“ ‘ “Moreover, when you divide by lot the land for inheritance, you shall offer an offering to Yahweh, a holy portion of the land. The length shall be the length of twenty-five thousand reeds, and the width shall be ten thousand. It shall be holy in all its border all around. Of this there shall be a five hundred by five hundred square for the holy place; and fifty cubits for its pasture lands all around. Of this measure you shall measure a length of twenty-five thousand, and a width of ten thousand. In it shall be the sanctuary, which is most holy. It is a holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to Yahweh. It shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. Twenty-five thousand in length, and ten thousand in width, shall be for the Levites, the ministers of the house, as a possession for themselves, for twenty rooms.
“ ‘ “You shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand wide, and twenty-five thousand long, side by side with the offering of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v1 Of all the land of Israel the Lord only…
Of all the land of Israel the Lord only requireth this portion for the Temple and for the Priests, for the city and for the Prince.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Eze 45:1 Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot…
Eze 45:1 Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the LORD, an holy portion of the land: the length [shall be] the length of five and twenty thousand [reeds], and the breadth [shall be] ten thousand. This [shall be] holy in all the borders thereof round about.
Ver. 1. Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot.] As Eze 48:29, where we have the division of the land, and the several seats assigned to each tribe. Here we have first provision made for the church service, which Christ’s people are most zealous of, and do therefore allot, before any divident, a portion for the Lord’s house and servants, and that very large, to prefigure the largeness of the Church of the New Testament. See Rev 7:9-10, &c. Here Jerome aeknowledgeth himself to be in a labyrinth. The Jews call again for their Elias. Oecolampadius comes in with his huius loci mysteria tacitus veneror, and thinks this part of the prophecy such as no human understanding can fathom. Howbeit -
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“ Nil desperandum Christo duce, et auspice Christo. ”
The length shall be.] {See Trapp on "Eze 40:1"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–6 When ye, ye returned Jews, restored to your own…
When ye, ye returned Jews, restored to your own land, shall divide by lot: it was not on the return divided by lot, as it was by Joshua, but lot and inheritance are the same many times in the Scripture, and the expression alludes to the usual way of assigning inheritances. The land; land of Canaan. Ye shall offer an oblation; as it is fit God have his portion first set out. Holy portion, by its relation to God, and because dedicated to his service. Reeds: the Hebrew doth not express either reeds or cubits; our translators supply reeds. but the French reads it cubits, (coudees,) Rochelle edit. 1616. The Greek keeps to the Hebrew, and adds not reed or cubit. Could it be demonstrated which is here intended, we might proceed with greater clearness and certainty. It is true reeds are first mentioned as the measure, but cubits are also very often mentioned, as a known measure in measuring the temple and courts, as appears to any one that will read over chapters 40 through 43. Besides, the 2nd verse expressly saith cubits; and I am apt to think that it hath relation as well to the twenty-five thousand, Eze 45:1, as, to the five hundred, Eze 45:2. I rather favour the cubit measure than the reed, that so the whole contents may not seem overgrown; for at reed measure this portion contains at least seventy-seven miles and a little more in length; but at the cubit measure it amounts but to twelve miles and a half. This easily, the other hardly imaginable. Ten thousand reeds is at least thirty miles and a half, but cubits amount to five miles in breadth, and this seems to me both likeliest to be intended and easiest to be understood: however, since the 1st verse mentions not the particular measure, I may as well borrow it from the 2nd verse, as others fetch it from the 40th chapter; and I think the 3rd expressly limits us to the measure by cubits, which see, with notes. Shall be holy; set apart for holy uses, the whole circuit thereof.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Directions are here given for the dividing of the…
Directions are here given for the dividing of the land after their return to it; and, God having warranted them to do it, would be an act of faith, and not of folly, thus to divide it before they had it. And it would be welcome news to the captives to hear that they should not only return to their own land, but that, whereas they were now but few in number, they should increase and multiply, so as to replenish it. But this never had its accomplishment in the Jewish state after the return out of captivity, but was to be fulfilled in the model of the Christian church, which was perfectly new (as this division of the land was quite different from that in Joshua's time) and much enlarged by the accession of the Gentiles to it; and it will be perfected in the heavenly kingdom, of which the land of Canaan had always been a type. Now, 1. Here is the portion of land assigned to the sanctuary, in the midst of which the temple was to be built, with all its courts and purlieus; the rest round about it was for the priests. This is called (Eze 45:1) an oblation to the Lord; for what is given in works of piety, for the maintenance and support of the worship of God and the advancement of religion, God accepts as given to him, if it be done with a single eye. It is a holy portion of the land, which is to be set out first, as the first-fruits that sanctify the lump. The appropriating of lands for the support of religion and the ministry is an act of piety that bids as fair for perpetuity, and the benefit of posterity, as any. This holy portion of the land was to be measured, and the borders of it fixed, that the sanctuary itself might not have more than its share and in time engross the whole land. So far the lands of the church shall extend and no further; as in our own kingdom donations to the church were of old limited by the statute of mortmain. The lands here allotted to the sanctuary were 25,000 reeds (so our translation makes it, though some make them only cubits) in length, and 10,000 in breadth-about eighty miles one way and thirty miles another way (say some); twenty-five miles one way and ten miles the other way, so others. The priests and Levites that were to come near to minister were to have their dwellings in this portion of the land that was round about the sanctuary, that they might be near their work; whereas by the distribution of land in Joshua's time the cities of the priests and Levites were dispersed all the nation over. This intimates that gospel ministers should reside upon their charge; where their service lies there must they live. 2. Next to the lands of the sanctuary the city-lands are assigned, in which the holy city was to be built, and with the issues and profits of which the citizens were to be maintained (Eze 45:6): It shall be for the whole house of Israel, not appropriated, as before, to one tribe or two, but some of all the tribes shall dwell in the city, as we find they did, Neh 11:1, Neh 11:2. The portion for the city was fully as long, but only half as broad, as that for the sanctuary; for the city was enriched by trade and therefore had the less need of lands. 