46
📚“‘Thus says the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that faces east will be shut the six working days, but on the Sabbath it will be opened, and on the day of the new moon 📖 it will be opened. 46:1 There were two east gates – one for the outer court which was to be permanently closed (Ezek 44:2), one for the inner court which was sometimes to be opened.⚜
2 📚And the prince 📖 shall enter by way of the portico of the gate from outside, and shall stand by the gatepost. And the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening. 3 📚Likewise the people of the land shall worship before the LORD at the door of this gate on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. 4 📚And the burnt offering that the prince offers to the LORD on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish. 5 📚And the grain offering shall be an ephah for each ram, and the grain offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and a hin of oil for each ephah. 6 📚And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bull without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram. They shall be without blemish. 7 📚And he shall provide a grain offering, an ephah for each bull, and an ephah for each ram, and for the lambs as much as he is able to get, and a hin of oil for each ephah. 8 📚And when the prince enters, he shall go in by way of the portico of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way.
9 📚“‘But when the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, he who enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go out by way of the south gate, and he who enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate; he shall not return by way of the gate that he came in, but shall go out opposite it.
46:9 Great numbers of people would be coming and going. To avoid disorder straight columns should move in only one direction through the temple courts.⚜
10 📚And the prince among them will go in when they go in, and will go out when they go out.
11 📚“‘And at the festivals and appointed feasts the grain offerings shall be an ephah for each bull, and an ephah for each ram, and as much as he is able to give with the lambs, and a hin of oil for each ephah. 12 📚Now when the prince provides a freewill 📖 burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily for the LORD, then someone shall open the gate that faces east for him, and he shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out someone shall shut the gate.
13 📚“‘Daily you shall prepare a burnt offering for the LORD, a lamb of the first year without blemish. You shall prepare it each morning. 14 📚And with it you shall prepare a grain offering each morning, a sixth of an ephah, and a third of a hin of oil, to moisten the fine flour. This is to be a regular grain offering to the LORD by a permanent ordinance. 15 📚Thus they shall prepare the lamb, and the grain offering, and the oil, each morning as a continual burnt offering.
46:13-15 In Num 28:3-8 the instruction was to offer a lamb in the morning and one in the evening.⚜
16 📚“‘Thus says the Lord God: If the prince gives a gift from his inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons. It shall be their possession by inheritance. 17 📚But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall belong to him until the year of liberty 📖. Afterwards it shall revert to the prince; but his inheritance shall belong to his sons. It shall be theirs. 18 📚Moreover, the prince shall not seize any of the people’s inheritance by oppression, by evicting them from their property; but he shall give an inheritance to his sons from his own property, so that none of my people will be scattered from his property 📖.’ ”
19 📚Afterwards he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy rooms of the priests, which faced north; and I saw there a place at the far western end. 20 📚Then said he to me, “This is the place where the priests will cook the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they will bake the grain offering, so that they do not carry them out into the outer court, and so sanctify the people”.
21 Then he brought me out to the outer court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and I saw in each corner of the court another court. 22 In the four corners of the court there were enclosed courts forty cubits long and thirty wide. These four corner courts had the same measurements. 23 And there was a row of stones all around them, surrounding each of the four, and all around under these rows cooking hearths had been made. 24 📚Then he said to me, “These are places for those who will do the cooking, where the servants of the temple will boil the sacrifice of the people”.
46:19-24 Again detailed descriptions are given and their spiritual significance, if they have any, is almost impossible to discover. They seem to point only to physical activity.⚜