Ezekiel 43 - 44, Hebrews 8, Proverbs 13

Yahweh’s Glory Returns to the Temple

43Then he led me to the ^agate, the gate facing toward the east; ²and behold, the ^aglory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the ^beast. And His ^cvoice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth ^dshone with His glory. ³And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the ^avision which I saw when ¹He came to ^bbring the city to ruin. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the ^criver Chebar; and I ^dfell on my face. ⁴And the glory of Yahweh came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the ^aeast. ⁵And the ^aSpirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the ^bglory of Yahweh filled the house.

⁶Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a ^aman was standing beside me. ⁷He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My ^athrone and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will ^bdwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the ¹^,^ccorpses of their kings ²when they die, ⁸by putting their threshold by My threshold and their door post beside My door post, with only the wall between Me and them. And they have ^adefiled My holy name by their abominations which they have done. So I have consumed them in My anger. ⁹“Now let them ^aput away their harlotry and the ¹corpses of their kings far from Me; and I will ^bdwell among them forever.

¹⁰“As for you, son of man, ¹^,^adescribe the house of Yahweh to the house of Israel, that they may feel ^bdishonor for their iniquities; and let them measure the ²^,^cplan. ¹¹“If they feel dishonor for all that they have done, make known to them the ¹design of the house, its structure, its ^aexits, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes², and all its laws. And write it ^bin their sight so that they may keep its whole ³design and all its statutes and ^cdo them. ¹²“This is the ¹law of the house: within its entire boundary, on the top of the ^amountain all around, shall be most holy. Behold, this is the ²law of the house.

The Altar and Offerings

¹³“And these are the measurements of the ^aaltar by cubits (the ^bcubit being a ¹cubit and a ²handbreadth): the ³base shall be a cubit and the width a cubit, and its border on its edge round about one ⁴span; and this shall be the height of the ⁵base of the altar. ¹⁴“And from the base on the ground to the lower ^aledge shall be two ¹cubits and the width one cubit; and from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge shall be four cubits and the width ²one cubit. ¹⁵“And the ¹altar hearth shall be four cubits; and from the ²altar hearth shall extend upwards four ^ahorns. ¹⁶“Now the ¹altar hearth shall be ²twelve cubits long by twelve wide, ^asquare in its four sides. ¹⁷“The ledge shall be ¹fourteen cubits long by fourteen wide in its four sides; the border around it shall be half a cubit, and its base shall be a cubit round about; and its ^asteps shall ²^,^bface the east.”

¹⁸And He said to me, “^aSon of man, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is made, to offer ^bburnt offerings on it and to ^csplash blood on it. ¹⁹‘And you shall give to the Levitical priests who are from the seed of ^aZadok, who draw ^bnear to Me to minister to Me,’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘a ^cbull from the herd for a ^dsin offering. ²⁰‘You shall also take some of its blood and put it on its four ^ahorns and on the four corners of the ^bledge and on the border round about; thus you shall ^cpurify it and make atonement for it. ²¹‘And you shall take the bull for the sin offering, and it shall be ^aburned in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary.

²²‘Now on the second day you shall bring near a ^amale goat without blemish for a sin offering, and they shall ^bpurify the altar as they purified it with the bull. ²³‘When you have finished purifying it, you shall present a ^abull from the herd without blemish and a ^bram without blemish from the flock. ²⁴‘And you shall bring them near before Yahweh, and the priests shall throw ^asalt on them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to Yahweh. ²⁵‘^aFor seven days you shall offer daily a goat for a sin offering; also a bull from the herd and a ram from the flock, without blemish, shall be offered. ²⁶‘For seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it; so shall they ¹ordain it. ²⁷‘So they will complete the days. And it shall be that on the ^aeighth day and onward, the priests shall ¹offer on the altar your burnt offerings and your ^bpeace offerings; and I will ^caccept you,’ declares Lord Yahweh.”

The Gate of the Prince

44Then He brought me back by the way of the ^aouter gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut. ²Yahweh said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for ^aYahweh, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. ³“As for the ^aprince, he shall sit in it as prince to ^beat bread before Yahweh; he shall ^center by way of the ^dporch of the gate and shall go out ¹by the same way.”

⁴Then He brought me by way of the ^anorth gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the ^bglory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh, and I ^cfell on my face. ⁵Then Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, ^aset your heart on and see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ^bstatutes of the house of Yahweh and concerning all its laws; and set your heart on the entrance of the house, with all exits of the sanctuary. ⁶“And you shall say to the ¹^,^arebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^bEnough of all your abominations, O house of Israel, ⁷when you brought in ^aforeigners, ^buncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you ^cbrought near My food, the fat and the blood. So they ^dmade My covenant void—this in addition to all your abominations. ⁸“And you have not ^akept the responsibility of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners as keepers of the responsibility given by Me for My sanctuary.”

⁹‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “^aNo foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary. ¹⁰“But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who ^awent astray from Me after their idols, shall ^bbear the punishment for their iniquity. ¹¹“Yet they shall be ^aministers in My sanctuary, having ^boversight at the gates of the house and ^cministering in the house; they shall ^dslaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall ^estand before them to minister to them. ¹²“Because they ministered to them ^abefore their idols and became a ^bstumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have ¹^,^csworn against them,” declares Lord Yahweh, “that they shall ^dbear the punishment for their iniquity. ¹³“And they shall ^anot approach Me to minister as a priest to Me, nor approach any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will ^bbear their dishonor and their abominations which they have done. ¹⁴“Yet I will ¹appoint them as ^akeepers of the responsibility for the house, of all its service and of all that shall be done in it.