3. The next allotment after the church-lands and the city-lands is of the crown-lands, Eze 45:7, Eze 45:8. Here is no admeasurement of these, but they are said to lie on the one side and on the other side of the church-lands and city-lands, to intimate that the prince with his wealth and power was to be a protection to both. Some make the prince's share equal to the church's and city's share both together; others make it to be a thirteenth part of the rest of the land, the other twelve parts being for the twelve tribes. The prince that attends continually to the administration of public affairs must have wherewithal to support his dignity, and have abundance, that he may not be in temptation to oppress the people, which yet with many does not prevent that; but the grace of God shall prevent it, for it is promised here, My princes shall no more oppress my people; for God will make the officers peace and the exactors righteousness. Notwithstanding this, we find that after the return of the Jews to their own land the princes were complained of for their exactions. But Nehemiah was one that did not do as the former governors, and yet kept a handsome court, Neh 5:15, Neh 5:18. But so much is said of the prince in this mystical holy state, to intimate that in the gospel-church magistrates should be as nursing fathers to it and Christian princes its patrons and protectors; and the holy religion they profess, as far as they are subject to the power of it, will restrain them from oppressing God's people, because they are more his people than theirs. 4. The rest of the lands were to be distributed to the people according to their tribes, who had reason to think themselves well settled, when they had both the testimony of Israel and the throne of judgment so near them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land,…
Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land, for inheritance,.... This is not to be understood literally of the division of the land of Israel; which agrees not with the division of it begun by Moses, and finished by Joshua, upon his conquest of it, and the introduction of the people of Israel into it; nor was such a division as this made when the Jews returned from Babylon; nor is there any reason to expect the like when they shall be converted in the latter day; nor is it meant typically of the heavenly inheritance, which saints obtain in Christ by lot, Eph 1:11, of which the earthly Canaan was a type; though some in this way interpret it: but since the whole vision respects the church of Christ on earth, it must be meant mystically and spiritually of the kingdom of Christ, and the settlement and establishment of it throughout the whole world, according to the allotment and determination of God; and they are a distinct and special people that are admitted into this state; it is by the distinguishing grace of God that they are taken into the Gospel church, and have a part and share in all the privileges and immunities of it.
Ye shall offer an oblation unto the Lord, an holy portion of the land; which should be lifted up as the heave offering was, and dedicated to the Lord: this designs such persons who are separated from the world, and sanctified by the Spirit of God, who shall be brought by the ministers of the word to the Lord, as trophies of his efficacious and victorious grace, ascribing the whole glory of their conversion to him; and these shall present themselves, souls and bodies, a holy, living, and acceptable sacrifice to him; see Isa 66:20.
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The length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand; the kind of measure is not expressed in the original, so that it is a question whether reeds or cubits are meant; some think the latter, and the rather, because mention is made of them, Eze 45:2, and it is added,
and of this measure shall thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand; which, if understood of cubits, will greatly reduce the length and breadth of this holy portion of the land; wherefore it is best to take the largest measure, since that seems better to answer the design of the Holy Ghost in this passage; and the rather, since this measure is more proper to measure land with, and is that which the measurer is said to have in his hand, Eze 40:5, and besides, the measure of the sanctuary, said to be five hundred square, Eze 45:2 was measured with the measuring reed, and not the cubit, Eze 42:16, and which therefore must be supplied here; and a measuring reed being six cubits, by a cubit and a hand's breath, Eze 40:5, makes this portion of land to be more than six times larger than if it was supposed to be measured by the cubit; and twenty five thousand of this measure, according to Cornelius Lapide, made five hundred miles, which was three times as large as the land of Canaan; that being, as Jerom (u) says, a hundred and sixty miles long, and forty six broad; and is a proof, that the land of Canaan literally taken is not here meant; but the whole is designed to set forth the amplitude and large extent of the church of Christ in the world, in the times the vision refers to.
This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about; that is, this portion of land measured out, and distinguished from the rest: holiness of heart and life shall appear in all the subjects of Christ's kingdom, and members of his church, which becomes his house for ever.
(u) Ad Dardanum, tom. 3. fol. 21. I. K.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6 The division of the holy land, ver. 1-8. The…
The division of the holy land, ver. 1-8. The ordinances that were given both to the prince and to the people, ver. 9-12. The oblations to be offered, and the princes part therein, ver. 13-17. Particularly, in the beginning of the year, ver. 18-20. And in the passover, and feast of tabernacles, ver. 21-25.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–6 The several portions of land appointed for the sanctuary,…
CHAPTER XLV
The several portions of land appointed for the sanctuary, 1-5,
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the city, 6,
and the prince, 7, 8.
