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The Lord's Sacred Land

The Lord said:

45 When the land of Israel is divided among the twelve tribes, you must set aside an area that will belong to me. This sacred area will be 12.5 kilometers long and 10 kilometers[a] wide. The temple will be on a piece of land 255 meters square, and the temple will be completely surrounded by an open space 25 meters wide.

3-4 I will give half of my sacred land, a section 12.5 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide, to the priests who serve in the temple. Their houses will be in this half, as well as my temple, which is the most sacred place of all.

I will give the other half of my land to the Levites who work in my temple, and the towns[b] where they will live will be there.

Next to my sacred land will be an area 12.5 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide. This will belong to the people of Israel and will include the city of Jerusalem.

Land for Israel's Ruler

The Lord said:

7-8 The regions west and east of my sacred land and the city of Jerusalem will belong to the ruler of Israel. He will be given the region between the western edge of my land and the Mediterranean Sea, and between the eastern edge of my land and the Jordan River. This will mean that the length of his property will be the same as the sections of land given to the tribes.

This property will belong to every ruler of Israel, so they will always be fair to my people and will let them live peacefully in the land given to their tribes.

Israel's Rulers Must Be Honest

The Lord God said:

You leaders of Israel have cheated and abused my people long enough! I want you to stop sinning and start doing what is right and fair. You must never again force my people off their own land. I, the Lord, have spoken.

10 (A) So from now on, you must use honest weights and measures. 11 The ephah will be the standard dry measure, and the bath will be the standard liquid measure. Their size will be based on the homer, which will equal ten ephahs or ten baths.[c]

12 The standard unit of weight will be the shekel.[d] One shekel will equal 20 gerahs, and 60 shekels will equal one mina.

13 Leaders of Israel, the people must bring you one sixtieth of their grain harvests as offerings to me. 14 They will also bring one percent of their olive oil. These things will be measured according to the bath, and ten baths is the same as one homer or one cor. 15 Finally, they must bring one sheep out of every 200 from their flocks.

These offerings will be used as grain sacrifices, as well as sacrifices to please me[e] and those to ask my blessing.[f] I, the Lord, will be pleased with these sacrifices and will forgive the sins of my people.

16 The people of Israel will bring you these offerings. 17 But during New Moon Festivals, Sabbath celebrations, and other religious feasts, you leaders will be responsible for providing animals for the sacrifices, as well as the grain and wine. All these will be used for the sacrifices for sin, the grain sacrifices, the sacrifices to please me, and those to ask my blessing. I will be pleased and will forgive the sins of my people.

The Festivals

(Exodus 12.1-20; Leviticus 23.33-43)

18 The Lord God said:

On the first day of the first month,[g] a young bull that has nothing wrong with it must be offered as a sacrifice to purify the temple. 19 The priest will take some blood from this sacrifice and smear it on the doorposts of the temple, as well as on the four corners of the altar and on the doorposts of the gates that lead into the inner courtyard.

20 The same ceremony must also be done on the seventh day of the month, so that anyone who sins accidentally or without knowing it will be forgiven, and so that my temple will remain holy.

21 (B) Beginning on the fourteenth day of the first month, and continuing for seven days, everyone will celebrate Passover and eat bread made without yeast. 22 On the first day, the ruler will bring a bull to offer as a sacrifice for his sins and for the sins of the people. 23 Each day of the festival he is to bring seven bulls and seven rams as sacrifices to please me,[h] and he must bring a goat[i] as a sacrifice for sin. These animals must have nothing wrong with them. 24 He will also provide nine kilograms of grain and three liters of olive oil to be offered with each bull and each ram.

25 (C) The Festival of Shelters will begin on the fifteenth day of the seventh month[j] and will continue for seven days. On each day of this festival, the ruler will provide the same number of animals that he did each day during Passover, as well as the same amount of grain and olive oil for the sacrifices.

Various Laws for the Ruler and the People

46 The Lord said:

The east gate of the inner courtyard must remain closed during the six working days of each week. But on the Sabbath and on the first day of the month, this gate will be opened. Israel's ruler will go from the outer courtyard into the entrance room of this gate and stand in the doorway while the priest offers sacrifices to ask my blessing[k] and sacrifices to please me.[l] The ruler will bow with his face to the ground to show that he has worshiped me. Then he will leave, and the gate will remain open until evening.

Each Sabbath and on the first day of each month, the people of Israel must also come to the east gate and worship me. On the Sabbath, the ruler will bring six lambs and one ram to be offered as sacrifices to please me. There must be nothing wrong with any of these animals. With the ram, he is to offer nine kilograms of grain, and with each of the lambs, he can offer as much as he wants. He must also offer three liters of olive oil with every nine kilograms of grain.

