Ezekiel 40

• 1. On April 28, during the twenty-fifth year of our captivity--fourteen years after the fall of Jerusalem--the LORD took hold of me.
• 2. In a vision of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain. From there I could see what appeared to be a city across from me toward the south.
• 3. As he brought me nearer, I saw a man whose face shone like bronze standing beside a gateway entrance. He was holding in his hand a measuring tape and a measuring rod.
• 4. He said to me, "Son of man, watch and listen. Pay close attention to everything I show you. You have been brought here so I can show you many things. Then you will return to the people of Israel and tell them everything you have seen."
• 5. I could see a wall completely surrounding the Temple area. The man took a measuring rod that was 10 1/2 feet long and measured the wall, and the wall was 10 1/2 feet thick and 10 1/2 feet high.
• 6. Then he went over to the gateway that goes through the eastern wall. He climbed the steps and measured the threshold of the gateway; it was 10 1/2 feet deep.
• 7. There were guard alcoves on each side built into the gateway passage. Each of these alcoves was 10 1/2 feet square, with a distance between them of 8 3/4 feet along the passage wall. The gateway's inner threshold, which led to the foyer at the inner end of the gateway passage, was 10 1/2 feet deep.
• 8. He also measured the foyer of the gateway
• 9. and found it to be 14 feet deep, with supporting columns 3 1/2 feet thick. This foyer was at the inner end of the gateway structure, facing toward the Temple.
• 10. There were three guard alcoves on each side of the gateway passage. Each had the same measurements, and the dividing walls separating them were also identical.
• 11. The man measured the gateway entrance, which was 17 1/2 feet wide at the opening and 22 3/4 feet wide in the gateway passage.
• 12. In front of each of the guard alcoves was a 21-inch curb. The alcoves themselves were 10 1/2 feet square.
• 13. Then he measured the entire width of the gateway, measuring the distance between the back walls of facing guard alcoves; this distance was 43 3/4 feet.
• 14. He measured the dividing walls all along the inside of the gateway up to the gateway's foyer; this distance was 105 feet.
• 15. The full length of the gateway passage was 87 1/2 feet from one end to the other.
• 16. There were recessed windows that narrowed inward through the walls of the guard alcoves and their dividing walls. There were also windows in the foyer structure. The surfaces of the dividing walls were decorated with carved palm trees.
• 17. Then the man brought me through the gateway into the outer courtyard of the Temple. A stone pavement ran along the walls of the courtyard, and thirty rooms were built against the walls, opening onto the pavement.
• 18. This pavement flanked the gates and extended out from the walls into the courtyard the same distance as the gateway entrance. This was the lower pavement.
• 19. Then the man measured across the Temple's outer courtyard between the outer and inner gateways; the distance was 175 feet.
• 20. There was a gateway on the north just like the one on the east, and the man measured it.
• 21. Here, too, there were three guard alcoves on each side, with dividing walls and a foyer. All the measurements matched those of the east gateway. The gateway passage was 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves.
• 22. The windows, the foyer, and the palm tree decorations were identical to those in the east gateway. There were seven steps leading up to the gateway entrance, and the foyer was at the inner end of the gateway passage.
• 23. Here on the north side, just as on the east, there was another gateway leading to the Temple's inner courtyard directly opposite this outer gateway. The distance between the two gateways was 175 feet.
• 24. Then the man took me around to the south gateway and measured its various parts, and he found they were exactly the same as in the others.
