The division of the land
45
1 When the land of Israel is divided among the twelve tribes, you must present to me, Yahweh, one part of the land to be a sacred district. It must be 8.3 miles long and 6.7 miles wide. That entire area will be set apart for me. 2 Part of that area, 875 feet on each side, will be for the temple area. An additional strip of ground, 87.5 feet wide, will be left empty all around the temple area. 3 Inside that sacred district, measure a section 8.3 miles long and 3.5 miles wide. 4 That section will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests who work in the temple and who come near to me to serve me. It will be a place for their houses as well as being a holy place for the temple. 5 An area 8.3 miles long and 3.5 miles wide will be for the descendants of Levi who work in the temple. That area will belong to them, and they will be permitted to build cities there to live in.6 Alongside that sacred area will be a section of land that is 8.3 miles long and 1.7 miles wide. It will be for a city where any Israeli wll be permitted to live.
7 The king will have two sections of land. One will be on the western side of the sacred district, and one will be on the eastern side. The one on the western side will extend west to the Mediterranean Sea, and the one on the the eastern side will extend to the eastern end of the country. The eastern and western borders of the king's land will be next to the areas allotted to the tribes. It will be as long as the areas allotted to each tribe. 8 That land will be the land in Israel that belongs to the king. So, because the kings will have land of their own, they will no longer need to oppress my people and steal land from them. They will assign the remaining parts of the land to the people, giving a part to each tribe.
9 This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: You kings of Israel must stop acting violently and oppressing the people! You must do what is fair and right. Stop taking land from the people! 10 And you must use accurate scales, and accurate containers for measuring things. 11 The baskets for measuring dry things and containers for measuring liquids must be the same size; each must hold 175 quarts. 12 When you weigh things, you must use weights that everyone accepts as being correct.
Special offerings and holy days
13 You must present to the king one bushel of wheat or barley for every 60 that you harvest. 14 You must give him one quart of olive oil for every 100 quarts that you make. 15 Also, I, Yahweh, declare that you must take one sheep or goat from each 200 in your flocks in the pastures of Israel. The sheep that you take will be used with the grain offerings and for the offerings that will be completely burned and the offerings to maintain fellowship with me, offerings to cause the people to no longer be guilty for their sins. 16 All the people of the land must join in bringing those offerings to the king of Israel. 17 And the king must provide the animals to be completely burned on the altar, the grain offerings, and wine for the sacred festivals that I have appointed for the people of Israel—including the festivals to celebrate the new moons and the days of rest. He must provide the animals for offerings for the people's sins, grain offerings, offerings to be completely burned, and offerings to maintain fellowship with me, Yahweh, to purify the Israeli people.
18 This is also what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare: On the first day of the first month of each year you must take one young bull that has no defects and sacrifice it to purify the temple. 19 The Supreme Priest must take some of the blood of the offering for people's sins, and smear it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar, and on the gateposts of the inner courtyard. 20 You must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for any people who sin accidentally or without knowing that what they did is sinful. By doing that you will purify the temple.
21 In the first month of each year, on the 14th day of the month, you must start to celebrate the Passover festival. The festival will last for seven days. During that time you must not eat bread made with yeast. 22 On the first day, the king must provide a bull to be an offering for himself and for the other people of the country. 23 And every day during those seven days he must provide seven bulls and seven rams that have no defects, and a male goat, to be an offering for the people's sins. 24 He must also provide a half bushel of grain to be an offering, and also four quarts of olive oil, for each bull and ram.
25 During the seven days of the festival of Living in Temporary Shelters, which starts on the 15th day of the seventh month of each year, the king must provide the same things for offerings for the people's sins, for offerings to be completely burned, for grain offerings, and the same amount of olive oil as he provided during each day of the Passover celebration.