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day 200 and 78
Then the man brought me back to the East Gateway in the outer wall of the temple
area, but it was closed, and the Lord said to me, this gate must remain closed.
It will never again be opened.
No one will ever open it and pass through for the Lord.
The God of Israel has entered here.
Therefore, it must always remain shut.
Only the prince himself may sit inside this gateway to feast in the Lord's
presence, but he may come and go only through the entry room of the gateway.
Then the man brought me through the north gateway 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 face down on the ground and the Lord said to me,
son of man, take careful notice.
Use your eyes and ears and listen to everything I tell you about the
regulations concerning the Lord's temple.
Take careful note of the procedures for using the temple's, entrances
and exits, and give these rebels the people of Israel.
This message from the sovereign Lord oh people of Israel.
Enough of your detestable sins.
You have brought uncircumcised foreigners into my sanctuary.
People who have no heart for God in this way.
You defiled my temple even as you offered me my food, the
fat and blood of sacrifices.
In addition to all your other detestable sins, you have broken my covenant.
Instead of safeguarding my sacred rituals, you have hired foreigners
to take charge of my sanctuary.
So this is what the sovereign Lord says.
No foreigners, including those who live among the people of Israel, will enter
my sanctuary if they have not been circumcised and have not surrendered
themselves to the Lord and the men of the tribe of Levi who abandoned me when
Israel strayed away from me to worship.
Idols must bear the consequences of their unfaithfulness.
They may still be temple guards and gatekeepers, and they may slaughter
the animals brought for burnt offerings and be present to help the people.
They encouraged my people to worship idols causing Israel to fall into deep sin.
So I have taken a solemn oath that they must bear the consequences for
their sins, says the sovereign Lord.
They may not approach me to minister as priests.
They may not touch any of my holy things or the holy offerings for,
they must bear the shame of all the detestable sins they have committed.
They are to serve as the temple caretakers.
Taking charge of the maintenance work and performing general duties.
However, the Levitical priests of the family of Zadak continued to
minister faithfully in the temple when Israel abandoned me for idols,
these men will serve as my ministers.
They will stand in my presence and offer the fact and blood of the
sacrifices, says the sovereign Lord.
They alone will enter my sanctuary and approach my table to serve me.
They will fulfill all my requirements.
When they enter the gateway to the inner courtyard, they
must wear only linen clothing.
They must wear no wool while on duty in the inner courtyard
or in the temple itself.
They must wear linen turbans, and linen undergarments.
They must not wear anything that would cause them to perspire.
When they return to the outer courtyard where the people are,
they must take off the clothes they wear while ministering To me.
They must leave them in the sacred rooms and put on other clothes so they
do not endanger anyone By transmitting holiness to them through this clothing,
they must neither shave their heads, nor let their hair grow too long.
Instead, they must trim it regularly.
The priests must not drink wine before entering the inner courtyard.
They may choose their wives only from among the virgins of Israel
or the widows of the priests.
They may not marry other widows or divorced women.
They will teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is common.
What is ceremonially, clean and unclean.
They will serve as judges to resolve any disagreements among my people.
Their decisions must be based on my regulations, and the priests
themselves must obey my instructions and decrees at all the sacred festivals.
And see to it that the Sabbaths are set apart as holy days.
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 permitted even then he can return to his temple duties
only after being ceremonially cleansed and then waiting for seven days.
The first day he returns to work and enters the inner
courtyard and the sanctuary.
He must offer a sin offering for himself, says the sovereign Lord.
The priests will not have any property or possession of land for
I alone am their special possession.
Their food will come from the gifts and sacrifices brought to the temple
by the people, the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings.
Whenever anyone sets apart, for the Lord will belong to the priests.
The first of the ripe fruits and all the gifts brought to
the Lord will go to the priests.
The first batch of dough must also be given to the priests, so
the Lord will bless your homes.
The priests may not eat meat from any bird or animal that dies in natural
death or the dies after being attacked by another animal when you divide
the land among the tribes of Israel.
You must set aside a section for the Lord as his holy portion.
This piece of land will be eight and a third miles long and
six and two thirds miles wide.
The entire area will be holy.
A section of this land measuring 875 feet by 875 feet will
be set aside for the temple.
An additional strip of land 87 and a half feet wide is to
be left empty all around it.
Within the larger sacred area, measure out a portion of land eight and a third miles
long and three and one third miles wide.
