Ezekiel

Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

1The Lord GOD says this: the gate of the inner court that faces east must stay shut during the six workdays. On the Sabbath day it will be opened, and on the day of the new moon it will be opened.

2And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

2The prince will come in from outside, through the covered entry of that gate, and stand by the gatepost. The priests will offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings. He will bow low in worship at the doorway of the gate and then leave. The gate must not be shut until evening.

3Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons.

3On Sabbaths and new moons the people of the land will also bow low in worship before the LORD at the opening of that gate.

4And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.

4The burnt offering the prince brings to the LORD on the Sabbath day is six male lambs with nothing wrong with them, and one ram with nothing wrong with it.

5And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

5With the ram he brings a grain offering of one ephah of flour. With the lambs he brings as much as he can. He adds a hin of olive oil for each ephah of flour.

NoteWhere the KJV says "meat offering," it means a gift of grain, not meat. An ephah is a dry measure of about half a bushel, and a hin is a liquid measure of about a gallon.

6And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.

6On the day of the new moon he brings a young bull with nothing wrong with it, six lambs, and a ram. All of them must have nothing wrong with them.

7And he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

7He also brings a grain offering: an ephah of flour with the bull, an ephah with the ram, and as much as he can afford with the lambs. With each ephah he brings a hin of oil.

8And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof.

8When the prince comes in, he goes in through the covered entry of that gate, and he goes out the same way.

9But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it.

9When the people of the land come before the LORD at the set feasts, they must pass straight through. Whoever comes in by the north gate goes out by the south gate. Whoever comes in by the south gate goes out by the north gate. No one goes back out the gate he came in by. Each one leaves by the gate on the opposite side.

10And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth.

10The prince will be among them. When the people go in, he goes in, and when they go out, he goes out.

11And in the feasts and in the solemnities the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

11At the feasts and the other set festivals, the grain offering is an ephah of flour with a bull and an ephah with a ram. With the lambs, each one brings as much as he can, plus a hin of oil for each ephah.

12Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.

12Sometimes the prince brings an offering just because he wants to, a burnt offering or a peace offering. Then someone will open the east gate for him. He offers it the same way he does on the Sabbath day. Then he goes out, and the gate is shut behind him.

13Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it every morning.

13Every day you must bring the LORD a burnt offering: a year-old lamb with nothing wrong with it. Bring it every morning.

14And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD.

14Every morning you must also bring a grain offering with it: a sixth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil. This grain offering to the LORD is a rule that never ends.

15Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.

15So they will bring the lamb, the grain offering, and the oil every morning, as a burnt offering that never stops.

16Thus saith the Lord GOD; If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons’; it shall be their possession by inheritance.

16The Lord GOD says this: if the prince gives a gift of land to one of his sons, it belongs to that son. It stays with his family as an inheritance.

17But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons’ for them.

17But if he gives part of his land to one of his servants, the servant keeps it only until the year of freedom. Then it goes back to the prince. Land passed down in the family belongs to his sons alone.

NoteThe "year of liberty" is the year set by law when land that was sold or given away went back to the family it came from.

18Moreover the prince shall not take of the people’s inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own possession: that my people be not scattered every man from his possession.

18The prince must not take land from the people by force or push them off their property. He must give his sons land out of what is already his. That way none of my people will be driven off their own land.

19After he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests, which looked toward the north: and, behold, there was a place on the two sides westward.

19Then the man brought me through the entrance at the side of the gate. We came to the holy rooms that faced north, which belonged to the priests. At the far west end there was an open place.

20Then said he unto me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the meat offering; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people.

20He said to me, "This is where the priests will boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and bake the grain offering. That way they will not carry these holy things out into the outer court, where the people are."

21Then he brought me forth into the utter court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and, behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.

21Then he brought me out into the outer court and led me past its four corners. In each corner of the court there was a smaller court.

22In the four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four corners were of one measure.

22In the four corners of the court there were walled courts, each forty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. All four corner courts were the same size.

NoteA cubit was about eighteen inches, roughly the length of a forearm. So each corner court was about sixty feet by forty-five feet.

23And there was a row of building round about in them, round about them four, and it was made with boiling places under the rows round about.

23Inside each of the four courts there was a stone ledge running all the way around, with places for fires built underneath.

24Then said he unto me, These are the places of them that boil, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people.

24Then he said to me, "These are the kitchens. Here the temple workers will cook the sacrifices the people bring."