The Prophet Ezekiel

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 42 -

Then in the vision the man led me out of the inner courtyard, through the gate on the north side. We entered the outer courtyard and came to rooms that were facing the northern outer wall.

The building with those rooms was fifty-four meters long and twenty-seven meters wide.

In that building there was one group of rooms that faced the inner courtyard. The distance between those rooms and the sanctuary, the main temple building, was eleven meters. These rooms were built on three stories. Each set of rooms had a walkway over the set of rooms below it. There were rooms that overlooked the open area of the outer courtyard.

To one side of the rooms was a walkway that was five and two-fifths meters wide and fifty-four meters long. All the doors of the rooms were on their north side.

Each set of rooms was narrower than the set of rooms below them, because each upper sets had a walkway in front.

The rooms on the upper levels had no pillars to support them as there were in the courtyard, because those rooms were supported by the walls of the rooms below.

The outer wall ran parallel to the rooms that faced the outer courtyard; this part of the outer wall was twenty-seven meters long.

The row of rooms that was along the outer courtyard was twenty-seven meters long, and the row of rooms that faced the temple was fifty-four meters long.

The bottom story had an entrance on its east side, coming from the outer courtyard.

On the eastern side, along the outer wall of the outer courtyard, next to the temple courtyard, there was also a set of rooms.

There was a walkway in front of them. These rooms were like the rooms on the north side. They had the same length and width, and also the same kind of entrances.

There were also doorways into rooms on the south side that were similar to what was on the north side. There was an inside passage with an outer door; the passage had doors into all the rooms. At the east end of the passage was an outside door leading into it.

Then the man said to me, “The rooms on the northern and southern sides that overlook the temple sanctuary are only for Yahweh’s special purposes. Here the priests who offer sacrifices to Yahweh will eat their portions of those offerings. Because these rooms are special, they will be used to store the offerings for Yahweh: The flour for the flour offerings, for the offerings for the sins that people have committed, and for the offerings that people make for their sins.

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 holy place, because those clothes are special, reserved for their work. They must put on other clothes before they enter the parts of the temple area where the other people gather.”

The Outer Measurements

When the man had finished measuring the inside of the temple area, he led me out through the east entrance and measured all the surrounding area.

He measured the four sides of the area.

There was a wall around the area

that was two-hundred

and seventy meters long on each side.

He measured the wall that separated what was sacred from the areas that were not sacred on four sides. The wall was 250 meters long and 250 meters wide.

Then he brought me out into the outer court, the way toward the north. Then he brought me into the room that was opposite the separate place, and which was opposite the building toward the north.

Facing the length of one hundred cubits(a) was the north door, and the width was fifty cubits.

Opposite the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery in the three stories.

Before the rooms was a walk of ten cubits’ width inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors were toward the north.

Now the upper rooms were shorter; for the galleries took away from these more than from the lower and the middle in the building.

For they were in three stories, and they didn’t have pillars as the pillars of the courts. Therefore the uppermost was set back more than the lowest and the middle from the ground.

The wall that was outside by the side of the rooms, toward the outer court before the rooms, was fifty cubits long.

For the length of the rooms that were in the outer court was fifty cubits. Behold, those facing the temple were one hundred cubits.

From under these rooms was the entry on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court.

In the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, before the separate place, and before the building, there were rooms.

The way before them was like the appearance of the rooms which were toward the north. Their length and width were the same. All their exits had the same arrangement and doors.

Like the doors of the rooms that were toward the south was a door at the head of the way, even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one enters into them.

Then he said to me, “The north rooms and the south rooms, which are opposite the separate place, are the holy rooms, where the priests who are near to the LORD shall eat the most holy things. There they shall lay the most holy things, with the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy.

When the priests enter in, then they shall not go out of the holy place into the outer court until they lay their garments in which they minister there; for they are holy. Then they shall put on other garments, and shall approach that which is for the people.”

The Outer Measurements

Now when he had finished measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate which faces toward the east, and measured it all around.

He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around.

He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around.

He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, the length five hundred cubits, and the width five hundred cubits, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common.

Footnotes

(a)42:2 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.