< Ezekiel 45 >
1 “And in your causing the land to fall into inheritance, you lift up a raised-offering to YHWH, a holy [portion] of the land: the length—twenty-five thousand [is] the length, and the breadth—ten thousand; it [is] holy in all its surrounding border.
“‘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 There is of this for the sanctuary five hundred by five hundred, square, around; and fifty cubits of outskirt [is] around it.
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 And by this measure you measure: the length—twenty-five thousand, and the breadth—ten thousand: and the sanctuary is in it, the Holy of Holies.
Inside that sacred district, measure a section (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (3.5 miles/5.3 km.) wide.
4 It [is] the holy [portion] of the land; it is for priests, servants of the sanctuary, who are drawing near to serve YHWH; and it has been a place for their houses, and a holy place 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 And of the twenty-five thousand of length, and of the ten thousand of breadth, there is to the Levites, servants of the house, for them—for a possession—twenty chambers.
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 And of the possession of the city you set [an area] of five thousand breadth, and twenty-five thousand length, alongside the raised-offering of the holy [portion]; it is for all the 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 And for the prince: on this side and on that side of the raised-offering of the holy place, and of the possession of the city, at the front of the raised-offering of the holy place, and at the front of the possession of the city, from the west corner westward, and from the east corner eastward—and the length [is] corresponding to one of the portions from the west border to the east border—
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 of the land there is for a possession to him in Israel, and My princes do not oppress My people anymore, and they give 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 Thus said Lord YHWH: “Enough from you—princes of Israel; turn violence and spoil aside, and do judgment and righteousness; lift up your exactions from off My people—a declaration of Lord YHWH.
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 have just balances, and 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 is of one measure, for the bath to carry a tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer: its measurement is according to the homer.
The baskets for measuring dry things and containers for measuring liquids must be the same size; each must hold 175 quarts/liters.
12 And the shekel [is] twenty gerah: twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels—is your maneh.
When you weigh things, you must use weights that everyone accepts as being correct [MTY].’”
13 This [is] the raised-offering that you lift up; a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of wheat, also you have given a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of barley,
“‘You must present to the king one bushel of wheat or barley for every 60 that you harvest.
14 and the portion of oil, the bath of oil, a tenth part of the bath out of the cor, a homer of ten baths—for ten baths [are] a homer;
And you must give him one quart/liter of olive oil for every 100 quarts/liters that you make.
15 and one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the watered country of Israel, for a present, and for a burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement by them—a declaration of Lord YHWH.
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 are at this raised-offering for the prince in Israel.
All the Israeli people must join in bringing those offerings to the king of Israel.
17 And on the prince are the burnt-offerings, and the present, and the drink-offering, in celebrations, and in new moons, and in Sabbaths, in all appointed times of the house of Israel: he makes the sin-offering, and the present, and the burnt-offering, and the 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 Thus said Lord YHWH: “In the first [month], on the first of the month, you take a bullock, a son of the herd, a perfect one, and have cleansed 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 has taken from the blood of the sin offering, and has put [it] on the doorpost of the house, and on the four corners of the border of the altar, and on the post of the gate 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 And so you do on the seventh of the month, because of each erring one, and because of the simple one—and you have purified the house.
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 In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, you have the Passover, a celebration of seven days, unleavened bread is 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 And the prince has prepared on that day, for himself, and for all the people of the land, a bullock, a sin-offering.
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 And [on] the seven days of the celebration he prepares a burnt-offering to YHWH, seven bullocks, and seven rams, perfect ones, daily [for] seven days, and a sin-offering, a kid of the goats, daily.
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 And he prepares a present of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil for an ephah.
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 In the seventh [month], on the fifteenth day of the month, in the celebration, he does according to these things [for] seven days; as the sin-offering so the burnt-offering, and as the present so also the 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].’”