Regulations concerning the weights and measures, 9-12;
with ordinances respecting the provisions for the ordinary and
extraordinary sacrifices, 13-25.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLV
Verse 1. When ye shall divide by lot] That is, when on your repossessing your land, every family settles according to the allotment which they formerly had; for it is certain that the land was not divided afresh by lot after the Babylonish captivity. The allotment mentioned and described here was merely for the service of the temple, the use of the priests, and the prince or governor of the people. A division of the whole land is not intended.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6 Eze 45:1. When ye shall divide by lot the…
Eze 45:1. When ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance — The land was first divided by lot under Joshua, a particular share of which was to be God’s portion, as an acknowledgment of his sovereign dominion: see Lev 25:23. It is therefore here called תרומה, an oblation. The word properly signifies the offering made to God out of the first-fruits and other increase of the ground, (see Eze 44:30; Num 18:24,) because this was a sort of first-fruits of the land or soil itself, Eze 48:14. The length shall be five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth ten thousand — The Hebrew does not express either reeds or cubits: our translation supplies the word reeds, but Houbigant, Waterland, Newcome, and many other interpreters, read cubits, which sense they think is plainly determined by Eze 45:3, where it is said, Of this measure (namely, the cubit measure mentioned in the preceding clause, Eze 45:2) shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, &c. According to this measure, the portion here set apart will be almost seven miles square; whereas if we measure by reeds it will arise to six times as much, and can only be understood in a mystical sense. Mr. Scott, however, with some others, is of opinion, “that our translators did right in adding the word reeds to the numbers mentioned in this admeasurement; referring to the reed that was in the hand of Ezekiel’s divine conductor, because the length and breadth of the sanctuary are stated the same as before: (see Eze 42:16-19 :) so that,” they think, “unless the text be there totally changed, without any authority, this passage as well as that must be understood of reeds.” They acknowledge, indeed, “that the land of Canaan could by no means admit of so large a proportion being allotted to the sanctuary, with the priests and Levites,” &c.; but they think “this was intended to intimate the immensely large extent of the Christian Church above that of Israel; especially in those glorious times, which are doubtless emblematically predicted.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6 By lot - Not by casting lots, but by…
By lot - Not by casting lots, but by “allotment,” the several portions being assigned by rule Jos 13:6.
Oblation - The oblation (properly “heaveoffering”) was regarded as the Lord’s portion Lev 27:30. This “oblation” is given here as part of the provision made for the priests, and was probably in lieu of tithes Lev 27:30; Num 18:21, just as the prince had his definite portion of land instead of being supported by the contributions of the people. The priests and Levites had, in addition, the sacrifices (Eze 44:28, note). This provision for them, out of proportion in any actual arrangement, is no doubt intended to symbolize the reverence and honor due to God, and expressed by liberality to His services and His ministers. The Septuagint read “the breadth twenty thousand;” and those who adopt this, read Eze 45:3 “and from this” whole measure is to be deducted the priests’ special portion 25,000 from east to west, and 10,000 from north to south. Others, retaining the reading of the text, suppose the term oblation here to denote the portion assigned to the priests alone (as in Eze 48:9), and “of this measure” Eze 45:3 to mean not “deducted from this measure,” but “computed by this measure.” The King James Version rightly supplies “reeds,” since the precincts Eze 42:20 were 500 “reeds” square. 25,000 reeds =about 42 12 statute miles, 36 12 geographic miles.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–6 By lot. Manuscript 2 reads bogurl; (printed benachala) so…
By lot. Manuscript 2 reads bogurl; (printed benachala) so the Vulgate sortito. (Kennicott) --- Hebrew, "when you shall make the land fall," which usually implies by lot: yet the partition was not made thus, (chap. xlviii. 1.) nor at all, (Calmet) otherwise the prophet might mention how the lots would have fallen to Dan, in the north, &c. (Haydock) --- The Jews either could not comply, or did not take this to be a command. If they had returned all together, they might probably have put it in execution. But many of them preferred staying where they had gotten a settlement, and the rest only returned in small parties, some not before the reign of Alexander [the Great]. Those who arrived first, occupied as much as possible their ancient limits, 1 Esdras iii. 1., and 2 Esdras viii., and xi. (Calmet) --- Thousand: reeds, or cubits. (Challoner) --- Many prefer the latter, which is specified [in] ver. 2., (Haydock) as it agrees with the dimensions of the temple, chap. xlii. 16. If reeds or toises were meant, the city would be disproportionate with the rest of the divisions: 50,000 would make 25 leagues, of 2,500 paces each; and if each tribe had as much, the country must have comprised 325 leagues, whereas from Emath to Cadesbarne (chap. xlvii. 17.) there at[are?] not above 150. (Calmet) --- To form an idea of the proposed partition, we must suppose the country reached from a little north of Emesa, on the Orontes, to Cadesbarne south, and from the Mediterranean to Damascus, or a little farther east, and beyond the sources of Jazer. 