Ezequiel 40
1In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the Lord was on me and he took me there.
2In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city.
3He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand.
4The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”
5I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man’s hand was six long cubits, each of which was a cubit and a handbreadth. He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high.
6Then he went to the east gate. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep.
7The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.
8Then he measured the portico of the gateway;
9it was eight cubits deep and its jambs were two cubits thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.
10Inside the east gate were three alcoves on each side; the three had the same measurements, and the faces of the projecting walls on each side had the same measurements.
11Then he measured the width of the entrance of the gateway; it was ten cubits and its length was thirteen cubits.
12In front of each alcove was a wall one cubit high, and the alcoves were six cubits square.
13Then he measured the gateway from the top of the rear wall of one alcove to the top of the opposite one; the distance was twenty-five cubits from one parapet opening to the opposite one.
14He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway—sixty cubits. The measurement was up to the portico facing the courtyard.
15The distance from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its portico was fifty cubits.
16The alcoves and the projecting walls inside the gateway were surmounted by narrow parapet openings all around, as was the portico; the openings all around faced inward. The faces of the projecting walls were decorated with palm trees.
17Then he brought me into the outer court. There I saw some rooms and a pavement that had been constructed all around the court; there were thirty rooms along the pavement.
18It abutted the sides of the gateways and was as wide as they were long; this was the lower pavement.
19Then he measured the distance from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner court; it was a hundred cubits on the east side as well as on the north.
20Then he measured the length and width of the north gate, leading into the outer court.
21Its alcoves—three on each side—its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as those of the first gateway. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
22Its openings, its portico and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them.
23There was a gate to the inner court facing the north gate, just as there was on the east. He measured from one gate to the opposite one; it was a hundred cubits.
24Then he led me to the south side and I saw the south gate. He measured its jambs and its portico, and they had the same measurements as the others.
25The gateway and its portico had narrow openings all around, like the openings of the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
26Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them; it had palm tree decorations on the faces of the projecting walls on each side.