Ezekiel 42
1 Then the man led me out northward into the outer court, and he brought me to the group of chambers opposite the temple courtyard and the outer wall on the north side.
[in the vision] the man led me out of the inner courtyard, through [the entrance on] the north side. We entered the outer courtyard and came to a building that was built against the north [of the inner courtyard].
2 The building with the door facing north was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide.
That building was (175 feet/53 meters) long and (87-1/2 feet/26.5 meters) wide. Its doorway faced north.
3 Gallery faced gallery in three levels opposite the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court and opposite the pavement that belonged to the outer court.
In that building were two rows of rooms, built on three levels, that faced each other. One row of rooms was built against the wall of the inner courtyard, and the other row was built against the wall facing the outer courtyard. The building was 34 feet from the temple.
4 In front of the chambers was an inner walkway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long. Their doors were on the north.
Between the [two] rows of rooms there was a walkway that was (17-1/2 feet/5.3 meters) wide and (175 feet/53 meters) long. All its doors were on the north side.
5 Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space from the chambers on the lower and middle floors of the building.
Each of the upper rows of rooms was narrower than the row of rooms below them, [because the upper rows needed to have a walkway in front of them].
6 For they were arranged in three stories, and unlike the courts, they had no pillars. So the upper chambers were set back further than the lower and middle floors.
The rooms on the upper levels had no pillars to support them like the ones in the courtyard. Instead, each of those row of rooms were supported by the walls of the row of rooms on the level below.
7 An outer wall in front of the chambers was fifty cubits long and ran parallel to the chambers and the outer court.
The wall of the building extended (87-1/2 feet/26.5 meters) past the set of rooms built along the outer courtyard, separating all the rooms from the outer courtyard.
8 For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those facing the temple were a hundred cubits long.
The row of rooms that were along the outer courtyard was (87-1/2 feet/26.5 meters) long, and the set of rooms that faced the temple was (175 feet/53 meters) long.
9 And below these chambers was the entrance on the east side as one enters them from the outer court.
The lowest row of rooms had an entrance from the outer courtyard, on the east side.
10 On the south side along the length of the wall of the outer court were chambers adjoining the courtyard and opposite the building,
On the south [side], along the wall of the outer courtyard, next to the temple courtyard, was a [a building with two] rows of rooms,
11 with a passageway in front of them, just like the chambers that were on the north. They had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions.
with a walkway between them. Those rooms were like the rooms on the north [side]: they were the same length and width, and had the same kind of entrances.
12 And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, there was a door in front of the walkway that was parallel to the wall extending eastward.
The doorways on the south side were similar to the doorways on the north side. There was an entrance in the wall that faced the doors of the set of rooms, and there was an entrance on the east side, at the end of the inside walkway.
13 Then the man said to me, “The north and south chambers facing the temple courtyard are the 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 offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy.
Then the man said to me, “These rooms that overlook the temple on the north and south sides are holy. Here the priests who offer sacrifices to Yahweh will [their portions of] the sacred offerings. Because these rooms are holy, they will be used to store the sacred offerings: [the grain for] the grain offerings, the offerings for the sins that people have committed, and offerings in order that people will no longer be guilty for having sinned.
14 Once the priests have entered the holy area, they must not go out into the outer court until they have left behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they approach the places that are for the people.”
When the priests leave the temple, they will not be allowed to [immediately] enter the outer courtyard. First, they must remove the clothes that they had been wearing inside the temple, because those clothes are holy. They must put on other clothes before they enter the parts [of the temple area] where the [other] people [gather].”
15 Now when the man had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faced east, and he measured the area all around:
When the man had finished measuring the inside of the temple area, he led me out through the east entrance [of the outer courtyard] and measured all the way around the temple area.
16 With a measuring rod he measured the east side to be five hundred cubits long.
He measured the four sides of the area. There was a wall around the area that was (875 feet/265 meters) long on each side.
17 He measured the north side to be five hundred cubits long.
18 He measured the south side to be five hundred cubits long.
19 And he came around and measured the west side to be five hundred cubits long.
20 So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall all around, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.
That wall separated the [area which was] sacred/holy from the [areas that were] not sacred.
