The Holy District

1 “When you ^vallot the land as an inheritance, you shall set apart for the Lord a portion of the land as a holy district, ^w25,000 cubits¹ long and 20,000² cubits broad. It shall be holy throughout its whole extent. 2 Of this a square plot of ^x500 by 500 cubits shall be for the sanctuary, with fifty cubits for an open space around it. 3 And from this measured district you shall measure off ^ya section 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 broad, in which shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 4 It shall be the holy portion of the land. It shall be for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and approach the Lord to minister to him, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 Another section, 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits broad, shall be ^zfor the Levites who minister at the temple, as their possession for cities to live in.³

6 “Alongside the portion set apart as the holy district you shall assign for the property of the city an area 5,000 cubits broad and 25,000 cubits long. ^aIt shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

The Portion for the Prince

7 “And to the ^bprince ^cshall belong the land on both sides of the holy district and the property of the city, alongside the holy district and the property of the city, on the west and on the east, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions, and extending from the western to the eastern boundary 8 of the land. It is to be his property in Israel. And my princes shall no more oppress my people, but they shall let the house of Israel have the land according to their tribes.

9 “Thus says the Lord God: ^dEnough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your ^eevictions of my people, declares the Lord God.

10 ^f“You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath.⁴ 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, the bath containing one tenth of a homer,⁵ and the ephah one tenth of a homer; the homer shall be the standard measure. 12 The shekel shall be twenty gerahs;⁶ twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall be your mina.⁷

13 “This is the offering that you shall make: one sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley, 14 and as the fixed portion of oil, measured in baths, one tenth of a bath from each cor⁸ (the cor, like the homer, contains ten baths).⁹ 15 And one sheep from every flock of two hundred, from the watering places of Israel for grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offerings, ^gto make atonement for them, declares the Lord God. 16 All the people of the land shall be obliged to give this offering to the prince in Israel. 17 ^hIt shall be the prince’s duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.

18 “Thus says the Lord God: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and ⁱpurify the sanctuary. 19 The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. 20 You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned ^jthrough error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple.

21 “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the ^kPassover, and ^lfor seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. 23 And on the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering. 24 And he shall provide as a grain offering ^man ephah for each bull, ⁿan ephah for each ram, and a hin¹⁰ of oil to each ephah. 25 ^oIn the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil.

The Prince and the Feasts

1 “Thus says the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. 2 ^pThe prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall offer ^qhis burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. 3 The people of the land shall bow down at the entrance of that gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. 4 The burnt offering that the prince offers to the Lord on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. 5 And the grain offering ^rwith the ram shall be an ephah,¹¹ and the grain offering with the lambs shall be as much as he is able, together with a hin¹² of oil to each ephah. 6 On the day of the new moon he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. 7 As a grain offering he shall provide ^san ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. 8 ^tWhen the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way.

9 “When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. 10 When they enter, the prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out.

11 “At the feasts and the appointed festivals, the grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs as much as one is able to give, together with a hin of oil to an ephah. 12 When the prince provides a freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the Lord, the gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut.

13 “You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. 14 And you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute. 15 Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for a ^uregular burnt offering.

16 “Thus says the Lord God: If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. 17 But if he makes a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to the ^vyear of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance—it shall belong to his sons. 18 The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, ^wthrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be scattered from his property.”

Boiling Places for Offerings

19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, to the north row of the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. 20 And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests shall ^xboil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so ^ytransmit holiness to the people.”

21 Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me around to the four corners of the court. And behold, in each corner of the court there was another court— 22 in the four corners of the court were small¹³ courts, forty cubits¹⁴ long and thirty broad; the four were of the same size. 23 On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry, with hearths made at the bottom of the rows all around. 24 Then he said to me, “These are the kitchens where those who minister at the temple shall boil the sacrifices of the people.”

Christ Our Advocate

1 My little children, ^sI am writing these things to you ^tso that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an ^uadvocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the ^vpropitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we ^wkeep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a ^xliar, and ^ythe truth is not in him, 5 but whoever ^zkeeps his word, in him truly the love of God is ^aperfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he ^babides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

The New Commandment

7 Beloved, ^cI am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is ^da new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because^{1 e}the darkness is passing away and ^fthe true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and ^ghates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever ^hloves his brother abides in the light, and in him² there is no cause for ⁱstumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and ^jwalks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do Not Love the World

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. ^pIf anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life³—is not from the Father but is ^qfrom the world. 17 And ^rthe world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever ^sdoes the will of God abides forever.

Warning Concerning Antichrists

18 Children, it is the ^tlast hour, and ^uas you have heard that ^vantichrist is coming, so ^wnow many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been ^xanointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.⁴ 21 I write to you, ^ynot because you do not ^zknow the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that ^aJesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will ^babide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the ^cpromise that he made to us⁵—eternal life.

26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to ^ddeceive you. 27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Children of God

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have ^econfidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that ^feveryone who practices righteousness has been ^gborn of him.