1. Dan, 2. Aser, 3. Nephthali, 4. Manasses, 5. Ephraim, 6. Ruben, 7. Juda, had about equal portions with that designed for 8. the temple, the Levites, and prince, whose southern limits reached almost to Accaron and the Dead Sea. 9. Benjamin, 10. Simeon, 11. Issachar, 12. Zabulon, and 13. Gad, had each about half the quantity of the others, though the tribes occupied the whole extent from east to west, their lots being marked out by parallel lines. Between Juda and Benjamin, a square of 500 cubits was assigned for the temple; another square of 4,500, or 18,000 in circuit, lay round the former for the city of the Levites: round this were suburbs 250 cubits broad, walled about, and having three gates on each side. Next them dwelt their lay servants, in a space 5,000 cubits broad, and 25,000 long, from east to west. A plot of ground on the north and south, sufficient to complete this square was to support them with provisions. On the east side of the Jordan, and on the west of this square for the priests and their servants, two portions almost of equal dimensions with it, were appropriated to the prince. His lot was 25,000 cubits long, and 12,500 broad, chap. xlviii. 21. See Calmet’s plan. (Haydock) --- About. It couldn ot be alienated to private men, or for any other purpose. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 1And when ye allot [divide] the land as inheritance,…
CHAPTER 45
1And when ye allot [divide] the land as inheritance, ye shall make an oblation to Jehovah, a holiness from the land; the length five and twenty thousand and the breadth ten thousand; holiness [is] it in all its border round 2about. Of this shall be [come, belong] to the sanctuary five hundred by five hundred, a square round about; and fifty cubits of environs for it round 3about. And from [according to] this measure shalt thou measure a length of five and twenty thousand and a breadth of ten thousand, and in it shall be 4the sanctuary, the most holy place. Holiness from the land is this; for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary shall it be, who draw near to minister to Jehovah; and it is to them a place for houses, and a holy place for the 5sanctuary. And five and twenty thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth shall be [belong] to the Levites, the ministers of the house, to them 6for a possession, twenty chambers. And as a possession of the city ye shall give five thousand in breadth, and in length five and twenty thousand, beside [running along] the oblation of holiness; it shall be for the whole house of Israel 7And for the prince: adjoining the oblation of holiness on both sides and the possession of the city, before the oblation of holiness and before the possession of the city, on the west side westward, and on the east side eastward, and the length, beside [running along] one of the [tribal] portions from the west border 8to the east border. It shall be land to him for a possession in Israel; and My princes shall no more oppress My people; and [but] the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes. 9Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Enough for you, O princes of Israel; remove [put away] violence and rapine, and do judgment and justice, take away your expulsions from My people,—sentence of the Lord Jehovah. 10Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. 11The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure; that the bath may contain [amount to] the tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer; its measure shall be after the homer. 12And the shekel [shall be] twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. 13This is the oblation which ye shall make: the sixth of the ephah from the homer of wheat, and ye shall six the ephah 14from the homer of barley. And the ordinance of the oil: the bath of oil [what is to be offered as bath from the oil shall be] the tenth of the bath out of the cor, 15[which is] ten baths, a homer; for ten baths are a homer. And one sheep [or goat] out of the flock, from two hundred from the watered [land] of Israel, for the meat-offering, and for the burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to atone for [to cover] them,—sentence of the Lord Jehovah. 16All the people of 17the land, they shall be [held] to this oblation for the prince in Israel. And upon the prince shall be the burnt-offerings, and the meat-offering, and the drink-offering, on the feasts, and on the new moons, and on the Sabbaths, in all the festal seasons of the house of Israel; he shall prepare the sin-offering, and the meat-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to atone for [to cover] the house of Israel. 18Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the first [month], on the first of the month, thou shalt take a bullock, a young steer, without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary: 19And the priest takes of the blood of the sin-offering, and puts it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and upon the posts of 20the gate of the inner court. And so shalt thou do on the seventh of the month for the erring man and for the fool, and ye atone for the house. 21In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, shall the passover be to you, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten [one shall eat22mazzoth]. And the prince brings on this day for himself and for the whole 23people of the land a bullock as a sin-offering. And the seven days of the feast he shall bring as a burnt-offering to Jehovah seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish, daily the seven days; and as a sin-offering a kid of the 24goats for the day [daily]. And as a meat-offering he shall offer an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and of oil an hin for the ephah. 25In the seventh [month], on the fifteenth day of the month, in the feast he shall bring just such [offerings] seven days, as the sin-offering, as the burnt-offering, and as the meat-offering, and as the oil.
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Eze_45:1. Sept.: ... ἀπαρχην … κ. εὐρος εἰκοσι χιλιαδας—(The second or the first ארך is omitted in the various manuscripts.)
Eze_45:2. ... εἰς ἁγιασμα … διαστημα αὐτων—Vulg.: Et erit ex omni parte sanctificatum … in suburbana ejus—
Eze_45:3. ... διαμετρησεως … το ἁγιασμα των ἁγιων. Vulg.: … templum sanctumque sanctorum.
Eze_45:4. ... εἰς οἰκους ἀφωρισμενους τω ἁγικσμω αὐτων.
Eze_45:5. ... αὐτοις εἰς κατασχισν πολεις του κατοικειν.
Eze_45:6. ... ὁν τροτον λαι ἡ ἀπαρχη των ἁγιων παντι οἰκω Ἰσρ. ἐσονται.
