Special land for the Lord
1 ‘You must divide the land into different parts to belong to each tribe. When you do this, you must give one part to the Lord. It will belong to the Lord as a holy piece of land. It will be 12½ kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide. All of this land will be holy. 2 Part of this land will be for the temple. It will be 250 metres long and 250 metres wide. Keep an empty space 25 metres wide all around this piece of land. 3 Inside the holy piece of land, measure a part that is 12½ kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide. This part will contain the temple, the most holy place. 4 The priests will have this holy part of the land. They are the men who work in the temple and come near to the Lord to serve him. The priests' houses will be there, as well as the temple. 5 The other half of the holy piece of land will be for the Levites, who work in the temple. They will have towns there to live in. Their land will be 12½ kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide.
6 There will also be a piece of land for the city, 12½ kilometres long and 2½ kilometres wide. It will be beside the holy piece of land. Any of Israel's people may live there.
7 There will be two pieces of land for the ruler. One piece will be on the east side of the holy piece of land and the land for the city. The other piece will be on the west side. The piece on the west side will go as far as the sea. The piece on the east side will go as far as the border of the land. So his land will be as long as a part of the land that belongs to each tribe. 8 This will be the part of Israel's land that belongs to the ruler. Because my rulers will have their own land, they will no longer need to make my people suffer. They will give to each tribe a part of the land that will belong to them.
9 The Almighty Lord says this: Rulers of Israel, stop cheating my people and making them suffer! You have done enough bad things! Instead, do things that are right and fair. Stop chasing my people off their land. That is what the Almighty Lord says.
10 You must use correct measures for size and for weight. 11 The ephah that you use to measure dry things must be the same measure that you use for wet things. Ten ephahs will be equal to one homer. 12 20 gerahs will be equal to one shekel. 60 shekels will be equal to one mina.
45:12A mina was about 600 grams. An ephah was about 22 litres. A homer was about 220 litres. In the days of Ezekiel, a shekel was about 11 grams.
