Isaiah 49:23, Ezekiel 44:1-46:24 - LSB - Legacy Standard Bible

Ezekiel 44:1-46:24

The Gate of the Prince

Then He brought me back by the way of the ^aouter gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut. 2 Yahweh said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for ^aYahweh, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. 3 As for the ^aprince, he shall sit in it as prince to ^beat bread before Yahweh; he shall ^center by way of the ^dporch of the gate and shall go out ¹by the same way.”
4 Then He brought me by way of the ^anorth gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the ^bglory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh, and I ^cfell on my face. 5 Then Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, ^aset your heart on and see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ^bstatutes of the house of Yahweh and concerning all its laws; and set your heart on the entrance of the house, with all exits of the sanctuary. 6 And you shall say to the ¹^arebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^bEnough of all your abominations, O house of Israel, 7 when you brought in ^aforeigners, ^buncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you ^cbrought near My food, the fat and the blood. So they ^dmade My covenant void—this in addition to all your abominations. 8 And you have not ^akept the responsibility of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners as keepers of the responsibility given by Me for My sanctuary.”
9 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^aNo foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary. 10 But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who ^awent astray from Me after their idols, shall ^bbear the punishment for their iniquity. 11 Yet they shall be ^aministers in My sanctuary, having ^boversight at the gates of the house and ^cministering in the house; they shall ^dslaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall ^estand before them to minister to them. 12 Because they ministered to them ^abefore their idols and became a ^bstumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have ¹^csworn against them,” declares Lord Yahweh, “that they shall ^dbear the punishment for their iniquity. 13 And they shall ^anot approach Me to minister as a priest to Me, nor approach any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will ^bbear their dishonor and their abominations which they have done. 14 Yet I will ¹appoint them as ^akeepers of the responsibility for the house, of all its service and of all that shall be done in it.

The Levitical Responsibilities

15 “But the ^aLevitical priests, the sons of ^bZadok, who ^ckept the responsibility of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel ^dwent astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall ^estand before Me to bring near to Me the ^ffat and the blood,” declares Lord Yahweh. 16 “They shall ^aenter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My ^btable to minister to Me and keep the responsibility given by Me. 17 And it will be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with ^alinen garments; and wool shall not ¹be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house. 18 Linen ^aheaddresses shall be on their heads, and ^blinen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat. 19 And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall ^aput off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments so that they will ^bnot transmit holiness to the people with their garments. 20 Also they shall ^anot shave their heads, yet they shall not ^blet their locks ¹grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads. 21 ^aNor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner court. 22 And they shall not ¹take a widow or a ^adivorced woman as a wife but shall ^btake virgins from the seed of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 23 Moreover, they shall instruct My people about the ^adifference between the holy and the profane, and make them know the difference between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in a dispute, ^athey shall take their stand to judge; they shall judge it according to My judgments. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My ^bappointed times and ^ckeep My sabbaths holy. 25 But ¹^athey shall not go to a dead person to make themselves unclean; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may make themselves unclean. 26 And after he is ^acleansed, seven days shall be counted for him. 27 And on the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the ^ainner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall bring near his ^bsin offering,” declares Lord Yahweh.
28 “And it shall be with regard to an inheritance for them, that ^aI am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel—I am their possession. 29 They shall ^aeat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; and every ¹^bdevoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30 And the first of all the ^afirst fruits of every kind and every ¹contribution of every kind, from all your ¹contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the ^bfirst of your ²dough to cause a ^cblessing to rest on your house. 31 The priests shall not eat any bird or beast that has ^adied of itself or has been torn to pieces.

Yahweh’s Portion of the Land

“And when you ^adivide by lot the land for inheritance, you shall offer a ^bcontribution to Yahweh, a ^choly portion of the land; the length shall be the length of ¹25,000 ^dcubits, and the width shall be ²20,000. It shall be holy within all its boundary round about. 2 Out of this there shall be for the holy place a square round about ¹^afive hundred by five hundred cubits, and ²fifty cubits for its ³^bopen space round about. 3 And from this ¹area you shall measure a length of 25,000 cubits and a width of ²10,000 cubits; and in it shall be the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. 4 It shall be the holy portion of the land; it shall be for the ^apriests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who ^bcome near to minister to Yahweh, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 And an area ^a25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 in width shall be for the Levites, the ministers of the house, and for their possession as ¹cities to dwell in.
6 “And you shall give the ^acity possession of an area ¹5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long, alongside the contribution of the holy portion; it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

