1The man brought me to the east gate.
2Oh! The bright Glory of the God of Israel rivered out of the east sounding like the roar of floodwaters, and the earth itself glowed with the bright Glory.
3It looked just like what I had seen when he came to destroy the city, exactly like what I had seen earlier at the Kebar River. And again I fell, face to the ground.
4The bright Glory of GOD poured into the Temple through the east gate.
5The Spirit put me on my feet and led me to the inside courtyard and--oh! the bright Glory of GOD filled the Temple!
6I heard someone speaking to me from inside the Temple while the man stood beside me.
7He said, "Son of man, this is the place for my throne, the place I'll plant my feet. This is the place where I'll live with the Israelites forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols their kings set up at all the wayside shrines.
8When they set up their worship shrines right alongside mine with only a thin wall between them, they dragged my holy name through the mud with their obscene and vile worship. Is it any wonder that I destroyed them in anger?
9So let them get rid of their whoring ways and the stinking no-god idols introduced by their kings and I'll move in and live with them forever.
10"Son of man, tell the people of Israel all about the Temple so they'll be dismayed by their wayward lives. Get them to go over the layout.
11That will bring them up short. Show them the whole plan of the Temple, its ins and outs, the proportions, the regulations, and the laws. Draw a picture so they can see the design and meaning and live by its design and intent.
12"This is the law of the Temple: As it radiates from the top of the mountain, everything around it becomes holy ground. Yes, this is law, the meaning, of the Temple.
13"These are the dimensions of the altar, using the long (twenty-one-inch) ruler. The gutter at its base is twenty-one inches
14deep and twenty-one inches wide, with a four-inch lip around its edge. "The height of the altar is three and a half feet from the base to the first ledge and twenty inches wide. From the first ledge to the second ledge it is seven feet high and twenty-one inches wide.
15The altar hearth is another seven feet high. Four horns stick upward from the hearth twenty-one inches high.
16"The top of the altar, the hearth, is square, twenty-one by twenty-one feet.
17The upper ledge is also square, twenty-four and a half feet on each side, with a ten-and-a-half-inch lip and a twenty-one-inch-wide gutter all the way around. "The steps of the altar ascend from the east."
18Then the man said to me, "Son of man, GOD, the Master, says: 'These are the ordinances for conduct at the altar when it is built, for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood on it.
19"'For a sin offering, give a bull to the priests, the Levitical priests who are from the family of Zadok who come into my presence to serve me.
20Take some of its blood and smear it on the four horns of the altar that project from the four corners of the top ledge and all around the lip. That's to purify the altar and make it fit for the sacrifice.
21Then take the bull for the sin offerings and burn it in the place set aside for this in the courtyard outside the Sanctuary.
22"'On the second day, offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. Purify the altar the same as you purified it for the bull.
23Then, when you have purified it, offer a bull without blemish and a ram without blemish from the flock.
24Present them before GOD. Sprinkle salt on them and offer them as a burnt offering to GOD.
25"'For seven days, prepare a goat for a sin offering daily, and also a bull and a ram from the flock, animals without blemish.
26For seven days the priests are to get the altar ready for its work, purifying it. This is how you dedicate it.
27"'After these seven days of dedication, from the eighth day on, the priests will present your burnt offerings and your peace offerings. And I'll accept you with pleasure, with delight! Decree of GOD, the Master.'"