¹ "Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.

² If you will not listen, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name," says Yahweh of Armies, "then will I send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.

³ Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

⁴ You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi," says Yahweh of Armies.

⁵ "My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name.

⁶ The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.

⁷ For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies.

⁸ But you have turned aside out of the way. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says Yahweh of Armies.

⁹ "Therefore I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law.

¹⁰ Don't we all have one father? Hasn't one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

¹¹ Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

¹² Yahweh will cut off, to the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob, and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of Armies.

¹³ This again you do: you cover the altar of Yahweh with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn't regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand.

¹⁴ Yet you say, 'Why?' Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant.

¹⁵ Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

¹⁶ For I hate divorce," says Yahweh, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with violence!" says Yahweh of Armies. "Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you don't deal treacherously.

¹⁷ You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, 'How have we wearied him?' In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and he delights in them;' or 'Where is the God of justice?'

¹ Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east.

² Behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory.

³ It was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

⁴ The glory of Yahweh came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.

⁵ The Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house.

⁶ I heard one speaking to me out of the house; and a man stood by me.

⁷ He said to me, Son of man, [this is] the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their prostitution, and by the dead bodies of their kings [in] their high places;

⁸ in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their doorpost beside my doorpost, and there was [but] the wall between me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed: therefore I have consumed them in my anger.

⁹ Now let them put away their prostitution, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will dwell in the midst of them forever.

¹⁰ You, son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern.

¹¹ If they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and its fashion, and its exits, and its entrances, and all its forms, and all its ordinances, and all its forms, and all its laws; and write it in their sight; that they may keep the whole form of it, and all its ordinances, and do them.

¹² This is the law of the house: on the top of the mountain the whole limit around it shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

¹³ These are the measures of the altar by cubits (the cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth): the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and its border around its edge a span; and this shall be the base of the altar.

¹⁴ From the bottom on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the breadth a cubit.

¹⁵ The upper altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar hearth and upward there shall be four horns.

¹⁶ The altar hearth shall be twelve [cubits] long by twelve broad, square in the four sides of it.

¹⁷ The ledge shall be fourteen [cubits] long by fourteen broad in the four sides of it; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and its bottom shall be a cubit around; and its steps shall look toward the east.

¹⁸ He said to me, Son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.

¹⁹ You shall give to the priests the Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who are near to me, to minister to me, says the Lord Yahweh, a young bull for a sin offering.

²⁰ You shall take of its blood, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around: thus you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it.

²¹ You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and it shall be burnt in the appointed place of the house, outside of the sanctuary.

²² On the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bull.

²³ When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.

²⁴ You shall bring them near to Yahweh, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering to Yahweh.

²⁵ Seven days you shall prepare every day a goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bull, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish.

²⁶ Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and purify it; so shall they consecrate it.

²⁷ When they have accomplished the days, it shall be that on the eighth day, and forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord Yahweh.