Ezekiel 40

¹ In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month,fourteen years to the day from the capture of the city, the hand of Yahweh was on me. He carried me away:

² in divine visions, he carried me away to the land of Israel and put me down on a very high mountain,on the south of which there seemed to be built a city.

³ He took me to it, and there I saw a man, whose appearance was like brass. He had a flax cord and ameasuring rod in his hand and was standing in the gateway.

⁴ The man said to me, 'Son of man, look careful y, listen closely and pay attention to everything I showyou, since you have been brought here only for me to show it to you. Tel the House of Israel everything that yousee.'

⁵ Now, the Temple was surrounded on all sides by an outer wall. The man was holding a measuring rodsix cubits long, each cubit a forearm and a handsbreadth. He measured the thickness of this construction -- onerod; and its height -- one rod.

⁶ He went to the east gate, climbed the steps and measured its threshold: one rod deep.

⁷ Each guardroom one rod by one rod; and the piers between the guardrooms five cubits thick, and thethreshold of the gate inwards from the porch of the gate: one rod.

⁸

⁹ He measured the porch of the gate: eight cubits; its piers: two cubits; the porch of the gate was at theinner end.

¹⁰ There were three guardrooms on each side of the east gate, al three of the same size; the piersbetween them al of the same thickness each side.

¹¹ He measured the width of the entrance: ten cubits; and the width al down the gateway: thirteencubits.

¹² There was a rail in front of the guardrooms; each rail on either side was one cubit. And theguardrooms on either side were six cubits square.

¹³ He measured the width of the gate from the back wal of one guardroom to the back wall of the other;it was twenty-five cubits across, the openings being opposite each other.

¹⁴ He measured the porch: twenty cubits; the court surrounded the gate on al sides.

¹⁵ From the front of the entrance gate, to the far end of the porch of the inner gate: fifty cubits.

¹⁶ Al round inside the gate there were trel ised windows in the guardrooms and in their piers; similarly,in the porch there were windows all round and palm trees on the piers.

¹⁷ He then took me to the outer court, which had rooms and a paved terrace going all the way round;there were thirty rooms on this terrace.

¹⁸ This terrace, which came up to the sides of the gates and matched their depth, was the LowerTerrace. He measured the width of the court,

¹⁹ from the front of the lower gate to the fac ade of the inner court, outside: a hundred cubits (on theeast and on the north).

²⁰ He measured the length and breadth of the north gate of the outer court.

²¹ It had three guardrooms on each side; its piers and porch were of the same size as those of the firstgate: fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

²² Its windows, its porch and its palm trees were of the same size as those of the east gate. There were seven steps up to it, and its porch was at the inner end.

²³ In the inner court there was, opposite the north gate, a gate like the one opposite the east gate. Hemeasured the distance from one gate to the other: a hundred cubits.

²⁴ He took me to the south side where there was a south gate; he measured its guardrooms, piers andporch; they were of the same size as the others.

²⁵ The gateway, as wel as its porch, had windows al round, like the windows of the others; it was fiftycubits long and twenty-five cubits wide,

²⁶ and it had seven steps up to it; its porch was at the inner end and had palm trees on its piers, one oneither side.

²⁷ The inner court had a south gate; he measured the distance southwards from one gate to the other: ahundred cubits.

²⁸ He then took me into the inner court by the south gate; he measured the south gate which was of thesame size as the others.

²⁹ Its guardrooms, piers and porch were of the same size as the others.

³⁰ The gateway, as wel as its porch, had windows al round; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-fivecubits wide.

³¹ The porch gave on to the outer court. It had palm trees on its piers and eight steps leading up to it.

³² He took me to the eastern part of the inner court and measured the gate. It was of the same size asthe others.

³³ Its guardrooms, piers and porch were of the same size as the others. The gateway, as well as itsporch, had windows al round; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

³⁴ Its porch gave on to the outer court. There were palm trees on its piers on either side and eight stepsleading up to it.

³⁵ He then took me to the north gate and measured it.

³⁶ Its guardrooms, piers and porch were of the same size as the others. The gateway had windows alround; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

³⁷ Its porch gave on to the outer court. There were palm trees on its piers on either side and eight stepsleading up to it.

³⁸ There was a room, the entrance to which was in the porch of the gateway, where they washed theburnt offerings.

³⁹ And inside the porch of the gateway were slabs, two on either side, for slaughtering the burntofferings, the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation.

⁴⁰ Outside, at the approach to the entrance of the north gate, were two slabs, and on the other side, atthe porch end of the gate were two slabs.

⁴¹ There were four slabs on one side and four slabs on the other side of the gateway, eight slabs in all,on which the slaughtering was done.

⁴² There were also four slabs of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, a cubit and a half long, a cubitand a half wide and a cubit high, on which the instruments for slaughtering the burnt offerings and sacrifice wereplaced;

⁴³ runnels a handsbreadth wide went al round the top, and on these slabs was put the sacrificial flesh.

⁴⁴ Then he took me into the inner court; there were two rooms in the inner court, one on the side of thenorth gate, facing south, the other on the side of the south gate, facing north.

⁴⁵ He told me, 'The room looking south is for the priests responsible for the service of the Temple,

⁴⁶ and the room looking north is for the priests responsible for the service of the altar. These are thesons of Zadok, those of the sons of Levi who approach Yahweh to serve him.'

⁴⁷ He measured the court; it was a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, a square with thealtar standing in front of the Temple.

⁴⁸ He took me to the Ulam of the Temple and measured the piers of the Ulam: five cubits either side;and the width of the entrance was three cubits either side.

⁴⁹ The length of the Ulam was twenty cubits and its width twelve cubits. There were ten steps leadingup to it, and there were columns by the piers, one on either side.