The ruler is to bring six lambs, a bull, and a ram to be offered as sacrifices at the New Moon Festival. There must be nothing wrong with any of these animals. With the bull and the ram, he is to offer nine kilograms of grain, and with each of the lambs, he can offer as much as he wants. He must also offer three liters of olive oil with every nine kilograms of grain. The ruler must come through the entrance room of the east gate and leave the same way.

When my people come to worship me during any festival, they must always leave by the opposite gate from which they came: Those who come in the north gate must leave by the south gate, and those who come in the south gate must leave by the north gate. 10 Their ruler will come in at the same time they do and leave at the same time they leave.

11 At all other festivals and celebrations, nine kilograms of grain will be offered with a bull, and nine kilograms will be offered with a ram. The worshipers can offer as much grain as they want with each lamb. Three liters of olive oil must be offered with every nine kilograms of grain.

12 If the ruler voluntarily offers a sacrifice to please me or to ask my blessing, the east gate of the inner courtyard will be opened for him. He will offer his sacrifices just as he does on each Sabbath; then he will leave, and the gate will be closed.

13 Each morning a year-old lamb that has nothing wrong with it must be offered as a sacrifice to please me. 14 Along with it, two kilograms of fine flour mixed with a liter of olive oil must be offered as a grain sacrifice. This law will never change— 15 the lamb, the flour, and the olive oil will be offered to me every morning for all time.

Laws about the Ruler's Land

16 The Lord God said:

If the ruler of Israel gives some of his land to one of his children, it will belong to the ruler's child as part of the family property. 17 (D) But if the ruler gives some of his land to one of his servants, the land will belong to the servant until the Year of Celebration, when it will be returned to the ruler.[m] Only the ruler's children can keep what is given to them.

18 The ruler must never abuse my people by taking land from them. Any land he gives his children must already belong to him.

The Sacred Kitchens

19 The man who was showing me the temple[n] then took me back to the inner courtyard. We walked to the south side of the courtyard and stopped at the door to the sacred rooms that belonged to the priests. He showed me more rooms at the western edge of the courtyard 20 and said, “These are the kitchens where the priests must boil the meat to be offered as sacrifices to make things right[o] and as sacrifices for sin.[p] They will also bake the grain for sacrifices in these kitchens. That way, these sacred offerings won't have to be carried through the outer courtyard, where someone could accidentally touch them and be harmed.”[q]

21 We went back to the outer courtyard and walked past the four corners. 22 At each corner I saw a smaller courtyard, 20 meters long and 15 meters wide. 23 Around the inside of these smaller courtyards was a low wall of stones, and against the wall were places to build fires.[r] 24 The man said, “These are the kitchens where the temple workers will boil the meat that worshipers offer as sacrifices.”

Footnotes

  1. 45.1 and 10 kilometers: One ancient translation; Hebrew “and 5 kilometers.”
  2. 45.5 the towns: One ancient translation; Hebrew “the 20 rooms.”
  3. 45.11 the homer … ten ephahs … ten baths: A homer was either a dry or a liquid measure and equaled about 220 liters; an ephah would be about 22 liters, and a bath would be about 22 liters.
  4. 45.12 the shekel: The shekel was about eleven grams.
  5. 45.15 sacrifices to please me: See the note at 40.38,39.
  6. 45.15 sacrifices … to ask my blessing: See the note at 43.27.
  7. 45.18 the first month: Abib (also called Nisan), the first month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-March to mid-April.
  8. 45.23 sacrifices to please me: See the note at 40.38,39.
  9. 45.23 goat: See the note at 43.22.
  10. 45.25 seventh month: Tishri (also called Ethanim), the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-September to mid-October.
  11. 46.2 sacrifices to ask my blessing: See the note at 43.27.
  12. 46.2 sacrifices to please me: See the note at 40.38,39.
  13. 46.17 the Year of Celebration … to the ruler: This was a sacred year for Israel, traditionally called the “Year of Jubilee.” During this year, all property had to go back to its original owner (see Leviticus 25.8-34).
  14. 46.19 The man … temple: See 40.3.
  15. 46.20 sacrifices to make things right: See the note at 40.38,39.
  16. 46.20 sacrifices for sin: See the note at 40.38,39.
  17. 46.20 someone … touch them and be harmed: See the note at 44.19.
  18. 46.23 fires: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 23.

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