Ezekiel 45-46

Complete Jewish Bible

45 “‘When you divide the land by lot for inheritance, you are to set aside an offering for Adonai, a holy portion of the land. Its length is to be 25,000 [cubits, that is, eight miles] and its width 10,000 [three miles]; this entire region is to be holy. ² Of this there is to be reserved for the holy place an area 875 [feet] square, with eighty-seven-and-a-half feet for open land around it. ³ Alongside this region you are to measure a length of eight [miles] and a width of three [miles]; in it is to be the sanctuary, which will be especially holy. ⁴ It is a holy portion of the land; it is for the cohanim who serve in the sanctuary, who approach to minister to Adonai; there will be a place for their houses and a place set aside for the sanctuary. ⁵ A portion eight by three [miles] will be owned by the L’vi’im who serve in the house; it will also have twenty [gatekeepers’] rooms. ⁶ You are to give the city possession of an area, alongside the offering of the holy portion, one-and-a-half by eight [miles]; it will be for the whole house of Isra’el.

⁷ “‘The prince is to have the territory on both sides of the holy offering and the city’s holding; it will extend westward to the western border of the land and eastward to its eastern border; and the length [from the far side of one] of its two parts [to the far side of the other] will be the same as the length of one of the [tribal] portions. ⁸ His possession in Isra’el will be limited to this, and henceforth my princes will not wrong my people but will give the land to the house of Isra’el according to their tribes.’ ⁹ Adonai Elohim says this: ‘Princes of Isra’el, that should be enough for you! Get rid of violence and looting, do what is right and just, and stop evicting my people from their land!’ says Adonai Elohim.

¹⁰ “‘You are to have honest balance-scales, an honest eifah [a one-bushel dry-measure] and an honest bat [a five-gallon liquid-measure]. ¹¹ The eifah and the bat are to contain the same volume — the bat is to contain one-tenth of a homer, and the eifah is to contain one-tenth of a homer; the homer is to set the standard for measurement. ¹² Also the shekel is to be twenty gerahs; your maneh will be the sum of a twenty-shekel piece, a twenty-five-shekel piece and a fifteen-shekel piece.

¹³ “‘This is the offering you are to make: one-sixth of a bushel from every ten bushels of wheat, and you are to give one-sixth of a bushel from every ten bushels of barley. ¹⁴ The law for olive oil is to be half a gallon from every fifty gallons, which is the same as ten bats or one homer, since ten bats equal a homer. ¹⁵ From the flock, take one sheep from every two hundred being pastured in Isra’el; [all these are to be used] for grain offerings, burnt offerings and peace offerings, to make atonement for them,’ says Adonai Elohim. ¹⁶ ‘All the people in the land are to present this offering to the prince in Isra’el. ¹⁷ The prince’s obligation will be to present the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings at the feasts, on Rosh-Hodesh, and on Shabbat — at all the designated times of the house of Isra’el. He is to prepare the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings and peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Isra’el.’

¹⁸ “Adonai Elohim says this: ‘On the first day of the first month you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary. ¹⁹ The cohen will take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the door-frames of the house, on the four corners of the altar’s ledge and on the supports of the gate of the inner courtyard. ²⁰ You are also to do this on the seventh day of the month for everyone who has sinned inadvertently or through ignorance. Thus you will make atonement for the house.

²¹ “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month you are to have the Pesach, a feast seven days long; matzah will be eaten. ²² On that day the prince will provide, for himself and for all the people of the land, a young bull as a sin offering. ²³ On the seven days of the feast he is to provide a burnt offering for Adonai, seven young bulls and seven rams without defect daily for the seven days, and a male goat daily as a sin offering. ²⁴ He is to provide as a grain offering a bushel [of grain] for a young bull and a bushel for a ram, and for each bushel [of grain] a gallon of olive oil.

²⁵ “‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, during the feast [of Sukkot] he is to do the same thing for those seven days in regard to the sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings and olive oil.’

46 “This is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘The east gate of the inner courtyard is to be shut on the six working days, but on Shabbat it is to be opened, and on Rosh-Hodesh it is to be opened. ² The prince is to enter by way of the outer vestibule of the gate and stand by the support of the gate. The cohanim are to prepare his burnt offering and peace offerings. Then he is to prostrate himself in worship at the threshold of the gate, after which he is to leave; but the gate is not to be shut until evening. ³ The people of the land are also to prostrate themselves in worship before Adonai at the entrance to that gate on Shabbat and on Rosh-Hodesh.

⁴ “‘The burnt offering the prince is to offer Adonai on Shabbat is to consist of six lambs without defect and a ram without defect. ⁵ The grain offering is to be a bushel for the ram, while for the lambs it can be as much as he wants to give; with a gallon of olive oil per eifah. ⁶ On Rosh-Hodesh it is to be a young bull, six lambs and a ram, all without defect. ⁷ He is to prepare a grain offering consisting of a bushel for the bull, a bushel for the ram, and for the lambs as his means allow; with a gallon of olive oil per bushel.

⁸ “‘When the prince enters, he is to go in by way of the vestibule of the gate, and he is to leave the same way. ⁹ But when the people of the land come before Adonai at the designated times, whoever comes in to worship by way of the north gate is to leave by way of the south gate, and whoever comes in by way of the south gate is to leave by way of the north gate; he is not to go back out through the gate by which he entered but is to exit straight ahead of him. ¹⁰ [On these occasions,] the prince is to be among them when they enter; and when they leave, they are to leave together.

¹¹ “‘At the festivals and at designated times, the grain offering is to be a bushel for a young bull and a bushel for a ram, while for the lambs it can be as much as he wants to give, with a gallon of olive oil per bushel.

¹² “‘When the prince provides a voluntary offering, whether it is a burnt offering or peace offerings that he offers voluntarily to Adonai, someone is to open the east gate for him; and he is to provide his burnt offering and peace offerings as he does on Shabbat. Then he will leave; and after he leaves, the gate is to be shut.

¹³ “‘You are to provide a lamb in its first year that has no defect for a daily burnt offering to Adonai; do this each morning. ¹⁴ Also each morning, provide with it a grain offering, one-sixth of a bushel, and one-third of a gallon of olive oil to moisten the fine flour; this is the ongoing grain offering for Adonai, by a permanent regulation. ¹⁵ Thus they will offer a lamb, a grain offering and oil each morning as the ongoing burnt offering.’

¹⁶ “Adonai Elohim says this: ‘If the prince turns over part of his hereditary property to one of his sons, it is his inheritance; it will belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance. ¹⁷ But if he gives part of his hereditary property to one of his slaves, it will be his until the year of freedom, at which time it will revert to the prince, so that the prince’s heritage will go to his sons. ¹⁸ The prince is not to take over any of the people’s inheritance, thereby evicting them wrongfully from their property; he is to give his sons an inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people will be driven off their property.’”

¹⁹ Next, he brought me through the entry at the side of the gate into the holy rooms facing north that were for the cohanim. At their far west end I saw a place ²⁰ about which he said to me, “This is the place where the cohanim will boil the guilt offerings and sin offerings and bake the grain offerings. In this way they won’t have to bring them into the outer courtyard and risk transmitting holiness to the people.” ²¹ He took me into the outer courtyard and had me pass by the four corners of the courtyard, and there in each corner of the courtyard was another courtyard — ²² in the four corners of the courtyard were enclosed courtyards seventy feet long and fifty-two-and-a-half feet; the four courtyards in the corners were the same size. ²³ There was a wall around each of the four, with open stoves all around the bases of the walls. ²⁴ He said to me, “These are the stoves where those serving in the house will boil the people’s sacrifices.”