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 after the destruction of the city,[*a] the hand of Yahweh came on me.

² In a divine vision he took 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 who seemed to be made of bronze. He had a flax cord and a measuring rod in his hand and was standing in the gateway.

⁴ The man said to me, ‘Son of man, look carefully, listen closely and pay attention to everything I show you, since you have only been brought here for me to show it to you. Tell the House of Israel everything that you see.’

⁵ The Temple was surrounded with a wall, and the man was holding a measuring rod that was six cubits long, each cubit a forearm and a handbreadth. He measured the thickness of this construction – one rod; 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 walls between the guardrooms five cubits thick; and the threshold of the gate inwards from the porch of the gate: one rod.

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

¹⁰ There were three guardrooms on each side of the east gate, all three the same size; the walls between them all the same thickness each side.

¹¹ He measured the width of the entrance: ten cubits; and the width all down the gateway: thirteen cubits.

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

¹³ He measured the width of the gate from the back wall of one guardroom to the back wall of the other; it was twenty-five cubits across from window to window.

¹⁴ He measured the porch: twenty cubits; after the porch of the gate came the outer court.

¹⁵ From the entrance end of the gate to the porch opposite: fifty cubits.

¹⁶ On each side of the gate there were splayed openings both in the guardrooms and in the spaces between, and there were openings all round inside the porch as well, and palm trees decorating the jambs.

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

¹⁸ This terrace, which came right up to the sides of the gates and matched their depth, is the Lower Terrace.

¹⁹ He measured across the outer court from the lower gate to the outside of the inner court: a hundred cubits on the eastern and northern sides.

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

²¹ It had three guardrooms on each side; the thickness of the walls between them, and its porch too, all measured the same as those of the first gate: fifty cubits by twenty-five cubits.

²² Its windows, its porch and its palm-tree decoration all measured the same 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. He measured 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, wall-thicknesses and porch; they were of the same dimensions as the others.

²⁵ All round it and its porch were windows, like the other windows; it measured fifty cubits by twenty-five cubits,

²⁶ and it had seven steps up to it; its porch was at the inner end and had palm-tree decoration on its jambs, one on each side.

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

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

²⁹ Its guardrooms, wall-thicknesses and porch all measured the same as the others. It and its porch had windows all round. It measured fifty cubits by twenty-five cubits.

³⁰ Its porch, measured, in all, all round, was twenty-five cubits by five cubits.

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

³² He took me to the east gate and measured it. It was the same size as the others.

³³ Its guardrooms, the thickness of its walls, its porch all measured the same as the others. It and its porch had windows all round. Its area was fifty cubits by twenty-five cubits.

³⁴ Its porch gave on to the outer court. There were palm trees on its jambs on either side, and eight steps leading up to it.

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

³⁶ Its guardrooms, the thickness of its walls and its porch all measured the same as the others. It had windows all round. Its area was fifty cubits by twenty-five cubits.

³⁷ Its porch gave on to the outer court. There were palm trees on its jambs on either side, and eight steps leading up to it.

³⁸ There was a room entered from the porch of the gates. It was here that they washed the holocaust.

³⁹ And on either side of the porch of the gate there were two tables for slaughtering the holocaust, the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation.

⁴⁰ Going northward up to the gate, there were two tables outside and two more tables at the porch end of the gate.

⁴¹ Four tables on the inside and four tables on the outside of the porch; in all, eight tables on which the sacrifices were offered.

⁴² There were also four tables of dressed stone for holocausts, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high, on which all the things necessary for killing the holocaust and the sacrifices were put.

⁴³ Rims, a handbreadth broad, went all round the top, and on these tables was put the sacrificial flesh.

⁴⁴ He took me into the inner court; there were two lodges in the inner court, one at the side of the north gate, facing south, the other at the side of the south gate, facing north.

⁴⁵ He told me, ‘The lodge looking south is for the priests in charge of the Temple,

⁴⁶ and the lodge looking north is for the priests who serve the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, those of the sons of Levi who approach Yahweh to serve him.’

⁴⁷ He measured the inner court. It was a quadrangle, a hundred cubits by a hundred cubits, with the altar in front of the Temple.

⁴⁸ He took me to the Ulam of the Temple and measured its door jambs – five cubits each side; and the width of the entrance was fourteen cubits with a three-cubit wall each side.

⁴⁹ The Ulam was twenty cubits by twelve cubits. There were ten steps leading up to it, and there were columns by the door jambs, one on each side.