Ezekiel 46

The gate and the offerings

1“This is what the Lord GOD says: The east-facing gate of the inner court must remain shut during the six working days. It must be opened on the Sabbath and on the new moon. 2The prince must enter from outside through the gate’s vestibule and stand beside the gatepost. The priests will offer his burnt offering and peace offerings. He must bow at the threshold and then leave, but the gate must remain open until evening. 3On Sabbaths and new moons the people of the land must bow before the LORD at that gate’s entrance. 4The burnt offering the prince presents to the LORD on the Sabbath must be six unblemished lambs and one unblemished ram. 5The grain offering will be an ephah for the ram, and for the lambs whatever he gives, with a hin of oil for each ephah. 6On the new moon he must offer an unblemished young bull, six lambs, and a ram; they must be unblemished. 7He must provide an ephah as a grain offering for the bull and an ephah for the ram. For the lambs he may give as much as he can, with a hin of oil for each ephah. 8When the prince enters, he must come through the gate’s vestibule and leave the same way. 9When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed festivals, whoever enters by the north gate to worship must leave by the south gate, and whoever enters by the south must leave by the north. No one may return by the gate they entered; they must leave by the opposite gate. 10The prince will be among them, entering when they enter; when they leave, they will go out together. 11At the feasts and appointed festivals, the grain offering will be an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, and for the lambs whatever he gives, with a hin of oil for each ephah. 12When the prince makes a freewill offering to the LORD, a burnt offering or peace offerings, the east-facing gate must be opened for him. He will offer his burnt offering and peace offerings as on the Sabbath. Then he must leave, and the gate must be shut after him. 13“Provide an unblemished year-old lamb each day as a burnt offering to the LORD. Offer it morning by morning. 14With it, morning by morning, provide a grain offering: one-sixth of an ephah and one-third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour. This is a grain offering to the LORD, a lasting statute, continually. 15They must offer the lamb, grain offering, and oil morning by morning as a continual burnt offering.

The prince’s inheritance

16“This is what the Lord GOD says: If the prince gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his sons, it will belong to his sons as their inherited possession. 17But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it will belong to that servant until the year of release, then return to the prince. His inheritance belongs permanently to his sons. 18The prince must not take any of the people’s inheritance, forcing them from their possessions. He must give his sons an inheritance from his own possession, so none of my people is scattered from their property.”

The kitchens

19He brought me through the entrance beside the gate into the priests’ holy chambers facing north. At their far western end was a place 20where, he told me, “The priests will boil the guilt offering and sin offering and bake the grain offering, so they do not carry them into the outer court and transmit holiness to the people.” 21He led me out into the outer court and around its four corners. In each corner was another court. 22These four corner courts were enclosed, each forty long and thirty wide. All four had the same dimensions. 23A row of masonry ran around each of the four, with cooking hearths built beneath the rows all around. 24He told me, “These are the kitchens where the temple’s servants will boil the people’s sacrifices.”