35. Then the man took me to the north gateway. He measured it, and it was the same size as the others.
36. Like them, it also had guardrooms, decorated inner walls, an entrance room, and windows all round. Its total length was 25 metres and its width 12.5 metres.
37. The entrance room faced the outer courtyard. Palm trees were carved on the walls along the passage. Eight steps led up to this gate.
38. In the outer courtyard there was an annexe attached to the inner gateway on the north side. It opened into the entrance room that faced the courtyard, and there they washed the carcasses of the animals to be burnt whole as sacrifices.
39. In this entrance room there were four tables, two on each side of the room. It was on these tables that they killed the animals to be offered as sacrifices, either to be burnt whole or to be sacrifices for sin or as repayment offerings.
40. Outside the room there were four similar tables, two on either side of the entrance of the north gate.
41. Altogether there were eight tables on which the animals to be sacrificed were killed: four inside the room and four out in the courtyard.
42. The four tables in the annexe, used to prepare the offerings to be burnt whole, were of cut stone. They were fifty centimetres high, and their tops were 75 centimetres square. All the equipment used in killing the sacrificial animals was kept on these tables.
43. Ledges 25 millimetres wide ran round the edge of the tables. All the meat to be offered in sacrifice was placed on the tables.
44. Then he brought me into the inner courtyard. There were two rooms opening on the inner courtyard, one facing south beside the north gateway and the other facing north beside the south gateway.
45. The man told me that the room which faced south was for the priests who served in the Temple,
46. and the room which faced north was for the priests who served at the altar. All the priests are descended from Zadok; they are the only members of the tribe of Levi who are permitted to go into the Lord's presence to serve him.
47. The man measured the inner courtyard, and it was fifty metres square. The Temple was on the west side, and in front of it was an altar.
48. Then he took me into the entrance room of the Temple. He measured the entrance: it was 2.5 metres deep and seven metres wide, with walls 1.5 metres thick on either side.
49. Steps led up to the entrance room, which was ten metres wide and six metres deep. There were two columns, one on each side of the entrance.