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.”

Christ Our Advocate

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, ^ywe have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 ^zHe is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but ^aalso for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we ^bkeep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments ^cis a liar, and ^cthe truth is not in him, 5 but whoever ^dkeeps his word, in him truly ^ethe love of God is perfected. ^fBy this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he ^gabides in him ^hought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

The New Commandment

7 Beloved, I am writing you ⁱno new commandment, but ^jan old commandment ^kthat you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is ^la new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because^{1 m}the darkness is passing away and ⁿthe true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and ^ohates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him² there is no ^pcause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and ^qwalks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do Not Love the World

15 ^vDo not love the world or the things in the world. ^wIf anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—^xthe desires of the flesh and ^ythe desires of the eyes and pride of life³—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And ^zthe world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Warning Concerning Antichrists

18 Children, ^ait is the last hour, and as you have heard that ^bantichrist is coming, so now ^cmany antichrists have come. ^dTherefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 ^eThey went out from us, but they were not of us; for ^fif they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, ^gthat it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been ^hanointed by ⁱthe Holy One, and ^jyou all have knowledge.⁴ 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but ^khe who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is ^bthe antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 ^lNo one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let ^mwhat you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then ⁿyou too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us⁵—^oeternal life.

26 I write these things to you about ^pthose who are trying to deceive you. 27 But ^qthe anointing that you received from him abides in you, and ^ryou have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and ^sis true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Children of God

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that ^twhen he appears ^uwe may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his ^vcoming. 29 If you know that ^whe is righteous, you may be sure that ^xeveryone who practices righteousness has been born of him.