Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Ezekiel 40
The vision begins
In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, fourteen years after the city fell—on that very day—the hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me there. In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain. On its south side was something like a city’s buildings. He brought me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze. He stood in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. The man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, listen with your ears, and pay attention to everything I show you. You were brought here so I could show it to you. Tell the house of Israel everything you see.”
The wall and east gate
A wall surrounded the temple on the outside. The man’s measuring reed was six long cubits, each a cubit and a handbreadth. He measured the wall: one reed thick and one reed high. He came to the east-facing gate, climbed its steps, and measured the gate’s threshold: one reed wide. The other threshold was also one reed wide. Each guardroom was one reed long and one reed wide. Between the guardrooms were five cubits. The threshold beside the gate’s vestibule, on the temple side, was one reed. He measured the gate’s vestibule on the temple side: one reed. He measured the gate’s vestibule: eight cubits, with its jambs two cubits. The vestibule was on the temple side. The east gate had three guardrooms on each side, all three the same size. The jambs on both sides also had the same measurements. He measured the gate opening: ten cubits wide. The gate passage was thirteen cubits long. A barrier one cubit wide stood before the guardrooms on each side. The guardrooms were six cubits on each side. He measured the gate from one guardroom’s roof to the opposite roof: twenty-five cubits across, doorway opposite doorway. He made the jambs sixty cubits, and the court surrounded the gate up to the jambs. From the front of the entrance gate to the front of the inner vestibule was fifty cubits. Recessed windows surrounded the guardrooms and their jambs, facing inward into the gate; the vestibules likewise had windows all around facing inward. Palm trees decorated the jambs.
The outer court
Then he brought me into the outer court. Chambers and a pavement ran around the court; thirty chambers stood along the pavement. The pavement flanked the gates and matched their length. This was the lower pavement. He measured from the front of the lower gate to the outside front of the inner court: a hundred cubits, on the east and the north. He measured the length and width of the north-facing gate of the outer court. Its guardrooms, three on each side, its jambs, and its vestibules matched the first gate: fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its windows, vestibules, and palm trees matched the east-facing gate. Seven steps led up to it, with its vestibules ahead of them. A gate to the inner court stood opposite the north gate, as on the east. He measured a hundred cubits from gate to gate. He led me south, where there was a south-facing gate. He measured its jambs and vestibules; they had the same dimensions. The gate and its vestibules had windows all around like the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Seven steps led up to it, and its vestibules were ahead of them. Palm trees decorated the jambs, one on either side. The inner court also had a south-facing gate. He measured a hundred cubits from gate to gate on the south.
The inner gates
He brought me into the inner court through the south gate. He measured this south gate; it had the same dimensions. Its guardrooms, jambs, and vestibules had the same measurements. The gate and its vestibules had windows all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Vestibules all around were twenty-five cubits long and five cubits wide. Its vestibules faced the outer court. Palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it. He brought me into the inner court on the east and measured the gate. It had the same dimensions. Its guardrooms, jambs, and vestibules had the same measurements. The gate and its vestibules had windows all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its vestibules faced the outer court. Palm trees decorated its jambs on both sides, and eight steps led up to it. He brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same dimensions: guardrooms, jambs, vestibules, and windows all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its jambs faced the outer court, with palm trees on the jambs on both sides. Eight steps led up to it.
Tables and rooms
There was a chamber with its doorway beside the gate jambs. There they washed the burnt offering. Inside the gate’s vestibule were two tables on each side for slaughtering the burnt offering, sin offering, and guilt offering. Outside, beside the approach to the north gate’s entrance, were two tables. Two more stood on the other side beside the vestibule. Four tables stood on each side of the gate, eight tables in all, for slaughtering the sacrifices. There were also four tables of cut stone for the burnt offering, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and one cubit high. On them they laid the tools for slaughtering burnt offerings and other sacrifices. Hooks a handbreadth long were fixed all around inside, and the flesh of the offering lay on the tables. Outside the inner gate, in the inner court, were chambers for singers beside the north gate, facing south. Another stood beside the east gate, facing north. He told me, “The chamber facing south is for the priests who keep charge of the temple. The chamber facing north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the descendants of Zadok, who among the Levites approach the LORD to serve him.”
The court and temple entrance
He measured the court: a square, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. The altar stood in front of the temple. He brought me to the temple’s vestibule and measured its jambs: five cubits on each side. The gate’s side walls were three cubits on each side. The vestibule was twenty cubits long and eleven cubits wide, with steps leading up to it. Pillars stood beside the jambs, one on each side.