Study Desk

"And I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains," declares the Lord GOD. "Every man's sword will be against his brother.

"You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken," declares the Lord GOD.

"Then those who inhabit the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them.

"For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.

"Now as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Say to every kind of bird and to every animal of the field: "Assemble and come, gather from every direction to My sacrifice, which I am going to sacrifice for you as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel; and you will eat flesh and drink blood.

"So you will eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

"The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their wrongdoing, because they were disloyal to Me, and I hid My face from them; so I handed them over to their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on all the house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name.

"I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD.

And the man said to me, "Son of man, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, and pay attention to all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here in order to show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you see."

And there were shuttered windows looking toward the guardrooms, and toward their side pillars within the gate all around, and likewise for the porches. And there were windows all around inside; and on each side pillar were palm tree decorations.

Then he brought me into the outer courtyard, and behold, there were chambers and a stone pavement made for the courtyard all around; thirty chambers faced the pavement.

And as for the gate of the outer courtyard which faced north, he measured its length and its width.

For the burnt offering there were four tables of cut stone, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and one cubit high, on which they set the utensils with which they slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice.

From the outside to the inner gate were chambers for the singers in the inner courtyard, one of which was at the side of the north gate, with its front toward the south, and one at the side of the south gate facing north.

Then he said to me, "This is the chamber which faces south, intended for the priests who are responsible for the temple;

but the chamber which faces north is for the priests who are responsible for the altar. They are the sons of Zadok, who from the sons of Levi come near to the LORD to serve Him."

And the side chambers surrounding the temple were wider at each successive story. Because the structure surrounding the temple went upward by stages on all sides of the temple, for that reason the width of the temple increased as it went higher; and so one went up from the lowest story to the highest by way of the second story.

The doorposts of the sanctuary were square; as for the front of the inner sanctuary, the appearance of one doorpost was like that of the other.

Each of the doors had two leaves, two swinging leaves; two leaves for one door and two leaves for the other.