The Levitical Responsibilities

¹⁵“But the ^aLevitical priests, the sons of ^bZadok, who ^ckept the responsibility of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel ^dwent astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall ^estand before Me to bring near to Me the ^ffat and the blood,” declares Lord Yahweh. ¹⁶“They shall ^aenter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My ^btable to minister to Me and keep the responsibility given by Me. ¹⁷“And it will be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with ^alinen garments; and wool shall not ¹be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house. ¹⁸“Linen ^aheaddresses shall be on their heads, and ^blinen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat. ¹⁹“And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall ^aput off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments so that they will ^bnot transmit holiness to the people with their garments. ²⁰“Also they shall ^anot shave their heads, yet they shall not ^blet their locks ¹grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads. ²¹“^aNor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner court. ²²“And they shall not ¹take a widow or a ^adivorced woman as a wife but shall ^btake virgins from the seed of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a priest. ²³“Moreover, they shall instruct My people about the ^adifference between the holy and the profane, and make them know the difference between the unclean and the clean. ²⁴“And in a dispute, ^athey shall take their stand to judge; they shall judge it according to My judgments. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My ^bappointed times and ^ckeep My sabbaths holy. ²⁵“But ¹^,^athey shall not go to a dead person to make themselves unclean; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may make themselves unclean. ²⁶“And after he is ^acleansed, seven days shall be counted for him. ²⁷“And on the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the ^ainner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall bring near his ^bsin offering,” declares Lord Yahweh.

²⁸“And it shall be with regard to an inheritance for them, that ^aI am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel—I am their possession. ²⁹“They shall ^aeat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; and every ¹^,^bdevoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. ³⁰“And the first of all the ^afirst fruits of every kind and every ¹contribution of every kind, from all your ²contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the ^bfirst of your ³dough to cause a ^cblessing to rest on your house. ³¹“The priests shall not eat any bird or beast that has ^adied of itself or has been torn to pieces.

Jesus, High Priest of a New Covenant

8Now the main point in what is being said is this: we have such a ^ahigh priest, who sat down at ^bthe right hand of the throne of the ^cMajesty in the heavens, ²a ^aminister ¹in the ²holy places and ³in the ^btrue ⁴tabernacle, which the Lord ^cpitched, not man. ³For every ^ahigh priest is appointed ^bto offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. ⁴Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who ^aoffer the gifts according to the Law; ⁵who serve ^aa copy and ^bshadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses ¹was ^cwarned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “^dSee,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” ⁶But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the ^amediator of ^ba better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. ⁷For ^aif that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. ⁸For finding fault with them, He says, “^aBehold, days are coming, says the ¹Lord,²When I will complete ^ba new covenantWith the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

⁹^aNot like the covenant which I made with their fathersIn the day when I took them by the handTo lead them out of the land of Egypt;For they did not continue in My covenant,And I did not care for them, says the ¹Lord.¹⁰“^aFor this is the covenant that I will make with the house of IsraelAfter those days, says the ¹Lord:²I will put My laws into their minds,And ^bupon their hearts I will write them.And I will be their God,And they shall be My people.¹¹“^aAnd they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’For ^ball will know Me,From ¹the least to the greatest of them.¹²“^aFor I will be merciful to their iniquities,^bAnd I will remember their sins no more.”

¹³¹When He said, “^aA new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. ^bBut whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ²ready to disappear.

13A ^awise son accepts his father’s discipline,But a ^bscoffer does not listen to rebuke.²From the fruit of a man’s mouth he ^aeats what is good,But the soul of the treacherous desires ^bviolence.³The one who ^aguards his mouth keeps his soul;The one who ^bopens wide his lips ¹comes to ruin.⁴The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,But the soul of the diligent is enriched.⁵A righteous man ^ahates a lying word,But a wicked man ¹^,^bacts odiously and is humiliated.⁶Righteousness ^aguards the ¹one whose way is blameless,But wickedness subverts the ²sinner.⁷There is one who ^apretends to be rich, but has nothing;Another ¹pretends to be ^bpoor, but has great wealth.⁸The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth,But the poor hears no rebuke.⁹The ^alight of the righteous is glad,But the ^blamp of the wicked goes out.¹⁰With arrogance ¹comes only quarreling,But with those who receive counsel is wisdom.¹¹Wealth obtained from empty effort dwindles,But the one who gathers ¹with his hand abounds.¹²¹Hope deferred makes the heart sick,But desire ²fulfilled is a tree of life.¹³The one who ^adespises the word will be ¹in debt to it,But the one who fears the commandment will be ^brewarded.¹⁴The ¹instruction of the wise is a ^afountain of life,To turn aside from the ^bsnares of death.¹⁵^aGood insight gives grace,But the way of the treacherous is ¹unrelenting.¹⁶Every ^aprudent man acts with knowledge,But a fool spreads out folly.¹⁷A wicked messenger falls into evil,But ^aa faithful envoy brings healing.¹⁸Poverty and disgrace come to him who ^aneglects ¹discipline,But he who keeps reproof will be honored.¹⁹Desire realized is pleasant to the soul,But it is an abomination to fools to turn away from evil.²⁰^aHe who walks with the wise will be wise,But the friend of fools will suffer harm.²¹^aEvil pursues sinners,But the ^brighteous are repaid with good.²²A good man ^aleaves an inheritance to his ¹children’s children,And the ^bwealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.²³^aAbundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor,But ¹it is swept away by injustice.²⁴He who ^aholds back his ¹rod hates his son,But he who loves him ²^,^bdisciplines him diligently.²⁵The ^arighteous eats to the satisfaction of his soul,But the stomach of the ^bwicked lacks.