The First Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE. Priests and prophets soon predicted the construction of a new Temple (the Second Temple). What is unique about many of the visions and messages concerning the construction of the next Temple is that they may have been received at the epoch of a jubilee year.
The year 572-571 BCE appears to have been a jubilee year.
(For more complete information, refer to our online document entitiled: 'Chronology of
Jubilees'.
What here is remarkable is that a priest named Ezekiel received a
futuristic vision of a restored Temple. This vision was received in
seeming association with the epoch of the respective year 572-571
BCE. (The time when Ezekiel's vision was received may have been immediately
prior to the epoch of the cited jubilee.).
The last 9 total chapters of the book of Ezekiel are devoted to
the several details of the Temple vision. As English translation of
the Temple vision follows:
1 ¶ In the twenty-fifth year after we had been taken away prisoners, in the first month of the year, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after the town was taken, on the very same day, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he took me there. 2 In the visions of God he took me into the land of Israel, and put me down on a very high mountain, on which there was, as it seemed, a building like a town opposite me. 3 He took me there, and I saw a man, looking like brass, with a linen cord in his hand and a measuring rod: and he was stationed in the doorway. 4 And the man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes and give hearing with your ears, and take to heart everything I am going to let you see; for in order that I might let you see them, you have come here: and give an account of all you see to the children of Israel. 5 ¶ And there was a wall on the outside of the house all round, and in the man’s hand there was a measuring rod six cubits long by a cubit and a hand’s measure: so he took the measure of the building from side to side, one rod; and from base to top, one rod. 6 Then he came to the doorway looking to the east, and went up by its steps; and he took the measure of the doorstep, one rod wide. 7 And the watchmen’s rooms were one rod long and one rod wide; and the space between the rooms was five cubits; the doorstep of the doorway, by the covered way of the doorway inside, was one rod. 8 And he took the measure of the covered way of the doorway inside, 9 Eight cubits; and its uprights, two cubits; the covered way of the doorway was inside. 10 And the rooms of the doorway on the east were three on this side and three on that; all three were of the same size; and the uprights on this side and on that were of the same size. 11 And he took the measure of the opening of the doorway, ten cubits wide; and the way down the doorway was thirteen cubits; 12 And the space in front of the rooms, a cubit on this side and a cubit on that side; and the rooms six cubits on this side and six cubits on that. 13 And he took the measure of the doorway from the back of one room to the back of the other, twenty-five cubits across, from door to door. 14 And he took the measure of the covered way, twenty cubits; and opening from the covered way of the doorway was the open square round about. 15 And from before the opening of the doorway to before the inner covered way of the doorway was fifty cubits. 16 And the rooms and their uprights had sloping windows inside the doorway all round, and in the same way the covered way had windows all round on the inside: and on every upright there were palm-trees. 17 Then he took me into the outer square, and there were rooms and a stone floor made for the open square all round: there were thirty rooms on the stone floor. 18 And the stone floor was by the side of the doorways, and was as wide as the doorways were long, even the lower floor. 19 Then he took the measure of the square across, from before the lower doorway inside to before the inner doorway outside, one hundred cubits. And he took me in the direction of the north, 20 And there was a doorway to the outer square, looking to the north; and he took the measure of it to see how wide and how long it was. 21 And it had three rooms on this side of it and three on that; its uprights and its covered ways were the same size as those of the first doorway: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 22 And its windows, and the windows of its covered ways, and its palm-trees, were the same as those of the doorway looking to the east; and there were seven steps up to it; and the covered way went inside. 23 And there was a doorway to the inner square opposite the doorway on the north, like the doorway on the east; and he took the measure from doorway to doorway, a hundred cubits. 24 And he took me to the south, and I saw a doorway looking to the south: and he took the measure of its rooms and its uprights and its covered ways by these measures. 25 And there were windows in it and in the covered way all round, like the other windows: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 26 And there were seven steps up to it, and its covered way went inside: and it had palm-trees, one on this side and one on that, on its uprights. 27 ¶ And there was a doorway to the inner square looking to the south: he took the measure from doorway to doorway to the south, a hundred cubits. 28 Then he took me to the inner square by the south doorway: and he took the measure of the south doorway by these measures; 29 And the rooms in it and the uprights and the covered ways, by these measures: 30 And there were windows in it and in the covered way all round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 31 The covered way was on the side nearest the outer square; and there were palm-trees on the uprights: and there were eight steps going up to it. 32 And he took me into the inner square facing the east: and he took the measure of the doorway by these measures; 33 And of the rooms in it and its uprights and its covered ways, by these measures: and there were windows in it and in the covered way round about: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34 And the covered way was on the side nearest the outer square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it. 35 And he took me to the north doorway: and he took the measure of it by these measures; 36 Its rooms, its uprights, and its covered way had the same measures, and its covered way had windows all round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 37 Its uprights were on the side nearest to the outer square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it. 38 And there was a room with a door in the covered way of the doorway, where the burned offering was washed. 39 ¶ And in the covered way of the doorway there were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which the burned offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error were put to death: 40 On the outer side, to the north, as one goes up to the opening of the doorway, were two tables. 41 There were four tables on one side and four tables on the other, by the side of the doorway; eight tables, on which they put to death the beasts for the offerings. 42 And there were four tables for the burned offering, made of cut stone, one and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide and a cubit high, where the instruments were placed which were used for putting to death the burned offering and the beasts for the offerings. 