Study Desk

For they were in three stories and had no pillars like the pillars of the courtyards; for that reason 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 courtyard facing the chambers, its length was fifty cubits.

For the length of the chambers which were in the outer courtyard was fifty cubits; and behold, the length of those facing the main room was a 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 the LORD shall eat the most holy things. There they shall set the most holy things, the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; for the place is holy.

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

"As for you, son of man, inform the house of Israel of the temple, so that they will be ashamed of their wrongdoings; and have them measure the plan.

And He said to me, "Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: 'These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is built, to offer burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it.

'And you shall take some of its blood and put it on its four horns and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around; so you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it.

'For seven days you shall prepare a goat as a sin offering daily; also a bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish, shall be prepared.

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

And the LORD said to me, "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD 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 the LORD; he shall enter by way of the porch of the gate and shall go out by the same way."

"And you have not taken responsibility for My holy things yourselves, but you have appointed foreigners to take responsibility for My sanctuary."

"But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me following their idols, shall suffer the punishment for their wrongdoing.

"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.

"Since they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of wrongdoing to the house of Israel, for that reason I have sworn against them," declares the Lord GOD, "that they shall suffer the punishment for their wrongdoing.

"And they shall not approach Me to serve as priests for Me, nor approach any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed.

"Nevertheless I will appoint them to take responsibility for the house, of all its service and of everything that shall be done in it.

"But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who took responsibility for My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to serve Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood," declares the Lord GOD.

"They shall not go to a dead person to defile themselves; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may defile themselves.