Description of Rooms for the Priests

42 And he brought me out to the outer courtyard to the north,[fn] and he brought me to the chamber which was opposite the courtyard and which is opposite the building to the north. 2 As to[fn] the face of the length of the building with the doorway to the north, it was a hundred cubits,[fn] and its[fn] width was fifty cubits.[fn] 3 Opposite the twenty cubits of the inner courtyard,[fn] and opposite the pavement that was to the outer courtyard was a gallery facing[fn] a gallery in the three stories. 4 And in front of[fn] the chambers was a passageway ten cubits[fn] in width toward the inside, a walkway of one cubit,[fn] and their doorways were to the north. 5 And the upper chambers narrowed, for the galleries took away space from them more than they took from the lower levels and more than they took from the middle level in the building. 6 For they[fn] were three stories and they had no pillars[fn] like[fn] the pillars of[fn] the courtyards; therefore they were smaller than the lower stories and than the middle stories from the ground up. 7 And there was a wall that was to the outside alongside[fn] the chambers on the walkway to[fn] the outer courtyard[fn] in front of[fn] the chambers; its length was fifty[fn] cubits.[fn] 8 For[fn] the length of the chambers which were to the outer courtyard was fifty[fn] cubits,[fn] and look![fn] The chambers on the front of the temple were a hundred[fn] cubits.[fn] 9 And from under these chambers was the entrance[fn] from the east for them when one enters[fn] from the outer courtyard.

10 All along the width of the wall of the courtyard eastward[fn] in front of the courtyard to the front of the building were chambers. 11 And a walkway was before them[fn] like the appearance of the chambers which were on the north,[fn] just like them in their length, and so was their width and all their exits, and they were built like their arrangements and like their doorways, 12 and like the doorways of the chambers which were on the way of the south was a doorway at the head of the way[fn] before the stone wall, projecting[fn] on[fn] the way of the east at their coming.[fn]

13 And he said to me, “The chambers of the north and the chambers of the south which are before[fn] the courtyard, they are the holy chambers[fn] in which the priests, who are near to Yahweh, will eat the most holy objects.[fn] There they shall put the most holy objects,[fn] and the grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering, for the place is holy. 14 When the priests enter,[fn] then they shall not go out from the sanctuary to the outer courtyard; and there they must put[fn] their garments in which they serve because they are holy. They must put on other garments and then they may approach the area that is for the people.

15 And he completed the measurements of the inner temple, and he brought me to the walkway of the gate that faces toward the east[fn] and he measured it all the way around.[fn] 16 He measured the east side with the reed[fn] for[fn] measuring, five hundred cubits,[fn] with respect to reeds with the reed for measurement, he measured it all around. 17 He measured the north side as five hundred cubits, with respect to reeds with the reed for measurement all around. 18 Then he measured the south side as five hundred cubits, with respect to reeds with the reed for measurement. 19 He went around the west side[fn] and he measured five hundred cubits, with respect to reeds with the reed for measurement. 20 Toward the four sides[fn] he measured it; there was a wall for it all the way around.[fn] Its length was five hundred cubits[fn] and its width was five hundred cubits, in order to make a separation between what is holy and what is common.