43 And they had edges all round as wide as a man’s hand: and on the tables was the flesh of the offerings. 44 And he took me into the inner square, and there were two rooms in the inner square, one at the side of the north doorway, facing south; and one at the side of the south doorway, facing north. 45 And he said to me, This room, facing south, is for the priests who have the care of the house. 46 And the room facing north is for the priests who have the care of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok, who, from among the sons of Levi, come near to the Lord to do the work of his house. 47 And he took the measure of the open square, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, being square; and the altar was in front of the house. 48 Then he took me to the covered way before the house, and took the measure of its uprights, five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other: and the doorway was fourteen cubits wide; and the side-walls of the doorway were three cubits on one side and three cubits on the other. 49 The covered way was twenty cubits long and twelve cubits wide, and they went up to it by ten steps; and there were pillars by the uprights, one on one side and one on the other. 1 ¶ And he took me to the Temple, and took the measure of the uprights, six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide on the other. 2 And the door-opening was ten cubits wide; and the side walls of the door-opening were five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other: and it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. 3 And he went inside and took the measure of the uprights of the door-opening, two cubits: and the door-opening, six cubits; and the side-walls of the door-opening were seven cubits on one side and seven cubits on the other. 4 And by his measure it was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide in front of the Temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place. 5 Then he took the measure of the wall of the house, which was six cubits; and of the side-rooms round the house, which were four cubits wide. 6 And the side-rooms, room over room, were three times thirty; there were inlets in the wall of the house for the side-rooms round about, for supports in the wall of the house. 7 The side-rooms became wider as they went higher up the house, by the amount of the space let into the wall up round about the house, because of the inlets in the house; and one went up from the lowest floor by steps to the middle, and from the middle to the upper floor. 8 And I saw that the house had a stone floor all round; the bases of the side-rooms were a full rod of six great cubits high. 9 The wall supporting the side-rooms on the outside was five cubits thick: and there was a free space of five cubits between the side-rooms of the house. 10 And between the rooms was a space twenty cubits wide all round the house. 11 And the free space had doors opening from the side-rooms, one door on the north and one door on the south: and the free space was five cubits wide all round. 12 ¶ And the building which was in front of the separate place at the side to the west was seventy cubits wide; the wall of the building was five cubits thick all round and ninety cubits long. 13 And he took the measure of the house; it was a hundred cubits long; and the separate place and the building with its walls was a hundred cubits long; 14 And the east front of the house and of the separate place was a hundred cubits wide. 15 And he took the measure of the building in front of the separate place which was at the back of it, and the pillared walks on one side and on the other side; they were a hundred cubits long; and the Temple and the inner part and its outer covered way were covered in; 16 And the sloping windows and the covered ways round all three of them were of shakiph-wood all round from the level of the earth up to the windows; 17 And there was a roof over the doorway and as far as the inner house, and to the outside and on the wall all round, inside and outside. 18 And it had pictured forms of winged beings and palm-trees; a palm-tree between two winged ones, and every winged one had two faces; 19 So that there was the face of a man turned to the palm-tree on one side, and the face of a young lion on the other side: so it was made all round the house. 20 From earth level up to the windows there were winged ones and palm-trees pictured on the wall. 21 … 22 The altar was made of wood, and was three cubits high and two cubits long; it had angles, and its base and sides were of wood; and he said to me, This is the table which is before the Lord. 23 The Temple had two doors. 24 And the holy place had two doors, and the doors had two turning leaves, two for one and two for the other. 25 And on them were pictured winged ones and palm-trees, as on the walls; and a…of wood was on the front of the covered way outside. 26 And there were sloping windows and palm-trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the covered way: and the side-rooms of the house and the… 1 ¶ And he took me out into the inner square in the direction of the north: and he took me into the rooms which were opposite the separate place and opposite the building to the north. 2 On the north side it was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, 3 Opposite the space of twenty cubits which was part of the inner square, and opposite the stone floor of the outer square. There were covered ways facing one another on the third floor. 4 And in front of the rooms was a walk, ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long; and their doors were facing north. 5 And the higher rooms were shorter: for the covered ways took up more space from these than from the lower and middle rooms. 6 For they were on three floors, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the outer square; so the highest was narrower than the lowest and middle floors from the earth level. 7 And the wall which went outside by the side of the rooms, in the direction of the outer square in front of the rooms, was fifty cubits long. 8 For the rooms in the outer square were fifty cubits long: and in front of the Temple was a space of a hundred cubits. 9 And under these rooms was the way in from the east side, as one goes into them from the outer square at the head of the outer wall. 10 (And he took me) to the south, and in front of the separate place and in front of the building there were rooms. 11 And there was a walk in front of them like that by the rooms on the north; they were equally long and wide; and the ways out of them were the same in design and had the same sort of doors. 12 And under the rooms on the south was a door at the head of the outer wall in the direction of the east as one goes in. 13 And he said to me, The north rooms and the south rooms in front of the separate place are the holy rooms, where the priests who come near the Lord take the most holy things for their food: there the most holy things are placed, with the meal offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error; for the place is holy. 14 When the priests go in, they may not go out of the holy place into the outer square, and there they are to put the robes in which they do the work of the Lord’s house, for they are holy: and they have to put on other clothing before they come near that which has to do with the people. 15 ¶ And when he had come to the end of measuring the inner house, he took me out to the doorway looking to the east, and took its measure all round. 16 He went round and took the measure of it on the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round. 17 And he went round and took the measure of it on the north side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round. 18 And he went round and took the measure of it on the south side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round. 19 And he went round and took the measure of it on the west side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round. 20 He took its measure on the four sides: and it had a wall all round, five hundred long and five hundred wide, separating what was holy from what was common. 1 ¶ And he took me to the doorway looking to the east: 2 And there was the glory of the God of Israel coming from the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of great waters, and the earth was shining with his glory. 3 And the vision which I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came for the destruction of the town: and like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I went down on my face. 4 And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the doorway looking to the east. 5 And the spirit, lifting me up, took me into the inner square; and I saw that the house was full of the glory of the Lord. 6 And the voice of one talking to me came to my ears from inside the house; and the man was by my side. 7 ¶ And he said to me, Son of man, this is the place where the seat of my power is and the resting-place of my feet, where I will be among the children of Israel for ever: and no longer will the people of Israel make my holy name unclean, they or their kings, by their loose ways and by the dead bodies of their kings; 8 By putting their doorstep by my doorstep, and the pillar of their door by the pillar of my door, with only a wall between me and them; and they have made my holy name unclean by the disgusting things which they have done: so in my wrath I sent destruction on them. 9 Now let them put their loose ways and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will be among them for ever. 10 You, son of man, give the children of Israel an account of this house, so that they may be shamed because of their evil-doing: and let them see the vision of it and its image. 11 And they will be shamed by what they have done; so give them the knowledge of the form of the house and its structure, and the ways out of it and into it, and all its laws and its rules, writing it down for them: so that they may keep all its laws and do them. 12 This is the law of the house: On the top of the mountain all the space round it on every side will be most holy. See, this is the law of the house. 13 ¶ And these are the measures of the altar in cubits: (the cubit being a cubit and a hand’s measure;) its hollow base is a cubit high and a cubit wide, and it has an overhanging edge as wide as a hand-stretch all round it: 14 And from the base on the earth level to the lower shelf, the altar is two cubits high and a cubit wide; and from the smaller shelf to the greater shelf it is four cubits high and a cubit wide. 15 And the fireplace is four cubits high: and coming up from the fireplace are the horns, a cubit high. 16 And the fireplace is twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide, square on its four sides. 17 And the shelf is fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, on its four sides; the edge round it is half a cubit; the base of it is a cubit all round, and its steps are facing the east. 18 And he said to me, Son of man, the Lord God has said, These are the rules for the altar, when they make it, for the offering of burned offerings on it and the draining out of the blood. 19 You are to give to the priests, the Levites of the seed of Zadok, who come near to me, says the Lord God, to do my work, a young ox for a sin-offering. 20 You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns and on the four angles of the shelf and on the edge all round: and you are to make it clean and free from sin. 21 And you are to take the ox of the sin-offering, and have it burned in the special place ordered for it in the house, outside the holy place. 22 And on the second day you are to have a he-goat without any mark on it offered for a sin-offering; and they are to make the altar clean as they did with the young ox. 23 And after you have made it clean, let a young ox without a mark be offered, and a male sheep from the flock without a mark. 24 And you are to take them before the Lord, and the priests will put salt on them, offering them up for a burned offering to the Lord. 25 Every day for seven days you are to give a goat for a sin-offering: and let them give in addition a young ox and a male sheep from the flock without any mark on them. 26 For seven days they are to make offerings to take away sin from the altar and to make it clean; so they are to make it holy. 27 And when these days have come to an end, then on the eighth day and after, the priests will make your burned offerings on the altar and your peace-offerings; and I will take pleasure in you, says the Lord. 1 ¶ And he took me back to the outer doorway of the holy place, looking to the east; and it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, This doorway is to be shut, it is not to be open, and no man is to go in by it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has gone in by it; and it is to be shut. 3 But the ruler will be seated there to take his food before the Lord; he will go in by the covered way to the door, and will come out by the same way. 4 ¶ And he took me to the north doorway in front of the house; and, looking, I saw that the house of the Lord was full of the glory of the Lord; and I went down on my face. 5 And the Lord said to me, Son of man, take to heart, and let your eyes see and your ears be open to everything I say to you about all the rules of the house of the Lord and all its laws; and take note of the ways into the house and all the ways out of the holy place. 6 And say to the uncontrolled children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: O you children of Israel, let it be enough for you, among the disgusting things which you have done, 7 To have let men from strange lands, without circumcision of heart or flesh, come into my holy place, making my house unclean; and to have made the offering of my food, even the fat and the blood; and in addition to all your disgusting ways, you have let my agreement be broken. 8 And you have not taken care of my holy things; but you have put them as keepers to take care of my work in my holy place. 9 For this cause the Lord has said, No man from a strange land, without circumcision of heart and flesh, of all those who are living among the children of Israel, is to come into my holy place. 10 ¶ But as for the Levites, who went far from me, when Israel went out of the right way, turning away from me to go after their images; their punishment will come on them. 11 But they may be caretakers in my holy place, and overseers at the doors of the house, doing the work of the house: they will put to death the burned offering and the beasts offered for the people, and they will take their place before them as their servants. 