The Holy District
1 “When eyou allot the land as an inheritance, fyou shall set apart for the Lord a portion of the land as a holy district, 25,000 cubits1 long and 20,0002 cubits broad. It shall be holy throughout its whole extent. 2 gOf this a square plot of 500 by 500 cubits shall be for the sanctuary, with fifty cubits for han open space around it. 3 And ifrom this measured district you shall measure off a section 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 broad, jin which shall be the sanctuary, kthe Most Holy Place. 4 lIt shall be the holy portion of the land. It shall be for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and approach the Lord to minister to him, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 mAnother section, 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits broad, shall be for the Levites who minister at the temple, as their possession for cities to live in.3
6 “Alongside the portion set apart as the holy district nyou shall assign for the property of the city an area 5,000 cubits broad and 25,000 cubits long. oIt shall belong to the whole house of Israel.
The Portion for the Prince
7 p“And to qthe prince shall belong the land on both sides of the holy district and the property of the city, alongside the holy district and the property of the city, on the west and on the east, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions, and extending from the western to the eastern boundary 8 of the land. It is to be his property in Israel. And rmy princes shall no more oppress my people, but sthey shall let the house of Israel have the land according to their tribes.
9 “Thus says the Lord God: tEnough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease uyour evictions of my people, declares the Lord God.
10 v“You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath.4 11 The ephah and the bath shall be wof the same measure, xthe bath containing one tenth of a homer,5 and the ephah one tenth of a homer; the homer shall be the standard measure. 12 yThe shekel shall be twenty gerahs;6 twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall be your mina.7
13 z“This is the offering that you shall make: one sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley, 14 and as the fixed portion of oil, measured in baths, one tenth of a bath from each cor8 (the cor, like the homer, contains aten baths).9 15 And one sheep from every flock of two hundred, from the watering places of Israel for grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offerings, bto make atonement for them, declares the Lord God. 16 All the people of the land shall be obliged to give this offering to the prince in Israel. 17 cIt shall be the prince’s duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.
18 “Thus says the Lord God: In the first month, don the first day of the month, you shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and epurify the sanctuary. 19 fThe priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it gon the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. 20 You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple.
21 h“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 On that day the prince ishall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. 23 And on jthe seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and ka male goat daily for a sin offering. 24 And lhe shall provide as ma grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin10 of oil to each ephah. 25 nIn the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, ohe shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil.
The Prince and the Feasts
1 “Thus says the Lord God: pThe gate of qthe inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and ron the day of the new moon it shall be opened. 2 sThe prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by tthe post of the gate. uThe priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at vthe threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. 3 wThe people of the land shall bow down at the entrance of that gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. 4 xThe burnt offering that the prince offers to the Lord yon the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. 5 And zthe grain offering with the ram shall be an ephah,11 and the grain offering with the lambs shall be aas much as he is able, together with a hin12 of oil to each ephah. 6 On the day of the new moon he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. 7 As a grain offering he shall provide an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs bas much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. 8 cWhen the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way.
9 d“When the people of the land ecome before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. 10 When they enter, fthe prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out.
11 “At the feasts and the appointed festivals, zthe grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs bas much as one is able to give, together with a hin of oil to an ephah. 12 When the prince provides ga freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the Lord, hthe gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings ias he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut.
13 j“You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. 14 And kyou shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute. 15 Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for la regular burnt offering.
16 “Thus says the Lord God: If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. 17 But if he makes a gift mout of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to nthe year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance—it shall belong to his sons. 18 oThe prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, pthrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be qscattered from his property.”
Boiling Places for Offerings
19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was rat the side of the gate, to the north row of sthe holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. 20 And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests tshall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where uthey shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so vtransmit holiness to the people.”
21 Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me around to the four corners of the court. And behold, in each corner of the court there was another court— 22 in the four corners of the court were small13 courts, forty cubits14 long and thirty broad; the four were of the same size. 23 On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry, with hearths made at the bottom of the rows all around. 24 Then he said to me, “These are the kitchens where those who wminister at the temple tshall boil the sacrifices of the people.”
Unless the Lord Builds the House
A Song of mAscents. Of Solomon.
1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord xwatches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious ytoil;
3 Behold, bchildren are a heritage from the Lord,
cthe fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of da warrior
are the children1 of one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
The Supremacy of God’s Son
1 Long ago, at many times and ain many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but bin these last days che has spoken to us by dhis Son, whom he appointed ethe heir of all things, fthrough whom also he created gthe world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and hthe exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. iAfter making purification for sins, jhe sat down kat the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name lhe has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
m“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?
Or again,
n“I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son”?
6 And again, when he brings othe firstborn into the world, he says,
p“Let all God’s angels worship him.”
7 Of the angels he says,
q“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”
8 But of the Son he says,
r“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, shas anointed you
with tthe oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10 And,
u“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.1
But you are vthe same,
and your years will have no end.”
13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,
w“Sit at my right hand
xuntil I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits ysent out to serve for the sake of those who are to zinherit salvation?
Warning Against Neglecting Salvation
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since athe message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and bevery transgression or disobedience received a just cretribution, 3 dhow shall we escape if we eneglect such a great salvation? It was fdeclared at first by the Lord, and it was gattested to us hby those who heard, 4 gwhile God also bore witness iby signs and wonders and various miracles and by jgifts of the Holy Spirit kdistributed according to his will.
The Founder of Salvation
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world lto come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
m“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,2
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, nwe do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him owho for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, pcrowned with glory and honor qbecause of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might rtaste death sfor everyone.
10 For it twas fitting that he, ufor whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons vto glory, should make the wfounder of their salvation xperfect through suffering. 11 For yhe who sanctifies and zthose who are sanctified aall have one source.3 That is why he is not ashamed to call them bbrothers,4 12 saying,
c“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the dcongregation I will sing your praise.”
13 And again,
e“I will put my trust in him.”
And again,
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise hpartook of the same things, that ithrough death he might jdestroy kthe one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who lthrough fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he mhelps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had nto be made like his brothers in every respect, oso that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest pin the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered qwhen tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Jesus Greater Than Moses
1 Therefore, holy brothers,5 you who share in ra heavenly calling, consider Jesus, sthe apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, tjust as Moses also was faithful in all God’s6 house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but uthe builder of all things is God.) 5 vNow Moses was faithful in all God’s house was a servant, xto testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as ya son. And zwe are his house, if indeed we ahold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.7
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
b“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for cforty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 dAs I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from ethe living God. 13 But fexhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by gthe deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, hif indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
b“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For iwho were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not jall those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, kwhose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that lthey would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that mthey were unable to enter because of unbelief.
