1 Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the Lord, an holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about.
Remember a reed is nine feet; so this piece of land set aside for God is 42.61 miles by 17.04miles; 714 square miles. This is probably the dimensions of the entire country of Judah after the Babylonian captivity.
(Though the original manuscripts don’t actually tell us 25,000 whats, it is generally accepted that it means reeds, as the King James Bible renders it.)
2 Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.
The Temple plot itself would be 4500 feet square (just under a mile) surrounded by 450 feet of empty land.
3 And of this measure shall thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place.
4 The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the Lord: and it shall be a place for their houses, and an holy place for the sanctuary.
The priest’s houses are to be here. They won’t have farms to support themselves because God’s work is supposed to support them. “The workman is worthy of his hire.” 1 Timothy 5:18, Luke 10:7 It is right and good for ministers to be supported financially from the work of God.
5 And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers.
6 And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over against the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.
The rest of the city is for the rest of Israel.
7 And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border.
The royal family will have the parts on either side of the Temple for their own. Though there never was another Jewish king, there were foreigners who ruled as kings, such as King Herod of Jesus time. Before that, there were Jewish governors who would likely have lived in these quarters.
8 In the land shall be his possession in Israel: and My princes shall no more oppress My people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
This will be enough land the royalty can support itself and they won’t need to over tax the people.
9 Thus says the Lord God; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from My people, says the Lord God.
God commands the leadership especially to be righteous. Sadly, the people often justify as moral those things the leaders of a country do and legalize. This puts the greatest burden on the leadership to make sure they are right.
10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.
These are the measurements used in trade. God is telling them not to cheat each other.
11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.
The ephah was the dry measure and the bath the liquid measure (i.e. quart, gallon). The homer was a term used for both (like our ounces).
An ephah is about one bushel (the size of a small laundry basket or average microwave). So a homer is about ten times that size.
12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.
A shekel is roughly 10.5 grams of silver, so right now in 2013, it would be worth close to $10.
In America, ten pennies make a dime, ten dimes make a dollar.
In post-captivity Judah, twenty gerahs (about $.50) make a shekel, sixty shekels make a mina (about $600).
God is giving them a standard measure of money. Anything other than this will be considered to be cheating someone.
13 This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley:
About the same size as two gallons of milk was to be the standard gift of grain.
14 Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer:
A standard offering of oil was to be a tenth of a bath, about 2.5 gallons.
15 And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, says the Lord God.
This is half a percent of the total flock, probably about 1% of the total lambs born per year.
16 All the people of the land shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel.
This supports the royalty and probably the governors before the foreign kings.
By spelling out exactly what the government was to take, God eliminated the high taxes that so often destroy a country and certainly oppress its people.
17 And it shall be the prince’s part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the Sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
In exchange the ruler of the country was to supply what was needed for the feasts and holidays.
This symbolized Christ’s supplying our sacrifice.
18 Thus says the Lord God; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shall take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:
Now let’s get the sanctuary set up…
19 And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.
Sacrifice a bull and anoint the place with his blood (just as our hearts are now anointed with Christ’s blood.)
20 And so thou shall do the seventh day of the month for every one that errs, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.
The first sacrifice is for the Temple, the second for the nation’s sins.
21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
The Passover is being re-instituted. It had been neglected since before the captivity.
22 And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.
Every year there is to be a sin offering.
23 And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the Lord, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering.
They were to sacrifice a bull, sheep and goat each day of the Passover to pay the rent on their sins. This couldn’t take their sins away. Only Jesus could do that. But it did move them up a year.
24 And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oil for an ephah.
The grain to accompany the sacrifice was to be about six gallons worth, plus about the same (or a bit more) of oil.
25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil.
A second sacrifice is to be made each year half a year later.