Ezekiel 45

1 “When you divide the land by lot as an inheritance, you are to set aside a portion for the LORD, a holy portion of the land 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits wide. This entire tract of land will be holy.

“‘When the land of Israel is divided [among the twelve tribes], you must present to me, Yahweh, one part of the land to be a sacred district. It will be (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (6.7 miles/10.6 km.) wide. That entire area will be (holy/set apart for me).

2 Within this area there is to be a section for the sanctuary 500 cubits square, with 50 cubits around it for open land.

Part of that area, (875 feet/265 meters) on each side, will be for the temple area. An additional strip of ground, (87-1/2 feet/26.5 meters) wide, will be left empty all around the temple area.

3 From this holy portion, you are to measure off a length of 25,000 cubits and a width of 10,000 cubits, and in it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

Inside that sacred district, measure a section (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (3.5 miles/5.3 km.) wide.

4 It will be a holy portion of the land to be used by the priests who minister in the sanctuary, who draw near to minister before the LORD. It will be a place for their houses, as well as a holy area for the sanctuary.

That section will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests who work in the temple and who come near to me to serve me. It will be a place for their houses as well as being a holy place for the temple.

5 An adjacent area 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide shall belong to the Levites who minister in the temple; it will be their possession for towns in which to live.

An area (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (3.5 miles/5.3 km.) wide will be for the descendants of Levi who work in the temple. That area will belong to them, and they will be permitted to build cities there to live in.

6 As the property of the city, you are to set aside an area 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long, adjacent to the holy district. It will belong to the whole house of Israel.

Alongside that sacred area will be a section of land that is (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (1.7 miles/2.65 km.) wide. It will be for a city where anyone in Israel [MTY] will be permitted to live.

7 Now the prince will have the area bordering each side of the area formed by the holy district and the property of the city, extending westward from the western side and eastward from the eastern side, running lengthwise from the western boundary to the eastern boundary and parallel to one of the tribal portions.

The king will have two sections of land; one will be on the western side of the sacred district and other will be on the eastern side of the sacred district. The one on the western side will extend west to the Mediterranean Sea. The one on the eastern side will extend east to the eastern end of the country. The eastern and western borders of the king’s land will be next to the areas allotted to the tribes.

8 This land will be his possession in Israel. And My princes will no longer oppress My people, but will give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

That land will be the land in Israel that belongs to the king. So, [because the kings will have their own land], they will no longer need to oppress my people and steal [land] from them. They will assign the remaining parts of the land to the people, giving a part to each tribe.

9 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression, and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing My people, declares the Lord GOD.’

This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: You kings of Israel must stop acting violently and oppressing the people! You must do what is fair and right [DOU]. Stop taking land from the people!

10 You must use honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath.

And you must use accurate scales, and accurate containers for measuring things.

11 The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure for both.

The baskets for measuring dry things and containers for measuring liquids must be the same size; each must hold 175 quarts/liters.

12 The shekel will consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels will equal one mina.

When you weigh things, you must use weights that everyone accepts as being correct [MTY].’”

13 This is the contribution you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.

“‘You must present to the king one bushel of wheat or barley for every 60 that you harvest.

14 The prescribed portion of oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath from each cor (a cor consists of ten baths or one homer, since ten baths are equivalent to a homer).

And you must give him one quart/liter of olive oil for every 100 quarts/liters that you make.

15 And one sheep shall be given from each flock of two hundred from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These are for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement for the people, declares the Lord GOD.

Also, I, Yahweh, declare that you must take one sheep from each 200 sheep in your flocks in the pastures of Israel. Those things that you take to the king will be used with the offerings of things made from grain and for the offerings that will be completely burned and the offerings to maintain fellowship with me, offerings in order for me to forgive you for the sins that you have committed.

16 All the people of the land must participate in this contribution for the prince in Israel.

All the Israeli people must join in bringing those offerings to the king of Israel.

17 And it shall be the prince’s part to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—for all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

The king must provide the animals to be completely burned on the altar, grain for the grain offerings, and wine for the wine offerings for the sacred festivals that I have appointed for the people of Israel—including the festivals to celebrate each new moon and the Sabbaths. He must provide [the animals for] the offerings for the people to become acceptable to me, grain for the grain offerings, animals to be completely burned [on the altar], and offerings to maintain fellowship with me, Yahweh, in order that I will forgive the Israeli people for their sins.

18 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘On the first day of the first month you are to take a young bull without blemish and purify the sanctuary.

This is also what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare: On the first day of the first month [of each year] you must take one young bull that has no defects and [sacrifice it to] cause the temple to be acceptable to me.

19 And the priest is to take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the gateposts of the inner court.

The [Supreme] Priest must take some of the blood of the offering to cause people to become acceptable to me, and smear it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar, and on the entry posts of the inner courtyard.

20 You must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for anyone who strays unintentionally or in ignorance. In this way you will make atonement for the temple.

He must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for any people who sin without intending to sin or without realizing that what they did is sinful. By doing that you will purify the temple.

21 On the fourteenth day of the first month you are to observe the Passover, a feast of seven days, during which unleavened bread shall be eaten.

In the first month of each year, on the 14th day of the month, you must start to celebrate the Passover Festival. The festival will last for seven days. During that time you must not eat bread made with yeast.

22 On that day the prince shall provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land.

On the first day, the king must provide a bull to be an offering for himself and for the all the other people of the country.

23 Each day during the seven days of the feast, he shall provide seven bulls and seven rams without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD, along with a male goat for a sin offering.

And every day during those seven days he must provide seven young bulls and seven rams that have no defects, to be an offering for the people’s sins.

24 He shall also provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, along with a hin of olive oil for each ephah of grain.

He must also provide a half bushel of grain to be an offering, and also four quarts of olive oil, for each bill and ram.

25 During the seven days of the feast that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he is to make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.’

During the seven days of the festival [of Living in Temporary Shelters], which starts on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of each year, the king must provide the same things for offerings for the people’s sins, for offerings to be completely burned, for grain offerings, and the same amount of olive oil that he provided each day [during the Passover Festival].’”