The sabbath and the new moon
1 Thus speak Yahweh: The east gate of the inner court must be kept shut for the six working days. On the sab bath day it is to be opened, as also on the day of the New Moon;
2 and the prince is to go in through the entrance of the outer gate and stand by the doorposts of the gate. The priest must then offer his holocaust and his communion sacrifice. He must prostate himself on the threshold of the gate and go out, and the gate is not to be shut again until the evening.
3 The people of the country are to prostrate themselves in the presence of Yahweh at the entrance to the gate on sabbaths and days of the New Moon.
4 On the sabbath day the prince shall offer six unblemished lambs and one unblemished ram for the burnt offer ing.
5 The grain offering is of one ephah for the ram, with such oblation as he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.
6 On the day of the New Moon he shall offer a young bull without blemish, six unblemished lambs and one unblemished ram;
7 he must make a grain offering of one ephah for the bull and one ephah for the ram, and what he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.
8 When the prince goes in, he is to enter by the entrance of the gate, and he must leave by the same way.
9 When the people of the country come into the presence of Yahweh at the solemn festivals to prostrate themselves, those who have come in by the north gate are to go out by the south gate, and those who have come in by the south gate are to go out by the north gate; no one is to turn back to leave through the gate by which he en tered but is to go out on the opposite side.
10 The prince is to come with them, coming in like them and going out like them.
11 On feast days and solemn festivals the oblation must be one ephah for every bull, one ephah for every ram, what he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.
12 When the prince offers Yahweh a voluntary communion sacrifice, the east gate is to be opened for him, and he is to offer his holocaust and his communion sacrifice as he does on the sabbath day; when he has gone out, the gate is to be shut after him.
13 Every day he must offer an unblemished lamb one year old as a holocaust to Yahweh; he must offer this every morning.
14 Every morning, in addition, he is to offer an oblation of one sixth of an ephah and one third of a hin of oil, for mixing with the flour. This is an eternal law.
15 The lamb, the oblation and the oil are to be offered morning after morning forever.
16 Yahweh says this: If the prince gives his sons part of his inheritance, the gift is to pass to the ownership of his sons, and become their heritage.
17 But if he gives part of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall only belong to the man until the year of liberation and is then to revert to the prince. Only his sons may retain his inheritance.
18 The prince may not take any part of the people’s inheritance and thus rob them of their rightful possessions; he must provide the patrimony of his sons out of his own property, so that no mem ber of my people will be robbed of his rightful possessions.”
19 He took me through the entrance at the side of the north gate that leads to the rooms of the Holy Place set apart for the priests. And there before us, to the west, was a space at the end.
20 He said to me, “This is where the priests are to boil the slaughtered animals for the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of re paration, and where they are to bake the oblation. They shall not carry them into the outer court lest they hallow the people.”
21 He took me into the outer court and led me to each of its four corners;
22 in each corner was a compound; there were four small compounds, forty cubits by thirty, all four being the same size.
23 Each of the four was enclosed by a wall, with hearths all around the bottom of the wall.
24 He said, “These are the kitchens where the Temple servants are to boil the sacrifices offered by the people.”