Ezekiel 41-42

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

41 Then he brought me to the nave and measured the posts; on each side six cubits was the depth of the posts.^{[a](A) 2} The width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sidewalls of the entrance were five cubits on either side. He measured the length of the nave, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits.^{(B) 3} Then he went into the inner room and measured the posts of the entrance, two cubits, and the width of the entrance, six cubits, and the sidewalls^[b] of the entrance, seven cubits.^{(C) 4} He measured the depth of the room, twenty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits, beyond the nave. And he said to me, “This is the most holy place.”^(D)

⁵ Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits thick, and the width of the side chambers, four cubits, all around the temple. ⁶ The side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets^[c] all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side chambers so that they should not be supported by the wall of the temple.^{(E) 7} The passageway^[d] of the side chambers widened from story to story, for the structure was supplied with a stairway all around the temple. For this reason the structure became wider from story to story. One ascended from the bottom story to the uppermost story by way of the middle one.^{(F) 8} I saw also that the temple was on a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits high.^{(G) 9} The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits, and the free space between the side chambers of the temple^{(H) 10} and the chambers of the court was a width of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side.^{(I) 11} The side chambers opened onto the area left free, one door toward the north and another door toward the south, and the width of the part that was left free was five cubits all around.^(J)

¹² The building that was facing the temple yard on the west side was seventy cubits deep, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around and its width ninety cubits.^(K)

¹³ Then he measured the temple, one hundred cubits deep, and the yard and the building with its walls, one hundred cubits deep,^{(L) 14} also the width of the east front of the temple and the yard, one hundred cubits.^(M)

¹⁵ Then he measured the width of the building facing the yard at the west, together with its galleries^[e] on either side, one hundred cubits.

The nave of the temple’s interior and the outer^[f] vestibule^{(N) 16} were paneled,^[g] and all around all three had windows with recessed^[h] frames. Facing the threshold, the temple was paneled with wood all around, from the floor up to the windows (now the windows were covered).^{(O) 17} On the space above the door, even to the inner room, and on the outside and on all the walls all around in the inner room and the nave there was a pattern.^{[i] 18} It was formed of cherubim and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub. Each cherub had two faces:^{(P) 19} a human face turned toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion turned toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple all around;^{(Q) 20} from the floor to the area above the door, cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall.^[j]

²¹ The doorposts of the nave were square. In front of the holy place was something resembling^{(R) 22} an altar of wood, three cubits high, two cubits long, and two cubits wide;^[k] its corners, its base,^[l] and its walls were of wood. He said to me, “This is the table that stands before the Lord.”^{(S) 23} The nave and the holy place had each a double door.^{(T) 24} The doors had two leaves apiece, two swinging leaves for each door. ²⁵ On the doors of the nave were carved cherubim and palm trees, such as were carved on the walls, and there was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside. ²⁶ And there were recessed windows and palm trees on either side, on the sidewalls of the vestibule.^[m](U)

The Holy Chambers and the Outer Wall

42 Then he led me out into the outer court toward the north, and he brought me to the chambers that were opposite the temple yard and opposite the building on the north.^{(V) 2} The length of the building that was on the north side^[n] was^[o] one hundred cubits and the width fifty cubits. ³ Facing the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court and facing the pavement that belonged to the outer court, the chambers rose^[p] gallery^[q] by gallery^[r] in three stories.^{(W) 4} Amid the chambers was an interior passage, ten cubits wide and one hundred cubits deep,^[s] and its^[t] entrances were on the north.^{(X) 5} Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries^[u] took more away from them than from the lower and middle chambers in the building. ⁶ For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the outer^[v] court; for this reason the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones.^{(Y) 7} There was a wall outside parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, opposite the chambers, fifty cubits long. ⁸ For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those opposite the temple were one hundred cubits long.^{(Z) 9} At the foot of these chambers ran a passage that one entered from the east in order to enter them from the terrace space outside.^{(AA) 10} The entrance was aligned with the start of the wall^[w] toward the court.

On the south^[x] also, opposite the vacant area and opposite the building, there were chambers ¹¹ with a passage in front of them; they were similar to the chambers on the north, of the same length and width, with the same exits^[y] and arrangements and doors. ¹² So the entrances of the chambers to the south were entered through the entrance at the head of the corresponding passage, from the east, along the matching wall.^[z]

¹³ Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the vacant area are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings; there they shall deposit the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the purification offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy.^{(AB) 14} When the priests enter the holy place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court without laying there the vestments in which they minister, for these are holy; they shall put on other garments before they go near to the area open to the people.”^(AC)

¹⁵ When he had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faces east and measured the temple area all around.^{(AD) 16} He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. ¹⁷ Then he turned and measured^[aa] the north side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. ¹⁸ Then he turned and measured^[ab] the south side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. ¹⁹ Then he turned to the west side and measured, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. ²⁰ He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to make a separation between the holy and the common.^(AE)