The Living Bible (272 page)

Ezekiel
44

Then the Lord brought me back to the outer wall’s eastern passageway, but it was closed.
²
 And he said to me:

    
“This gate shall remain closed; it shall never be opened. No man shall pass through it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, entered here, and so it shall remain shut.
³
 Only the prince—because he is the prince—may sit inside the passageway to feast there before the Lord. But he shall go and come only through the entry hall of the passage.”

    
⁴
 Then he brought me through the north passageway to the front of the Temple. I looked and saw that the glory of the Lord filled the Temple of the Lord, and I fell to the ground with my face in the dust.

    
⁵
 And the Lord said to me:

    
“Son of dust, notice carefully; use your eyes and ears. Listen to all I tell you about the laws and rules of the Temple of the Lord. Note carefully who may be admitted to the Temple and who is to be excluded from it.
⁶
 And say to these rebels, the people of Israel, ‘The Lord God says: O Israel, you have sinned greatly
⁷
 by letting the uncircumcised into my sanctuary—those who have no heart for God—when you offer me my food, the fat and the blood. Thus you have broken my covenant in addition to all your other sins.
⁸
 You have not kept the laws I gave you concerning these holy affairs, for you have hired foreigners to take charge of my sanctuary.’”

    
⁹
 The Lord God says: “No foreigner of all the many among you shall enter my sanctuary if he has not been circumcised and does not love the Lord.
¹⁰
 And the men of the tribe of Levi who abandoned me when Israel strayed away from God to idols must be punished for their unfaithfulness.
¹¹
 They may be Temple guards and gatemen; they may slay the animals brought for burnt offerings and be present to help the people.
¹²
 But because they encouraged the people to worship other gods, causing Israel to fall into deep sin, I have raised my hand and taken oath,” says the Lord God, “that they must be punished.
¹³
 They shall not come near me to minister as priests; they may not touch any of my holy things, for they must bear their shame for all the sins they have committed.
¹⁴
 They are the Temple caretakers, to do maintenance work and to assist the people in a general way.

    
¹⁵
 “However, the sons of Zadok, of the tribe of Levi, continued as my priests in the Temple when Israel abandoned me for idols. These men shall be my ministers; they shall stand before me to offer the fat and blood of the sacrifices,” says the Lord God.
¹⁶
 “They shall enter my sanctuary and come to my Table to minister to me; they shall fulfill my requirements.

    
¹⁷
 “They must wear only linen clothing when they enter the passageway to the inner court, for they must wear no wool while on duty in the inner court or in the Temple.
¹⁸
 They must wear linen turbans and linen trousers; they must not wear anything that would cause them to perspire.
¹⁹
 When they return to the outer court, they must take off the clothes they wear while ministering to me, leaving them in the sacred chambers, and put on other clothes lest they harm the people by touching them with this clothing.

    
²⁰
 “They must not let their hair grow too long nor shave it off. Regular, moderate haircuts are all they are allowed.
²¹
 No priest may drink wine before coming to the inner court.
²²
 He may marry only a Jewish maiden, or the widow of a priest; he may not marry a divorced woman.

    
²³
 “He shall teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is secular, what is right and what is wrong.
*

    
²⁴
 “They will serve as judges to resolve any disagreements among my people. Their decisions must be based upon my laws. And the priests themselves shall obey my rules and regulations at all the sacred festivals, and they shall see to it that the Sabbath is kept a sacred day.

    
²⁵
 “A priest must not defile himself by being in the presence of a dead person, unless it is his father, mother, child, brother, or unmarried sister. In such cases it is all right.
²⁶
 But afterward he must wait seven days before he is cleansed and able to perform his Temple duties again.
²⁷
 The first day he returns to work and enters the inner court and the sanctuary, he must offer a sin offering for himself,” the Lord God says.

