7
He said to me: "Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. [The house of] Israel and their kings will no longer defile My holy name by their [religious] prostitution and by the corpses of their kings at their high places.
8
Whenever they placed their threshold next to My threshold and their doorposts beside My doorposts, with [only] a wall between Me and them, they were defiling My holy name by the abominations they committed. So I destroyed them in My anger.
9
Now let them remove their prostitution and the corpses of their kings far from Me, and I will dwell among them forever.
10
"As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure [its] pattern,
11
and they will be ashamed of all that they have done. Reveal the design of the temple to them-its layout with its exits and entrances-its complete design along with all its statutes, design specifications, and laws. Write it down in their sight so that they may observe its complete design and all its statutes and may carry them out.
12
This is the law of the temple: all its surrounding territory on top of the mountain will be especially holy. Yes, this is the law of the temple.
The Altar
13 "These are the measurements of the altar in units of length (each unit being the standard length plus three inches): the gutter is 21 inches [deep] and 21 inches wide, with a rim of nine inches around its edge. This is the base of the altar.
14
[The distance] from the gutter on the ground to the lower ledge is three and a half feet, and the width [of the ledge] is 21 inches. There are seven feet from the small ledge to the large ledge, [whose] width is also 21 inches.
15
The altar hearth is seven feet [high], and four horns project upward from the hearth.
16
The hearth is square, 21 feet long by 21 feet wide.
17
The ledge is 24 and a half feet long by 24 and a half feet wide, with four equal sides. The rim all around it is 10 and a half inches, and its gutter is 21 inches all around it. The altar's steps face east."