12 Because they did this work for them before their images, and became a cause of sin to the children of Israel; for this cause my hand has been lifted up against them, says the Lord, and their punishment will be on them. 13 And they will not come near me to do the work of priests to me, or come near any of my holy things, or the things which are most holy: but their shame will be on them, and the punishment for the disgusting things which they have done. 14 But I will make them responsible for the care of the house and all its work and everything which is done in it. 15 But as for the priests, the sons of Zadok, who took care of my holy place when the children of Israel were turned away from me, they are to come near me to do my work, they will take their places before me, offering to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord; 16 They are to come into my holy place and they are to come near to my table, to do my work and have the care of my house. 17 ¶ And when they come in by the doorways of the inner square, they are to be clothed in linen robes; there is to be no wool on them while they are doing my work in the doorway of the inner square and inside the house. 18 They are to have linen head-dresses on their heads and linen trousers on their legs, and they are to have nothing round them to make their skin wet with heat. 19 And when they go out into the outer square to the people, they are to take off the robes in which they do the work of priests, and put them away in the holy rooms, and put on other clothing, so that the people may not be made holy by their robes. 20 They are not to have all the hair cut off their heads, and they are not to let their hair get long, but they are to have the ends of their hair cut. 21 The priests are not to take wine when they go into the inner square. 22 And they are not to take as wives any widow or woman whose husband has put her away: but they may take virgins of the seed of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 23 And they are to make clear to my people the division between what is holy and what is common, and to give them the knowledge of what is clean and what is unclean. 24 In any cause, they are to be in the position of judges, judging in harmony with my decisions: they are to keep my laws and my rules in all my fixed feasts; and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy. 25 They are not to come near any dead person so as to become unclean: but for a father or mother or son or daughter or brother or for a sister who has no husband, they may make themselves unclean. 26 And after he has been made clean, seven days are to be numbered for him. 27 And on the day when he goes into the inner square, to do the work of the holy place, he is to make his sin-offering, says the Lord. 28 And they are to have no heritage; I am their heritage: you are to give them no property in Israel; I am their property. 29 Their food is to be the meal offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error; and everything given specially to the Lord in Israel will be theirs. 30 And the best of all the first-fruits of everything, and every offering which is lifted up of all your offerings, will be for the priests: and you are to give the priest the first of your bread-making, so causing a blessing to come on your house. 31 The priests may not take for food any bird or beast which has come to a natural death or whose death has been caused by another animal. 1 ¶ And when you are making a distribution of the land, by the decision of the Lord, for your heritage, you are to make an offering to the Lord of a part of the land as holy: it is to be twenty-five thousand long and twenty thousand wide: all the land inside these limits is to be holy. 2 Of this, a square five hundred long and five hundred wide is to be for the holy place, with a space of fifty cubits all round it. 3 And of this measure, let a space be measured, twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide: in it there will be the holy place, even the most holy. 4 This holy part of the land is to be for the priests, the servants of the holy place, who come near to the Lord to do his work; it is to be a place for their houses and for grass-land and for cattle. 5 A space of land twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide is to be for the Levites, the servants of the house, a property for themselves, for towns for their living-places. 6 And as the property for the town you are to have a part five thousand wide and twenty-five thousand long, by the side of the offering of the holy part of the land: this is to be for all the children of Israel. 7 And for the ruler there is to be a part on one side and on the other side of the holy offering and of the property of the town, in front of the holy offering and in front of the property of the town on the west of it and on the east: measured in the same line as one of the parts of the land, from its limit on the west to its limit on the east of the land. 8 And this will be his heritage in Israel: and my rulers will no longer be cruel masters to my people; but they will give the land as a heritage to the children of Israel by their tribes. 9 ¶ This is what the Lord has said: Let this be enough for you, O rulers of Israel: let there be an end of violent behaviour and wasting; do what is right, judging uprightly; let there be no more driving out of my people, says the Lord. 10 Have true scales and a true ephah and a true bath. 11 The ephah and the bath are to be of the same measure, so that the bath is equal to a tenth of a homer, and the ephah to a tenth of a homer: the unit of measure is to be a homer. 12 And the shekel is to be twenty gerahs: five shekels are five, and ten shekels are ten, and your maneh is to be fifty shekels 13 ¶ This is the offering you are to give: a sixth of an ephah out of a homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah out of a homer of barley; 14 And the fixed measure of oil is to be a tenth of a bath from the cor, for ten baths make up the cor; 15 And one lamb from the flock out of every two hundred, from all the families of Israel, for a meal offering and for a burned offering and for peace-offerings, to take away their sin, says the Lord. 16 All the people are to give this offering to the ruler. 17 And the ruler will be responsible for the burned offering and the meal offering and the drink offering, at the feasts and the new moons and the Sabbaths, at all the fixed feasts of the children of Israel: he will give the sin-offering and meal offering and burned offering and the peace-offerings, to take away the sin of the children of Israel. 18 This is what the Lord has said: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you are to take a young ox without any mark on him, and you are to make the holy place clean. 19 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the sin-offering and put it on the uprights at the sides of the doors of the house, and on the four angles of the shelf of the altar, and on the sides of the doorway of the inner square. 20 And this you are to do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who is in error and for the feeble-minded: you are to make the house free from sin. 21 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you are to have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread is to be your food. 22 And on that day the ruler is to give for himself and for all the people of the land an ox for a sin-offering. 