The division of the land

45 “ ‘When the land of Israel is divided among the twelve tribes, you must present to me, Yahweh, one part of the land to be a sacred district. It will be ◄8.3 miles/13.3 km.► long and ◄6.7 miles/10.6 km.► wide. That entire area will be ◄holy/set apart for me►. 2 Part of that area, ◄875 feet/265 meters► on each side, will be for the temple area. An additional strip of ground, ◄87-1/2 feet/26.5 meters► wide, will be left empty all around the temple area. 3 Inside that sacred district, measure a section ◄8.3 miles/13.3 km.► long and ◄3.5 miles/5.3 km.► wide. 4 That section will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests who work in the temple and who come near to me to serve me. It will be a place for their houses as well as being a holy place for the temple. 5 An area ◄8.3 miles/13.3 km.► long and ◄3.5 miles/5.3 km.► wide will be for the descendants of Levi who work in the temple. That area will belong to them, and they will be permitted to build cities there to live in.

6 Alongside that sacred area will be a section of land that is ◄8.3 miles/13.3 km.► long and ◄1.7 miles/2.65 km.► wide. It will be for a city where anyone in Israel [MTY] will be permitted to live.

7 The king will have two sections of land; one will be on the western side of the sacred district and other will be on the eastern side of the sacred district. The one on the western side will extend west to the Mediterranean Sea. The one on the eastern side will extend east to the eastern end of the country. The eastern and western borders of the king’s land will be next to the areas allotted to the tribes. 8 That land will be the land in Israel that belongs to the king. So, because the kings will have their own land, they will no longer need to oppress my people and steal land from them. They will assign the remaining parts of the land to the people, giving a part to each tribe.

9 This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: You kings of Israel must stop acting violently and oppressing the people! You must do what is fair and right [DOU]. Stop taking land from the people! 10 And you must use accurate scales, and accurate containers for measuring things. 11 The baskets for measuring dry things and containers for measuring liquids must be the same size; each must hold 175 quarts/liters. 12 When you weigh things, you must use weights that everyone accepts as being correct [MTY].’ ”