Opposite the gate on the north and the east was a gate of the inner court; he measured the distance from gate to gate at 175 feet.

There were windows all around it and its porches, like the windows of the others; 87? feet long and 43? feet wide.

There were seven steps going up to it; its porches were in front of them. It had decorative palm trees on its jambs, one on either side.

The inner court had a gate toward the south; he measured it from gate to gate toward the south as 175 feet.

Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate. He measured the south gate; it had the same dimensions as the others.

Its alcoves, its jambs, and its porches had the same dimensions as the others, and there were windows all around it and its porches; its length was 87? feet and its width 43? feet.

There were porches all around, 43? feet long and 8? feet wide.

Its porches faced the outer court, and decorative palm trees were on its jambs, and its stairway had eight steps.

Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side. He measured the gate; it had the same dimensions as the others.

Its alcoves, its jambs, and its porches had the same dimensions as the others, and there were windows all around it and its porches; its length was 87? feet and its width 43? feet.

Its porches faced the outer court, it had decorative palm trees on its jambs, and its stairway had eight steps.

Then he brought me to the north gate, and he measured it; it had the same dimensions as the others --

its alcoves, its jambs, and its porches. It had windows all around it; its length was 87? feet and its width 43? feet.

Its jambs faced the outer court, and it had decorative palm trees on its jambs, on either side, and its stairway had eight steps.

On the outside of the porch as one goes up at the entrance of the north gate were two tables, and on the other side of the porch of the gate were two tables.

Four tables were on each side of the gate, eight tables on which the sacrifices were to be slaughtered.

The four tables for the burnt offering were of carved stone, 32 inches long, 32 inches wide, and 21 inches high. They would put the instruments which they used to slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice on them.

On the outside of the inner gate were chambers for the singers of the inner court, one at the side of the north gate facing south, and the other at the side of the south gate facing north.

He measured the court as a square 175 feet long and 175 feet wide; the altar was in front of the temple.

Then he brought me to the porch of the temple and measured the jambs of the porch as 8? feet on either side, and the width of the gate was 24? feet and the sides were 5? feet on each side.

The length of the porch was 35 feet and the width 19? feet; steps led up to it, and there were pillars beside the jambs on either side.

Then he brought me to the outer sanctuary, and measured the jambs; the jambs were 10? feet wide on each side.

The width of the entrance was 17? feet, and the sides of the entrance were 8? feet on each side. He measured the length of the outer sanctuary as 70 feet, and its width as 35 feet.

Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance as 3? feet, the entrance as 10? feet, and the width of the entrance as 12? feet

Then he measured its length as 35 feet, and its width as 35 feet, before the outer sanctuary. He said to me, "This is the most holy place."

Then he measured the wall of the temple as 10? feet, and the width of the side chambers as 7 feet, all around the temple.

The side chambers surrounding the temple were wider at each successive story; for the structure surrounding the temple went up story by story all around the temple. For this reason the width of the temple increased as it went up, and one went up from the lowest story to the highest by the way of the middle story.

The width of the outer wall of the side chambers was 8? feet, and the open area between the side chambers of the temple

and the chambers of the court was 35 feet in width all around the temple on every side.

There were entrances from the side chambers toward the open area, one entrance toward the north, and another entrance toward the south; the width of the open area was 8? feet all around.

The building that was facing the temple courtyard at the west side was 122? feet wide; the wall of the building was 8? feet all around, and its length 157? feet.

and also the width of the front of the temple and the courtyard on the east as 175 feet.

Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, with its galleries on either side as 175 feet. The interior of the outer sanctuary and the porch of the court,

as well as the thresholds, narrow windows and galleries all around on three sides facing the threshold were paneled with wood all around, from the ground up to the windows (now the windows were covered),

It was made with cherubim and decorative palm trees, with a palm tree between each cherub. Each cherub had two faces:

The altar was of wood, 5? feet high, with its length 3? feet; its corners, its length, and its walls were of wood. He said to me, "This is the table that is before the Lord."

On the doors of the outer sanctuary were carved cherubim and palm trees, like those carved on the walls, and there was a canopy of wood on the front of the outside porch.

There were narrow windows and decorative palm trees on either side of the side walls of the porch; this is what the side chambers of the temple and the canopies were like.

Then he led me out to the outer court, toward the north, and brought me to the chamber which was opposite the courtyard and opposite the building on the north.

Its length was 175 feet on the north side, and its width 87? feet.

In front of the chambers was a walkway on the inner side, 17? feet wide at a distance of 1? feet, and their entrances were on the north.

As for the outer wall by the side of the chambers, toward the outer court facing the chambers, it was 87? feet long.

At the beginning of the wall of the court toward the south, facing the courtyard and the building, were chambers

with a passage in front of them. They looked like the chambers on the north. Of the same length and width, and all their exits according to their arrangements and entrances

were the chambers which were toward the south. There was an opening at the head of the passage, the passage in front of the corresponding wall toward the east when one enters.

Then he said to me, "The north chambers and the south chambers which face the courtyard are holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings -- the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, because the place is holy.

When the priests enter, then they will not go out from the sanctuary to the outer court without taking off their garments in which they minister, for these are holy; they will put on other garments, then they will go near the places where the people are."

Now when he had finished measuring the interior of the temple, he led me out by the gate which faces east and measured all around.

He measured it on all four sides. It had a wall around it, 875 feet long and 875 feet wide, to separate the holy and common places.