23 And on the seven days of the feast he is to give a burned offering to the Lord, seven oxen and seven sheep without any mark on them, every day for seven days; and a he-goat every day for a sin-offering. 24 And he is to give a meal offering, an ephah for every ox and an ephah for every sheep and a hin of oil to every ephah. 25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he is to give the same for seven days; the sin-offering, the burned offering, the meal offering, and the oil as before. 1 ¶ This is what the Lord has said: The doorway of the inner square looking to the east is to be shut on the six working days; but on the Sabbath it is to be open, and at the time of the new moon it is to be open. 2 And the ruler is to go in through the covered way of the outer doorway outside, and take his place by the pillar of the doorway, and the priests will make his burned offering and his peace-offerings and he will give worship at the doorstep of the doorway; then he will go out, and the door will not be shut till the evening. 3 And the people of the land are to give worship at the door of that doorway before the Lord on the Sabbaths and at the new moons. 4 And the burned offering offered to the Lord by the ruler on the Sabbath day is to be six lambs without a mark on them and a male sheep without a mark; 5 And the meal offering is to be an ephah for the sheep, and for the lambs whatever he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. 6 And at the time of the new moon it is to be a young ox of the herd without a mark on him, and six lambs and a male sheep, all without a mark: 7 And he is to give a meal offering, an ephah for the ox and an ephah for the sheep, and for the lambs whatever he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. 8 And when the ruler comes in, he is to go in through the covered way of the doorway, and he is to go out by the same way. 9 But when the people of the land come before the Lord at the fixed feasts, he who comes in by the north doorway to give worship is to go out by the south doorway; and he who comes in by the south doorway is to go out by the north doorway: he is not to come back by the doorway through which he went in, but is to go straight before him. 10 And the ruler, when they come in, is to come among them, and is to go out when they go out. 11 At the feasts and the fixed meetings the meal offerings are to be an ephah for an ox, and an ephah for a male sheep, and for the lambs whatever he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. 12 And when the ruler makes a free offering, a burned offering or a peace-offering freely given to the Lord, the doorway looking to the east is to be made open for him, and he is to make his burned offering and his peace-offerings as he does on the Sabbath day: and he will go out; and the door will be shut after he has gone out. 13 And you are to give a lamb a year old without any mark on it for a burned offering to the Lord every day: morning by morning you are to give it. 14 And you are to give, morning by morning, a meal offering with it, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin of oil dropped on the best meal; a meal offering offered to the Lord at all times by an eternal order. 15 And they are to give the lamb and the meal offering and the oil, morning by morning, for a burned offering at all times. 16 ¶ This is what the Lord has said: If the ruler gives a property to any of his sons, it is his heritage and will be the property of his sons; it is theirs for their heritage. 17 And if he gives a part of his heritage to one of his servants, it will be his till the year of making free, and then it will go back to the ruler; for it is his sons’ heritage, and is to be theirs. 18 And the ruler is not to take the heritage of any of the people, driving them out of their property; he is to give a heritage to his sons out of the property which is his: so that my people may not be sent away from their property. 19 ¶ And he took me through by the way in at the side of the doorway into the holy rooms which are the priests’, looking to the north: and I saw a place at the side of them to the west. 20 And he said to me, This is the place where the offering for error and the sin-offering are to be cooked in water by the priests, and where the meal offering is to be cooked in the oven; so that they may not be taken out into the outer square to make the people holy. 21 And he took me out into the outer square and made me go by the four angles of the square; and I saw that in every angle of the open square there was a space shut in. 22 In the four angles there were spaces walled in, forty cubits long and thirty wide; the four were of the same size. 23 And there was a line of wall all round inside them, round all four, and boiling-places were made under it all round about. 24 And he said to me, These are the boiling-rooms, where the offering of the people is cooked by the servants of the house. 1 ¶ And he took me back to the door of the house; and I saw that waters were flowing out from under the doorstep of the house on the east, for the house was facing east: and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south side of the altar. 2 And he took me out by the north doorway, and made me go round to the outside of the doorway looking to the east; and I saw waters running slowly out on the south side. 3 And the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, and after measuring a thousand cubits, he made me go through the waters, which came over my feet. 4 And again, measuring a thousand cubits, he made me go through the waters which came up to my knees. Again, measuring a thousand, he made me go through the waters up to the middle of my body. 5 Again, after his measuring a thousand, it became a river which it was not possible to go through: for the waters had become deep enough for swimming, a river it was not possible to go through. 6 And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he took me to the river’s edge. 7 And he took me back, and I saw at the edge of the river a very great number of trees on this side and on that. 8 And he said to me, These waters are flowing out to the east part of the land and down into the Arabah; and they will go to the sea, and the waters will be made sweet. 9 And it will come about that every living and moving thing, wherever their streams come, will have life; and there will be very much fish because these waters have come there and have been made sweet: and everything wherever the river comes will have life. 10 And fishermen will take up their places by it: from En-gedi as far as En-eglaim will be a place for the stretching out of nets; the fish will be of every sort, like the fish of the Great Sea, a very great number. 11 The wet places and the pools will not be made sweet; they will be given up to salt. 12 And by the edge of the river, on this side and on that, will come up every tree used for food, whose leaves will ever be green and its fruit will not come to an end: it will have new fruit every month, because its waters come out from the holy place: the fruit will be for food and the leaf will make well those who are ill. 13 ¶ This is what the Lord has said: These are the limits by which you will take up your heritage in the land among the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph is to have two parts. 