421 The man led me north into the outside courtyard and brought me to the rooms that are in front of the open space and the house facing north. 2 The length of the house on the north was one hundred seventy-five feet, and its width eighty-seven and a half feet. 3 Across the thirty-five feet that separated the inside courtyard from the paved walkway at the edge of the outside courtyard, the rooms rose level by level for three stories. 4 In front of the rooms on the inside was a hallway seventeen and a half feet wide and one hundred seventy-five feet long. Its entrances were from the north. 5 The upper rooms themselves were narrower, their galleries being wider than on the first and second floors of the building. 6 The rooms on the third floor had no pillars like the pillars in the outside courtyard and were smaller than the rooms on the first and second floors. 7 There was an outside wall parallel to the rooms and the outside courtyard. It fronted the rooms for eighty-seven and a half feet. 8 The row of rooms facing the outside courtyard was eighty-seven and a half feet long. The row on the side nearest the Sanctuary was one hundred seventy-five feet long. 9 The first-floor rooms had their entrance from the east, coming in from the outside courtyard. 10 On the south side along the length of the courtyard's outside wall and fronting on the Temple courtyard were rooms 11 with a walkway in front of them. These were just like the rooms on the north - same exits and dimensions - with the main entrance from the east leading to the hallway and the doors to the rooms the same as those on the north side. 12 The design on the south was a mirror image of that on the north. 13 Then he said to me, "The north and south rooms adjacent to the open area are holy rooms where the priests who come before God eat the holy offerings. There they place the holy offerings - grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. These are set-apart rooms, holy space. 14 After the priests have entered the Sanctuary, they must not return to the outside courtyard and mingle among the people until they change the sacred garments in which they minister and put on their regular clothes."

15 After he had finished measuring what was inside the Temple area, he took me out the east gate and measured it from the outside. 16 Using his measuring stick, he measured the east side: eight hundred seventy-five feet. 17 He measured the north side: eight hundred seventy-five feet. 18 He measured the south side: eight hundred seventy-five feet. 19 Last of all he went to the west side and measured it: eight hundred seventy-five feet. 20 He measured the wall on all four sides. Each wall was eight hundred seventy-five feet. The walls separated the holy from the ordinary.

The Glory of the LORD Fills the Temple

431 The man brought me to the east gate. 2 Oh! The bright Glory of the God of Israel rivered out of the east sounding like the roar of floodwaters, and the earth itself glowed with the bright Glory. 3 It looked just like what I had seen when he came to destroy the city, exactly like what I had seen earlier at the Kebar River. And again I fell, face to the ground. 4 The bright Glory of God poured into the Temple through the east gate. 5 The Spirit put me on my feet and led me to the inside courtyard and - oh! the bright Glory of God filled the Temple!

The Ordinances of the Temple

6 I heard someone speaking to me from inside the Temple while the man stood beside me.

7 He said, "Son of man, this is the place for my throne, the place I'll plant my feet. This is the place where I'll live with the Israelites forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols their kings set up at all the wayside shrines. 8 When they set up their worship shrines right alongside mine with only a thin wall between them, they dragged my holy name through the mud with their obscene and vile worship. Is it any wonder that I destroyed them in anger? 9 So let them get rid of their whoring ways and the stinking no-god idols introduced by their kings and I'll move in and live with them forever. 10 "Son of man, tell the people of Israel all about the Temple so they'll be dismayed by their wayward lives. Get them to go over the layout. 11 That will bring them up short. Show them the whole plan of the Temple, its ins and outs, the proportions, the regulations, and the laws. Draw a picture so they can see the design and meaning and live by its design and intent. 12 "This is the law of the Temple: As it radiates from the top of the mountain, everything around it becomes holy ground. Yes, this is law, the meaning, of the Temple.

13 "These are the dimensions of the altar, using the long (twenty-one-inch) ruler. The gutter at its base is twenty-one inches 14 deep and twenty-one inches wide, with a four-inch lip around its edge. 15 The altar hearth is another seven feet high. Four horns stick upward from the hearth twenty-one inches high. 16 "The top of the altar, the hearth, is square, twenty-one by twenty-one feet. 17 The upper ledge is also square, twenty-four and a half feet on each side, with a ten-and-a-half-inch lip and a twenty-one-inch-wide gutter all the way around. "The steps of the altar ascend from the east." 18 Then the man said to me, "Son of man, God, the Master, says: 'These are the ordinances for conduct at the altar when it is built, for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood on it. 19 "'For a sin offering, give a bull to the priests, the Levitical priests who are from the family of Zadok who come into my presence to serve me. 20 Take some of its blood and smear it on the four horns of the altar that project from the four corners of the top ledge and all around the lip. That's to purify the altar and make it fit for the sacrifice. 21 Then take the bull for the sin offerings and burn it in the place set aside for this in the courtyard outside the Sanctuary. 22 "'On the second day, offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. Purify the altar the same as you purified it for the bull. 23 Then, when you have purified it, offer a bull without blemish and a ram without blemish from the flock. 24 Present them before God. Sprinkle salt on them and offer them as a burnt offering to God. 25 "'For seven days, prepare a goat for a sin offering daily, and also a bull and a ram from the flock, animals without blemish. 26 For seven days the priests are to get the altar ready for its work, purifying it. This is how you dedicate it. 27 "'After these seven days of dedication, from the eighth day on, the priests will present your burnt offerings and your peace offerings. And I'll accept you with pleasure, with delight! Decree of God, the Master.'"