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The Lord Among His People

¹ Then the man led me to the outer east gateway, ² and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. It sounded like the roar of rushing water, and its brightness made the earth shine. ³ The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when the Lord came to destroy the city and also like the vision I had seen by the Kebar River. I bowed facedown on the ground. ⁴ The glory of the Lord came into the Temple area through the east gateway.

⁵ Then the Spirit picked me up and brought me into the inner courtyard. There I saw the Lord's glory filling the Temple. ⁶ As the man stood at my side, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the Temple. ⁷ The voice from the Temple said to me, "Human, this is my throne and the place where my feet rest. I will live here among the Israelites forever. The people of Israel will not make my holy name unclean again. Neither the people nor their kings will make it unclean with their sexual sins or with the dead bodies of their kings. ⁸ The kings made my name unclean by putting their doorway next to my doorway, and their doorpost next to my doorpost so only a wall separated me from them. When they did their acts that I hate, they made my holy name unclean, and so I destroyed them in my anger. ⁹ Now let them stop their sexual sins and take the dead bodies of their kings far away from me. Then I will live among them forever.

¹⁰ "Human, tell the people of Israel about the Temple so they will be ashamed of their sins. Let them think about the plan of the Temple. ¹¹ If they are ashamed of all they have done, let them know the design of the Temple and how it is built. Show them its exits and entrances, all its designs, and also all its rules and teachings. Write the rules as they watch so they will obey all the teachings and rules about the Temple. ¹² This is the teaching about the Temple: All the area around the top of the mountain is most holy. This is the teaching about the Temple.

The Altar

¹³ "These are the measurements of the altar, using the measuring stick. The altar's gutter is twenty-one inches high and twenty-one inches wide, and its rim is about nine inches around its edge. And the altar is this tall: ¹⁴ From the ground up to the lower ledge, it measures three and one-half feet. It is twenty-one inches wide. It measures seven feet from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge and is twenty-one inches wide. ¹⁵ The place where the sacrifice is burned on the altar is seven feet high, with its four corners shaped like horns and reaching up above it. ¹⁶ It is square, twenty-one feet long and twenty-one feet wide. ¹⁷ The upper ledge is also square, twenty-four and one-half feet long and twenty-four and one-half feet wide. The rim around the altar is ten and one-half inches wide, and its gutter is twenty-one inches wide all around. Its steps are on the east side."

¹⁸ Then the man said to me, "Human, this is what the Lord God says: These are the rules for the altar. When it is built, use these rules to offer burnt offerings and to sprinkle blood on it. ¹⁹ You must give a young bull as a sin offering to the priests, the Levites who are from the family of Zadok and who come near me to serve me, says the Lord God. ²⁰ Take some of the bull's blood and put it on the four corners of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and all around the rim. This is how you will make the altar pure and ready for God's service. ²¹ Then take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the proper place in the Temple area, outside the Temple building.

²² "On the second day offer a male goat that has nothing wrong with it for a sin offering. The priests will make the altar pure and ready for God's service as they did with the young bull. ²³ When you finish making the altar pure and ready, offer a young bull and a male sheep from the flock, which have nothing wrong with them. ²⁴ You must offer them in the presence of the Lord, and the priests are to throw salt on them and offer them as a burnt offering to the Lord.

²⁵ "You must prepare a goat every day for seven days as a sin offering. Also, the priests must prepare a young bull and male sheep from the flock, which have nothing wrong with them. ²⁶ For seven days the priests are to make the altar pure and ready for God's service. Then they will give the altar to God. ²⁷ After these seven days, on the eighth day, the priests must offer your burnt offerings and your fellowship offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, says the Lord God."