Grasping a clear mental picture of the sacred district and other areas of the land that were to be set aside for special purposes, as described in even the best English translations of this passage can be challenging. The following is an attempt at a more succinct description of those areas. Verses 1 thru 6 basically describe a square 25,000 cubits by 25,000 cubits that most translations refer to as the “holy portion” or “sacred area” (v1). This square holy portion is subdivided into three rectangular sub-sections, each 25,000 cubits long (east-to-west) with widths (north-to-south) as specified. Verses 2 & 3 describe the first, northernmost sub-section, which is called “sanctuary” in most translations. It is 10,000 cubits wide (north to south); and is for the priests. Just south, and adjacent to it, is another rectangular sub-section, of equal dimensions, which is for the Levites (v5). A third, narrower (5,000 cubits) rectangular area, is called the “city area” (v6). It will contain the New Jerusalem city; and for crops; and homes for all the tribes of Israel. Then, lying at each (east and west) end of this 25,000 cubits by 25,000 cubits “holy portion” or “sacred area”, there shall be two ‘portions’ for the prince (v.7). Verse 7 says that each of these last two portions are to have a N to S width of 25,000 cubits, corresponding to the north-south width of the “holy portion” of verse 1. Verse 7 only gives one dimension - the 25,000 cubit width. Some interpret verse 7 to say that the western portion runs west clear to the Mediterranean Sea; while its eastern counterpart runs east to the Dead Sea (or perhaps even beyond to Israel’s eastern border with Ammon), as stated in chapter 48 verse 21, part of a parallel – or very similar - passage found in chapter 48, verses 9 through 22. 1“Moreover, when you shall divide the land among the tribes by lot for inheritance, you shall offer an oblation (dedicate / set aside) a portion of the land 25,000 cubits long by 20,000 cubits wide unto the LORD, as a sacred district, holy within all its borders. 2Of (within) this section, there shall be a section for the Temple, five hundred cubits square; and fifty cubits all around its borders shall remain open space. 3And within this sacred district (of verse 1) you shall measure an area 25,000 cubits long, and 10,000 cubits wide; and in it shall be the Temple and the Most Holy Place. 4This holy portion of the land shall be for the priests - the ministers of the Temple, who shall draw near to minister before the LORD; and it shall be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the Temple. 5And an adjacent strip of land, also 25,000 cubits long by 10,000 cubits wide, (the other half of the sacred district of verse 1) shall belong to the Levites, the ministers of the Temple, to have for themselves, for a place for their villages. 6And (an additional area) adjacent to the larger sacred area (of verse 1) will be an area of land 25,000 cubits long by 5,000 cubits wide, which will belong to all Israel. This area will be set aside for a city where anyone in Israel can live, if they choose.” 7“Two special sections of land will be set apart for the prince. One section will share a border with the east side of the sacred lands and city, and the second section will share a border on the west side. Then the far eastern and western borders of the prince’s lands will line up with the eastern and western boundaries of the tribal areas. 8In the land shall be his (the prince’s allotment) possession in Israel; and My princes shall no longer oppress My people; and the rest of the land shall they give (allot) to the people of Israel according to their tribes.” 9“Thus says the LORD God: ‘You have gone far enough, O princes of Israel; stop the violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness; stop cheating My people.” 10You shall use just and accurate weights and measures. 11The ephah and the bath shall be the same size, the bath containing a tenth of a homer; and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer is to be the standard measure for both. 12The standard unit for weight will be the silver shekel. One shekel will consist of twenty gerahs, and sixty shekels will be equal to one mina. 13This is the special gift that you shall offer: the sixth of an ephah per homer of wheat, and you shall give a sixth of an ephah per homer of barley. 14Concerning the ordinance of prescribed portion of olive oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath from each cor (which consists of ten baths or one homer, for ten baths are equivalent to a homer); 15And one lamb or goat from the flock, out of every two hundred, out of the fat well-watered pastures of Israel; for a meal (grain) offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make atonement for the people’, says the LORD God. 16“All the people of the land shall give this offering for the prince in Israel. 17And in the feasts, the new moons, the Sabbaths, and at all solemn festivals of the people of Israel, it shall be the prince's duty to provide burnt offerings, meal offerings, and drink offerings; he shall prepare the sin offering, the meal offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the people of Israel.” 18“Thus says the LORD God: ‘In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish, and purify (cleanse) the Temple. 19And the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the doorposts of the Temple, and upon the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar, and upon the gateposts of the inner court. 20And so you shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for every one that sins unintentionally; in this way, you shall you reconcile the people and cleanse the Temple. 21In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall observe the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22Upon that day shall the prince prepare a bull for a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land. 23And every day of the seven days of the feast, he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bulls and seven rams without blemish daily for seven days, and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering. 24And he shall prepare a meal (grain) offering of an ephah for a bull, and an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil per ephah. 25During the seven days of the seventh month, beginning on the fifteenth day of the month, he shall provide the same in the feast of the seven days: the sin offering; the burnt offering; the meal offering; and the oil.’”
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