The Temple Plan

40 In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was taken, on that very day, the hand of Jehovah was laid upon me, and he brought me 2 in an inspired vision to the land of Israel, and set me down upon a very high mountain, on which was a city-like building toward the south. 3 Thither he brought me, and there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze, with a flaxen Hue and a measuring reed in his hand; and he was standing in the gateway. 4 And the man said to me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and give heed to all that I shall show thee; for, in order that thou shouldst be shown it wert thou brought hither; declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.

5 There was a wall encircling a temple, and in the man’s hand a measuring reed six cubits long, each cubit being equal to a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and the height one reed.

6 Then he came to the east gateway and went up its steps and measured East the threshold of the gate one reed wide. 7 And each guard-room was one reed long, and one reed broad; and between the guard-rooms were spaces of five cubits; and the threshold of the gate at the vestibule of the gate on the inner side was one reed. 9 Then he measured the vestibule of the gate, eight cubits, and its jambs, two cubits; and the vestibule of the gate was on the inner side. 10 the guard-rooms of the east gate were three on each side; all three were of the same dimensions; and the posts were on both sides. 11 And he measured the breadth of the entrance to the gateway, ten cubits; and the width of the gate, thirteen cubits; 12 and there was a sill one cubit wide, before the guard-rooms on each side; and the guard-rooms, six cubits on both sides.

13 And he measured the gate from the outer wall of the one guard-room to the the outer wall of the other, twenty -five cubits wide; door opposite door. 14 He also measured the vestibule, twenty cubits; and the court reached to the jambs, round about the gateway. 15 And from the front of the gateway at the entrance to the front of the inner vestibule of the gate were fifty cubits.

16 And the guard-rooms and their jambs had windows, within the gate round about, and likewise the vestibule had windows round about within; and on each jamb were palm-trees.

17 Then he brought me into the outer court, and there were chambers and a pavement made round about the court; thirty chambers were upon the pavement. 18 And the pavement was on the side of the gateways; it corresponded to the length of the gateways, that is, the lower pavement. 19 Then he measured the breadth from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner court without, one hundred cubits on the east and on the north.

20 And the north gateway of the outer court, he measured its length and breadth, 21 And there were three guard-rooms on each side; and its jambs and its vestibules corresponded to the measurement of the first gate; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty cubits. 22 And its windows and its vestibules and its palm trees measured the same as those of the east gate; and seven steps led up to it; its vestibule was within. 23 And there was a gate to the inner court opposite the north gate, corresponding to the one on the east; and he measured from gate to gate one hundred cubits.

24 And he led me toward the south; and he measured its guard-rooms and its jambs and its vestibule; they were of the same dimensions as the others. 25 And there were windows in it and in its vestibule round about corresponding to the other windows; the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits, 26 And seven steps led up to it, and its vestibule was within; and it had palm-trees, one on each side of its jambs. 27 And there was a gate to the inner court on the south; and he measured from gate to gate toward the south a hundred cubits.

28 Then he brought me to the inner court at the south gateway; and he measured the south gateway; it measured the same as the others; 29 its guard-rooms, and posts and vestibule were of the same dimensions as way the preceding; and there were windows in it and in its vestibule round about; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 31 And its vestibule faced the outer court; and there were palm-trees beside its posts; and the ascent to it had eight steps.

32 And he brought me to the east side of the inner court; and he measured the gateway; it measured the same as the others; 33 and its guard-rooms and posts and vestibules were of the same dimensions as the preceding; and there were windows in it and in the vestibule round about; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34 And its vestibule faced the outer court; and there were beside its palm-trees posts, one on each side; and the ascent to it had eight steps.

35 Then he brought me to the north gateway; and he measured the gateway; it measured the same as the others. 36 And its guard-rooms and posts and vestibules were of the same dimensions as the preceding; and there were windows in it and in the vestibule round about; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide, 27 And its vestibule faced the outer court; and there were beside its palm-trees posts, one on each side; and the ascent to it had eight steps.

38 And there was a chamber with its opening into the vestibule of the gateway; there they washed the burnt-offering. 29 And in the vestibule of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which were slain the burnt-offerings and the sin-offerings and the guilt-offerings. 40 And outside the entrance to the gateway on the north, were two tables. 41 There were four within and four without the gateway; eight tables, upon which the burnt-offerings were slain. 42 There were also four tables for the burnt-offering, of hewn stone, each a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and a cubit high; on which they laid the instruments wherewith the burnt-offerings and the sacrificial animals were slain, 43 and projections, one handbreadth in length, were fastened within round about. And over the tables were protecting roofs to keep off the rain and the hot sun.

44 He brought me outside the gate and into the inner court, and there were two chambers on the inner court, one by the north gate, facing the south, the other by the south gate facing the north. 45 And he said to me, This chamber, which faces the south, is for the priests, who have charge of the temple; 46 and the chamber which faces the north is for the priests who have charge of the altar; they are the sons of Zadok, those of the sons of Levi who may come near to Jehovah to serve him. 47 And he measured the court, a hundred cubits wide, and a hundred cubits broad—a perfect square. The altar was in front of the temple.

48 Then he brought me to the porch of the temple, and meas- ured the jambs of the porch on each side, five cubits in thickness, and the width of the gate was fourteen cubits and the pillars of the gate were three cubits thick on each side. 49 The dimensions of the porch were twenty by twelve cubits; and the ascent was by ten steps; and there were pillars by the jambs on each side.

41 Then he brought me to the hall of the temple and measured the jambs, six cubits broad on each side. 2 And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side; and he measured its length, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits.

3 Then went into the inner room and measured the jambs of its entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the side-walls of the entrance, seven cubits on each side. 4 And he measured its length, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, before the hall of the temple. And he said to me, This is the most holy place.

15 And the hall of the temple, and the inner room and its porch were paneled, 16 and the windows latticed and covered. And the galleries round about on their three stories, opposite the threshold, were ceiled with wood round about, from the ground up to the windows, 17 and from the door to the inner room and without. And on all the wall round about within and without were drawings 18 and carved cherubim and palm-trees, there being a palm-tree between every two cherubim. 19 And each cherub had two faces; the face of a man turned toward the palm-tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion turned toward the palm-tree on the other side; they were carved on all the temple round about. 20 From the ground to the top of the door were carved cherubim and palm-trees. The wall of the hall of the temple had 21 pilasters. And before the holy place was something that looked like 22 an altar of wood, three cubits high, and two cubits in thickness and two cubits in width; and its corners, and its base and walls were of wood. And he said to me, This is the table that stands before Jehovah. 23 And the base of the temple and the holy place had two doors. 24 And each door had turning leaves; two for each door. 25 Cherubim and palm-trees were carved on them, as on the walls; and there was a threshold in front of the porch without. 26 And there were closed windows and palm-trees on both sides of the porch; thus were the side-chambers of the temple and the thresholds.

5 Then he measured the thickness of the wall of the temple, six cubits; and the width of the side-chambers, four cubits, round about the temple on every side. 6 And the side-chambers were in three stories, one above another, and thirty in each story; and there were abatements all around the walls of the temple that the side-chambers might be fastened to them and not in the walls of the temple. 7 And the side-chambers became wider as they went up higher and higher, for the temple grew narrower higher and higher up round about the temple; and there was an ascent from the lowest story to the highest by the middle story. 8 And I also saw that the temple had a raised platform round about; the foundations of the side- chambers were a full reed in height, that is, six great cubits. 9 The thickness of the outer wall of the side-chambers, was five cubits; and the space left between the side-chambers that belonged to the temple 10 and the outer chambers was twenty cubits wide round about the temple on each side. 11 And the doors of the side-chambers were toward the open space, one door toward the north and another door toward the south; and the width of the open space of the platform was five cubits round about.

12 And the building that faced the enclosure on the west was seventy cubits wide; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and its length ninety cubits. 13 So he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; and the enclosure, and the building, with its walls, a hundred cubits long; 14 also the width of the front of the temple, with the eastern enclosure was one hundred cubits. 15 And he measured the length of the building in front of the rear enclosure, its galleries on both sides, one hundred cubits.

42 Then he brought me forth into the outer court on the north; and he brought me to the chamber which faced the enclosure and the building on the north. 2 One hundred cubits was its length on the north side,” and the width was fifty cubits. 3 Opposite the space of twenty cubits which belonged to the inner court, and the raised platform which belonged to the outer court, was a gallery on each side in three tiers. 4 And in front of the chambers was a passage-way to the inner court, ten cubits wide and one hundred! cubits long; and their doors were on the north. 5 The upper chambers were smaller, for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the middle chambers in the building; 6 that is, they were in three stories, and had no pillars like the pillars of the outer courts; therefore the upper was smaller than the lowest and middle chambers. 7 And the outer wall by the side of the chambers along the outer court in front of the chambers was fifty cubits long; 8 that is, the length of the chambers in the outer court was fifty cubits, while in front of it was one hundred cubits. 9 Below these chambers was the entry on the east side, as one approached them from the outer court; 10 at the beginning of the outer wall on the south, in front of the enclosure and the a eenet were chambers, 11 with the passage-way before them; they were similar to the chambers on the north; of the same length and width, the same exits and arrangements, and with their doors on the south. 12 There was a door at the beginning of the passage-way, directly in front of the wall on the east, as one approached them.

13 Then said he to me, the north and south chambers are the sacred chambers, where the priests who approach Jehovah shall eat the most holy things; there they shall deposit the most holy things, the cereal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the guilt-offering, for the place is holy.

15 Having finished the measurement of the inner temple he brought me by way of the east gate, and measured it round about. 16 He measured on the east side five hundred cubits, with the measuring reed round about. 17 He measured on the north side five hundred cubits by the measuring reed round about. 18 He measured on the south side five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. 19 Then he turned to the west side and meas- ured five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. 20 He measured it on the four sides; and it had a wall round about, five hundred cubits in length and five hundred cubits in width, to separate between the sacred and the common.

43 Then he brought me to the east gate. 2 And behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the east; and his voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with his glory. 3 And the vision which I saw was like that which I saw when he came to destroy the city; and the visions were like that which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. 4 Then the glory of Jehovah came into the temple by the east gate. 5 And the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of Jehovah filled the temple.

6 Then I heard one speaking to me from the temple, as One stood by me. 7 And he said to me, O man, this is the place of my throne, and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the Israelites forever. And the house of Israel, they and their kings, shall no more defile my holy nameY with their idolatry and with the corpses of their kings 8 by placing their thresholds by my threshold, and their door-posts beside my door-post, with only a wall between me and them, thus defiling my holy name by the abominations which they have committed; therefore I have destroyed them in mine anger. 9 Now let them put away their idolatry, and the corpses of their kings, far from me, that I may dwell in the midst of them forever.

10 Do thou, O man, show the house of Israel the temple, its appearance and its pattern, 11 that they may be ashamed of all that they have done, describe to them the temple and its construction, its exits and its entrances and its form, and make known to them all its ordinances and laws; and write it down in their sight, that they may take heed to perform all its forms and ordinances. 12 This is the law of the temple: on the top of the mountain its whole territory shall be sacred. Behold, this is the law of the temple.

13 And these are the measurements of the altar in cubits of a cubit and a handbreadth: the base shall be a cubit high, one cubit wide, with a border around its edge about a span wide; and this shall be the height of the altar: 14 from the foundation base to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the width one cubit; and from the smaller ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the width one cubit. 15 And the alter hearth shall be four cubits high; and above the hearth shall be four horns, one cubit high. 16 And the altar hearth shall be twelve cubits square. 17 And the ledge shall be fourteen cubits square; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the base one cubit wide round about. Its steps shall face the east.