14 And you are to make an equal division of it; as I gave my oath to your fathers to give it to you: for this land is to be your heritage. 15 And this is to be the limit of the land: on the north side, from the Great Sea, in the direction of Hethlon, as far as the way into Hamath; 16 To Zedad, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the limit of Damascus and the limit of Hazar-hatticon, which is on the limit of Hauran. 17 And this is the limit from the sea in the direction of Hazar-enon; and the limit of Damascus is to the north, and on the north is the limit of Hamath. This is the north side. 18 And the east side will be from Hazar-enon, which is between Hauran and Damascus; and between Gilead and the land of Israel the Jordan will be the limit, to the east sea, to Tamar. This is the east side. 19 And the south side to the south will be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream of Egypt, to the Great Sea. This is the south side, on the south. 20 And the west side will be the Great Sea, from the limit on the south to a point opposite the way into Hamath. This is the west side. 21 You will make a division of the land among you, tribe by tribe. 22 And you are to make a distribution of it, by the decision of the Lord, for a heritage to you and to the men from other lands who are living among you and who have children in your land: they will be the same to you as if they were Israelites by birth, they will have their heritage with you among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the man from a strange land is living, there you are to give him his heritage, says the Lord. 1 ¶ Now these are the names of the tribes: from the north end, from the west on the way of Hethlon to the way into Hamath, in the direction of Hazar-enon, with the limit of Damascus to the north, by Hamath; and on the limit from the east side to the west side: Dan, one part. 2 And on the limit of Dan, from the east side to the west side: Asher, one part. 3 And on the limit of Asher, from the east side to the west side: Naphtali, one part. 4 And on the limit of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side: Manasseh, one part. 5 And on the limit of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side: Ephraim, one part. 6 And on the limit of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side: Reuben, one part. 7 And on the limit of Reuben, from the east side to the west side: Judah, one part. 8 And on the limit of Judah, from the east side to the west side, will be the offering which you are to make, twenty-five thousand wide, and as long as one of the parts, from the east side to the west side: and the holy place will be in the middle of it. 9 The offering you will give to the Lord is to be twenty-five thousand long and twenty-five thousand wide. 10 And for these, that is the priests, the holy offering is to be twenty-five thousand long to the north, ten thousand wide to the west, ten thousand wide to the east and twenty-five thousand long to the south; and the holy place of the Lord will be in the middle of it. 11 For the priests who have been made holy, those of the sons of Zadok who kept the orders I gave them, who did not go out of the right way when the children of Israel went from the way, as the Levites did, 12 Even for them will be the offering from the offering of the land, a thing most holy, on the limit of the land given to the Levites. 13 And the Levites are to have a part of the land equal to the limit of the priests’, twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide, all of it together to be twenty-five thousand long and twenty thousand wide. 14 And they are not to let any of it go for a price, or give it in exchange; and the part of the land given to the Lord is not to go into other hands: for it is holy to the Lord. 15 And the other five thousand, measured from side to side, in front of the twenty-five thousand, is to be for common use, for the town, for living in and for a free space: and the town will be in the middle of it. 16 And these will be its measures: the north side, four thousand five hundred, and the south side, four thousand five hundred, and on the east side, four thousand five hundred, and on the west side, four thousand five hundred. 17 And the town will have a free space on the north of two hundred and fifty, on the south of two hundred and fifty, on the east of two hundred and fifty, and on the west of two hundred and fifty. 18 And the rest, in measure as long as the holy offering, will be ten thousand to the east and ten thousand to the west: and its produce will be for food for the workers of the town. 19 It will be farmed by workers of the town from all the tribes of Israel. 20 The size of the offering all together is to be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you are to make the holy offering a square, together with the property of the town. 21 And the rest is to be for the prince, on this side and on that side of the holy offering and of the property of the town, in front of the twenty-five thousand to the east, as far as the east limit, and to the west, in front of the twenty-five thousand, as far as the west limit, and of the same measure as those parts; it will be the property of the prince: and the holy offering and holy place of the house will be in the middle of it. 22 And the property of the Levites and the property of the town will be in the middle of the prince’s property; between the limit of Judah’s part and the limit of Benjamin’s part will be for the prince. 23 And as for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side: Benjamin, one part. 24 And on the limit of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side: Simeon, one part. 25 And on the limit of Simeon, from the east side to the west side: Issachar, one part. 26 And on the limit of Issachar, from the east side to the west side: Zebulun, one part. 27 And on the limit of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side: Gad one part. 28 And on the limit of Gad, on the south side and to the south of it, the limit will be from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream, to the Great Sea. 29 This is the land of which distribution is to be made by the decision of the Lord, among the tribes of Israel for their heritage, and these are their heritages, says the Lord. 30 And these are the outskirts of the town: on the north side, four thousand five hundred by measure; 31 ¶ And the doors of the town are to be named by the names of the tribes of Israel; three doors on the north, one for Reuben, one for Judah, one for Levi; 32 And at the east side, four thousand five hundred by measure, and three doors, one for Joseph, one for Benjamin, one for Dan; 33 And at the south side, four thousand five hundred by measure, and three doors, one for Simeon, one for Issachar, one for Zebulun; 34 At the west side, four thousand five hundred by measure, with their three doors, one for Gad, one for Asher, one for Naphtali. 35 It is to be eighteen thousand all round: and the name of the town from that day will be, The Lord is there. (Ezekiel 40:1-48:35 Bible in Basic English).
The author of Ezekiel may have received the cited Temple vision in
correspondence with the epoch of a jubilee year (572-571) BCE).
After 50 more years, a series of additional messages concerning
the construction of a new Temple were received. It is remarkable that these messages
were also received in association with a jubilee year (which corresponded
to the year 522-521 BCE).
