Study Desk

Each door had two leaves—two hinged leaves for each door.

Now the upper rooms were narrower, for the galleries took more space from them than from the rooms on the lower and middle floors of the building.

There was an outer wall parallel to the rooms and the outer court; it extended in front of the rooms for fifty cubits.

Then he said to me, "The north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests' rooms, where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy.

Once the priests enter the holy precincts, they are not to go into the outer court until they leave behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they go near the places that are for the people."

He said: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The people of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings at their death.

Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings, and I will live among them forever.

Then he said to me, "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: These will be the regulations for sacrificing burnt offerings and splashing blood against the altar when it is built:

You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the upper ledge and all around the rim, and so purify the altar and make atonement for it.

You are to take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the designated part of the temple area outside the sanctuary.

"On the second day you are to offer a male goat without defect for a sin offering, and the altar is to be purified as it was purified with the bull.

"For seven days you are to provide a male goat daily for a sin offering; you are also to provide a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect.

For seven days they are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; thus they will dedicate it.

They may serve in my sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and serving in it; they may slaughter the burnt offerings and sacrifices for the people and stand before the people and serve them.

And I will appoint them to guard the temple for all the work that is to be done in it.

"‘In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges and decide it according to my ordinances. They are to keep my laws and my decrees for all my appointed festivals, and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy.

On the day he goes into the inner court of the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, he is to offer a sin offering for himself, declares the Sovereign Lord .

Of this, a section 500 cubits square is to be for the sanctuary, with 50 cubits around it for open land.

It will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and who draw near to minister before the Lord . It will be a place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.

An area 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide will belong to the Levites, who serve in the temple, as their possession for towns to live in.