Only the prince may sit in it to eat a sacrificial meal ¹  before the Lord; he will enter by way of the porch of the gate and will go out by the same way.”

He set up the pillars on the porch in front of the main hall. He erected one pillar on the right ¹  side and called it Jakin; ²  he erected the other pillar on the left ³  side and called it Boaz. ⁴ 

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged. ¹  He removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had seized in the Ephraimite hill country. He repaired the altar of the Lord in front of the porch of the Lord’s temple. ² 

On the first day of the first month they began consecrating; by the eighth day of the month they reached the porch of the Lord’s temple. ¹  For eight more days they consecrated the Lord’s temple. On the sixteenth day of the first month they were finished.

Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there ¹  at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, ²  were about twenty-five ³  men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, ⁴  facing east – they were worshiping the sun ⁵  toward the east!

The alcoves were 10½ feet long and 10½ feet wide; between the alcoves were 8¾ feet. ¹  The threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate facing inward was 10½ feet.

The length of the porch was 35 feet ¹  and the width 19¼ feet; ²  steps ³  led up to it, and there were pillars beside the jambs on either side.

The prince will enter by way of the porch of the gate from the outside, and will stand by the doorpost of the gate. The priests will provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he will bow down at the threshold of the gate and then go out. But the gate will not be closed until evening.

Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ¹  Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people; please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked, to become a proverb ²  among the nations. Why should it be said ³  among the peoples, “Where is their God?”