The Rooms for the Priests
1Then the man led me northward into the outer court and brought me to the rooms opposite the temple courtyard and opposite the outer wall on the north side. 2The building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide.42:2 That is, about 175 feet long and 88 feet wide or about 53 meters long and 27 meters wide 3Both in the section twenty cubits42:3 That is, about 35 feet or about 11 meters from the inner court and in the section opposite the pavement of the outer court, gallery faced gallery at the three levels. 4In front of the rooms was an inner passageway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits42:4 Septuagint and Syriac; Hebrew and one cubit long.42:4 That is, about 18 feet wide and 175 feet long or about 5.3 meters wide and 53 meters long Their doors were on the north. 5Now the upper rooms were narrower, for the galleries took more space from them than from the rooms on the lower and middle floors of the building. 6The rooms on the top floor had no pillars, as the courts had; so they were smaller in floor space than those on the lower and middle floors. 7There was an outer wall parallel to the rooms and the outer court; it extended in front of the rooms for fifty cubits. 8While the row of rooms on the side next to the outer court was fifty cubits long, the row on the side nearest the sanctuary was a hundred cubits long. 9The lower rooms had an entrance on the east side as one enters them from the outer court.
10On the south side42:10 Septuagint; Hebrew Eastward along the length of the wall of the outer court, adjoining the temple courtyard and opposite the outer wall, were rooms 11with a passageway in front of them. These were like the rooms on the north; they had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions. Similar to the doorways on the north 12were the doorways of the rooms on the south. There was a doorway at the beginning of the passageway that was parallel to the corresponding wall extending eastward, by which one enters the rooms.
13Then he said to me, “The north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests’ rooms, where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings42:13 Or purification offerings and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy. 14Once the priests enter the holy precincts, they are not to go into the outer court until they leave behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they go near the places that are for the people.”
15When he had finished measuring what was inside the temple area, he led me out by the east gate and measured the area all around: 16He measured the east side with the measuring rod; it was five hundred cubits.42:16 See Septuagint of verse 17; Hebrew rods; also in verses 18 and 19.42:16 Five hundred cubits equal about 875 feet or about 265 meters; also in verses 17, 18 and 19. 17He measured the north side; it was five hundred cubits42:17 Septuagint; Hebrew rods by the measuring rod. 18He measured the south side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. 19Then he turned to the west side and measured; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. 20So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.
Câmaras para os sacerdotes comerem
1Depois conduziu-me para fora do templo, para a parte de trás, para o pátio interior, até às câmaras do norte do pátio do templo, e até um outro edifício. 2Este conjunto de estruturas tinha 50 metros de comprimento por 25 metros de largura. 3As galerias de compartimentos que estavam por detrás desta construção, constituíam a parede do pátio. As câmaras distribuíam-se em três fileiras para o pátio exterior, de um lado, tendo uma galeria de 10 metros que dava para o pátio interior, do outro lado. 4Havia um passeio de 5 metros de largura e 50 metros de comprimento, que corria entre a galeria de quartos e o edifício, com as portas do edifício para o norte. 5As duas galerias superiores de compartimentos não eram tão largas como as de baixo, porque as passagens das galerias de cima eram mais largas. 6E como estes edifícios não eram construídos com vigas, como os dos átrios exteriores, os andares iam estreitando a partir do chão. 7A parede exterior em frente dos aposentos do lado do átrio exterior tinha 25 metros. 8-10Porque o comprimento dos aposentos paralelos ao átrio exterior era de 25 metros, a extensão total em frente do santuário era de 50 metros. Uma parede estendia-se a partir da extremidade da ala mais curta, paralela à ala mais longa, e havia uma entrada do pátio exterior para estes compartimentos do oriente. A toda a largura do muro e do átrio, do lado sul, em frente do pátio e do edifício, havia salas. No lado sul do templo havia um edifício idêntico, perto do edifício situado no extremo ocidental do templo. 11-12Diante das salas havia uma passagem semelhante à passagem do lado norte. Tinha as mesmas medidas, a mesma disposição e entradas idênticas. Havia uma porta por baixo das salas, com uma entrada para esses aposentos, no lado sul do edifício, no extremo oriental, onde começava a parede.
13Então disse-me: “Estas galerias de compartimentos do norte e do sul, diante do pátio do templo, são santas; é aí que os sacerdotes que oferecem os sacrifícios ao Senhor deverão comer desses santos sacrifícios e armazenar os que devem ser guardados, tal como a ofertas de cereais, as ofertas pelo pecado e pela culpa; porque este lugar é santo. 14Quando os sacerdotes deixarem este santo lugar, a nave do templo, deverão mudar de roupa antes de saírem para o pátio exterior. As vestimentas especiais com as quais administraram o serviço religioso devem ser despidas, porque se trata de uma roupa sagrada. Deverão, pois, vestir outros fatos antes de entrar nas partes do edifício abertas ao público.”
15Quando acabou de fazer estas medições, levou-me para fora, pela porta oriental, para medir toda a área exterior. 16-20Constatou que tinha a forma de um quadrado, com 250 metros de lado, com uma parede toda em volta a separar a área sagrada da que era aberta ao público.
