Suppose I say to the wicked, 'You must certainly die,' but he turns from his sin and does what is just and right.

“Yet your people [who are in exile in Babylon] say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right;’ but as for them, it is their own way that is not right.

But when a wicked man turns back from his wickedness and practices what is just (fair) and right, he will live because of it.

"And yet you keep saying, "Living life the Lord's way isn't right,' But I will judge every one of you according to the way you live, you house of Israel!"

Now the hand of the Lord had been on me the evening before the refugee reached me, but the Lord opened my mouth by the time the refugee arrived in the morning; he opened my mouth and I was no longer unable to speak.

"Son of man, the ones living in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying, 'Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land, but we are many; surely the land has been given to us for a possession.'

"But as for you, son of man, your people (who are talking about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses) say to one another, 'Come hear the word that comes from the Lord.'

They come to you in crowds, and they sit in front of you as my people. They hear your words, but do not obey them. For they talk lustfully, and their heart is set on their own advantage.

Realize that to them you are like a sensual song, a beautiful voice and skilled musician. They hear your words, but they do not obey them.

But when it cometh Lo! it is coming, Then shall they know that a prophet hath been in their midst.

You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not feed the sheep!

You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled over them.

As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, my sheep have become prey and have become food for all the wild beasts. There was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my flock, but fed themselves and did not feed my sheep,

‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.”’”

I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them -- with judgment!

Is it too little a thing for you that you [unrighteous ones who are well-fed] feed in the best pasture, yet you must trample down with your feet [of wickedness] the rest of your pastures? Or that you drink clear [still] water, yet you must muddy with your feet [of wickedness] the rest [of the water]?

Therefore will I bring salvation to my flock, and they shall be no longer a prey, - but I will judge between one sheep and another,

They will no longer be prey to the nations, and the predators of the earth will not devour them; but they will live safely, and no one will make them afraid [in the day of the Messiah’s reign].

"'But you, mountains of Israel, will grow your branches, and bear your fruit for my people Israel; for they will arrive soon.

And I will multiply, upon you - men, All the house of Israel All of it, Then shall the cities be inhabited, And the waste places, shall be but,

Son of man The house of Israel were dwelling upon their own so, But they defiled it by their way, and by their doings. Like the defilement of her that is removed, became their way before me.

But when they arrived in the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name. It was said of them, 'These are the people of the Lord, yet they have departed from his land.'

But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake that I am about to act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation which you profaned among the nations where you went.

But I will not do this for your sakes, sayeth the LORD God: Be ye sure of it. Therefore, O ye house of Israel, be ashamed of your sins.

Thus saith My Lord, Yahweh, In the day when I cleanse you, from all your iniquities, Then will I cause the cities to be inhabited, And the waste places shall be but;

So shall the nations that may be left remaining round about you know that I Yahweh - Have but that which wan thrown down, and Have planted that which was made desolate, - I, Yahweh, have spoken, and performed.

As I watched, I saw tendons on them, then muscles appeared, and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath in them.

Yea, I will make one people of them in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and they all shall have but one king. They shall no more be two peoples from henceforth, neither be divided into two kingdoms:

They 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.

After 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.

It 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.

And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:

I will make also the name of my holiness to be known among my people of Israel: and I will not let my holy name be evil spoken of any more: but the very Heathen also shall know that I am the LORD, the holy one of Israel.

And they will put on one side men to do no other work but to go through the land and put in the earth the rest of those who are still on the face of the land, to make it clean: after seven months are ended they are to make a search.

then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which suffered them to be led into captivity among the Heathen, but now have brought them again into their own land, and not left one of them yonder.

After that will I hide my face no more from them, but will pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel, sayeth the LORD God."

From 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.

but the chamber which faces toward the north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who from the sons of Levi come near to the Lord to minister to Him.”

Then 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.

The 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.

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

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

for 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.

for the length of the utmost chambers in the fore court was fifty cubits also: but the length thereof before the temple was a hundred cubits.

When the priests enter in, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the outer court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy: and they shall put on other garments, and shall approach to that which pertaineth to the people.

but the glory of the LORD came into the house through the East door.

Then said he unto me, Son of man This is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet where I would dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel to times age-abiding,- But the house of Israel must, no more defile my holy Name. They, nor their kings by their unchastity, and by the carcases of their kings in their high places,

in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their door-post beside my door-post, and there was but the wall between me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger.

But now let them send their unfaithfulness that is, the lifeless idols of their kings far away from me, and I will live among them forever."

from the ground to the lower steps the length is two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the lower steps to the higher are four cubits, and the breadth but one cubit.

Then the Lord GOD brought me back through the east-facing outer gate of the sanctuary. But it was shut.

Then said the LORD unto me, "This door shall be still shut, and not opened for any man to go through it, but only for the LORD God of Israel: Yea he shall go through it, else shall it be shut still.

But the ruler will be seated there to take his food before the Lord; he will go in by the covered way to the door, and will come out by the same way.

And ye have not kept the charge of my holy things, but have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

‘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.

But the Levites who went away far from me, when Israel went astray, going astray from me after their idols, they shall even bear their iniquity;

but they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house, and doing the service of the house: they shall slaughter the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.

And they shall not draw near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to draw near to any of my holy things, even to the most holy; but they shall bear their confusion, and their abominations which they have committed.

But I will make them responsible for the care of the house and all its work and everything which is done in it.

But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall approach unto me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to present unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah.

They are not to have all the hair cut off their heads, and they are not to let their hair get long, but they are to have the ends of their hair cut.

And they shall not take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away; but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that is the widow of a priest.

And they shall come at no dead person to become unclean; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may become unclean.

But no dead carrion shall the priest eat, nor such as is devoured of wild beasts, fouls or cattle."

As land shall it be his for a possession in Israel; and my princes shall no more oppress my people; but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

But on the prince himself, shall rest the ascending-sacrifices and the meal-offering, and the drink-offering, on the festivals, and on the new moons, and on the sabbaths, in all the appointed meetings of the house of Israel, - he, shall offer the sin-bearer. and the meal-offering, and the ascending sacrifice, and the peace-offerings, To put a propitiatory-covering about the house of Israel.

Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working-days; but on the sabbath-day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate from without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall offer his burnt-offering and his peace-offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate, and shall go forth: but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

But on the day of the new moon, a young bullock without defect, - and six he-lambs and a ram without defect, shall they be;

With the bullock he shall give an Ephah, and with the ram an Ephah also for a meat offering; but to the lambs, what he may come by. And ever an Hin of oil to an Ephah.

And when the people of the land come in before Jehovah in the set feasts, he that cometh in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that cometh in by the way of the south gate shall go out by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate by which he came in, but shall go out straight before him.

But as for the prince in their midst when they enter, shall he enter, and when they go forth, shall he go forth,

Upon the solemn and high feast days, this shall be the meat offering: an Ephah to a bullock and an Ephah to a ram, and to the lambs: as many as he will, but ever a Hin of oil to an Ephah.

But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty; and it shall return to the prince: to his sons alone shall his inheritance remain.

The prince also shall take none of the people's inheritance, nor put them from their possession: but to his own sons shall he give his possession, that my people be not scattered abroad, but that every man may have his own."

But its marshes and its pools shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt.

On both sides of the river's banks, every kind of tree will grow for food. Their leaves will not wither nor will their fruit fail, but they will bear fruit every month, because their water source flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing."