Open English Translation EZE Chapter 40

40 In mid-April of the twenty-fifth year of our captivity (the fourteenth year after Yerushalem was captured), Yahweh used his power to take me there, 2 yes, God took me to Yisrael in visions. He put me on a very high mountain where there seemed to be city buildings towards the south,[ref] 3 and he took me there. Then wow, there was a man standing in the city gateway who looked like bronze! He was holding a linen cord and a measuring rod.[ref]

4 The man told me, “Humanity’s child, look with your eyes and listen with your ears, and fix your mind on everything that I’m revealing to you, because you were brought here so I could reveal them to you. Report everything you see here to the Israeli people.”

5 There was a wall surrounding the temple area. The measuring rod in the man’s hand was just over three metres long. (It was six long cubits—each long cubit was a cubit long plus a handbreadth.) So he measured the wall, and it was one measuring rod thick and one high.[ref] 6 Then he went to the temple gate that faced east. He went up its steps and measured the gate’s threshold—one rod across. 7 The guard chambers were each one rod long and deep, and just under three metres wide. The temple gate threshold by the temple porch was one rod across. 8 He measured the porch inside the gate and it was one rod long, 9 and the porch over the gate was one rod deep. The doorposts were each a metre wide. (This was the porch at the gate facing the temple.) 10 There were three guard chambers on either side of the east gate, and each of them was the same size, and the walls that separated them were the same size.

11 Then the man measured the width of the gateway entrance and it was five metres, and the length of the gateway entrance was almost seven metres. 12 He measured the wall that ran along the front of the chambers at half a metre high. The chambers measured three metres on each side. 13 Then he measured the gateway from the roof of one chamber to that of the next chamber, and it was thirteen metres from the entrance of the first chamber to that of the second. 14 Then he measured the wall that went between the guard chambers, and it was over thirty metres long as far as the gate’s porch. 15 The entrance from the front of the gate to the other end of the gate’s porch was twenty-seven metres. 16 There were closed windows facing the chambers and toward their pillars within the gates all around, and likewise for the porches. There were windows all around the inside, and each of the door jambs was decorated with carvings of palm trees.

17 Then the man brought me to the outer courtyard of the temple. Look, there were rooms, and the courtyard was paved, with thirty rooms next to the pavement. 18 The pavement reached to the side of the gates, and its width was the same as the gates’ length. That was the lower pavement. 19 Then the man measured the distance from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner gate: it was just over fifty metres on the eastern side, and the same on the northern side.

20 Then he measured the length and width of the gate that was at the northern end of the outer courtyard. 21 There were three chambers on each side of that gate, and the gate with its porch measured the same as the main gate: twenty-seven metres long and thirteen metres wide. 22 Its windows, porch, chambers, and its palm trees matched the eastern gate. Seven steps went up to it and to its porch. 23 There was a gate to the inner courtyard in front of the northern gate, just as there was at the eastern gate. The man measured from one gate to the other gate, and it was fifty-four metres.

24 Next the man took me to the gateway at the southern entrance, and its walls and porch measured the same as the other outer gates. 25 There were closed windows in the gateway and its porch just like the other gates. The southern gate with its porch was twenty-seven metres long and thirteen metres wide. 26 There were seven steps up to the gate and its porch, and carvings of palm trees on the walls on each side. 27 There was a gate to the inner courtyard on the southern side, and the man measured fifty-four metres from that gate to the gate at the southern entrance.

28 Then the man brought me to the inner courtyard by way of its southern gate, which had the same measurements as the other gates. 29 Its chambers, walls, and porches measured the same as the other gates—there were windows all around in the porch. The inner gate with its porch was twenty-seven metres long and thirteen metres wide. 30 There were also porches all around the inner wall—they were all thirteen metres long and almost three metres wide. 31 The porch facing the outer courtyard had carved palm trees on its walls, and eight steps going up to it.

32 Then the man brought me to the inner courtyard by the eastern side and measured the gate, which had the same measurements as the other gates. 33 Its chambers, walls, and porches measured the same as the other gates, and there were windows all around. The inner gate with its porch was twenty-seven metres long and thirteen metres wide. 34 Its porch that faced the outer courtyard had carved palm trees on each side of it, and eight steps going up it.

35 Next the man brought me to the northern gate and measured it, and it measured the same as the other gates. 36 Its chambers, walls, and porch measured the same as the other gates, and there were windows all around. The gateway with its porch was twenty-seven metres long and thirteen metres wide. 37 Its porch that faced the outer courtyard had carved palm trees on each side of it, and eight steps going up it.

38 There was a room with a door by each of the inner gateways which was where they rinsed the burnt offerings. 39 There were two tables on each side of each porch, which were for slaughtering the offerings: the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. 40 By the wall of the courtyard, going up to the gate to the north, there were two tables. Also on the other side there were two tables at the gate’s porch. 41 There were four tables by the gate on each side—they slaughtered animals on those eight tables. 42 There were four cut-stone tables for the burnt offerings, each just under a metre long and wide, and standing half a metre tall. They kept the tools which they used to slaughter the burnt offerings for the sacrifices on those stone tables. 43 Some two-pronged hooks a handbreadth in length were fastened all around in the porch, and the flesh of the offerings would be put on the tables.

44 Within the inner courtyard but on the outside of the inner gate were singers’ rooms—one on the northern side facing south, and the other on the southern side facing north. 45 Then the man told me, “This room facing south is for the priests who are on duty in the temple. 46 The room facing north is for the priests on duty at the altar, that is, for Tsadok’s descendants—they’re the only Levites who approach Yahweh to serve him.”

47 Next he measured the square courtyard at fifty-four metres long and wide, with the altar in front of the temple.

48 Then the man took me to the temple porch and measured its doorposts—they were each two and a half metres thick. The entryway itself was seven metres wide,[fn] and the walls on each side of it were one and a half metres wide. 49 The porch was eleven metres wide and six metres deep, with steps going up to it and pillars standing on each side of it.