39. In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered.
40. By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance of the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables.
41. So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other – eight tables in all – on which the sacrifices were slaughtered.
42. There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices.
43. And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were attached to the wall all round. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.
44. Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, one at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the south gate and facing north.
45. He said to me, ‘The room facing south is for the priests who guard the temple,
46. and the room facing north is for the priests who guard the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the Lord to minister before him.’
47. Then he measured the court: it was square – a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.
48. He brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubits and its projecting walls were three cubits wide on either side.
49. The portico was twenty cubits wide, and twelve cubits from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs, and there were pillars on each side of the jambs.