Eze_45:7. ... εἰς τας ἀπαρχας τ. ἁγιων, εἰς κατασχεσιν τ. πολεως, κατα προσωπον των ἀπαρχων … τα προς θαλασσαν κ. ἀπο των προς θαλασσαν τα προς ἀνατολας κ. το μηκος ὡς μια των μεριδων ἀπο των ὁριων των προς θαλασσαν, κ. το μηκος ἐπι τα ὁρικ τα προς ἀνατολας (8) της γης. Κ. ἐστω αὐτω … οὐκετι οἱ ἀφηγουμενοι του Ἰσρ . … κ. την γην κατακληρονομησουσιν οἰκος Ἰσρ.—Vulg.: … et non depopulabuntur—(Another reading: לעמַת.)
Eze_45:9. Ἱκανουσθω ὑμιν … κ. ταλαιπωριαν … κ. ἐξαρατε καταδυναστειαν—Vulg.: … Iniquitatem et rapinas … separate confinia vestra a populo meo—
Eze_45:10. ... κ. μετρον δικαιον κ. χοινιξ δικαια ἐσται ὑμιν του μετρου.
Eze_45:11. ... Κ. ἡ χοιν.ξ ὁμοιες μια ἐσται του λαμβανειν, το δεκατον του γομορ ἡ χοινιξ, κ. το δικατον του γομορ το μετρον προς το γομορ ἐσται ἰσον. Vulg.: … æqualia et unius mensuræ … partem cori … juxta mensuram cori erit æqua libratio eorum.
Eze_45:12. Κ. τα σταθμια εἰκοσι ὀβολοι, οἱ πεντε σικλοι κεντε κ. οἱ δεκα σικλοι δεκα κ. πεντηκοντα σικλοι ἡ μνα ἐσται ὑμιν. Vulg.: … obolos … Porro viginti sicli et … et … mnam faciunt. (Another reading: שקלים.)
Eze_45:13. ... ἑκτον του μετρου … κ. το ἑκτον του οἰφι—Vulg.: … primitiæ.
Eze_45:14. Sept: ... κοτυλην ἐλαιου ἀπο των δεκα κοτυλων, ὁτι οἱ δεκα κοτυλοι εἰσιν γομορ. Vulg.: … batus olei, decima pars cori est; et decem bati corum faciunt, quia decem bati implent corum.
Eze_45:15. Κ. προβατον ἑν ἀπο τ. δεκα προβατων ἀφαιρεμα ἐκ πασων των κατριων τ. Ἱσρ.—Vulg.: Et arietem unum de grege ducentorum, de his quæ nutriunt Israel—
Eze_45:17. Κ. δια του ἀφηγουμενου ἐσται—(Other readings: העולה and ובכל מועדי.)
Eze_45:18. ... ληψεσθε.
Eze_45:19. Another reading: מזוזות.
Eze_45:20. ... ἐν τ. μηνι τω ἑβδομω μικ του μηνος ληψη παῤ ἑκαστου ἀγνοουτος κ. ἀπο νηπιου, Vulg.: … qui ignoravit et errore deceptus est—
Eze_45:22. ... ὐπερ αὐτου κ. ὑπερ τ. οἰκου κ. ὑπερ παντος τ. λαου τ. γης
Eze_45:23. ... κ. θυσιαν. (24) Κ. πεμμα τω μοσχω
Eze_45:24. Vulg.: Et sacrificium ephi per vitulum—
Eze_45:25. ... ποιησεις κατα τα αὐτα … κ. καθως το μαναα—Vulg.: … sicut supra dicta sunt—
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
Eze_45:1-9. The Oblation of Holiness, the Land of the Levites, the Possession of the City, and the Portion of the Prince
That Jehovah is the inheritance and possession of His priests (Eze_44:28) is a reality even for this world, as godliness in like manner has the promise “of the life that now is.” In order to give form to this truth, Eze_45:1 connects what follows with the preceding.—הִפִּיל, from נָפַל, signifies: “to make to fall,” and is used peculiarly of the lot (Eze_24:6); but when nothing suggests this, and when לְ is not prefixed to the word, it is to be taken in its general sense, and בְּנַחֲלָה, cum בְּ essentiœ, is to be understood as meaning: to divide in general. Comp. Psa_16:6. (The reference to the time immediately after the Babylonian servitude, hitherto maintained by Hengstenberg, must now, as we may well conceive, be abandoned; and so then he makes the prophet travel to Utopia, etc.)—תָּרִימוּ תְרוּמָה (Hiphil of רוּם, referring to what was done in the case of the peace or thank-offerings with the shoulder of the victim—the waving with the breast) has here the more general signification, although not that of: “to present a present,” nor that of: “to offer an offering,” but that of: to consecrate, to hallow to the Lord (לַיהוָֹה), which, moreover, was the meaning of the ceremony of heaving on high as well as of the heaving up upon the altar. Comp. also on Eze_44:30. For details see on Ezekiel 48.—Holiness (corresponding to Jehovah) from the land, and thus separated, “partly for sacred and partly at least for higher, more general purposes” (Bunsen); but see the intended use in what follows.—The word length is repeated, perhaps on account of the significant number mentioned for the first time, or because the natural length of the land is not to be regarded, but by length reference is meant to be made to that which is forthwith so called in the vision, the extension from east to west, and so the repetition is not exactly pleonastic. Whether rods (Jerome, Rashi, Häv.) or cubits (Ewald, Hitzig, Hengst.) are meant, is not said. The supporters of both interpretations appeal to Eze_42:16 sq.; hence compare what is said there.—The express mention, too, of cubits in Eze_45:2 is pressed into the service of both parties. Those who hold for rods say: Thus rods are always meant in what goes before, because here cubits are excepted; those who contend for cubits reply: Thus in what goes before, too, as everywhere in the case of all the large measurements, cubits are to be understood, otherwise rods would need to be expressly named. That cubits are mentioned first in Eze_45:2, Hengstenberg explains from “the unexpectedly small measure there, so that one might easily think of a larger scale.” Böttcher, moreover, adduces against the measurement by rod which he calculates would give 40 German [about 900 English] square miles (?), i.e. almost the tenth of the whole land, the colossal disproportion to the statements elsewhere, especially as to the temple, which measures only 500 cubits square. Keil, on the other hand, maintains that Ezekiel 48 with its proportions corresponds throughout to the τεμενος of 25,000 rods in length and 10,000 rods in breadth. Comp. therefore Ezekiel 48.