O Lord, you are righteous, and your regulations are fair. Your laws are perfect and completely trustworthy. I am overwhelmed with indignation, for my enemies have disregarded your words. Your promises have been thoroughly tested; that is why I love them so much. I am insignificant and despised, but I don't forget your commandments. Your justice is eternal, and your instructions are perfectly true. As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands. Your laws are always right; help me to understand them so I may live.
Then the man brought me through the gateway into the outer courtyard of the Temple. A stone pavement ran along the walls of the courtyard, and thirty rooms were built against the walls, opening onto the pavement. This pavement flanked the gates and extended out from the walls into the courtyard the same distance as the gateway entrance. This was the lower pavement. Then the man measured across the Temple's outer courtyard between the outer and inner gateways; the distance was 175 feet.
The man measured the gateway on the north just like the one on the east. Here, too, there were three guard alcoves on each side, with dividing walls and an entry room. All the measurements matched those of the east gateway. The gateway passage was 87 1⁄2 feet long and 43 3⁄4 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves. The windows, the entry room, and the palm tree decorations were identical to those in the east gateway. There were seven steps leading up to the gateway entrance, and the entry room was at the inner end of the gateway passage. Here on the north side, just as on the east, there was another gateway leading to the Temple's inner courtyard directly opposite this outer gateway. The distance between the two gateways was 175 feet.
Then the man took me around to the south gateway and measured its various parts, and they were exactly the same as in the others. It had windows along the walls as the others did, and there was an entry room where the gateway passage opened into the outer courtyard. And like the others, the gateway passage was 87 1⁄2 feet long and 43 3⁄4 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves. This gateway also had a stairway of seven steps leading up to it, and an entry room at the inner end, and palm tree decorations along the dividing walls. And here again, directly opposite the outer gateway, was another gateway that led into the inner courtyard. The distance between the two gateways was 175 feet.
Then the man took me to the south gateway leading into the inner courtyard. He measured it, and it had the same measurements as the other gateways. Its guard alcoves, dividing walls, and entry room were the same size as those in the others. It also had windows along its walls and in the entry room. And like the others, the gateway passage was 87 1⁄2 feet long and 43 3⁄4 feet wide. (The entry rooms of the gateways leading into the inner courtyard were 14 feet across and 43 3⁄4 feet wide.) The entry room to the south gateway faced into the outer courtyard. It had palm tree decorations on its columns, and there were eight steps leading to its entrance.
Then he took me to the east gateway leading to the inner courtyard. He measured it, and it had the same measurements as the other gateways. Its guard alcoves, dividing walls, and entry room were the same size as those of the others, and there were windows along the walls and in the entry room. The gateway passage measured 87 1⁄2 feet long and 43 3⁄4 feet wide. Its entry room faced into the outer courtyard. It had palm tree decorations on its columns, and there were eight steps leading to its entrance.
Then he took me around to the north gateway leading to the inner courtyard. He measured it, and it had the same measurements as the other gateways. The guard alcoves, dividing walls, and entry room of this gateway had the same measurements as in the others and the same window arrangements. The gateway passage measured 87 1⁄2 feet long and 43 3⁄4 feet wide. Its entry room faced into the outer courtyard, and it had palm tree decorations on the columns. There were eight steps leading to its entrance.
A door led from the entry room of one of the inner gateways into a side room, where the meat for sacrifices was washed. On each side of this entry room were two tables, where the sacrificial animals were slaughtered for the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. Outside the entry room, on each side of the stairs going up to the north entrance, were two more tables. So there were eight tables in all - four inside and four outside - where the sacrifices were cut up and prepared. There were also four tables of finished stone for preparation of the burnt offerings, each 31 1⁄2 inches square and 21 inches high. On these tables were placed the butchering knives and other implements for slaughtering the sacrificial animals. There were hooks, each 3 inches long, fastened all around the foyer walls. The sacrificial meat was laid on the tables.
Inside the inner courtyard were two rooms, one beside the north gateway, facing south, and the other beside the south gateway, facing north. And the man said to me, "The room beside the north inner gate is for the priests who supervise the Temple maintenance. The room beside the south inner gate is for the priests in charge of the altar - the descendants of Zadok - for they alone of all the Levites may approach the Lord to minister to him."
Then the man measured the inner courtyard, and it was a square, 175 feet wide and 175 feet across. The altar stood in the courtyard in front of the Temple. Then he brought me to the entry room of the Temple. He measured the walls on either side of the opening to the entry room, and they were 8 3⁄4 feet thick. The entrance itself was 24 1⁄2 feet wide, and the walls on each side of the entrance were an additional 5 1⁄4 feet long. The entry room was 35 feet wide and 21 feet deep. There were ten steps leading up to it, with a column on each side.
But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.
For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. And God did not spare the ancient world - except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God's righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.
These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling.