Chapter 46

¹ Thus saith the Lord God; The gate that is in the inner court, that looks eastward, shall be shut the six working days; but let it be opened on the sabbath-day, and it shall be opened on the day of the new moon. ² And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of the ¹inner gate, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his whole-burnt-offerings and his peace-offerings, and he shall worship at the entrance of the gate: then shall he come forth; but the gate shall not be shut till evening. ³ And the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of that gate, both on the sabbaths and at the new moons, before the Lord.

⁴ And the prince shall offer whole-burnt-offerings to the Lord on the sabbath-day, six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish; ⁵ and a freewill-offering, a meat-offering for the ram, and a meat-offering for the lambs, the gift of his hand, and a hin of oil for the meat-offering. ⁶ And on the day of the new moon a calf without blemish, and six lambs, and there shall be a ram without blemish; ⁷ and a meat-offering for the ram, and there shall be a meat-offering for the calf as a freewill-offering, and for the lambs, according as his hand can furnish, and there shall be a hin of oil for the cake.

⁸ And when the prince goes in, he shall go in by the way of the porch of the gate, and he shall go forth by the way of the gate. ⁹ And whenever the people of the land shall go in before the Lord at the feasts, he that goes in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go forth by the way of the south gate; and he that goes in by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the gate by which he entered, but he shall go forth opposite it. ¹⁰ And the prince shall enter with them in the midst of them when they go in; and when they go forth, he shall go forth.

¹¹ And in the feasts and in the general assemblies the freewill oblation shall be a meat-offering for the calf, and a meat-offering for the ram, and for the lambs, as his hand can furnish, and a hin of oil for the meat-offering. ¹² And if the prince should prepare as a thanksgiving a whole-burnt-peace-offering to the Lord, and should open for himself the gate looking eastward, and offer his whole-burnt-offering, and his peace-offerings, as he does on the sabbath-day; then shall he go out, and shall shut the doors after he has gone out.

¹³ And he shall prepare daily as a whole-burnt-offering to the Lord a lamb of a year old without blemish: in the morning shall he prepare it. ¹⁴ And he shall prepare a freewill-offering for it in the morning, the sixth part of a measure of flour, and a third part

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of a hin of oil to mix therewith the fine flour, as a freewill-offering to the Lord, a perpetual ordinance. ¹⁵ Ye shall prepare the lamb, and the freewill-offering, and the oil in the morning, for a perpetual whole-burnt-sacrifice.

¹⁶ Thus saith the Lord God; If the prince shall give a gift to one of his sons out of his inheritance, this shall be to his sons a possession as an inheritance. ¹⁷ But if he give a gift to one of his servants, then it shall belong to him until the year of release; and then he shall restore it to the prince: but of the inheritance of his sons the possession shall continue to them. ¹⁸ And the prince shall by no means take of the inheritance of the people, to oppress them: he shall give an inheritance to his sons out of his own possession: that my people be not scattered, every one from his possession.

¹⁹ And he brought me into the entrance of the place behind the gate, into the chamber of the sanctuary belonging to the priests, that looks toward the north: and, behold, there was a place set apart. ²⁰ And he said to me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass-offerings and the sin-offerings, and there shall they bake the meat-offering always; so as not to carry them out into the outer court, to sanctify the people.

²¹ And he brought me into the outer court, and led me round upon the four sides of the court; and, behold, there was a court on each of the sides of the court, ²² on every side a court, even a court for all the four sides, and each little court belonging to the court was in length forty cubits, and in breadth thirty cubits, there was one measure to the four. ²³ And there were chambers in them round about, round about the four, and cooking-places formed under the chambers round about. ²⁴ And he said to me, These are the cooks' houses, where they that serve the house shall boil the sacrifices of the people.