Pads for Priests
- Next, God gives instruction for how the land will be divided. He'll take a certain portion of it for himself (measured in cubits), which will be divided into the Temple area and the open area around it.
- There will also be an area for the priests and their houses, and another area for the Levites to live in.
- Finally, there's an area for all the people of Israel.
- The prince (king) will own land on both sides of the holy district, portions equal in size to those that will be given to the tribes of Israel.
- The princes (kings) won't oppress the people anymore, by the way, says God.
Not the Metric System
- God lays down the weights and measures the new kingdom will use.
- They'll have fair and honest balances and honest means of measurements called the ephah and bath (which are of the same measure, each containing one tenth of a homer—got that?)
- The homer will be the standard measure, and there will also be the shekel, which is equal to twenty gerahs. Sixty shekels equals a mina. Got that?
- God then specifies in great detail how these measurements will be applied to the offerings of barley and oil, which will go along with a big sacrifice of one out of every two hundred sheep belonging to the people of Israel.
- All the people will join the prince in offering this big sacrifice. The prince will be personally responsible for the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings at all the appointed festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths. God will bring the appetizers.
Sacrifice: Advanced Lessons
- On the first day of the first month people need to kill a young bull to purify the sanctuary, and they should do this again on the seventh day for people who have sinned through error and ignorance.
- Then on the fourteenth day, they'll celebrate Passover, eating unleavened bread for seven days.
- There will be more sacrifices too, a lot of them involving seven young bulls and seven rams, and also a daily sin offering of a goat.
- There are also more sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain and oil offerings on the seventh month on the fifteenth day and proceeding for seven days of a festival.