The Prince’s Portion of the Land

7 “Now the ^aprince shall have land on either side of the holy contribution and the city’s possession of land, adjacent to the holy contribution and the city’s possession of land, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border. 8 This shall be his land for a possession in Israel; so My princes shall no longer ^amistreat My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel ^baccording to their tribes.”
9 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^aEnough, you princes of Israel; put away ^bviolence and devastation, and ^cdo justice and righteousness. Stop your ^deviction of My people,” declares Lord Yahweh.
10 “You shall have ^ajust balances, a just ¹^bephah, and a just ²^bbath. 11 The ephah and the bath shall be ¹the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a ²^ahomer and the ephah a tenth of a homer; ³their standard shall be according to the homer. 12 And the ¹^ashekel shall be twenty ²^agerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall be your ³maneh.
13 “This is the contribution that you shall offer: a sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat, a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley, 14 and the statute for the oil (namely, the ¹bath of oil), a tenth of a bath from each ²kor (which is ten baths or a homer, for ten baths are a homer), 15 and one sheep from each flock of two hundred from the watering places of Israel—for a ^agrain offering, for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to ^bmake atonement for them,” declares Lord Yahweh. 16 “^aAll the people of the land shall ¹give to this contribution for the ^bprince in Israel. 17 And it shall be the ^aprince’s part to provide the ^bburnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the drink offerings, at the ^cfeasts, on the ^dnew moons, and on the sabbaths, at all the appointed times of the house of Israel; he shall ¹provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the ^epeace offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.”
18 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “In the ^afirst month, on the first of the month, you shall take a bull from the herd ^bwithout blemish and ^cpurify the sanctuary. 19 The priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the door posts of the house, on the ^afour corners of the ^bledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate of the inner court. 20 And thus you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who ^aerrs or is simpleminded; so you shall make ^batonement for the house.
21 “In the ^afirst month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the ^bPassover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 And on that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a ^abull for a sin offering. 23 And during the ^aseven days of the feast he shall provide as a ^bburnt offering to Yahweh ^cseven bulls and seven rams without blemish on every day of the seven days, and a male goat daily for a sin offering. 24 And he shall provide as a ^agrain offering an ephah ¹with a bull, an ephah ¹with a ram, and a ²hin of oil ¹with an ephah. 25 In the ^aseventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he shall provide like this, seven days ¹for the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil.”

The Prince, Feast, and Offerings

‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “The ^agate of the ^binner court facing east shall be ^cshut the six ^dworking days; but it shall be opened on the ^esabbath day and opened on the day of the ^fnew moon. 2 Then the ^aprince shall enter by way of the porch of the gate from outside and stand by the ^bpost of the gate. Then the priests shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate and then go out; but the gate shall not be ^cshut until the evening. 3 And the ^apeople of the land shall also worship at the entrance of that gate before Yahweh on the sabbaths and on the ^bnew moons. 4 Now the ^aburnt offering which the prince shall bring near to Yahweh on the sabbath day shall be ^bsix lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish; 5 and the ^agrain offering shall be an ephah ¹with the ram, and the grain offering with the lambs shall be ^ba gift from his hand, as well as a ²hin of oil with an ephah. 6 And on the day of the ^anew moon he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, also six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. 7 And he shall ¹provide a ^agrain offering, an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as ²much as he is ^bable, and a hin of oil with an ephah. 8 And when the ^aprince enters, he shall go in by way of the porch of the gate and go out ¹by the same way. 9 But when the people of the land come ^abefore Yahweh at the appointed times, he who enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go out by way of the south gate. And he who enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate. ¹No one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered but shall go straight out. 10 So when they go in, the prince shall go in ^aamong them; and when they go out, ¹he shall go out.
11 “Now at the ^afeasts and the appointed times the ^bgrain offering shall be an ¹ephah with a bull and an ephah with a ram, and with the lambs shall be a gift from his hand, as well as a hin of oil with an ephah. 12 And when the prince provides a ^afreewill offering, a burnt offering, or peace offerings as a freewill offering to Yahweh, the gate facing east shall be ^bopened for him. And he shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings as he does on the ^csabbath day. Then he shall go out, and the gate shall be shut after he goes out.
13 “And you shall provide a ^alamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to Yahweh daily; ^bmorning by morning you shall provide it. 14 Also you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning—a ^asixth of an ephah as well as a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour—a grain offering to Yahweh continually by a perpetual statute. 15 Thus they shall provide the lamb, the grain offering, and the oil, morning by morning, for a ^acontinual burnt offering.”
16 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “If the prince gives a ^agift out of his inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance. 17 But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the ^ayear of liberty; then it shall return to the prince. His inheritance shall be only his sons’; it shall belong to them. 18 Now the prince shall ^anot take from the people’s inheritance, ^bmistreating them out of their possession; he shall give his sons inheritance from his own possession so that My people will not be scattered, anyone from his possession.”’”

The Boiling Places

19 Then he brought me through the ^aentrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests, which faced north; and behold, there was a place at the extreme rear toward the west. 20 Then he said to me, “This is the place where the priests shall boil the ^aguilt offering and the sin offering and where they shall ^bbake the grain offering, in order that they may not bring them out into the outer court to transmit holiness to the people.”
21 Then he brought me out into the outer court and had me pass through to the four corners of the court; and behold, in every corner of the court there was a small court. 22 In the four corners of the court there were enclosed courts, ¹forty cubits long and thirty wide; these four in the corners were ²the same size. 23 Now there was a row of masonry round about in them, around the four of them, and boiling places were made under the rows round about. 24 Then he said to me, “These are the boiling ¹places where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifices of the people.”