These respective messages encompass two chapters in the book of
Haggai, and six chapters in the book of Zechariah (or 8 total chapters)
as follows:
1 ¶ In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2 These are the words of the Lord of armies: These people say, The time has not come for building the Lord’s house. 3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 Is it a time for you to be living in roofed houses while this house is a waste? 5 For this cause the Lord of armies has said, Give thought to your ways. 6 Much has been planted, but little got in; you take food, but have not enough; you take drink, but are not full; you are clothed, but no one is warm; and he who gets payment for his work, gets it to put it into a bag full of holes. 7 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Give thought to your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and get wood and put up the house; and I will take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord. 9 You were looking for much, and it came to little; and when you got it into your house, I took it away with a breath. Why? says the Lord of armies. Because of my house which is a waste, while every man takes care of the house which is his. 10 For this cause the heaven over you is kept from giving dew, and the earth from giving her fruit. 11 And by my order no rain came on the land or on the mountains or the grain or the wine or the oil or the produce of the earth or on men or cattle or on any work of man’s hands. 12 ¶ Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the rest of the people, gave ear to the voice of the Lord their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, because the Lord their God had sent him, and the people were in fear before the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, whom the Lord had sent to give his words to the people, said, I am with you, says the Lord. 14 And the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, was moved by the Lord, as was the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of armies, their God. 15 On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. 1 ¶ In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 2 Say now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the rest of the people, 3 Who is there still among you who saw this house in its first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing? 4 But now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and get to work: for I am with you, says the Lord of armies: 5 The agreement which I made with you when you came out of Egypt, and my spirit, are with you still; have no fear. 6 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In a short time I will make a shaking of the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; 7 And I will make a shaking of all the nations, and the desired things of all nations will come: and I will make this house full of my glory, says the Lord of armies. 8 The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of armies. 9 The second glory of this house will be greater than the first, says the Lord of armies: and in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of armies. 10 ¶ On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 11 These are the words of the Lord of armies: Put now a point of law to the priests, saying, 12 If anyone has some holy flesh folded in the skirt of his robe, will bread or soup or wine or oil or any other food be made holy if touched by his skirt? And the priests answering said, No. 13 Then Haggai said, Will any of these be made unclean by the touch of one who is unclean through touching a dead body? And the priests answering said, It will be made unclean. 14 Then Haggai said, So is this people and so is this nation before me, says the Lord; and so is every work of their hands; and the offering they give there is unclean. 15 And now, give thought, looking back from this day to the time before one stone was put on another in the Temple of the Lord: 16 How, when anyone came to a store of twenty measures, there were only ten: when anyone went to the wine-store to get fifty vessels full, there were only twenty. 17 And I sent burning and wasting and a rain of ice-drops on all the works of your hands; but still you were not turned to me, says the Lord. 18 And now, give thought; looking on from this day, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the time when the base of the Lord’s house was put in its place, give thought to it. 19 Is the seed still in the store-house? have the vine and the fig-tree, the pomegranate and the olive-tree, still not given their fruit? from this day I will send my blessing on you. 20 ¶ And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, 21 Say to Zerubbabel, ruler of Judah, I will make a shaking of the heavens and the earth, 22 Overturning the power of kingdoms; and I will send destruction on the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; by me war-carriages will be overturned with those who are in them; and the horses and the horsemen will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother. 23 In that day, says the Lord of armies, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and will make you as a jewelled ring: for I have taken you to be mine, says the Lord of armies. 1 ¶ In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 2 The Lord has been very angry with your fathers: 3 And you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord of armies: Come back to me, says the Lord of armies, and I will come back to you. 4 Be not like your fathers, to whom the voice of the earlier prophets came, saying, Be turned now from your evil ways and from your evil doings: but they did not give ear to me or take note, says the Lord. 5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they go on living for ever? 6 But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so has he done. 7 ¶ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 8 I saw in the night a man on a red horse, between the mountains in the valley, and at his back were horses, red, black, white, and of mixed colours. 9 Then I said, O my lord, what are these? And the angel who was talking to me said to me, I will make clear to you what they are. 10 And the man who was between the mountains, answering me, said, These are those whom the Lord has sent to go up and down through the earth. 11 And the man who was between the mountains, answering, said to the angel of the Lord, We have gone up and down through the earth, and all the earth is quiet and at rest. 12 Then the angel of the Lord, answering, said, O Lord of armies, how long will it be before you have mercy on Jerusalem and on the towns of Judah against which your wrath has been burning for seventy years? 13 And the Lord gave an answer in good and comforting words to the angel who was talking to me. 14 And the angel who was talking to me said to me, Let your voice be loud and say, These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am greatly moved about the fate of Jerusalem and of Zion. 15 And I am very angry with the nations who are living untroubled: for when I was only a little angry, they made the evil worse. 16 So this is what the Lord has said: I have come back to Jerusalem with mercies; my house is to be put up in her, says the Lord of armies, and a line is to be stretched out over Jerusalem. 17 And again let your voice be loud and say, This is what the Lord of armies has said: My towns will again be overflowing with good things, and again the Lord will give comfort to Zion and take Jerusalem for himself. 18 ¶ And lifting up my eyes I saw four horns. 19 And I said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have sent Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem in flight. 20 And the Lord gave me a vision of four metal-workers. 21 Then I said, What have these come to do? And he said, These are the horns which sent Judah in flight, and kept him from lifting up his head: but these men have come to send fear on them and to put down the nations who are lifting up their horns against the land of Judah to send it in flight. 