Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Ezekiel 42
Rooms beside the temple
He led me north into the outer court and brought me to the chambers opposite the separate area and the building on the north. The building was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, with an entrance on the north. Facing the twenty-cubit space beside the inner court and the outer court’s pavement, galleries faced galleries on three levels. Before the chambers was a passage ten cubits wide toward the interior, with a way one cubit wide. Their doors faced north. The upper chambers were narrower because the galleries took more space from them than from the lower and middle stories. There were three stories, without pillars like those of the courts. So the upper story was set back from the lower and middle stories above the ground. An outer wall ran along the chambers toward the outer court, in front of them, for fifty cubits. The row of chambers facing the outer court was fifty cubits long, while the row facing the temple was a hundred cubits. Below these chambers was the east entrance used by those coming in from the outer court. Within the width of the court’s wall on the east were chambers facing the separate area and the building. A passage ran before them. They resembled the northern chambers in length and width, exits, arrangements, and entrances. Like the entrances of the southern chambers, there was an entrance at the head of the passage, beside the corresponding wall, for those entering from the east.
The priests’ use of the rooms
He told me, “The northern and southern chambers facing the separate area are holy chambers. There the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings—the grain offering, sin offering, and guilt offering—for the place is holy. When the priests enter, they must not go straight from the holy place into the outer court. They must leave their service garments there, because they are holy, and put on other clothes before approaching the people’s area.”
The outer enclosure
When he finished measuring the inner temple, he led me out through the east-facing gate and measured the surrounding area. He measured all along the east side with the measuring reed: five hundred reeds by the measuring reed. He measured the north side: five hundred reeds by the measuring reed. He measured the south side: five hundred reeds by the measuring reed. He turned to the west side and measured five hundred reeds by the measuring reed. He measured all four sides. A wall surrounded it, five hundred long and five hundred wide, separating the holy from the common.