Within it, the sanctuary of the most holy place will be located.
This area will be holy set aside for the priests who minister
to the Lord and the sanctuary.
They will use it for their homes, and my temple will be located within it.
The strip of sacred land next to it.
Also eight and one third miles long and three and one third miles
wide will be a living area for the Levites who work at the temple.
It'll be their possession and a place for their towns.
Adjacent to the larger sacred area will be a section of land
eight and one third miles long and one and two thirds miles wide.
This will be set aside for a city where anyone in Israel can live.
Two special sections of land will be set apart for the prince.
One section will share a border with the east side of the sacred lands
and city, and the second section will share a border on the west side.
Then the far eastern and western borders of the prince's lands will
line up with the eastern and western boundaries of the tribal areas.
These sections of land will be the prince's allotment.
Then my princes will no longer oppress and rob my people.
They will assign the rest of the land to the people giving an
allotment to each tribe for this is what the Sovereign Lord says.
Enough, you, princes of Israel, stop your violence and oppression
and do what is just and right.
Quit robbing and cheating my people out of their land.
Stop expelling them from their homes, says the sovereign Lord.
Use only honest weights and scales and honest measures, both dry and liquid.
The Homer will be your standard unit for measuring volume.
The EFA and the bath will each measure one 10th of a homer.
The standard unit for weight will be the silver shekel one shekel
will consist of 20 giras and 60 shekels will be equal to one meina.
You must give this tax to the prince, one bushel of wheat or barley.
For every 60 you harvest.
1% of your olive oil and one sheep or goat for every 200 in your flocks In
Israel, these will be the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings
that will make atonement for the people who bring them says the sovereign Lord.
All the people of Israel must join in bringing these offerings to the prince.
The Prince will be required to provide offerings that are given
at the religious festivals, the New Moon celebrations, the Sabbath days.
All other similar occasions, he will provide the sin offerings, burnt
offerings, grain offerings, liquid offerings, and peace offerings
to purify the people of Israel, making them right with the Lord.
This is what the sovereign Lord says in early spring.
On the first day of each new year, sacrifice a young bull with
no defects to purify the temple.
The priest will take blood from this sin offering and put it on the doorposts of
the temple, the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar, and the gate posts
at the entrance to the inner courtyard.
Do this also on the seventh day of the new year.
For anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance.
In this way, you will purify the temple.
On the 14th day of the first month, you must celebrate the Passover.
This festival will last for seven days.
The bread you eat during that time must be made without yeast.
On the day of Passover, the Prince will provide a young bull as a sin offering
for himself and the people of Israel.
On each of the seven days of the feast, he will prepare a burnt offering to
the Lord consisting of seven young bulls and seven rams without defects.
A male goat will also be given each day for a sin offering.
The prince will provide a basket of flour as a grain offering.
And a gallon of olive oil with each young bull and ram.
During the seven days of the festival of shelters, which occurs every year in early
autumn, the Prince will provide these same sacrifices for the sin offering, the
burnt offering, and the grain offering, along with the required olive oil.
This is what the sovereign Lord says.
The east gateway of the inner courtyard will be closed during
the six work days each week.
But it will be open on Sabbath days and the days of New Moon celebrations.
The prince will enter the entry room of the gateway from the outside.
Then he will stand by the gatepost.
While the priest offers his burnt offering and peace offering, he will bow down and
worship inside the gateway passage and then go back out The way he came, the
gateway will not be closed until evening.
The common people will bow down and worship the Lord in front of this gateway.
On Sabbath days and the days of new moon celebrations, each Sabbath
day, the prince will present to the Lord a burnt offering of six lambs
and one ram all with no defects.
He will present a grain offering of a basket of choice flour to go with the ram
and whatever amount of flour he chooses to go with each lamb, and he is to offer
one gallon of olive oil for each basket of flour at the new Moon celebrations,
he will bring one young bull.
Six lambs and one ram all with no defects.
With a young bull, he must bring a basket of choice flour.
For a grain offering with the ram, he must bring another basket of flour.
And with each lamb, he is to bring whatever amount of
flour he chooses to give.
With each basket of flour, he must offer one gallon of olive oil.
The prince must enter the gateway through the entry room,
and he must leave the same way.
But when the people come in through the North Gateway to worship the
Lord during the religious festivals, they must leave by the South Gateway.
And those who entered through the South gateway must leave by the North gateway.
