"Therefore, as surely as I live, says the sovereign Lord, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominable practices, I will withdraw; my eye will not pity you, nor will I spare you.

He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing -- the great abominations that the people of Israel are practicing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see greater abominations than these!"

Old men, young men, young women, little children, and women -- wipe them out! But do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary!" So they began with the elders who were at the front of the temple.

"Therefore say: 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Although I have removed them far away among the nations and have dispersed them among the countries, I have been a little sanctuary for them among the lands where they have gone.'

Moreover, they have done this to me: In the very same day they desecrated my sanctuary and profaned my Sabbaths.

On the same day they slaughtered their sons for their idols, they came to my sanctuary to desecrate it. This is what they have done in the middle of my house.

Say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Realize I am about to desecrate my sanctuary -- the source of your confident pride, the object in which your eyes delight, and your life's passion. Your very own sons and daughters whom you have left behind will die by the sword.

Say to the Ammonites, 'Hear the word of the sovereign Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: You said "Aha!" about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile.

I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. I will establish them, increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever.

Then, when my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.'"

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 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,

from the ground to the area above the entrance, cherubim and decorative palm trees were carved on the wall of the outer sanctuary.

The doorposts of the outer sanctuary were square. In front of the sanctuary one doorpost looked just like the other.

The outer sanctuary and the inner sanctuary each had a double door.

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.

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."

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.

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: "Son of man, pay attention, watch closely and listen carefully to everything I tell you concerning all the statutes of the Lord's house and all its laws. Pay attention to the entrances to the temple with all the exits of the sanctuary.

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.

You have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have assigned foreigners to keep charge of my sanctuary for you.

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.

"'But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, will approach me to minister to me; they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the sovereign Lord.

They will enter my sanctuary, and approach my table to minister to me; they will keep my charge.

On the day he enters the sanctuary, into the inner court to serve in the sanctuary, he must offer his sin offering, declares the sovereign Lord.

Of this area a square 875 feet by 875 feet will be designated for the sanctuary, with 87? feet set aside for its open space round about.

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.

"'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.

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."

"Next to the border of Judah from the east side to the west will be the allotment you must set apart. It is to be eight and a quarter miles wide, and the same length as one of the tribal portions, from the east side to the west; the sanctuary will be in the middle of it.

These will be the allotments for the holy portion: for the priests, toward the north eight and a quarter miles in length, toward the west three and one-third miles in width, toward the east three and one-third miles in width, and toward the south eight and a quarter miles in length; the sanctuary of the Lord will be in the middle.

"The rest, on both sides of the holy allotment and the property of the city, will belong to the prince. Extending from the eight and a quarter miles of the holy allotment to the east border, and westward from the eight and a quarter miles to the west border, alongside the portions, it will belong to the prince. The holy allotment and the sanctuary of the temple will be in the middle of it.