—The breadth trends from north to south (Eze_48:10).—Keil finds עֲשָׂרָה אֶלֶף for 10,000 surprising, for which, he observes, עֲשְׂרֶת אֲלָפִים is constantly used in Eze_45:3; Eze_45:5, and in Ezekiel 48. He therefore prefers the 20,000 of the Sept., giving is additional reasons for this, that the part mentioned in Eze_45:3 is to be measured off from what was measured in Eze_45:1; also that the Levites of Eze_45:5 are to be considered, whose possession is likewise “Terumah of holiness” (Eze_48:14 sq.), as is plain from other passages of our chapter; Eze_45:1 comprehends the land of the priests and of the Levites [25,000 and 20,000], which Eze_45:2-3 divide into two districts.—Finally, the character of the oblation, because to Jehovah, is again insisted on, and that in respect of all its border round about.
Eze_45:2, after this general statement, marks-off from the above-mentioned (מִןֶּה) the sanctuary described and measured in Ezekiel 40, that is, the 500 cubits square forming the temple edifice, or, as Keil, in accordance with his view of Eze_42:15 sq.: the 500 square rods pertaining to the sacred enclosures of the temple. But as he adds: “there is still to be around this enclosure, which separates between the sacred and the common, a free space of fifty cubits on each side to keep the priests’ dwellings from being built too near to the sacred square of the temple buildings,” how, we ask, does he leave this latter entirely out of account!?—מִגְרָשׁ, comp. on Eze_27:28. “A free space of 50 cubits to a sanctuary of 500 rods would be much too small. It was evidently intended to be an interspace between the house of God and the houses of the priests” (Hengst.).
Eze_45:3. מִן־הַמִּדָּה הַוֹּאת is not the same as מִוֶּה in Eze_45:2; for if so, this distinct and different mode of expression would not have been chosen, which, as it refers to the measuring of the sanctuary, so it designates as the sanctuary the temple building, and not the “sacred enclosure of the temple.” Keil needs 10,000 rods more in Eze_45:1, because he makes הַמִּדָּה הַוֹּאת here = “this measured piece of land.” מִן־, as modified by הַמִּדָּה, which has had always hitherto to be translated “measure,” denotes that from which the prophet has to take the measure, and is therefore entrusted with the “measuring” (תָּמוֹד, as it is expressly said); it had, indeed, been measured before him in Ezekiel 40. The temple building, just referred to in Eze_45:2 as the principal part, is normal for the whole oblation, which as such is again referred to in Eze_45:3, where also the centrality of the temple, already indicated by the phrase: and in it shall be the sanctuary, is distinctly denoted by the epithet: most holy, pointing to Eze_43:12. After that the holiness, the separation from the land for the holy purpose (for Jehovah, for His sanctuary) of the land of which the oblation consists (הוּא), with (Eze_45:3) the sanctuary in it (inclusive of the courts), has been again insisted on. Eze_45:4 treats now of the area in question in its relation to the priests, who, as hitherto (Eze_40:46; Eze_42:13; Eze_44:15)—here, however, with a view to the sanctuary and its central position—are described, both as respects their official functions and their dwelling-places. Since they are such, since this is their official calling, it is befitting to assign to them the holiness from the land as a place for houses, explained in the clause following to be: a holy place for the sanctuary, so that this latter defines the priests’ houses to be a dependency of the sanctuary, just as similarly in Eze_43:12 the whole was even called most holy (Eze_45:3 here). The last clause of the verse is commonly taken as indicating a second use for the area of the oblation, namely, for the temple, a superfluous repetition. The mention of houses is in harmony with the law, in which the thirteen cities for the priests (Joshua 21) likewise come into consideration simply as regards the houses in them. From that which is His own through the oblation Jehovah gives to the priests as His ministers, and as ministers of the sanctuary in the neighbourhood, the space necessary for dwellings (just as in Ezekiel 45 the necessaries of life). This is an arrangement which doubtless is to be taken in connection with the entire division of the land, but differs from that laid down in Numbers 35, so that it will have to be understood from the idea meant to be illustrated (Doct. Reflec. 19).
