Ezekiel

Distribution of the Land

When you divide the land into sections by lot, you are to set aside a sacred portion for the Lord: twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand wide.

The entire land is to be considered sacred, and from this, a square area measuring five hundred by five hundred cubits is designated for the Sanctuary, surrounded by a fifty-cubit-wide boundary.

From this area, you are also to measure a section twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits, within which the Sanctuary will stand; this is a very holy land.

This shall be the sacred portion of the land; it will belong to the priests who serve in the Sanctuary and approach the Lord to worship him. There, they will have their homes and also a designated area for the Sanctuary.

An area of twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits will be reserved for the Levites serving in the house, including towns for their residence.

You should give the city an area of five thousand by twenty-five thousand cubits, located near the land dedicated to the Sanctuary; this will be for all the people of Israel.

The prince is to have a domain on either side of the very holy land, as well as the land belonging to the city and adjacent to both. This domain will stretch westward from the west and eastward from the east, with its size equal to one of the sections between the country’s western and eastern frontiers.

This will be his possession in Israel. Afterwards, my princes will no longer oppress my people; they must leave the rest of the country to the people of Israel and its tribes.

The Lord says this: Let this be enough for you, princes of Israel! Stop your violence and plundering; practice justice and integrity; no longer oppress my people through taxation—the Lord speaks.

Use scales that are fair, an honest ephah, and a fair bath.

Make the ephah and bath equal, with the bath holding one-tenth of a homer and the ephah also one-tenth of a homer.

Ensure that the measures are based on the homer. The shekel should amount to twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels, make one mina.

This is the tax that you are to impose: a sixth of an ephah for every homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah for every homer of barley.

The dues on oil: one bath of oil for every ten baths or for every cor (which equals ten baths or one homer, since ten baths equal one homer).

You are to impose one sheep on every group of two hundred from the patrimony of Israel for the offering, burnt offering, and communion sacrifice. This is for atonement—this is the Lord’s declaration.

Let all the people of the land be required to give this offering for the prince of Israel.

The prince is to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths, as well as for all the solemn festivals of Israel. He is responsible for providing the sacrifice for sin, oblation, holocaust, and communion sacrifices atoning for Israel.

The Lord says this: On the first day of the first month, you must take a young bull without blemish to purify the sanctuary.

The priest is to take blood from the sacrifice for sin and apply it to the doorposts of the house, the four corners of the altar base, and the doorposts of the gates of the inner court.

You must do the same on the seventh of the month for anyone who has sinned unintentionally or out of ignorance. This is how you are to make atonement for the house.

On the fourteenth day of the first month, you must celebrate the Passover feast. For seven days, everyone is to eat unleavened bread.

On Passover day, the prince should offer a bull as a sin offering for himself and all the people in the land.

For the seven days of the feast, he must present a burnt offering to the Lord—seven bulls and seven rams, all without blemish—each day, along with a he-goat as a sin offering.

He should also bring a grain offering of one ephah for each bull and each ram, and a hin of oil for each ephah for the offerings.

For the feast on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he must do the same for seven days, offering the sacrifice for sin, burnt offering, drink offering and the oil.