The Rooms for the Priests

¹Then the man led me north into the outer courtyard of the temple. He brought me to the rooms that were across from the inner courtyard. They were across from the outer wall of the temple on the north side. ² The rooms were in a building north of the temple. The building had a door that faced north. It was 175 feet long. It was 88 feet wide. ³ One row of rooms was next to the inner courtyard. The other row was across from the sidewalk of the outer courtyard. Each room was 35 feet long. Walkways in front of each row faced each other on all three floors. ⁴ Between the two rows was an inner sidewalk. It was 18 feet wide and 175 feet long. Each of the rooms had a door on the north side. ⁵ The rooms on the top floor were narrower than the others. The walkways took up more space from these rooms. The walkways took up less space from the rooms on the other two floors. ⁶ The courtyards had pillars. But the rooms on the top floor didn’t. So their floor space was smaller than the space in the rooms on the other floors. ⁷ The building had an outer wall. It was even with the outer row of rooms and with the outer courtyard. The wall continued east of the outer row for 88 feet. ⁸ So there were two rows of rooms. The row next to the outer courtyard was 88 feet long. The one closest to the temple was 175 feet long. ⁹ The first floor of the building had an entrance on the east side. It led to the outer courtyard.

¹⁰ There were also two rows of rooms in a building next to the south side of the inner courtyard. The building was across from the south wall of the outer courtyard. ¹¹ Between the two rows was an inner sidewalk. The rooms were like the ones in the north building. They were as long and wide as the rooms on the north. The doorways of the rooms on the south were like the ones on the north. ¹² People entered the south rooms through the doorway at the east end of the inner sidewalk. The south wall continued east of the outer row of rooms.

¹³ The man said to me, “The north and south rooms face the inner courtyard. They are the priests’ rooms. That is where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the very holy offerings. They will also store them there. That includes the grain offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings. This place is holy. ¹⁴ The priests who enter these holy rooms must leave behind the clothes they served in. Then they can go into the outer courtyard. The clothes they served in are holy. So the priests must put other clothes on. They have to do that before they go near the places where other people go.”

¹⁵ The man finished measuring what was inside the temple area. Then he led me out through the east gate. He measured all around the area. ¹⁶ He measured the east side with his measuring rod. It was 875 feet long. ¹⁷ He measured the north side. It was 875 feet long. ¹⁸ He measured the south side. It was 875 feet long. ¹⁹ Finally, he turned and measured the west side. It was 875 feet long. ²⁰ So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall around it. The wall was 875 feet long and 875 feet wide. It separated what was holy from what was not.