Still more surprising is the new arrangement in Eze_45:5, where an area equal to that occupied by the sanctuary and priests’ houses is assigned to the Levites as ministers of the house (Eze_44:11 sq.), without any farther description, while the priests were described (Eze_45:4) as ministers of the sanctuary, making thus a marked difference between them; and this distinction of the Levites is also marked by the phrase: to them for a possession; for the next verse goes on to speak likewise of a possession of the city, although this latter is “given” (comp. on the other hand 54:2–8, לֹא־תִתְּנוּ), and does not simply belong (יהיה), and לָהֶם לַאֲחֻזָּה stands evidently opposed to the וּמִקְדָּשׁ לַמִּקְדָּשׁ of ver 4. But this area will be different from the one demanded in general in Eze_45:1, although the Levites too belong to the ministers of the Lord, and the twenty chambers correspond very little to a special landed possession of the extent mentioned. Keil includes the land of the Levites in Eze_45:1; but indeed with his 20,000 rods in breadth there, of which 10,000 fall to the priests and the sanctuary, he has still a breadth of 10,000 rods left for the Levites. Hengst. on the other hand says: “Along with the priests the Levites receive a portion of land of like extent; then follows the district of the holy city with the same length, and a breadth of 5000 cubits; so that the whole portion marked off in advance for priests, Levites, and city is in breadth as in length 25,000 cubits.”—Instead of יִהְיֶה, the Qeri reads: יהָיָה.—The words עֶשְׁרִים לְשָֹׁכת formed a difficulty to the LXX., who perhaps imagined the text to be עָרִים לָשֶׁבֶת. The chambers, instead of the thirty-five Levitical cities of Moses with pasturage, form, as regards the expression, no difficulty; they are very suitable diminutives of the “houses” of the priests. The priests have houses, the Levites as inferiors only chambers, which possibly may mean ranges of cells (Rosenm.) or courts, with one-twentieth of the pasturage for each. Keil, who cannot understand the Masoretic text, and holds עֶשְׂרִים to be a corruption of שְׁעָרים, reads: לָשֶׁבֶת, by which, however, he obtains only “gates (! !) as dwellings” for the Levites, understanding indeed the “gates” as equivalent in meaning to cities. Hengst. calls them the barracks of the Levites; the departure from the ordinance of Moses, according to which the Levites dwelt scattered through the whole land, is so much the more surprising.
Eze_45:6. The land of the Levites could be properly oblation only if it were the same portion of land as that of the priests and the sanctuary, or if the reading in Eze_45:1 be 20,000 rods in breadth. Hence Hengst. limits the oblation to the sanctuary and the priests’ portion. Only “in the wider sense” does he make it include also the portion of the Levites and the circuit of the city; it may include even the portion of the prince (he says), “since the prince acts as the minister of God.” The structure of the clause in Eze_45:5 speaks in favour of a special area of 10,000 in breadth as Levites’ land; and so does the consideration that by such a possession in land the so much greater number of cities than of priests’ cities, which according to the ordinance of Moses belonged to them, is perhaps given expression to. Comp. besides on Eze_48:20. But however much the definition in Eze_45:5 : to them for a possession, indicates a special pertion of Levites’ land outside of the Terumah ( “oblation”) demanded in Eze_45:1, yet the possession of the city lies still farther outside, as likewise תִּתְּנוּ seems to separate it even from the land of the Levites. The city is the capital of the land. Its area has the same length as that hitherto given (25,000), but differs in breadth, which therefore is mentioned first; we have in this respect 10,000 + 10,000 + 5000 = 25,000. The possession of the city “is to be distinguished from the city itself, which (Eze_48:16) is square, the length being equal to the breadth” (Hengst.). The length of this possession runs along the oblation of holiness, by which designation is meant specially the land of the priests and the sanctuary. Its destined purpose, for the whole house of Israel, shows that it is to belong to no single tribe merely. Comp. Ezekiel 48.
The transition to לַנָּשִׂיא in Eze_45:7 is mediated by the whole house of Israel in Eze_45:6, of which the prince is the civil head and representative.—Either a kind of protasis to which Eze_45:8 forms the apodosis, or we may supply: “ye shall give,” from Eze_45:6.—מִזֶּה וּמִזֶּה = on both sides, so that the oblation of holiness, which certainly may here include the land of the Levites, and the possession of the city lie between, running before these from north to south, so that seen from the west side what is westward as far as the Mediterranean Sea, seen from the east side what lies east as far as the Jordan is to belong to the prince; just as וְאֹרֶךְ explains that as to the length, that is from west to east, the territory shall run the same length with one, i.e. any one of the portions of the tribes, shall neither go beyond nor fall short of any single tribal portion. Jerome remarks that the prince received for himself a whole tribal portion, with the exclusion, however, of the land of the sanctuary, the priests, the Levites, and the city; but in return he has not only the duty of protecting the square in question, but also the honour of possessing on his territory whatever is holy pertaining to the nation.
