Daily Reading

1 Then He brought me out into the outer court, the way toward the north, and He brought me into the chamber that was adjacent to the separate place and which was adjacent to the building toward the north.

2 The length of the side of the northern entrance was a hundred cubits, and the width was fifty cubits.

3 Adjacent to the twenty- cubit space of the inner court and adjacent to the pavement of the outer court was gallery facing gallery on the third story.

4 And before the chambers on the inside was a walkway of ten cubits’ width, a way of one hundred cubits; and their entrances were toward the north.

5 Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries took more space away from these than from the lower and the middle stories in the building.

6 For they were arranged in three stories, and they did not have pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper story was set back from the ground more than the lower and middle stories.

7 There was also an outside wall beside the chambers, toward the outer court in front of the chambers; its length was fifty cubits.

8 For the length of the chambers that were in the outer court was fifty cubits, while those facing the temple were a hundred cubits.

9 And at the foot of these chambers was an entrance on the east side to enter them from the outer court;

10 By the breadth of the wall of the court to the south, beside the separate place and beside the building, there were chambers,

11 With a way before them. Their appearance was like the appearance of the chambers which were toward the north; just as their length, so also was their width; and all their exits were according to both their arrangements and their entrances.

12 So the entrances of the chambers that were toward the south were entered through an entrance toward the east at the head of the corresponding way, directly beside the wall.

13 Then He said to me, The north chambers and the south chambers which are beside the separate place are holy chambers, where the priests who are near to Jehovah shall eat the most holy things. There they shall lay the most holy things, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering, for the place is holy.

14 When the priests enter, they shall not go out of the holy place into the outer court, but there they shall lay their garments in which they have ministered, because they are holy. And they shall put on other garments and approach the area designated for the people.

15 Now when He had finished measuring the inner house, He brought me out through the gate which faces toward the east and measured it all around.

16 He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around.

17 He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around.

18 He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

19 He turned to the west side and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

20 He measured it on four sides. It had a wall all around, the length five hundred reeds and the width five hundred reeds, to make a separation between what was holy and what was common.

1 Then He brought me to the gate, that is, the gate that faces toward the east.

2 And the glory of the God of Israel was there, coming from the way of the east, and His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth was illuminated with His glory.

3 And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, that is, like the vision that I had seen when I came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I had seen by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face.

4 And the glory of Jehovah came into the house through the gate which faced toward the east.

5 And the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court, and just then the glory of Jehovah filled the house.

6 And I heard someone speaking to me out of the house, and a man stood beside me.

7 And He said to me, Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will no longer defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their fornication and by their kings’ dead bodies on their high places.

8 When they placed their threshold by My threshold and their doorpost beside My doorpost, there was only the wall between Me and them, and they have defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. Therefore I have consumed them in My anger.

9 Now let them put away their fornication and the dead bodies of their kings far from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.

10 You, O son of man, describe the house to the house of Israel, that they may feel humiliated because of their iniquities, and let them measure the pattern.

11 And if they feel humiliated because of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its arrangement, its exits, its entrances, its whole design, and all its statutes — indeed its whole design and all its laws; and write them down in their sight, that they may keep its whole design and all its statutes, and do them.

12 This is the law of the house: Its entire area on the top of and all around the mountain shall be most holy. Indeed this is the law of the house.

13 Now these are the measurements of the altar by cubits (the cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth). The bottom shall be a cubit in height, a cubit in depth, and its surrounding border on its edge, a span. Now this is the base of the altar.

14 And from the top of the bottom upon the ground to the top of the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and one cubit in depth; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and a cubit in depth.

15 And the altar hearth shall be four cubits in height; and from the altar hearth there shall also be four horns projecting upward.

16 And the altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve cubits wide, square on its four sides.

17 And the greater ledge shall be fourteen cubits long by fourteen cubits wide on its four sides, and its surrounding border shall be half a cubit, and its bottom shall be a cubit all around, and its steps shall face east.

18 And He said to me, Son of man, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, These are the statutes of the altar to be observed on the day when they make it, for offering up burnt offerings on it and for sprinkling blood upon it.

19 You shall give the Levitical priests who are of the seed of Zadok, who draw near to Me to minister to Me, declares the Lord Jehovah, a bull of the herd for a sin offering.

20 And you shall take some of its blood and put it on its four horns, on the four corners of the ledge, and upon the surrounding border. Thus you shall purify it and make expiation for it.

21 You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and it shall be burnt in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary.

22 And on the second day you shall present a male goat without blemish for a sin offering, and they shall purify the altar, just as they purified it with the bull.

23 When you have finished purifying it, you shall present a bull of the herd without blemish and a ram of the flock without blemish.

24 And you shall present them before Jehovah, and the priests shall throw salt upon them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to Jehovah.

25 Each day for seven days you shall offer a goat for a sin offering; they shall also offer a bull of the herd and a ram out of the flock without blemish.

26 Seven days they shall make expiation for the altar and cleanse it, and so consecrate it.

27 And when they have fulfilled the days, on the eighth day and onward, the priests shall offer your burnt offerings and your peace offerings upon the altar; and I will accept you, declares the Lord Jehovah.

1 But there arose also false prophets among the people, as also among you there will be false teachers, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

2 And many will follow their licentiousness, because of whom the way of the truth will be reviled.

3 And in covetousness, with fabricated words, they will make merchandise of you, for whom the judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned but delivered them to gloomy pits, having cast them down to Tartarus, they being kept for judgment;

5 And did not spare the ancient world but guarded Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

6 And having reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, condemned them to ruin, having set them as an example to those who intend to live an ungodly life,

7 And rescued righteous Lot, who had been oppressed by the licentious manner of life of the lawless

8 (For that righteous man, who settled down among them, in seeing and hearing tormented his righteous soul day after day with their lawless works);

9 The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trial and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

10 And especially those who go after the flesh in the lust for defilement and despise lordship. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble while reviling dignities;

11 Whereas angels, though they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

12 But these, like animals without reason, born natural for capture and destruction, reviling in things of which they are ignorant, will also in their corrupting of others be destroyed;

13 Suffering unrighteousness as the wages of unrighteousness; considering luxury in the day to be pleasure; spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceits while feasting together with you;

14 Having eyes full of adultery and not ceasing from sin; enticing unstable souls, having a heart exercised for covetousness, children of curse.

15 Forsaking the straight way, they have gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness

16 But had reproof for his own transgression: a dumb beast of burden, uttering with a man’s voice, restrained the madness of the prophet.

17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness is kept.

18 For uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice by lusts of the flesh, with licentiousness, those who are barely escaping from them who live in error;

19 Promising freedom to them, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom anyone has been defeated, by this one he has been enslaved.

20 For if, having escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but having again been entangled in these, they are defeated, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: The dog has turned to its own vomit, and the washed sow to wallowing in the mud.