18 Then he said to me, O man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: “These are the regulations for the altar in the day when it is completed, ‘In order that burnt-offerings may be offered and blood sprinkled on it, 19 thou shalt give to the priests the Levites who are of the family of Zadok, who approach to serve me,’ saith the Lord Jehovah, ‘a young bullock as a sin-offering. 20 And they shall take some of its blood, and put it on the four horns, and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border round about; thus shall they cleanse it and make atonement for it. 21 They shall also take the bullock of the sin-offering, and it shall be burnt in the appointed place outside the temple. 22 And on the second day they shall offer a male goat without blemish as a sin-offering, and shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bullock. 23 °When they have made an end of cleansing it, they shall offer a young bullock and a ram from the flock without blemish. 24 And they shall present them before Jehovah, and the priests shall sprinkle salt upon them and they shall offer them as a burnt-offering to Jehovah. 25 Seven days shalt thou provide daily a goat as a sin-offering;) they shall also provide a young bullock, and a ram from the flock, without blemish. 26 For seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and purify and consecrate it. 27 At the end of these days, on the eighth day and thereafter, the priests shall present your burnt-offerings and your peace-offerings upon the altar; and I will accept you,’ saith the Lord Jehovah.”

44 Then he took me back to the outer eastern gate of the sanct- uary, and it was closed. 2 Then he said to me, This gate shall remain closed; it shall not be opened, and none shall enter by it; for Jehovah the God of Israel hath entered by it, therefore it shall remain closed. 3 As for the prince he may sit therein? to eat bread in the presence of Jehovah; he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and by the same way shall he go out.

4 Then he took me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; and I looked and behold, the glory of Jehovah filled the temple. And I fell on my face. 5 And Jehovah said to me, O man, give heed, see with thine eyes and hear with thine ears all that I tell thee regarding the regulations of the temple of Jehovah and all its laws, and observe carefully how to enter the temple by all of the exits of the sanctuary. 6 Say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, "Enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel, ‘in that ye have brought foreigners, neither consecrated in heart nor flesh, to be in my sanctuary to profane it,°when ye offered me bread, fat and blood; thus ye have broken my covenant, with all your abominations! 8 And ye have not taken charge of my holy things but ye have set them as keepers in charge of my sanctuary.’ ”

9 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, ’No foreigner, consecrated neither in heart nor flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the Israelites, shall enter my sanctuary. 10 But those Levites who went far from me, when Is- rael went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, shall bear their guilt. 11 Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple, and ministering in the temple, they shall slay the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them and minister to them. 12 Since they were wont to minister to them before their idols, and were a stumbling-block of iniquity to the house of Israel; therefore I have taken a solemn oath against them,” is the oracle of the Lord Jehovah, “and they shall bear their guilt. 13 And they shall not approach me to act as priests to me, so as to come near any of my sacred things, or to those which are most sacred; but they shall bear their shame and the punishment for the abominations which they have committed; 14 Iwill make them responsible for the care of the temple, for all its service, and for all that shall be done therein.

15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who took charge of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer to me fat and blood,” is the oracle of the Lord Jehovah. 16 “They shall enter my sanctuary, and they shall approach near to my table to minister to me, and they shall keep my charge. 17 When they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen garments, but they shall have on no wool while they are officiating in the gates of the inner court and in the temple. 18 They shall have linen turbans upon their heads and linen breeches on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat. 19 But when they go forth to the outer court to the people, they shall put off the garments in which they were officiating, and lay them in the sacred chambers; and they shall put on other garments, that they may not sanctify the people with their garments. 20 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their hair to grow long; they shall cut off their hair. 21 None of the priests shall drink wine, when they enter the inner court. 22 Neither shall they marry a widow nor a divorced woman, but only Israelitish virgins or the widow of a priest.

23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the sacred and the common, and instruct them how to discern between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in a controversy they shall act as judges, judging it acording to my ordinances. And they shall keep my laws and my statutes and in all my appointed feasts; and they shall maintain the sanctity of my sabbaths.

25 And they shall not approach a dead person to defile themselves; except in the case of a father, or a mother, or a son, or a daughter, or brother, or unmarried sister. 26 And after his defilement, a priest shall be given seven days. 27 And on the day that he goeth into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin-offering,” is the oracle of the Lord Jehovah.

28 And they shall have not inheritance; I am their inheritance; and ye shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession. 29 They shall eat the cereal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the guilt-offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30 And the best of all the firstfruits of every thing, and every contribution of every thing, of all your contribu- tions, shall belong to the priest; ye shall also give to the priests the best of your dough, that a blessing may rest on thy household. 31 The priests shall not eat of any thing that dieth a natural death or hath been mangled, whether it be bird or beast.

