Chronological Plan

¹The man then brought me back toward the sanctuary’s outer gate that faced east, and it was closed.

²The LORD said to me: “This gate will remain closed. It will not be opened, and no one will enter through it, because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. Therefore it will remain closed.

³The prince himself will sit in the gate to eat a meal before the LORD. He is to enter by way of the portico of the gate and go out the same way.”

⁴Then the man brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked, and the glory of the LORD filled his temple. And I fell facedown.

⁵The LORD said to me: “Son of man, pay attention; look with your eyes and listen with your ears to everything I tell you about all the statutes and laws of the LORD’s temple. Take careful note of the entrance of the temple along with all the exits of the sanctuary.

⁶“Say to the rebellious people, the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: I have had enough of all your detestable practices, house of Israel.

⁷When you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, to occupy my sanctuary, you defiled my temple while you offered my food — the fat and the blood. You broke my covenant by all your detestable practices.

⁸You have not kept charge of my holy things but have appointed others to keep charge of my sanctuary for you.’

⁹“This is what the Lord GOD says: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, may enter my sanctuary, not even a foreigner who is among the Israelites.

¹⁰Surely the Levites who wandered away from me when Israel went astray, and who strayed from me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their iniquity.

¹¹Yet they will occupy my sanctuary, serving as guards at the temple gates and ministering at the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings and other sacrifices for the people and will stand before them to serve them.

¹²Because they ministered to the house of Israel before their idols and became a sinful stumbling block to them, therefore I swore an oath against them”  — this is the declaration of the Lord GOD  — “that they would bear the consequences of their iniquity.

¹³They must not approach me to serve me as priests or come near any of my holy things or the most holy things. They will bear their disgrace and the consequences of the detestable acts they committed.

¹⁴Yet I will make them responsible for the duties of the temple  — for all its work and everything done in it.

¹⁵“But the Levitical priests descended from Zadok, who kept charge of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, will approach me to serve me. They will stand before me to offer me fat and blood.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

¹⁶“They are the ones who may enter my sanctuary and approach my table to serve me. They will keep my mandate.

¹⁷When they enter the gates of the inner court they are to wear linen garments; they must not have on them anything made of wool when they minister at the gates of the inner court and within it.

¹⁸They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They are not to put on anything that makes them sweat.

¹⁹Before they go out to the outer court, to the people, they must take off the clothes they have been ministering in, leave them in the holy chambers, and dress in other clothes so that they do not transmit holiness to the people through their clothes.

²⁰“They may not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but are to carefully trim their hair.

²¹No priest may drink wine before he enters the inner court.

²²He is not to marry a widow or a divorced woman, but may marry only a virgin from the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

²³They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and explain to them the difference between the clean and the unclean.

²⁴“In a dispute, they will officiate as judges and decide the case according to my ordinances. They are to observe my laws and statutes regarding all my appointed festivals, and keep my Sabbaths holy.

²⁵A priest may not come near a dead person so that he becomes defiled. However, he may defile himself for a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or an unmarried sister.

²⁶After he is cleansed, he is to count off seven days for himself.

²⁷On the day he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court to minister in the sanctuary, he is to present his sin offering.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

²⁸“This will be their inheritance: I am their inheritance. You are to give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.

²⁹They will eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. Everything in Israel that is permanently dedicated to the LORD will belong to them.

³⁰The best of all the firstfruits of every kind and contribution of every kind from all your gifts will belong to the priests. You are to give your first batch of dough to the priest so that a blessing may rest on your homes.

³¹The priests may not eat any bird or animal that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts.

¹“When you divide the land by lot as an inheritance, set aside a donation to the LORD, a holy portion of the land, 8⅓ miles long and 6⅔ miles wide. This entire region will be holy.

²In this area there will be a square section for the sanctuary, 875 by 875 feet, with 87½ feet of open space all around it.

³From this holy portion, you will measure off an area 8⅓ miles long and 3⅓ miles wide, in which the sanctuary, the most holy place, will stand.

⁴It will be a holy area of the land to be used by the priests who minister in the sanctuary, who approach to serve the LORD. It will be a place for their houses, as well as a holy area for the sanctuary.

⁵There will be another area 8⅓ miles long and 3⅓ miles wide for the Levites who minister in the temple; it will be their possession for towns to live in.

⁶“As the property of the city, set aside an area 1⅔ miles wide and 8⅓ miles long, adjacent to the holy donation of land. It will be for the whole house of Israel.

⁷And the prince will have the area on each side of the holy donation of land and the city’s property, adjacent to the holy donation and the city’s property, stretching to the west on the west side and to the east on the east side. Its length will correspond to one of the tribal portions from the western boundary to the eastern boundary.

⁸This will be his land as a possession in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress my people but give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

⁹“This is what the Lord GOD says: You have gone too far, princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

¹⁰“You are to have honest scales, an honest dry measure, and an honest liquid measure.

¹¹The dry measure and the liquid measure will be uniform, with the liquid measure containing 5½ gallons and the dry measure holding half a bushel. Their measurement will be a tenth of the standard larger capacity measure.

¹²The shekel will weigh twenty gerahs. Your mina will equal sixty shekels.

¹³“This is the contribution you are to offer: Three quarts from five bushels of wheat and three quarts from five bushels of barley.

¹⁴The quota of oil in liquid measures will be one percent of every cor. The cor equals ten liquid measures or one standard larger capacity measure, since ten liquid measures equal one standard larger capacity measure.

¹⁵And the quota from the flock is one animal out of every two hundred from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These are for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings, to make atonement for the people.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

¹⁶“All the people of the land must take part in this contribution for the prince in Israel.

¹⁷Then the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the festivals, New Moons, and Sabbaths — for all the appointed times of the house of Israel — will be the prince’s responsibility. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.

¹⁸“This is what the Lord GOD says: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you are to take a young, unblemished bull and purify the sanctuary.

¹⁹The priest is to take some of the blood from the sin offering and apply it to the temple doorposts, the four corners of the altar’s ledge, and the doorposts of the gate of the inner court.

²⁰You are to do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for everyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance. In this way you will make atonement for the temple.

²¹“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you are to celebrate the Passover, a festival of seven days during which unleavened bread will be eaten.

²²On that day the prince will provide a bull as a sin offering on behalf of himself and all the people of the land.

²³During the seven days of the festival, he will provide seven bulls and seven rams without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD on each of the seven days, along with a male goat each day for a sin offering.

²⁴He will also provide a grain offering of half a bushel per bull and half a bushel per ram, along with a gallon of oil for every half bushel.

²⁵At the festival that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he will provide the same things for seven days — the same sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.