Ezekiel 45

Land set apart

1“When you allot the land as an inheritance, set apart a holy contribution for the LORD, twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide. The entire area within its boundaries will be holy. 2Within it, the sanctuary will occupy a square five hundred by five hundred, with fifty cubits of open land around it. 3From this measured area mark off a length of twenty-five thousand and a width of ten thousand. Within it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 4This holy portion of the land will belong to the priests who serve in the sanctuary, who approach the LORD to serve him. It will provide space for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5A portion twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide will belong to the Levites who serve in the temple, as their possession, with twenty chambers. 6Give the city a possession five thousand wide and twenty-five thousand long, alongside the holy contribution. It will belong to the whole house of Israel. 7The prince will have land on both sides of the holy contribution and the city’s possession, alongside them, extending westward on the west and eastward on the east. Its length will match one tribal portion, from the western boundary to the eastern boundary. 8This land will be his possession in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress my people but will leave the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

Just measures

9“This is what the Lord GOD says: Enough, princes of Israel! Put away violence and plunder. Do what is just and right. Stop driving my people from their property, declares the Lord GOD. 10Use honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath. 11The ephah and the bath must have the same capacity: the bath one-tenth of a homer and the ephah one-tenth of a homer. The homer will be their standard. 12The shekel will be twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels will make your mina.

The people’s contribution

13“This is the contribution you must offer: one-sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat and one-sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley. 14The prescribed portion of oil, measured by the bath, is one-tenth of a bath from each cor. Ten baths make a homer, for a homer is ten baths. 15Take one sheep from every two hundred from Israel’s well-watered pastures. These will provide grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings to make atonement for them, declares the Lord GOD. 16All the people of the land must give this contribution to the prince in Israel. 17The prince will be responsible for the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings at the feasts, new moons, Sabbaths, and all the house of Israel’s appointed festivals. He must provide the sin offering, grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

The festival offerings

18“This is what the Lord GOD says: On the first day of the first month, take an unblemished young bull and purify the sanctuary. 19The priest must take some blood from the sin offering and put it on the temple’s doorpost, the four corners of the altar’s ledge, and the doorpost of the inner court’s gate. 20Do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins unintentionally or unknowingly. In this way you will make atonement for the temple. 21On the fourteenth day of the first month, observe the Passover, a festival lasting seven days. Unleavened bread must be eaten. 22On that day the prince must provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and all the people of the land. 23For each of the festival’s seven days he must provide a burnt offering to the LORD: seven unblemished bulls and seven unblemished rams each day, and a male goat each day as a sin offering. 24He must provide a grain offering of an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, with a hin of oil for each ephah. 25At the festival beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he must provide the same for seven days: sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.