< Ezekiel 45 >
1 “‘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).
And when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer a heave-offering unto Jehovah, a holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand [cubits], and the breadth ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about.
2 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.
Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred [reeds] by five hundred, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.
3 Inside that sacred district, measure a section (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (3.5 miles/5.3 km.) wide.
And of this measure shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand; and in it shall be the sanctuary, the holy of holies.
4 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.
This is the holy [portion] of the land; it shall be for the priests who do the service of the sanctuary, who draw near to serve Jehovah, and it shall be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the sanctuary.
5 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.
And [a space of] five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth, shall the Levites, who do the service of the house, have for themselves, for a possession, for their habitations.
6 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.
And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand in breadth, and five and twenty thousand in length, alongside of the holy heave-offering: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.
7 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.
And the prince shall have [his portion] on the one side and on the other side of the holy heave-offering and of the possession of the city, over against the holy heave-offering, and over against the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward; and in length answering to one of the portions [of the tribes] from the west border unto the east border.
8 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.
As land shall it be his for a possession in Israel; and my princes shall no more oppress my people; but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
9 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!
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Let it suffice you, princes of Israel! Put away violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice; take off your exactions from my people, saith the Lord Jehovah.
10 And you must use accurate scales, and accurate containers for measuring things.
Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.
11 The baskets for measuring dry things and containers for measuring liquids must be the same size; each must hold 175 quarts/liters.
The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, so that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure thereof shall be according to the homer.
12 When you weigh things, you must use weights that everyone accepts as being correct [MTY].’”
And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.
13 “‘You must present to the king one bushel of wheat or barley for every 60 that you harvest.
This is the heave-offering which ye shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah out of a homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah out of a homer of barley;
14 And you must give him one quart/liter of olive oil for every 100 quarts/liters that you make.
and the set portion of oil, by the bath of oil, the tenth part of a bath out of a cor, [which is] a homer of ten baths, for ten baths are a homer;
15 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.
and one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel; — for an oblation, and for a burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement for them, saith the Lord Jehovah.
16 All the Israeli people must join in bringing those offerings to the king of Israel.
All the people of the land shall be [held] to this heave-offering for the prince in Israel.
17 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.
And it shall be the prince's part [to supply] the burnt-offerings, and the oblation, and the drink-offering, at the feasts, and at the new moons, and on the sabbaths, in all the solemnities of the house of Israel: it is he that shall prepare the sin-offering, and the oblation, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.
18 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.
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the first [month], on the first of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock, without blemish, and thou shalt purge the sanctuary.
19 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.
And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.
20 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.
So thou shalt do also on the seventh of the month for every one that erreth, and for the simple; and ye shall make atonement for the house.
21 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.
In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days: unleavened bread shall be eaten.
22 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.
And upon that day shall the prince offer for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin-offering.
23 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.
And the seven days of the feast he shall offer a burnt-offering to Jehovah, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily for the seven days; and a he-goat daily for a sin-offering.
24 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.
And he shall offer an oblation of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram; and oil, a hin for an ephah.
25 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].’”
In the seventh [month], on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, shall he do the like seven days, according to the sin-offering, according to the burnt-offering, and according to the oblation, and according to the oil.