• 25. It had windows along the walls as the others did, and there was a foyer where the gateway passage opened into the outer courtyard. And like the others, the gateway passage was 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves.
• 26. This gateway also had a stairway of seven steps leading up to it, and there were palm tree decorations along the dividing walls.
• 27. And here again, directly opposite the outer gateway, was another gateway that led into the inner courtyard. The distance between the two gateways was 175 feet.
• 28. Then the man took me to the south gateway leading into the inner courtyard. He measured it and found that it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
• 29. Its guard alcoves, dividing walls, and foyer were the same size as those in the others. It also had windows along its walls and in the foyer structure. And like the others, the gateway passage was 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide.
• 30. (The foyers of the gateways leading into the inner courtyard were 8 3/4 feet deep and 43 3/4 feet wide.)
• 31. The foyer of the south gateway faced into the outer courtyard. It had palm tree decorations on its columns, and there were eight steps leading to its entrance.
• 32. Then he took me to the east gateway leading to the inner courtyard. He measured it and found that it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
• 33. Its guard alcoves, dividing walls, and foyer were the same size as those of the others, and there were windows along the walls and in the foyer structure. The gateway passage measured 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide.
• 34. Its foyer faced into the outer courtyard. It had palm tree decorations on its columns, and there were eight steps leading to its entrance.
• 35. Then he took me around to the north gateway leading to the inner courtyard. He measured it and found that it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
• 36. The guard alcoves, dividing walls, and foyer of this gateway had the same measurements as in the others and the same window arrangements. The gateway passage measured 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide.
• 37. Its foyer faced into the outer courtyard, and it had palm tree decorations on the columns. There were eight steps leading to its entrance.
• 38. A door led from the foyer of the inner gateway on the north side into a side room where the meat for sacrifices was washed before being taken to the altar.
• 39. On each side of this foyer were two tables, where the sacrificial animals were slaughtered for the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings.
• 40. Outside the foyer, on each side of the stairs going up to the north entrance, there were two more tables.
• 41. So there were eight tables in all, four inside and four outside, where the sacrifices were cut up and prepared.
• 42. There were also four tables of hewn stone for preparation of the burnt offerings, each 31 1/2 inches square and 21 inches high. On these tables were placed the butchering knives and other implements and the sacrificial animals.
• 43. There were hooks, each three inches long, fastened to the foyer walls and set on the tables where the sacrificial meat was to be laid.
• 44. Inside the inner courtyard there were two one-room buildings for the singers, one beside the north gateway, facing south, and the other beside the south gateway, facing north.
• 45. And the man said to me, "The building beside the north inner gate is for the priests who supervise the Temple maintenance.
• 46. The building beside the south inner gate is for the priests in charge of the altar--the descendants of Zadok--for they alone of all the Levites may approach the LORD to minister to him."
• 47. Then the man measured the inner courtyard and found it to be 175 feet square. The altar stood there in the courtyard in front of the Temple.
• 48. Then he brought me to the foyer of the Temple. He measured its supporting columns and found them to be 8 3/4 feet square. The entrance was 24 1/2 feet wide with walls 5 1/4 feet thick.
• 49. The depth of the foyer was 35 feet and the width was 19 1/4 feet. There were ten steps leading up to it, with a column on each side.

