Ezekiel 45

1 “‘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).

When you allocate the land ownership by lot, you are to make a provision for the Lord, a holy allocation of the land that measures 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits wide. This whole area is holy.

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.

Inside this there is the section for the sanctuary that measures 500 cubits square, with an open area around it 50 cubits wide.

3 Inside that sacred district, measure a section (8.3 miles/13.3 km.) long and (3.5 miles/5.3 km.) wide.

From this holy allocation, measure out a section that is 25,000 cubits by 10,000 cubits. This will contain the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

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.

This area is a holy allocation of the land which will be used by the priests who serve in the sanctuary, who come before the Lord to minister. It will be where they can live, and a holy place for the sanctuary.

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.

The other section measuring 25,000 cubits by 10,000 cubits will be assigned the Levites who work in the Temple where they can live.

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.

Allocate to the city an area 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long beside the sanctuary section. It is for the all the people of Israel.

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.

The prince will be assigned the territory on both sides of the area that includes the holy section and that of the city. It will extend to the western border of the country from the west side and to the eastern border from the east side, in the same way as the allocation 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.

This territory will be his to own in the country of Israel. My princes won't exploit my people anymore, and will make sure the people of Israel occupy the country according to their tribal allocations.

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!

This is what the Lord God says: You've done enough damage, princes of Israel! Stop using violence and mistreating people! Do what is good and right. Stop evicting people and stealing their property, declares the Lord God.

10 And you must use accurate scales, and accurate containers for measuring things.

You must use correct methods of measurement—whether it's weights on scales, or ephah for measuring solids, and a bath for measuring liquids.

11 The baskets for measuring dry things and containers for measuring liquids must be the same size; each must hold 175 quarts/liters.

The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity of volume. The bath will be equivalent to a tenth of a homer, and the ephah will also be equivalent to a tenth of a homer. The homer is to be the fundamental measurement.

12 When you weigh things, you must use weights that everyone accepts as being correct [MTY].’”

Twenty gerahs make one shekel. Sixty shekels make one mina.

13 “‘You must present to the king one bushel of wheat or barley for every 60 that you harvest.

These are the taxes you are to contribute: one sixth of an ephah from every homer of wheat or barley.

14 And you must give him one quart/liter of olive oil for every 100 quarts/liters that you make.

In the case of olive oil, one tenth of a bath from every cor. (The measurement is based on baths, and a cor consists of ten baths or one homer, since ten baths equal one homer.)

15 Also, I, Yahweh, declare that you must take one sheep from each 200 sheep in your flocks in the pastures of Israel. Those things that you take to the king will be used with the offerings of things made from grain and for the offerings that will be completely burned and the offerings to maintain fellowship with me, offerings in order for me to forgive you for the sins that you have committed.

In addition one sheep is to be supplied from every flock of two hundred from the green pastures of Israel. These are to provide for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to set the people right, declares the Lord God.

16 All the Israeli people must join in bringing those offerings to the king of Israel.

Everyone in the country has to make these contributions to the prince in Israel.

17 The king must provide the animals to be completely burned on the altar, grain for the grain offerings, and wine for the wine offerings for the sacred festivals that I have appointed for the people of Israel—including the festivals to celebrate each new moon and the Sabbaths. He must provide [the animals for] the offerings for the people to become acceptable to me, grain for the grain offerings, animals to be completely burned [on the altar], and offerings to maintain fellowship with me, Yahweh, in order that I will forgive the Israeli people for their sins.

The prince's role is to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the religious festivals, New Moons, and Sabbaths—in fact for all the regular religious festivals of the people of Israel. He is to provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings to set the people of Israel right.

18 This is also what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare: On the first day of the first month [of each year] you must take one young bull that has no defects and [sacrifice it to] cause the temple to be acceptable to me.

This is what the Lord God says: On the first day of the first month you are to sacrifice a young bull that has no defects to purify the sanctuary.

19 The [Supreme] Priest must take some of the blood of the offering to cause people to become acceptable to me, and smear it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar, and on the entry posts of the inner courtyard.

The priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar, and on the gateposts of the inner courtyard.

20 He must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for any people who sin without intending to sin or without realizing that what they did is sinful. By doing that you will purify the temple.

You are also to do this on the seventh day of the month on behalf of anyone who does wrong unintentionally or in ignorance. By doing this you purify the Temple.

21 In the first month of each year, on the 14th day of the month, you must start to celebrate the Passover Festival. The festival will last for seven days. During that time you must not eat bread made with yeast.

You are to keep the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. This is a religious festival that lasts seven days, during which time bread made without yeast is to be eaten.

22 On the first day, the king must provide a bull to be an offering for himself and for the all the other people of the country.

On that day the prince will provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for everyone on the country.

23 And every day during those seven days he must provide seven young bulls and seven rams that have no defects, to be an offering for the people’s sins.

Every day for the seven days of the festival, he will provide seven bulls and seven rams without defects as a burnt offering to the Lord, together with a male goat for a sin offering.

24 He must also provide a half bushel of grain to be an offering, and also four quarts of olive oil, for each bill and ram.

He will also provide an ephah of grain and a hin of olive oil as an offering to accompany each bull and each ram.

25 During the seven days of the festival [of Living in Temporary Shelters], which starts on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of each year, the king must provide the same things for offerings for the people’s sins, for offerings to be completely burned, for grain offerings, and the same amount of olive oil that he provided each day [during the Passover Festival].’”

For the seven days of the festival that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he is to provide the same number of sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and olive oil.