45 When ye allot the land as inheritance, ye shall offer as a special gift® to Jehovah, a sacred portion of the land, five thousand cubits long, and twenty thousand cubits wide; it shall be sacred throughout its entire extent. 3 And out of this area shalt thou measure off a space twenty- five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide, and on it shall the sanctuary, the most holy stand. 4 It is a holy portion of the land; it shall belong to the priests who are the ministers in the sanctuary, who draw near to minister to Jehovah; and it shall be a place for their houses, and an open space for the sanctuary. Out of this a square of five hundred cubits shall be for the sanctuary, with an open space fifty cubits wide around it. 5 And a space twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide shall belong to the Levites, the ministers of the temple; their possession shall it be for cities in which to dwell.

6 And as the possession of the city, ye shall assign a space five thousand cubits wide, and twenty-five thousand long, bende the sacred reservation; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel. 7 And the prince shall have the space on both sides of the sacred reservation and the possession of the city, facing the sacred reservation and the possession of the city, on the west and on the east, and of the same length as one of the portions of the tribes, from the west border to the the east border 8 of the land. It shall be his possession in Israel; and the princes of Israel shall no more oppress my people, but shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

9 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Enough, O princes of Israel ! Put away violence and oppression, and practice justice and righteousness! Free my people from your robberies, is the oracle of the Lord Jehovah. 10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. 11 The ephahY and the bath shall be of one measure; the bath shall contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer; the homer shall be the standard of measurement. 12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; five shekels shall be valued as five shekels, and ten as ten, and your maneh shall be fifty shekels.

13 This is the contribution that ye shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah out of every homer of wheat; and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah out of every homer of barley; 14 and the fixed proportion of oil, shall be the tenth part of a bath out of every cor, the cor being ten baths; 15 and one lamb out of a flock of two hundred, from all the families of Israel, as a cereal-offering, and a burnt-offering, and peace-offerings, to make atone- ment for them, saith the Lord Jehovah. 16 All the people of the land shall contribute to this special gift for the prince in Israel. 17 And it shall be the prince”s part to give the burnt-offerings, and the cereal-offerings, and the libations at the feasts, and on the new moons, and on the sabbaths, at all the feast days of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin-offering, and the cereal-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.

21 Tn the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall observe the feast of the passover; seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 On that day the prince shall provide for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock as a sin-offering; 23 and during the seven days of the feast he shall provide a burnt-offering for Jehovah, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish; and a male goat daily as a sin-offering. 24 And he shall provide a cereal-offering, an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and of oil a hin to an ephah. 25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, shall he do the same during the seven days, for the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, the cereal-offering, and for the oil.

46 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The east gate of the inner court shall be shut during the six working days; but on the sabbath day, and on the day of the new moon it shall be open. 2 And the prince shall enter from without by the vestibule of the gate, and shall stand by the door-post of the gate; and the priests shall prepare his burnt-offering and his peace-offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate, ana then go out; but the gate shall not be shut until evening. 3 And the people of the fined shall worship at the door of that gate before Jehovah on the sabbaths and on the new moons. 4 And the burnt-offering which the prince shall offer to Jehovah on the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and one ram without blemish; ®the cereal-offering being an ephah to a ram, and for the lambs as he is able to give, and of oil a hin to an ephah.

6 And on the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish and six lambs, and a ram, without blemish; 7 and he shall prepare a cereal-offering, an ephah for the bullock, and an ephah for the ram, and for the lambs as he is able, and of oil a hin to an ephah.

8 And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go forth by the same way. 9 But when the people of the land shall come before Jehovah in the feast days, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate; and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate; none shall return by the gate at which ie came in, but shall go out straight ahead. 10 The prince shall go in with them, when they go in, and go out, when they go forth.

