Ezekiel 43

₁Then the man took me to the outer eastern gate. ₂And there I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. It sounded like the roaring of a big flood of water and the light of the Lord made the earth shine. ₃And the vision that I saw was like the vision which I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and like the vision which I had seen by the Kebar River. I bowed down and lay with my face to the ground.

₄The glory of the Lord came into the temple-ground through the eastern gate. ₅Then the Spirit lifted me up and took me to the inner courtyard and there I saw the glory of the Lord filling the temple. ₆The man was standing next to me and I heard Someone talking to me from the temple. ₇The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, this is where I will put my throne and where I will put down my feet. I will always live here among the Israelites. The Israelites, the people and their kings, will never be unfaithful to Me again. They will not make my holy name impure again and they will never again bury the bodies of their dead kings here. ₈The kings made my holy name impure when they put the door and the frame of their palace next to the door and frame of my temple. There was only a wall between them and Me. They made my name impure with all the bad things they did, things that I hate. Then I became angry and I caused them to die. ₉The people must stop being unfaithful to Me and they must take away the bodies of the dead kings from my temple, and then I will live among them forever.

₁₀Son of man, you must tell the Israelites what I said about my temple so that they can measure it and be ashamed of all the things that they have done wrong. ₁₁And when they are ashamed about everything they did, then you must tell them what the temple should look like. Tell them where everything must be and where people may go in and out. Tell them what they must do and how they must do it. You must write it down so that they can see it and build the temple like that and do everything like I want it. ₁₂The most important law about the temple is that the top of the mountain and everything around it is most_holy.’

₁₃‘You must measure the altar but you must use temple-cubits for this work. It is one handbreadth longer than a cubit. There must be a gutter around the altar. It must be one cubit deep and one cubit wide and the rim of the gutter must be one handbreadth wide. Then you must measure how high the altar must be. ₁₄From the ground to the lower rim of the altar must be 2 cubits. The bottom rim must be one cubit wider than the upper rim and from the lower rim to the upper rim must be 2 cubits. The altar must be 4 cubits high and the upper rim must be one cubit wider than the fireplace. ₁₅The fireplace on the altar must be 4 cubits high and it must have 4 horns on the upper corners. ₁₆The fireplace must be square. It must be 12 cubits long and 12 cubits wide. ₁₇The upper rim, below the fireplace, must also be square. It must be 14 cubits long and 14 cubits wide. The rim around the altar must be half a cubit wide. The gutter around the altar must be one cubit deep. The steps of the altar must be at the eastern side.’

₁₈The man said to me: ‘Son of man, the Lord God says: “This is what you have to do with the altar when you have finished building it to sacrifice burnt-offerings and to sprinkle blood on it: ₁₉You must give a young bull to the Levi priests to be a sin-offering. These are the priests who are descendants of Zadok and who may come to my altar to sacrifice to Me.” ’ This is what the Lord God said.

₂₀‘You must take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the 4 horns_of_the_altar and on the corners of the upper rim of the altar and around the sides of the altar. That is how you must prepare the altar so that the people can serve Me there. ₂₁You must burn the bull as a sin-offering at the right place near the temple, outside the temple-ground.

₂₂The next day you must sacrifice a healthy goat-ram to be a sin-offering. You must do the same with it as you have done with the bull. You must prepare the altar so that the people can serve Me there. ₂₃When you have prepared the altar and purified it like that, you must sacrifice a healthy bull and a healthy sheep ram. ₂₄You must bring their meat to the altar. The priests must put salt on the meat and they must sacrifice the meat to the Lord to be a burnt-offering.

₂₅For 7 days you must sacrifice a goat-ram each day to be a sin-offering and you must also sacrifice a bull and a sheep ram. All of them must be healthy animals. ₂₆That is how you must prepare the altar and purify it for 7 days so that the people can serve Me there. You must purify the altar and consecrate it to Me. ₂₇After the 7 days, on the 8th day and thereafter, the priests may sacrifice your burnt-offerings and your meal-offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you.’ This is what the Lord God said.