Chapter 45

The Sacred Plot. ¹ When you draw lots to divide the country as an inheritance, you shall set aside a sacred portion of the land for the Lord, twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand cubits wide. Its entire area will be regarded as sacred. ² Of this land, a plot, five hundred cubits square, shall be set aside for the sanctuary, and that plot will be surrounded by an open space of fifty cubits.

³ Out of this area you must also set aside a section twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide, within which will be the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. ⁴ This will be the sacred portion of the land belonging to the priests who minister in the sanctuary and approach the Lord to serve him. It will be both a place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.

⁵ Another section, twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide, will be set apart for the Levites who minister at the temple, so that they will have towns in which to live. ⁶ Near the land belonging to the sanctuary, you are to grant the city possession of an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand cubits long. This shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

⁷ To the prince will belong the land that borders on both sides of the sacred district and the property of the city, extending westward from the west and eastward from the east, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions and extending from the western to the eastern borders ⁸ of the land. This will be his property in Israel. Therefore, the princes of Israel will no longer oppress my people, but they will grant the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

Weights and Measures. ⁹ Thus says the Lord God: Enough, you princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression and do what is right and just. Stop evicting my people from their land, says the Lord God.

^10 [a]You must use scales that are accurate, and have an honest ephah and an accurate liquid measure. ¹¹ The ephah and the liquid measure must be of equal size. The liquid measure must contain one-tenth of a homer, and the ephah must contain one-tenth of a homer. The homer will be the standard measure for both. ¹² The shekel must consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels will constitute one mina.

¹³ Grain Offerings. This is the special offering you shall make: one-sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley. ¹⁴ The prescribed portion of oil: one-tenth of a measure for every measure of oil, consisting of ten liquid measures to a kor (or a homer, since ten liquid measures equal one homer).

¹⁵ In addition, you must take from the pastures of Israel one sheep from every flock of two hundred. These will be used for sacrifice—burnt offerings and peace offerings and fellowship offerings—to make atonement for the people, says the Lord God.

¹⁶ All the people of the land will be required to contribute to this offering for the prince of Israel. ¹⁷ The prince himself has the obligation to provide the holocausts, the cereal offerings, and the libations for all of the feasts, new moons, Sabbaths, and appointed festivals of the house of Israel. He, himself, must provide the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the burnt offerings, and the fellowship offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

¹⁸ The Feast of Passover. Thus says the Lord God: On the first day of the first month you shall sacrifice an unblemished young bull to purify the sanctuary. ¹⁹ The priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorposts of the gates of the inner court. ²⁰ You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned inadvertently or because of ignorance. In this way, you will make atonement for the temple.

²¹ On the fourteenth day of the first month, you must celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days, everyone must eat unleavened bread. ²² On that day the prince must provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land.

²³ On each of the seven days of the feast, the prince must offer as a holocaust to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, and as a sin offering, he must offer one male goat each day. ²⁴ He also is to provide as a grain offering one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, as well as a hin^[b] of oil for each ephah.

²⁵ The Feast of Booths. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and for the entire seven days of the festival, he shall provide the same sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.