They must never leave by the same gateway they came in, but must
always use the opposite gateway.
The Prince will enter and leave with the people on these occasions.
So at the special feasts and sacred festivals, the grain offering will
be a basket of choice flour with each young bull, another basket of
flour with each ram and as much flour as the worshiper chooses to give
with each lamb, give one gallon of olive oil with each basket of flour.
When the prince offers a voluntary burnt offering or peace offering to
the Lord, the east gateway to the inner courtyard will be opened for him.
He will offer his sacrifices as he does on Sabbath days.
Then he will leave and the gateway will be shut behind him each morning.
You must sacrifice a one year old lamb with no defects as a burnt
offering to the Lord with the lamb.
A grain offering must also be given to the Lord about three quarts of
flour, with a third of a gallon of olive oil to moisten the choice flour.
This will be a permanent law for you.
The lamb, the grain offering, and the olive oil must be given as a daily
sacrifice every morning without fail.
This is what the sovereign Lord says.
If the prince gives a gift of land to one of his sons as his inheritance, it will
belong to him and his descendants forever.
But if the Prince gives a gift of land from his inheritance to one
of his servants, the servant may keep it only until the year of
Jubilee, which comes every 50th year.
At that time, the land will return to the prince, but when the prince
gives gifts to his sons, those gifts will be permanent, and the prince may
never take anyone's property by force.
If he gives property to his sons, it must be from his own land.
For I do not want any of my people unjustly evicted from their property.
In my vision, the man brought me through the entrance beside the gateway.
And led me to the sacred rooms assigned to the priests, which faced toward the north.
He showed me a place at the extreme west end of these rooms.
He explained this is where the priests will cook the meat from the guilt
offerings and sin offerings, and bake the flour from the grain offerings into bread.
They will do it here to avoid carrying the sacrifices through the outer
courtyard and endangering the people by transmitting holiness to them.
Then he brought me back to the outer courtyard and led me
to each of its four corners.
In each corner, I saw an enclosure.
Each of these enclosures was 70 feet long and 52 and a half
feet wide, surrounded by walls.
Along the inside of these walls was a ledge of stone with fireplaces
under the ledge all the way around.
The man said to me, these are the kitchens to be used by the temple assistance.
To boil the sacrifices offered by the people in my vision, the man brought
me back to the entrance of the temple.
There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the
temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side.
The man brought me outside the wall through the North gateway and led me
around to the Eastern entrance there.
I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the East Gateway.
Measuring as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750
feet and then led me across.
The water was up to my ankles.
He measured off another 1,750 feet and led me across again.
This time the water was up to my knees.
After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist.
Then he measured another 1,750 feet.
And the river was too deep to walk across.
It was deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through.
He asked me, have you been watching Son of Man?
Then he led me back along the riverbank.
When I returned, I was surprised by the side of many trees growing
on both sides of the river.
Then he said to me, this river flows east through the desert
into the Valley of the Dead Sea.
The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of
the dead sea, fresh and pure.
There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river
flows, fish will abound in the dead sea, for its waters will become fresh.
Life will flourish wherever this water flows.
Fishermen will stand along the shores of the dead sea, all
the way from nge I to an egm.
The shores will be covered with nets drying in the sun.
Fish of every kind will fill the dead sea just as they fill the
Mediterranean, but the marshes and swamps will not be purified.
They will still be salty.
Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river.
The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will
always be fruit on their branches.
There will be a new crop every month for they are watered by the
river, flowing from the temple.
The fruit will be for food.
The leaves for healing.
This is what the sovereign Lord says, divide the land in this way.
For the 12 tribes of Israel, the descendants of Joseph will
be given two shares of land.
Otherwise, each tribe will receive an equal share.
I took a solemn oath and swore that I would give this land to
your ancestors and it will now come to you as your possession.
These are the boundaries of the land.
The northern border will run from the Mediterranean tort Helon, then
on through Libo Hamath to Zda.
Then it'll run to Roha and Sibr, which are on the border between Damascus and Hamath.
And finally to Hazer Hadan on the border of Haran.
So the northern border will run from the Mediterranean to Hazer on
the border between Hamath to the north and Damascus to the south.
The eastern border starts at a point between Haran and Damascus and
runs south along the Jordan River, between Israel and Gilead past the
Dead Sea, and as far south as Tamar.
This will be the eastern border.
