Ezekiel 45 EASY

1. ‘You must divide the land into different parts to belong to each tribe. When you do this, you must give one part to the Lord. It will belong to the Lord as a holy piece of land. It will be 12½ kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide. All of this land will be holy.

2. Part of this land will be for the temple. It will be 250 metres long and 250 metres wide. Keep an empty space 25 metres wide all around this piece of land.

3. Inside the holy piece of land, measure a part that is 12½ kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide. This part will contain the temple, the most holy place.

4. The priests will have this holy part of the land. They are the men who work in the temple and come near to the Lord to serve him. The priests' houses will be there, as well as the temple.

5. The other half of the holy piece of land will be for the Levites, who work in the temple. They will have towns there to live in. Their land will be 12½ kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide.

6. There will also be a piece of land for the city, 12½ kilometres long and 2½ kilometres wide. It will be beside the holy piece of land. Any of Israel's people may live there.

7. There will be two pieces of land for the ruler. One piece will be on the east side of the holy piece of land and the land for the city. The other piece will be on the west side. The piece on the west side will go as far as the sea. The piece on the east side will go as far as the border of the land. So his land will be as long as a part of the land that belongs to each tribe.

8. This will be the part of Israel's land that belongs to the ruler. Because my rulers will have their own land, they will no longer need to make my people suffer. They will give to each tribe a part of the land that will belong to them.

9. The Almighty Lord says this: Rulers of Israel, stop cheating my people and making them suffer! You have done enough bad things! Instead, do things that are right and fair. Stop chasing my people off their land. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

10. You must use correct measures for size and for weight.

11. The ephah that you use to measure dry things must be the same measure that you use for wet things. Ten ephahs will be equal to one homer.

12. 20 gerahs will be equal to one shekel. 60 shekels will be equal to one mina.

13. This is the offering that you must give. Take from your harvest one homer from every 60 homers of wheat or barley.

14. Take one litre of olive oil from every 100 litres.

15. Take one sheep from every 200 sheep that feed on the grass in Israel. These gifts will be for grain offerings, for burnt offerings and for friendship offerings. These offerings will cause me to forgive you for your sins. I, the Almighty Lord, tell you to do this.

16. All Israel's people must bring these offerings to the ruler of Israel.

17. The ruler must provide the animals for the burnt offerings. He must provide the grain for the grain offerings and the wine for the wine offerings. He must provide these things for the holy festivals that I have chosen for Israel's people. Those include feasts for the new moon and for the Sabbath days. He must provide these things for the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the burnt offerings and the friendship offerings. They will cause me to forgive the sins of Israel's people.

18. This is what the Almighty Lord says: Each year, on the first day of the first month, you must offer a young bull as a sacrifice. It must not have anything wrong with it. This sacrifice will cause the temple to be clean.

19. The priest will take some of the blood of this sin offering and he will put it on the posts of the temple doors. He must also put some of the blood on the four corners on the top of the altar. He must also put some blood on the gate posts at the entrance to the inside yard of the temple.

20. You must also do this on the seventh day of the first month. That will cause me to forgive anyone who has done a wrong thing by mistake. Perhaps they did not know that it was a sin. In this way you will make the temple a clean place for me.

21. Each year, on the 14th day of the first month, you must start the Passover festival. The festival will continue for seven days. During that time you must not eat any bread that hasyeast in it.

22. On the first day of the festival, the ruler must provide a bull as a sin offering. It is an offering for himself and for all the people of Israel.

23. Every day of the feast he must provide seven young bulls and seven male sheep for burnt offerings to the Lord. The animals must have nothing wrong with them. Each day of the festival, he must also give a male goat as a sin offering.

24. With each bull and each sheep, the ruler must also provide an ephah of grain. He must provide a hin of olive oil with each ephah of grain.

25. You will have another festival that starts on the 15th day of the 7th month. It will continue for seven days. Each day, the ruler must provide the same things for sin offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, as well as the olive oil.’