Study Desk

You, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Yisra'el, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.

You shall eat fat until you be full, and drink blood until you be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

The nations shall know that the house of Yisra'el went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now will I bring back the captivity of Ya`akov, and have mercy on the whole house of Yisra'el; and I will be jealous for my holy name.

neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Yisra'el, says the Lord GOD.

The man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I shall show you; for, to the intent that I may show them to you, are you brought here: declare all that you see to the house of Yisra'el.

Then brought he me into the outer court; and, behold, there were chambers and a pavement, made for the court round about: thirty chambers were on the pavement.

There were four tables for the burnt offering, of hewn stone, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high; whereupon they laid the instruments with which they killed the burnt offering and the sacrifice.

Outside of the inner gate were chambers for the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south; one at the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north.

He said to me, This chamber, whose prospect is toward the south, is for the Kohanim, the keepers of the charge of the house;

and the chamber whose prospect is toward the north is for the Kohanim, the keepers of the charge of the altar: these are the sons of Tzadok, who from among the sons of Levi come near to the LORD to minister to him.

The side-chambers were in three stories, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which belonged to the house for the side-chambers round about, that they might have hold [therein], and not have hold in the wall of the house.

The side-chambers were broader as they encompassed [the house] higher and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and higher round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house [continued] upward; and so one went up [from] the lowest [chamber] to the highest by the middle [chamber].

The thickness of the wall, which was for the side-chambers, on the outside, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side-chambers that belonged to the house.

As for the temple, the door-posts were squared; and as for the face of the sanctuary, the appearance [of it] was as the appearance [of the temple].

The doors had two leaves [apiece], two turning leaves: two [leaves] for the one door, and two leaves for the other.

Now the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the middle, in the building.

For they were in three stories, and they didn't have pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore [the uppermost] was straitened more than the lowest and the middle from the ground.

For the length of the chambers that were in the outer court was fifty cubits: and, behold, before the temple were one hundred cubits.

Then said he to me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they are the holy chambers, where the Kohanim who are near to the LORD shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; for the place is holy.