Ezekiel 48 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

These are the tribes, listed by name: At the northern frontier — along the road to Hethlon, through Lebo-hamath, to Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath — from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Dan.

Alongside Dan's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Asher.

Alongside Asher's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Naphtali.

Alongside Naphtali's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Manasseh.

Alongside Manasseh's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Ephraim.

Alongside Ephraim's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Reuben.

Alongside Reuben's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Judah.

Alongside Judah's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea, will be the sacred contribution you set apart — twenty-five thousand cubits wide, and as long as one of the tribal portions from east to west — with the sanctuary at its center.

The contribution you set apart for Yahweh will be twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide.

This is how the sacred contribution will be divided: For the priests — twenty-five thousand cubits on the north side, ten thousand wide on the west, ten thousand wide on the east, and twenty-five thousand long on the south. Yahweh's sanctuary will stand at its center.

This will belong to the priests who are set apart from the line of Zadok — the ones who kept their charge and did not wander off with the rest of Israel the way the Levites did.

It will be their special portion from the sacred contribution of the land — a place of highest distinction, alongside the territory of the Levites.

Alongside the priests' territory, the Levites will have a portion twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide. The total length will be twenty-five thousand and the width ten thousand.

They must not sell any of it, or trade it, or transfer the best of the land to anyone else — because it is set apart for Yahweh.

The remaining strip — five thousand cubits wide alongside the twenty-five thousand — this is common land for the city: for housing and open pasture. The city will sit at its center.

These are the city's measurements: the north side — four thousand five hundred cubits, the south side — four thousand five hundred, the east side — four thousand five hundred, the west side — four thousand five hundred.

The city will have open pastureland: two hundred fifty cubits to the north, two hundred fifty to the south, two hundred fifty to the east, two hundred fifty to the west.

The remaining length alongside the sacred contribution — ten thousand cubits to the east and ten thousand to the west — will run parallel to the sacred contribution. Its produce will provide food for the workers of the city.

The workers who farm the city's land will come from all the tribes of Israel.

The entire sacred contribution will be a square — twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand cubits. You will set apart the sacred contribution together with the city's property as one unit.

Whatever remains on both sides of the sacred contribution and the city property belongs to the prince. The land stretching from the twenty-five thousand cubits of the contribution eastward to the border, and westward from the twenty-five thousand cubits to the western sea — parallel to the tribal portions — belongs to the prince. The sacred contribution with the sanctuary will stand at its center.

So — apart from the Levites' property and the city property that lie in the center of what belongs to the prince — everything between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin will belong to the prince.

Now for the rest of the tribes: From the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Benjamin.

Alongside Benjamin's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Simeon.

Alongside Simeon's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Issachar.

Alongside Issachar's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Zebulun.

Alongside Zebulun's border, from the eastern edge to the western sea: one portion for Gad.

Along Gad's southern border, the frontier will run from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, then along the Wadi of Egypt to the Great Sea.

This is the land you will distribute by lot as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel, and these are their portions. — the declaration of Yahweh, the Lord.

These are the exits of the city: On the north side, measuring four thousand five hundred cubits —

the gates of the city will be named after the tribes of Israel. Three gates on the north: the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah, the gate of Levi.

On the east side, four thousand five hundred cubits, with three gates: the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin, the gate of Dan.

On the south side, measuring four thousand five hundred cubits, with three gates: the gate of Simeon, the gate of Issachar, the gate of Zebulun.

On the west side, four thousand five hundred cubits, with three gates: the gate of Gad, the gate of Asher, the gate of Naphtali.

The total circumference of the city: eighteen thousand cubits. And the name of the city from that day forward: Yahweh Is There.