Bible in a Year · Day 267 of 365
Today’s reading: Ezekiel 42–44 (3 chapters)
Read the passage below, or open your own Bible and follow along. The text here is the World English Bible, a public-domain translation, printed in full so the day’s reading is all on one page.
About Ezekiel
Ezekiel was a priest taken to Babylon, and his book is full of visions that are hard to picture and hard to forget. He sees the glory of God by a river, then watches that glory leave the temple, and later watches it return. He acts out the siege, lies on his side for weeks, and shaves his head as signs for a people who will not listen. The book also holds the valley of dry bones and the promise of a new heart of flesh. Much of it is dated, which gives the reader a timeline through the exile.
What to watch for. Watch the movement of God's glory, out of the temple and back again, and notice how the promise of a new heart in chapter 36 answers the diagnosis of chapter 36. Read the dry bones as a promise to people who think they are finished.
Ezekiel 42
1Then he brought me out into the outer court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the room that was over against the separate place, and which was over against the building toward the north. 2Before the length of one hundred cubits was the north door, and the width was fifty cubits. 3Over against the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner court, and over against the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery in the third floor. 4Before the rooms was a walk of ten cubits’ width inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors were toward the north. 5Now the upper rooms were shorter; for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the middle, in the building.
6For they were in three stories, and they didn’t have pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore the uppermost was set back more than the lowest and the middle from the ground. 7The wall that was outside by the side of the rooms, toward the outer court before the rooms, its length was fifty cubits. 8For the length of the rooms that were in the outer court was fifty cubits: and behold, before the temple were one hundred cubits. 9From under these rooms was the entry on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court. 10In the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, before the separate place, and before the building, there were rooms.
11The way before them was like the appearance of the rooms which were toward the north; according to their length so was their width: and all their exits were both according to their fashions, and according to their doors. 12According to the doors of the rooms that were toward the south was a door at the head of the way, even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one enters into them. 13Then he said to me, The north rooms and the south rooms, which are before the separate place, they are the holy rooms, where the priests who are near to Yahweh shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meal offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy. 14When the priests enter in, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the outer court, but there they shall lay their garments in which they minister; for they are holy: and they shall put on other garments, and shall approach to that which is for the people. 15Now when he had finished measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it all around.
16He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around. 17He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around. 18He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 19He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 20He measured it on the four sides: it had a wall around it, the length five hundred, and the width five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common.
Ezekiel 43
1Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east. 2Behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory. 3It was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. 4Yahweh’s glory came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. 5The Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and behold, Yahweh’s glory filled the house.
6I heard one speaking to me out of the house; and a man stood by me. 7He said to me, Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell among the children of Israel forever. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their prostitution, and by the dead bodies of their kings in their high places; 8in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their door post beside my door post, and there was a wall between me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed: therefore I have consumed them in my anger. 9Now let them put away their prostitution, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will dwell among them forever. 10You, son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern.
11If they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and its fashion, and its exits, and its entrances, and all its forms, and all its ordinances, and all its forms, and all its laws; and write it in their sight; that they may keep the whole form of it, and all its ordinances, and do them. 12This is the law of the house: on the top of the mountain the whole limit around it shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. 13These are the measurements of the altar by cubits (the cubit is a cubit and a hand width): the bottom shall be a cubit, and the width a cubit, and its border around its edge a span; and this shall be the base of the altar. 14From the bottom on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the width one cubit; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the width a cubit. 15The upper altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar hearth and upward there shall be four horns.
16The altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve wide, square in its four sides. 17The ledge shall be fourteen cubits long by fourteen wide in its four sides; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and its bottom shall be a cubit around; and its steps shall look toward the east. 18He said to me, Son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings on it, and to sprinkle blood on it. 19You shall give to the priests the Levites who are of the offspring of Zadok, who are near to me, to minister to me, says the Lord Yahweh, a young bull for a sin offering. 20You shall take of its blood, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around: thus you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it.
21You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and it shall be burned in the appointed place of the house, outside of the sanctuary. 22On the second day you shall offer a male goat without defect for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull. 23When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without defect, and a ram out of the flock without defect. 24You shall bring them near to Yahweh, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering to Yahweh. 25Seven days you shall prepare every day a goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bull, and a ram out of the flock, without defect.
26Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and purify it; so shall they consecrate it. 27When they have accomplished the days, it shall be that on the eighth day, and forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord Yahweh.
Ezekiel 44
1Then he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looks toward the east; and it was shut. 2Yahweh said to me, This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, neither shall any man enter in by it; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut. 3As for the prince, he shall sit therein as prince to eat bread before Yahweh; he shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. 4Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and behold, Yahweh’s glory filled Yahweh’s house: and I fell on my face. 5Yahweh said to me, Son of man, mark well, and see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I tell you concerning all the ordinances of Yahweh’s house, and all its laws; and mark well the entrance of the house, with every exit of the sanctuary.
6You shall tell the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, 7in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant, to add to all your abominations. 8You have not performed the duty of my holy things; but you have set performers of my duty in my sanctuary for yourselves. 9Thus says the Lord Yahweh, No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any foreigners who are among the children of Israel. 10But the Levites who went far from me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity.
11Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house, and ministering in the house: they shall kill the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. 12Because they ministered to them before their idols, and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel; therefore I have lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord Yahweh, and they shall bear their iniquity. 13They shall not come near to me, to execute the office of priest to me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. 14Yet will I make them performers of the duty of the house, for all its service, and for all that shall be done therein. 15But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who performed the duty of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me; and they shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord Yahweh:
16they shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister to me, and they shall keep my instruction. 17It shall be that, when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come on them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. 18They shall have linen tires on their heads, and shall have linen breeches on their waists; they shall not clothe themselves with anything that makes them sweat. 19When they go out into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they minister, and lay them in the holy rooms; and they shall put on other garments, that they not sanctify the people with their garments. 20Neither shall they shave their heads, nor allow their locks to grow long; they shall only cut off the hair of their heads.
21Neither shall any of the priests drink wine, when they enter into the inner court. 22Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her who is put away; but they shall take virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 23They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. 24In a controversy they shall stand to judge; according to my ordinances shall they judge it: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts; and they shall make my Sabbaths holy. 25They shall go in to no dead person to defile themselves; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister who has had no husband, they may defile themselves.
26After he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days. 27In the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, says the Lord Yahweh. 28They shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession. 29They shall eat the meal offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30The first of all the first fruits of every thing, and every offering of everything, of all your offerings, shall be for the priest: you shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.
31The priests shall not eat of anything that dies of itself, or is torn, whether it is bird or animal.
Next · Day 268: Ezekiel 45–48 →
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public-domain translation. Day numbering follows the calendar year; you can start at Day 1 on any date.