1 ¶ And lifting up my eyes, I saw a man with a measuring-line in his hand. 2 And I said to him, Where are you going? And he said to me, To take the measure of Jerusalem, to see how wide and how long it is. 3 And the angel who was talking to me went out, and another angel went out, and, meeting him, 4 Said to him, Go quickly and say to this young man, Jerusalem will be an unwalled town, because of the great number of men and cattle in her. 5 For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire round about her, and I will be the glory inside her. 6 ¶ Ho, ho! go in flight from the land of the north, says the Lord: for I have sent you far and wide to the four winds of heaven, says the Lord. 7 Ho! Zion, go in flight from danger, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon. 8 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In the way of glory he has sent me to the nations which have taken your goods: for anyone touching you is touching what is most dear to him. 9 For at the shaking of my hand over them, their goods will be taken by those who were their servants: and you will see that the Lord of armies has sent me. 10 ¶ Give songs of joy, O daughter of Zion: for I come, and I will make my resting-place among you, says the Lord. 11 And a number of nations will be joined to the Lord in that day, and will become my people; and I will be living among you, and you will see that the Lord of armies has sent me to you. 12 And Judah will be the Lord’s heritage in the holy land, and Jerusalem will again be his. 13 Let all flesh be quiet and make no sound before the Lord: for he is awake and has come from his holy resting-place. 1 ¶ And he let me see Joshua, the high priest, in his place before the angel of the Lord, and the Satan at his right hand ready to take up a cause against him. 2 And the Lord said to the Satan, May the Lord’s word be sharp against you, O Satan, the word of the Lord who has taken Jerusalem for himself: is this not a burning branch pulled out of the fire? 3 Now Joshua was clothed in unclean robes, and he was in his place before the angel. 4 And he made answer and said to those who were there before him, Take the unclean robes off him, and let him be clothed in clean robes; 5 And let them put a clean head-dress on his head. So they put a clean head-dress on his head, clothing him with clean robes: and to him he said, See, I have taken your sin away from you. 6 And the angel of the Lord made a statement to Joshua, and said, 7 These are the words of the Lord of armies: If you will go in my ways and keep what I have put in your care, then you will be judge over my Temple and have the care of my house, and I will give you the right to come in among those who are there. 8 ¶ Give ear now, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who are seated before you; for these are men who are a sign: for see, I will let my servant the Branch be seen. 9 For see, the stone which I have put before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes: see, the design cut on it will be my work, says the Lord of armies, and I will take away the sin of that land in one day. 10 In that day, says the Lord of armies, you will be one another’s guests under the vine and under the fig-tree. 1 ¶ And the angel who was talking to me came again, awaking me as a man out of his sleep. 2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see a light-support, made all of gold, with its cup on the top of it and seven lights on it; and there are seven pipes to every one of the lights which are on the top of it; 3 And two olive-trees by it, one on the right side of the cup and one on the left. 4 And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these, my lord? 5 Then the angel who was talking to me, answering me, said, Have you no knowledge of what these are? And I said, No, my lord. 6 This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by force or by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of armies. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you will become level: and he will let all see the headstone, with cries of Grace, grace, to it. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 9 The hands of Zerubbabel have put the base of this house in place, and his hands will make it complete; and it will be clear to you that the Lord of armies has sent me to you. 10 For who has had a poor opinion of the day of small things? for they will be glad when they see the weighted measuring-line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then he said in answer to me, These seven lights are the eyes of the Lord which go quickly up and down through all the earth. 11 ¶ And I made answer and said to him, What are these two olive-trees on the right side of the light-support and on the left? 12 And answering a second time, I said to him, What are these two olive branches, through whose gold pipes the oil is drained out? 13 And he said in answer to me, Have you no knowledge what these are? And I said, No, my lord. 14 And he said, These are the two sons of oil, whose place is by the Lord of all the earth. 1 ¶ Then again lifting up my eyes I saw a roll in flight through the air. 2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, A roll going through the air; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide. 3 Then he said to me, This is the curse which goes out over the face of all the land: for long enough has every thief gone without punishment, and long enough has every taker of false oaths gone without punishment. 4 And I will send it out, says the Lord of armies, and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of him who takes a false oath by my name: and it will be in his house, causing its complete destruction, with its woodwork and its stones. 5 ¶ And the angel who was talking to me went out and said to me, Let your eyes be lifted up now, and see the ephah which is going out. 6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah which is going out. And he said further, This is their evil-doing in all the land. 7 And I saw a round cover of lead lifted up; and a woman was seated in the middle of the ephah. 8 And he said, This is Sin; and pushing her down into the ephah, he put the weight of lead on the mouth of it. 9 And lifting up my eyes I saw two women coming out, and the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they took the ephah, lifting it up between earth and heaven. 10 And I said to the angel who was talking to me, Where are they taking the ephah? 11 And he said to me, To make a house for her in the land of Shinar: and they will make a place ready, and put her there in the place which is hers. 1 ¶ And again lifting up my eyes I saw four war-carriages coming out from between the two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. 2 In the first war-carriage were red horses; and in the second, black horses; 3 And in the third, white horses; and in the fourth, horses of mixed colour. 4 And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these, my lord? 5 And the angel, answering, said to me, These go out to the four winds of heaven from their place before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The carriage in which are the black horses goes in the direction of the north country; the white go to the west; and those of mixed colour go in the direction of the south country. 7 And the red ones go to the east; and they made request that they might go up and down through the earth: and he said, Go up and down through the earth. So they went up and down through the earth. 8 Then crying out to me, he said, See, those who are going to the north country have given rest to the spirit of the Lord in the north country. 9 ¶ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 10 Take the offerings of those who went away as prisoners, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and from the family of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, who have come from Babylon; 11 And take silver and gold and make a crown and put it on the head of Zerubbabel; 12 And say to him, These are the words of the Lord of armies: See, the man whose name is the Branch, under whom there will be fertile growth. 13 And he will be the builder of the Temple of the Lord; and the glory will be his, and he will take his place as ruler on the seat of power; and Joshua will be a priest at his right hand, and between them there will be a design of peace. (Haggai 1:1-Zechariah 6:13 BBE).
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