide by lot among the tribes of Israel as their inheritance, and these are their several portions," says the Lord GOD.

³⁰"These are the exits of the city: on the north side, [which is to extend] 4,500 cubits by measurement,

³¹there shall also be gates of the city, named after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates toward the north: one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi.

³²On the east side, 4,500 cubits, also three gates: one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan.

³³On the south side, 4,500 cubits, by measurement, also three gates: one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun.

³⁴On the west side, 4,500 cubits, three gates: one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali.

³⁵The distance around the city shall be 18,000 (4 x 4,500) cubits; and the name of the city from that day [and ever after] shall be, 'The LORD is There.'"

¹In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

²The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles of the house of God; and he brought them into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and brought the articles into the treasury of his god.

³And the [Babylonian] king told Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some from the royal family and from the nobles,

⁴young men without blemish and handsome in appearance, skillful in all wisdom, endowed with intelligence and discernment, and quick to understand, competent to stand [in the presence of the king] and able to serve in the king's palace. He also ordered Ashpenaz to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

⁵The king assigned a daily ration for them from his finest food and from the wine which he drank. They were to be educated and nourished this way for three years so that at the end of that time they were [prepared] to enter the king's service.

⁶Among them from the sons of Judah were: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

⁷The commander of the officials gave them [Babylonian] names: Daniel he named Belteshazzar, Hananiah he named Shadrach, Mishael he named Meshach, and Azariah he named Abed-nego.

⁸But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile (taint, dishonor) himself with the king's finest food or with the wine which the king drank; so he asked the commander of the officials that he might [be excused so that he would] not defile himself.

⁹Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials,

¹⁰and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has prearranged your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the young men who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king."

¹¹But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

¹²"Please, test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

¹³Then let our appearance and the appearance of the young men who eat the king's finest food be observed and compared by you, and deal with your servants in accordance with what you see."

¹⁴So the man listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.

¹⁵At the end of ten days it seemed that they were looking better and healthier than all the young men who ate the king's finest food.

¹⁶So the overseer continued to withhold their fine food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

¹⁷As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all kinds of literature and wisdom; Daniel also understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

¹⁸At the end of the time set by the king to bring all the young men in [before him], the commander of the officials presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁹The king spoke with them, and among them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they were [selected and] assigned to stand before the king and enter his personal service.

²⁰In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the [learned] magicians and enchanters (Magi) in his whole realm.

²¹And Daniel remained there until the first year of [the reign of] King Cyrus [over Babylon; now this was at the end of the seventy-year exile of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) in Babylonia, as foretold by Jeremiah].