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The division of the land
1 “ ‘When the land of Israel is divided among the twelve tribes, you must present to me, Yahweh, one part of the land to be a sacred district. It will be ◄8.3 miles/13.3 km.► long and ◄6.7 miles/10.6 km.► wide. That entire area will be ◄holy/set apart for me►. 2 Part of that area, ◄875 feet/265 meters► on each side, will be for the temple area. An additional strip of ground, ◄87-1/2 feet/26.5 meters► wide, will be left empty all around the temple area. 3 Inside that sacred district, measure a section ◄8.3 miles/13.3 km.► long and ◄3.5 miles/5.3 km.► wide. 4 That section will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests who work in the temple and who come near to me to serve me. It will be a place for their houses as well as being a holy place for the temple. 5 An area ◄8.3 miles/13.3 km.► long and ◄3.5 miles/5.3 km.► wide will be for the descendants of Levi who work in the temple. That area will belong to them, and they will be permitted to build cities there to live in.
6 Alongside that sacred area will be a section of land that is ◄8.3 miles/13.3 km.► long and ◄1.7 miles/2.65 km.► wide. It will be for a city where anyone in Israel [MTY] will be permitted to live.
7 The king will have two sections of land; one will be on the western side of the sacred district and other will be on the eastern side of the sacred district. The one on the western side will extend west to the Mediterranean Sea. The one on the eastern side will extend east to the eastern end of the country. The eastern and western borders of the king’s land will be next to the areas allotted to the tribes. 8 That land will be the land in Israel that belongs to the king. So, because the kings will have their own land, they will no longer need to oppress my people and steal land from them. They will assign the remaining parts of the land to the people, giving a part to each tribe.
9 This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: You kings of Israel must stop acting violently and oppressing the people! You must do what is fair and right [DOU]. Stop taking land from the people! 10 And you must use accurate scales, and accurate containers for measuring things. 11 The baskets for measuring dry things and containers for measuring liquids must be the same size; each must hold 175 quarts/liters. 12 When you weigh things, you must use weights that everyone accepts as being correct [MTY].’ ”
Special offerings and holy days
13 “ ‘You must present to the king one bushel of wheat or barley for every 60 that you harvest. 14 And you must give him one quart/liter of olive oil for every 100 quarts/liters that you make. 15 Also, I, Yahweh, declare that you must take one sheep from each 200 sheep in your flocks in the pastures of Israel. Those things that you take to the king will be used with the offerings of things made from grain and for the offerings that will be completely burned and the offerings to maintain fellowship with me, offerings in order for me to forgive you for the sins that you have committed. 16 All the Israeli people must join in bringing those offerings to the king of Israel. 17 The king must provide the animals to be completely burned on the altar, grain for the grain offerings, and wine for the wine offerings for the sacred festivals that I have appointed for the people of Israel—including the festivals to celebrate each new moon and the Sabbaths. He must provide the animals for the offerings for the people to become acceptable to me, grain for the grain offerings, animals to be completely burned on the altar, and offerings to maintain fellowship with me, Yahweh, in order that I will forgive the Israeli people for their sins.
18 This is also what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare: On the first day of the first month of each year you must take one young bull that has no defects and sacrifice it to cause the temple to be acceptable to me. 19 The Supreme Priest must take some of the blood of the offering to cause people to become acceptable to me, and smear it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar, and on the entry posts of the inner courtyard. 20 He must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for any people who sin without intending to sin or without realizing that what they did is sinful. By doing that you will purify the temple.
21 In the first month of each year, on the 14th day of the month, you must start to celebrate the Passover Festival. The festival will last for seven days. During that time you must not eat bread made with yeast. 22 On the first day, the king must provide a bull to be an offering for himself and for the all the other people of the country. 23 And every day during those seven days he must provide seven young bulls and seven rams that have no defects, to be an offering for the people’s sins. 24 He must also provide a half bushel of grain to be an offering, and also four quarts of olive oil, for each bill and ram.
25 During the seven days of the festival of Living in Temporary Shelters, which starts on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of each year, the king must provide the same things for offerings for the people’s sins, for offerings to be completely burned, for grain offerings, and the same amount of olive oil that he provided each day during the Passover Festival.’ ”

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© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.