Study Desk

For they were in three stories and had no pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper chambers were set back from the ground upward, more than the lower and middle ones.

As for the outer wall by the side of the chambers, toward the outer court facing the chambers, its length was fifty cubits.

For the length of the chambers which were in the outer court was fifty cubits; and behold, the length of those facing the temple was one hundred cubits.

Then he said to me, "The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separate area, they are the holy chambers where the priests who are near to Yahweh shall eat the most holy things. There they shall lay the most holy things, the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; for the place is holy.

When the priests enter, then they shall not go out into the outer court from the sanctuary without laying there their garments in which they minister, for they are holy. They shall put on other garments; then they shall come near to that which is for the people."

"As for you, son of man, describe the house of Yahweh to the house of Israel, that they may feel dishonor for their iniquities; and let them measure the plan.

If they feel dishonor for all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exits, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes, and all its laws. And write it in their sight so that they may keep its whole design and all its statutes and do them.

And He said to me, "Son of man, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is made, to offer burnt offerings on it and to splash blood on it.

And you shall give to the Levitical priests who are from the seed of Zadok, who draw near to Me to minister to Me,' declares Lord Yahweh, ‘a bull from the herd for a sin offering.

You shall also take some of its blood and put it on its four horns and on the four corners of the ledge and on the border round about; thus you shall purify it and make atonement for it.

And you shall take the bull for the sin offering, and it shall be burned in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary.

‘Now on the second day you shall bring near a male goat without blemish for a sin offering, and they shall purify the altar as they purified it with the bull.

For seven days you shall offer daily a goat for a sin offering; also a bull from the herd and a ram from the flock, without blemish, shall be offered.

For seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it; so shall they ordain it.

Yahweh said to me, "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.

As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before Yahweh; he shall enter by way of the porch of the gate and shall go out by the same way."

And you have not kept the responsibility of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners as keepers of the responsibility given by Me for My sanctuary."

But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity.

Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn against them," declares Lord Yahweh, "that they shall bear the punishment for their iniquity.