    
²⁸
 “As to property, they shall not own any, for I am their heritage! That is enough!
*

    
²⁹
 “Their food shall be the gifts and sacrifices brought to the Temple by the people—the cereal offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. Whatever anyone gives to the Lord shall be the priests’.
³⁰
 The first of the first-ripe fruits and all the gifts for the Lord shall go to the priests. The first samples of each harvest of grain shall be donated to the priests too, so that the Lord will bless your homes.
³¹
 Priests may never eat meat from any bird or animal that dies a natural death or that dies after being attacked by other animals.

Ezekiel
45

“When you divide the land among the tribes of Israel, you shall first give a section of it to the Lord as his holy portion. This piece shall be 8
¹
/
3
miles long and 6
²
/
3
miles wide. It shall all be holy ground.

    
²
 “A section of this land, 875 feet square, shall be designated for the Temple. An additional 87
¹
/
2
-foot strip all around is to be left empty.
³
 The Temple shall be built within the area which is 8
¹
/
3
miles long and 3
¹
/
3
miles wide.
⁴
 All this section shall be holy land; it will be used by the priests, who minister in the sanctuary, for their homes and for my Temple.

    
⁵
 “The strip next to it, 8
¹
/
3
miles long and 3
¹
/
3
miles wide, shall be the residence area for the Levites who work at the Temple.
⁶
 Adjacent to the holy lands will be a section 8
¹
/
3
miles by 1
²
/
3
miles for a city open to everyone in Israel.

    
⁷
 “Two special sections of land shall be set apart for the prince—one on each side of the holy lands and city; it is contiguous with them in length, and its eastern and western boundaries are the same as those of the tribal sections.
⁸
 This shall be his allotment. My princes shall no longer oppress and rob my people but shall assign all the remainder of the land to the people, giving a portion to each tribe.”

    
⁹
 For the Sovereign Lord says to the rulers: “Quit robbing and cheating my people out of their land and expelling them from their homes. Always be fair and honest.
¹⁰
 You must use honest scales, honest bushels, honest gallons.
¹¹
 A homer (about five bushels) shall be your standard unit of measurement for both liquid and dry measure. Smaller units shall be the ephah (about a half bushel) for dry measure, and the bath (about seventeen quarts) for liquid.
¹²
 The unit of weight shall be the silver shekel (about half an ounce); it must always be exchanged for twenty gerahs, no less; five shekels shall be valued at five shekels, no less; and ten shekels at ten shekels! Fifty shekels
*
shall always equal one mina.

    
¹³
 “This is the tax you must give to the prince: a bushel of wheat or barley for every sixty you reap;
¹⁴
 and one percent of your olive oil;
¹⁵
 from each 200 sheep in all your flocks in Israel, give him one sheep. These are the meal offerings, burnt offerings, and thank offerings to make atonement for those who bring them,” says the Lord God.
¹⁶
 “All the people of Israel shall bring their offerings to the prince.

    
¹⁷
 “The prince shall be required to furnish the people with sacrifices for public worship—sin offerings, burnt offerings, meal offerings, drink offerings, and thank offerings—to make reconciliation for the people of Israel. This shall be done at the time of the religious feasts, the new moon ceremonies, the Sabbaths, and all other similar occasions.”

    
¹⁸
 The Lord God says: “On each New Year’s Day
*
sacrifice a young bull with no blemishes, to purify the Temple.
¹⁹
 The priest shall take some of the blood of this sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, upon the four corners of the base of the altar, and upon the walls at the entry of the inner court.
²⁰
 Do this also on the seventh day of that month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance, and so the Temple will be cleansed.

    
²¹
 “On the fourteenth day of the same month, you shall celebrate the Passover. It will be a seven-day feast. Only bread without yeast shall be eaten during those days.
²²
 On the day of Passover the prince shall provide a young bull for a sin offering for himself and all the people of Israel.
²³
 On each of the seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the Lord. This daily offering will consist of seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish. A male goat shall also be given each day for a sin offering.
²⁴
 And the prince shall provide a half bushel of grain with each bullock and ram for a meal offering, and three quarts of olive oil.

    
²⁵
 “Early in October during each of the seven days of the annual festival of shelters, he shall provide these same sacrifices for the sin offering, burnt offering, meal offering, and oil offering.”