It was like the vision I saw when he came to destroy the city, and the vision I saw by the Kebar River. I threw myself face down.

When they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its pattern, its exits and entrances, and its whole design -- all its statutes, its entire design, and all its laws; write it all down in their sight, so that they may observe its entire design and all its statutes and do them.

"And these are the measurements of the altar: Its base is 1? feet high, and 1? feet wide, and its border nine inches on its edge. This is to be the height of the altar.

From the base of the ground to the lower edge is 3? feet, and the width 1? feet; and from the smaller ledge to the larger edge, 7 feet, and the width 1? feet;

Now the altar hearth is a perfect square, 21 feet long and 21 feet wide.

The ledge is 24? feet long and 24? feet wide on four sides; the border around it is 10? inches, and its surrounding base 1? feet. Its steps face east."

Then he said to me: "Son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says: These are the statutes of the altar: On the day it is built to offer up burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it,

You will take some of its blood, and place it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around; you will cleanse it and make atonement for it.

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

"On the second day, you will offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. They will purify the altar just as they purified it with the bull.

When you have finished purifying it, you will offer an unblemished young bull and an unblemished ram from the flock.

For seven days they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, so they will consecrate it.

Then he brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces east, but it was shut.

The Lord said to me: "This gate will be shut; it will not be opened, and no one will enter by it. For the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it will remain shut.

Only the prince may sit in it to eat a sacrificial meal before the Lord; he will enter by way of the porch of the gate and will go out by the same way."

Say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Enough of all your abominable practices, O house of Israel!

When you bring foreigners, those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into my sanctuary, you desecrate it -- even my house -- when you offer my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant by all your abominable practices.

This is what the sovereign Lord says: No foreigner, who is uncircumcised in heart and flesh among all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, will enter into my sanctuary.

Yet they will be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple, and serving the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them.

Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, all of its service and all that will be done in it.

When they go out to the outer court to the people, they must remove the garments they were ministering in, and place them in the holy chambers; they must put on other garments so that they will not transmit holiness to the people with their garments.

They must not marry a widow or a divorcee, but they may marry a virgin from the house of Israel or a widow who is a priest's widow.

They may eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, and every devoted thing in Israel will be theirs.

The priests will not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or was torn to pieces by a wild animal.

"'When you allot the land as an inheritance, you will offer an allotment to the Lord, a holy portion from the land; the length will be eight and a quarter miles and the width three and one-third miles. This entire area will be holy.

From this measured area you will measure a length of eight and a quarter miles and a width of three and one-third miles; in it will be the sanctuary, the most holy place.

It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.

An area eight and a quarter miles in length and three and one-third miles in width will be for the Levites, who minister at the temple, as the place for the cities in which they will live.

"'Alongside the portion set apart as the holy allotment, you will allot for the city an area one and two-thirds miles wide and eight and a quarter miles long; it will be for the whole house of Israel.

"'For the prince there will be land on both sides of the holy allotment and the allotted city, alongside the holy allotment and the allotted city, on the west side and on the east side; it will be comparable in length to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border

"'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction, and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people, declares the sovereign Lord.

"'This is the offering you must offer: a sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat; a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley,

It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, the grain offering, and the drink offering at festivals, on the new moons and Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel; he will provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

"'This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you must take an unblemished young bull and purify the sanctuary.

The priest will take some of the blood of the sin offering and place it on the doorpost of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorpost of the gate of the inner court.

This is what you must do on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins inadvertently or through ignorance; so you will make atonement for the temple.

In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he will make the same provisions for the sin offering, burnt offering, and grain offering, and for the olive oil, for the seven days.

"'This is what the sovereign Lord says: The gate of the inner court that faces east will be closed six working days, but on the Sabbath day it will be opened and on the day of the new moon it will be opened.

The prince will enter by way of the porch of the gate from the outside, and will stand by the doorpost of the gate. The priests will provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he will bow down at the threshold of the gate and then go out. But the gate will not be closed until evening.

The people of the land will bow down at the entrance of that gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons.

When the prince enters, he will come by way of the porch of the gate and will go out the same way.

"'When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, whoever enters by way of the north gate to worship will go out by way of the south gate; whoever enters by way of the south gate will go out by way of the north gate. No one will return by way of the gate they entered but will go out straight ahead.

When they come in, the prince will come in with them, and when they go out, he will go out.

"'At the festivals and at the appointed feasts the grain offering will be an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as one is able, and a gallon of olive oil with each ephah of grain.

When the prince provides a freewill offering, a burnt offering, or peace offerings as a voluntary offering to the Lord, the gate facing east will be opened for him, and he will provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings just as he did on the Sabbath. Then he will go out, and the gate will be closed after he goes out.

"'You will provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering daily to the Lord; morning by morning he will provide it.

And you will provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah, and a third of a gallon of olive oil to moisten the choice flour, as a grain offering to the Lord; this is a perpetual statute.

"'This is what the sovereign Lord says: If the prince should give a gift to one of his sons as his inheritance, it will belong to his sons, it is their property by inheritance.

But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it will be his until the year of liberty; then it will revert to the prince. His inheritance will only remain with his sons.

Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests which faced north. There I saw a place at the extreme western end.

He said to me, "This is the place where the priests will boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they will bake the grain offering, so that they do not bring them out to the outer court to transmit holiness to the people."