The Temple's Chambers

¹Then he led me out into xthe outer court, ytoward the north, and he brought me to xthe chambers that were opposite zthe separate yard and opposite athe building on the north. ²The length of the building whose door faced north was ba hundred cubits,1 and cthe breadth fifty cubits. ³Facing dthe twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court, and facing ethe pavement that belonged to the outer court, was fgallery2 against gallery in three stories. ⁴And gbefore the chambers was a passage inward, ten cubits wide and ha hundred cubits long,3 and gtheir doors were on the north. ⁵Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries took more away from them than from the lower and middle chambers of the building. ⁶For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the courts. Thus the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones. ⁷And ithere was a wall outside parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, opposite the chambers, jfifty cubits long. ⁸For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those opposite kthe nave4 were la hundred cubits long. ⁹Below these chambers was man entrance on the east side, as one enters them from the outer court.

¹⁰In the thickness of nthe wall of the court, on the south5 also, opposite othe yard and opposite othe building, there were pchambers ¹¹with qa passage in front of them. They were similar to the chambers on the north, of the same length and breadth, with the same exits6 and arrangements and qdoors, ¹²as were the entrances of the chambers on the south. There was an entrance at the beginning of the passage, the passage before nthe corresponding wall on the east as one enters them.7

¹³Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers opposite othe yard are the holy chambers, rwhere the priests who approach the Lord sshall eat the tmost holy offerings. There they shall put the most holy offerings—tthe grain offering, uthe sin offering, and uthe guilt offering—for the place is holy. ¹⁴When the priests enter the Holy Place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court vwithout laying there the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. vThey shall put on other garments before they go near to that which is for the people.”

¹⁵Now when he had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by wthe gate that faced east, and measured the temple area all around. ¹⁶He measured the east side with xthe measuring reed, 500 cubits by the measuring reed all around. ¹⁷He measured the north side, 500 cubits by the measuring reed all around. ¹⁸He measured the south side, 500 cubits by the measuring reed. ¹⁹Then he turned to the west side and measured, 500 cubits by the measuring reed. ²⁰He measured it on the four sides. It had ya wall around it, z500 cubits long and z500 cubits broad, ato make a separation between the holy and the common.