The Inner Temple

1Then he (the angel) brought me to the nave (outer sanctuary) and measured the side pillars; six cubits wide on each side was the width of the [a]side pillar. 2The width of the entrance was ten cubits and the [b]sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side; and he measured its length, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits. 3Then he went inside [the inner sanctuary] and measured each side pillar of the doorway, two cubits, and the doorway, six cubits [high], and the width of the doorway, seven cubits. 4He measured the length [of the interior of the inner sanctuary], twenty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits, [c]opposite the nave (outer sanctuary); and he said to me, “This is the [d]Most Holy Place.”

5Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits [thick, to accommodate side chambers]; and the width of every side chamber, four cubits, all around the temple on every side. 6The side chambers were three stories [high], one above another, and thirty chambers in each story; and the side chambers extended to the wall which stood on their inward side all around, so that they would be attached, but not attached to the wall of the temple itself. 7The side chambers became wider at each successive level as they encompassed the temple. Because the structure surrounding the temple went higher by stages on all sides of the temple, for that reason the width of the temple increased as it went higher; and thus one went up from the lowest story to the highest one by way of the [e]second story. 8I also saw that the temple (house) had a raised platform all around it; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full rod of six long cubits in height. 9The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. But the free space between the side chambers belonging to the temple 10and the outer chambers was a width of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side. 11The doorways of the side chambers toward the free space were one doorway toward the north and another doorway toward the south; and the width of the free space was five cubits all around.

12The building that was in front of the separate area on the side toward the west was seventy cubits wide; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.

13Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; the separate area and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long. 14Also the width of the front of the temple and the separate areas along the east side totaled a hundred cubits.

15He (the angel) measured the length of the building along the front of the separate area behind it, with a gallery on each side, a hundred cubits; he also measured the inner sanctuary and the porches (porticoes) of the courtyard. 16The thresholds, the latticed windows, and the galleries all around their three stories, opposite the threshold, were paneled with wood all around, and from the ground to the windows (but the windows were covered), 17over the entrance, and to the inner [f]room, and on the outside, and on all the wall all around inside and outside, by measurement. 18It was [g]carved with [figures of] cherubim and palm trees; so that a palm decoration was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces, 19so that the face of a man was toward the palm decoration on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm decoration on the other side. It was carved [this way] on the entire house (temple) all around. 20From the [h]floor to [the space] above the entrance cherubim and palm decorations were carved, and also on the wall of the nave [the Holy Place].

21The doorposts of the nave were square; as for the front of the sanctuary, the appearance of one doorpost was like that of the other. 22The [i]altar was of wood, three cubits high and two cubits long; and its corners, its [j]base, and its [k]sides were wood. And he said to me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.” 23The nave (Holy Place) and the sanctuary (Holy of Holies) each had a double door. 24Each of the doors had two leaves, two swinging (folding) leaves; two leaves for the one door and two leaves for the other. 25And there were carved on them, on the doors of the nave, cherubim and palm decorations like those carved on the walls; and there was a [l]threshold of wood on the front of the porch outside. 26There were latticed windows and palm decorations on one side and on the other, on the sides of the porch. Thus were the side chambers and the [m]thresholds of the house.

[a] 1 MT reads tent.
[b] 2 Lit shoulders.
[c] 4 Or before; lit to the front of.
[d] 4 Lit Holy of Holies.
[e] 7 Lit middle.
[f] 17 Lit house.
[g] 18 Lit made, and so throughout.
[h] 20 Lit ground.
[i] 22 Not the altar of sacrifice (43:13-17); apparently the only piece of furniture in the sanctuary.
[j] 22 Lit length.
[k] 22 Lit walls.
[l] 25 Or canopy...over.
[m] 26 Or canopies.