Ezekiel 41

• 1. After that, the man brought me into the Holy Place, the large main room of the Temple, and he measured the columns that framed its doorway. They were 10 1/2 feet square.
• 2. The entrance was 17 1/2 feet wide, and the walls on each side were 8 3/4 feet wide. The Holy Place itself was 70 feet long and 35 feet wide.
• 3. Then he went into the inner room at the end of the Holy Place. He measured the columns at the entrance and found them to be 3 1/2 feet thick. The entrance was 10 1/2 feet wide, and the walls on each side of the entrance extended 12 1/4 feet to the corners of the inner room.
• 4. The inner room was 35 feet square. "This," he told me, "is the Most Holy Place."
• 5. Then he measured the wall of the Temple and found that it was 10 1/2 feet thick. There was a row of rooms along the outside wall; each room was 7 feet wide.
• 6. These rooms were built in three levels, one above the other, with thirty rooms on each level. The supports for these rooms rested on ledges in the Temple wall, but the supports did not extend into the wall.
• 7. Each level was wider than the one below it, corresponding to the narrowing of the Temple wall as it rose higher. A stairway led up from the bottom level through the middle level to the top level.
• 8. I noticed that the Temple was built on a terrace, which provided a foundation for the side rooms. This terrace was 10 1/2 feet high.
• 9. The outer wall of the Temple's side rooms was 8 3/4 feet thick. This left an open area between these side rooms
• 10. and the row of rooms along the outer wall of the inner courtyard. This open area measured 35 feet in width, and it went all the way around the Temple.
• 11. Two doors opened from the side rooms into the terrace yard, which was 8 3/4 feet wide. One door faced north and the other south.
• 12. A large building stood on the west, facing the Temple courtyard. It was 122 1/2 feet wide and 157 1/2 feet long, and its walls were 8 3/4 feet thick.
• 13. Then the man measured the Temple, and he found it to be 175 feet long. The courtyard around the building, including its walls, was an additional 175 feet in length.
• 14. The inner courtyard to the east of the Temple was also 175 feet wide.
• 15. The building to the west, including its two walls, was also 175 feet wide. The Holy Place, the Most Holy Place, and the foyer of the Temple were all paneled with wood,
• 16. as were the frames of the recessed windows. The inner walls of the Temple were paneled with wood above and below the windows.
• 17. The space above the door leading into the Most Holy Place was also paneled.
• 18. All the walls were decorated with carvings of cherubim, each with two faces, and there was a palm tree carving between each of the cherubim.
• 19. One face--that of a man--looked toward the palm tree on one side. The other face--that of a young lion--looked toward the palm tree on the other side. The figures were carved all along the inside of the Temple,
• 20. from the floor to the top of the walls, including the outer wall of the Holy Place.
• 21. There were square columns at the entrance to the Holy Place, and the ones at the entrance of the Most Holy Place were similar.
• 22. There was an altar made of wood, 3 1/2 feet square and 5 1/4 feet high. Its corners, base, and sides were all made of wood. "This," the man told me, "is the table that stands in the LORD's presence."
• 23. Both the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place had double doorways,
• 24. each with two swinging doors.
• 25. The doors leading into the Holy Place were decorated with carved cherubim and palm trees just as on the walls. And there was a wooden canopy over the front of the Temple's foyer.
• 26. On both sides of the foyer there were recessed windows decorated with carved palm trees.

Ezekiel 42

• 1. Then the man led me out of the Temple courtyard by way of the north gateway. We entered the outer courtyard and came to a group of rooms against the north wall of the inner courtyard.
• 2. This group of structures, whose entrance opened toward the north, was 175 feet long and 87 1/2 feet wide.
• 3. One block of rooms overlooked the 35-foot width of the inner courtyard. Another block of rooms looked out onto the pavement of the outer courtyard. The two blocks were built three levels high and stood across from each other.
• 4. Between the two blocks of rooms ran a walkway 17 1/2 feet wide. It extended the entire 175 feet of the complex, and all the doors faced toward the north.
• 5. Each of the two upper levels of rooms was narrower than the one beneath it because the upper levels had to allow space for walkways in front of them.
• 6. Since there were three levels and they did not have supporting columns as in the courtyards, each of the upper levels was set back from the level beneath it.
• 7. There was an outer wall that separated the rooms from the outer courtyard; it was 87 1/2 feet long.
• 8. This wall added length to the outer block of rooms, which extended for only 87 1/2 feet, while the inner block--the rooms toward the Temple--extended for 175 feet.
• 9. There was an entrance from the outer courtyard to these rooms from the east.
• 10. On the south side of the Temple there were two blocks of rooms just south of the inner courtyard between the Temple and the outer courtyard. These rooms were arranged just like the rooms on the north.
• 11. There was a walkway between the two blocks of rooms just like the complex on the north side of the Temple. This complex of rooms was the same length and width as the other one, and it had the same entrances and doors. The dimensions of each were identical.
• 12. So there was an entrance in the wall facing the doors of the inner block of rooms, and another on the east at the end of the interior walkway.
• 13. Then the man told me, "These rooms that overlook the Temple from the north and south are holy. It is there that the priests who offer sacrifices to the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. And they will use these rooms to store the grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings because these rooms are holy.
• 14. When the priests leave the Holy Place, they must not go directly to the outer courtyard. They must first take off the clothes they wore while ministering because these clothes are holy. They must put on other clothes before entering the parts of the building complex open to the public."
• 15. When the man had finished taking these measurements, he led me out through the east gateway to measure the entire Temple area.
• 16. He measured the east side; it was 875 feet long.
• 17. He also measured the north side and got the same measurement.
• 18. The south side was the same length,
• 19. and so was the west side.
• 20. So the area was 875 feet on each side with a wall all around it to separate the holy places from the common.

New Living Translation: 292 of 324 days.