11 And on the feast days and the festivals the cereal-offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and for the lambs as he is able to give, and of oil a hin to an ephah. 12 And when the prince shall prepare a voluntary-offering, a burnt-offering or peace-offerings as a voluntary-offering to Jehovah, the east gate shall be opened for him, and he shall present he burnt-offering and his peace-offerings, as he doth on the sabbath day; then he shall go out; and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut.

13 And he shall provide daily a lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt-offering to Jehovah;! each morning shall he provide it. 14 And he shall provide as a cereal-offering with it each morning the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of a hin of oil, to moisten the fine meal, as a cereal-offering to Jehovah by a perpetual ordinance. 15 Thus shall he provide the lamb, and the cereal-offering, and the oil, each morning, as a regular burnt-offering.

16 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, If the prince make a gift to any of his sons, out of his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance. 17 But if he make a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of release; then it shall revert to the prince; but as for his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. 18 Moreover the prince shall not take of the people”s inheritance so as to deprive them by force of their possession; he shall give an inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that none of my people be scattered from his possession.

19 Then he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the priests” sacred chamber on the north; and there was a place on the extreme western side. 20 And he said to me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt-offering and the sin-offering, and bake the cereal-offering, so as not to bring them out into the outer court, thereby making the people sacred. 21 Then he brought me into the outer court, and made me pass by the four corners of the court; and there in each corner of the court was a court. 22 In the four corners of the court there were small° courts forty cubits long and thirty cubits wide; these four in the corners were of the same size. 23 And there was a row of stones round about each of the four, and places for boiling were constructed beneath the row of stones round about. 24 Then he said to me, These are the houses where the ministers of the temple shall boil the sacrifice of the people.

47 Then he brought me to the door of the temple and there was water issuing from under the threshold of the temple eastward—the temple faced the east—and the water came down on the south side of the temple, to the south side of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out by the way of the north gate, and led me around outside to the eastern outer gate; and there water was flowing on the south side.

3 As the man went forth eastward with the line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through waters, ankle-deep. 4 Again he measured a thousand cubits, and caused me to pass through waters, knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand cubits, and caused me to pass through waters, hip-deep. 5 Afterward he measured a thousand cub- its; and it was a river through which I could not pass, for the waters were deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be forded.

6 And he said to me, Seest thou, O man? Then he brought me back to the bank of the river. 7 Now when I had returned, there on the bank of the river were very many trees on both sides. 8 Then he said to me, These waters issue forth toward the eastern region, and shall descend to the Arabah; and they shall go to the Dead Sea into the salt waters; which waters shall be made fresh. 9 Every living creature which swarmeth, in every place whither the river cometh, shall live; and the fish shall be very many.t 10 Fishers shall stand by it from Engedi even to En-eglaim; it shall be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish shall be like the fish of the Great Sea, exceeding many. 11 But its marshes and pools shall not be made fresh; they shall be left for salt. 12 And by the bank of the river on both sides shall grow every kind of tree which furnisheth food; their leaves shall not wither, neither shall their fruit fail; every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for their waters issue from the sanctuary, and their fruit shall be for food and their leaves for healing.

13 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, This is the border, whereby ye shall allot the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 14 Ye shall share it equally, for I swore to give it to your fathers, and this land shall fall to you as your inheritance.

15 And this is the border of the land on the north: From the Great Sea¥ by* Hethlon, to the entrance of 16 Hamath, as far as Zedad, Berothah, and Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and Hamath; and to Hazerenon, which is on the border of Hauran; 17 thus the border shall run from the sea to Hazarenon, so that the territory of Damascus is on the north on the border of Hamath. This is the northern border.

18 On the east: Between Hauran, Damascus and Gilead and the land of Israel, shall be the Jordan; from the northern border to the eastern sea shall ye measure. This is the eastern border.

19 On the south: From Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, and to the Great Sea. This is the southern border.

20 On the west: The Great Sea from the southern border to a point opposite the entrance of Hamath. This is the western border.

21 Thus ye shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribe of Israel. 22 Ye shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and the aliens residing among you, who have begotten children among you; and they shall be reckoned with you as the native-born among the Israelites; they shall be assigned a portion with you among the tribes of Israel. 23 And ye shall give the alien his portion in the land in which he dwells, saith the Lord Jehovah.