16. The top of the altar was a square, six metres on each side.
17. The middle section was also a square, seven metres on each side, with a rim at the outside edge 25 centimetres high. (The gutter was fifty centimetres wide.) The steps going up the altar were on the east side.
18. The Sovereign Lord said to me, “Mortal man, listen to what I tell you. When the altar is built, you are to dedicate it by burning sacrifices on it and by sprinkling on it the blood of the animals that were sacrificed.
19. Those priests belonging to the tribe of Levi who are descended from Zadok are the only ones who are to come into my presence to serve me. I, the Sovereign Lord, command this. You will give them a young bull to offer as a sacrifice for sin.
20. You are to take some of its blood and put it on the projections on the top corners of the altar, and on the corners of the middle section of the altar, and all round its edges. In this way you will purify the altar and consecrate it.
21. You are to take the bull that is offered as a sacrifice for sin and burn it at the specified place outside the temple area.
22. The next day you are to take a male goat without any defects and offer it as a sacrifice for sin. Purify the altar with its blood in the same way as you did with the bull.
23. When you have finished doing that, take a young bull and a young ram, both of them without any defects,
24. and bring them to me. The priests will sprinkle salt on them and burn them as an offering to me.
25. Each day for seven days you are to offer a goat, a bull, and a ram as sacrifices for sin. All of them must be without any defects.
26. For seven days the priests are to consecrate the altar and make it ready for use.