The southern border will go west from Tamar to the waters of Marba at Kadish,
and then follow the course of the brook of Egypt to the Mediterranean.
This will be the southern border.
On the west side, the Mediterranean itself will be your border from the southern
border to the point where the northern border begins opposite Libo Hamath.
Divide the land within these boundaries among the tribes of Israel.
Distribute the land as an allotment for yourselves and for the foreigners
who have joined you and are raising their families among you.
They will be like native born Israelites to you and will receive
an allotment among the tribes.
These foreigners are to be given land within the territory of the
tribe with whom they now live.
I the sovereign Lord have spoken.
Here is the list of the tribes of Israel and the territory each is to receive.
The territory of Dan is in the extreme north.
Its boundary line follows the heathland road to Lebo, Hamath, and then runs
on to Hayes Arena on the border of Damascus with Hamath to the north.
Dan's territory extends all the way across the land of Israel from east to west.
Asher's territory lies south of Dan's and also extends from east to west.
Nafta.
Lies, land, lies south of Asher's, also extending from east to west.
Then comes Manasses south of nafta, lie, and its territory
also extends from east to west.
South of Manassa is Eef and then Ruben and then Judah.
All of whose boundaries extend from east to west, south of Judah is the
land set aside for a special purpose.
It will be eight and one third miles wide and will extend as far east
and west as the tribal territories.
With the temple at the center, the area set aside for the Lord's temple
will be eight and one third miles long and six and two thirds miles wide.
For the priests, there will be a strip of land measuring eight and one third miles
long by three and one third miles wide with the Lord's temple at the center.
This area is set aside for the ordained priests, the descendants of
Zadak who served me faithfully and did not go astray with the people of
Israel and the rest of the Levites.
It'll be their special portion when the land is distributed.
The most sacred land of all.
Next to the priest's territory will lie, the land where
the other Levites will live.
The land allotted to the Levites will be the same size and shape as that belonging
to the priests eight and one third miles long and three and one third miles wide.
Together, these portions of land will measure eight and one third miles
long by six and two thirds miles wide.
None of this special land may ever be sold or traded or used by others.
For It belongs to the Lord.
It is set apart as holy.
An additional strip of land, eight and a third miles long by one and two thirds
miles wide south of the Sacred Temple area will be allotted for public use
homes, pasture lands, and common lands.
With a city at the center, the city will measure one and one half miles on
each side, north, south, east, and west.
Open Lands will surround the city for 150 yards in every direction outside the city.
There will be a farming area that stretches three in one third miles to the
east and three in one third miles to the west along the border of the sacred area.
This farmland will produce food for the people working in the city.
Those who come from the various tribes to work in the city may
farm it this entire area, including the sacred lands and the city.
Is a square that measures eight and one third miles on each side, the
areas that remain to the east and to the west of the sacred lands, and
the city will belong to the prince.
Each of these areas will be eight and one third miles wide, extending in
opposite directions to the eastern and western borders of Israel with
the sacred lands and the sanctuary of the temple in the center.
So the prince's land will include everything between the
territories allotted to Judah.
And Benjamin, except for the areas set aside for the sacred lands and the city.
These are the territories allotted to the rest of the tribes.
Benjamin's territory lies just south of the Prince's lands, and it extends across
the entire land of Israel from east to west, south of Benjamin's territory
lies that of Simeon also extending across the land from east to west.
Next is the territory of Iscar.
With the same Eastern and Western boundaries.
Then comes a territory of Zein, which also extends across the land from east to west.
The territory of Gadd is just south of Zein with the same
borders to the east and west.
The southern border of Gadd runs from Tamar to the waters of Marba
at Kadish, and then follows the brook of Egypt to the Mediterranean.
These are the allotments that will be set aside for each
tribe's exclusive possession.
I the sovereign Lord have spoken.
These will be the exits to the city on the north wall, which
is one and a half miles long.
There will be three gates, each one named after a tribe of Israel.
The first will be named for Reuben, the second for Judah, and the
third for Levi on the east wall.
Also one and a half miles long.
The gates will be named for Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan.
The South Wall, also one and a half miles long will have gates named for Simeon.
It's a car in Zebulon and on the West Wall, also one and a half miles long.
The gates will be named for Gadd, Asher and Naftaly.
The distance around the entire city will be six miles, and from that day,
the name of the city will be the Lord.
Is there.
This concludes today's Immerse Reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.