Eze_45:8. לָאָרֶץ, more exactly defined by לַאֲחֻזָּה: the land described in Eze_45:7 shall be the land assigned to him for a possession in Israel. The reason for this arrangement follows: וְלֹא׳. The former state of things, in which no landed possession, no crown estate, was allotted to them qua princes, had tempted them to misuse of their power, to acquire for themselves possessions.—My princes corresponds to My people; hence those who will in future have princely power over the people. This My applied to both parties contains at the same time the divine sentence on the former princes, who may be considered persons as little conscious of their high and responsible position as of the significance of Israel. Instead of taking to themselves, they are rather to give to the house of Israel, that is, to leave in possession, and also, if need be, to restore. The phrase: according to their tribes, shows what land is meant. [Fairbairn: “That the whole ground for the priesthood, the prince, and the people of the city was to form together a square, betokened the perfect harmony and agreement which should subsist between these different classes, as well as the settled order and stability which should distinguish the sacred commonwealth, in which they held the highest place. That the priesthood were to occupy what was emphatically holy ground, was a symbol of the singular degree of holiness which should characterize those who stood in their official position the nearest to the Lord. And that the prince was to have a separate possession assigned him was to cut off all occasion for his lawlessly interfering with the possessions of the people, and to exhibit the friendly bearing and upright administration which was to be expected of him (Eze_45:8). And not only must he personally abstain from all oppressive behaviour, but as the divinely constituted head of a righteous commonwealth, he must take effective measures for establishing justice and judgment throughout the whole. Particular examples are given of this in regard to the using of just weights and measures in the transactions of business (Eze_45:9-12).”—W. F.]
Eze_45:9 concludes what specially regards the princes, by whose conduct in good and in bad a mirror and example was held up to the people, while at the same time it solemnly introduces the more general regulations which follow in regard to judgment and justice in trade and commerce.—The subject in Eze_44:6 was the people with reference to the priesthood, here it is the prince in reference to the people; as there holiness and sanctification, so here judgment and justice. (Jerome interprets רַב׳ let this tribe-like possession suffice you!) What has already taken place far too often is now so much the more enough, as all natural temptation has been taken away by the assigning of domains (Eze_45:7 sq.).—(שַׁדַד שֹׁד) is virtually the same as חָמָס, a violent mode of acting, misuse of power, only stronger, because the consequence thereof: “devastation,” is implied in the word, as in the corresponding justice the exercise of judgment is manifested. Hengstenberg thinks: the direct address shows that representatives or descendants of the princes who had formerly committed injustice were also in exile.—גְּרֻשָׁה is expulsion of the lawful possessor from his property, as in 1 Kings 21.—The burden which this was to the community, the pressure which thereby was inflicted on Israel, is depicted in the words: הָרִימוּ מֵעַל׳. “The political parties especially,” observes Hengstenberg, “gave occasion for the confiscations.” Comp. besides, 1Sa_8:14.
Eze_45:10-12. Justice in Common Life
The transition which is made by Eze_45:10 shows what an example for the community the conduct of the prince may be in evil and ought to be in good.—( “Princes have in all times attempted to take advantage of their subjects by alteration of coinage and weights,” Philippson.)—מְשׁזְנַיִם dual, denotes the two scales of the balance, from אָזַן, “to make ready,” “to fix;” in reference to the way this can be done, “to weigh,” to determine the weight.—(אֶפָּה) אֶיפַה, according to Josephine in Greek, a measure about the same as a Berlin bushel [about 1 1/12; bushels English]; see Gesen. Lexicon. In the same way as the ephah for dry goods, the בַּת was used for liquids, as Delitzsch observes on Isa_5:10. This measure occurs first in the days of the kings, and from Josephus’ calculation it might contain somewhat more than 33 Berlin quarts [about 7 gallons English],
Eze_45:11 now begins to discuss what is right as to measure (תֹּכֶן, pensum, Exo_5:18), that which the ephah and bath are to represent, in order clearly to set forth exactness in trade and commerce as the divine characteristic of the people, as their holiness in ordinary life. Eze_45:10 is expounded and illustrated by examples.—לָשֵׂאת Rashi explains by לָקַחַת, “to bear” = to hold, to contain. The חֹמֶר (a heap collected together) shall be the measure, the norm, for ephah and bath, as the greatest dry goods measure, commonly called “cor” from the time of the kings, and (from Josephus) estimated at a little more than 15 Berlin pecks [about 600 English pints].
Eze_45:12 proceeds to speak of the standard for money, the shekel. An exactly weighed and hence definite (small) pound of silver, called by the Rabbins “rock” in distinction from the gerah, which they called “little stone,” is the oldest biblical standard of value, originally, in barter a weight, afterwards a coin, like the drachma among the Greeks and the as among the Romans. The value doubtless affixed by common agreement of the dealers to the ordinary shekel before the time of Moses cannot now be determined; but originating probably in Babylon, and coming through the Phœnicians, the word meets us also in Greek (σικλος, σιγλος).—גֵּרָה is what is “made small,” hence grain as a small piece, like “grain” (a weight), from granum; Gesenius supposes it to be the carob bean (κερατιον), which the Greeks, Romans, and Arabians used as the smallest weight, in the same way as barley and pepper-corns have been so used,—the smallest biblical silver coin.—After the value of the shekel has been thus defined from the parts it contains (comp. Exo_30:13; Lev_27:25; Num_3:47), there may perhaps, as Cocceius and J. D. Michaelis think, be three different kinds of shekel given, a larger, an intermediate, and a smaller. Hengstenberg better: “the maneh, probably of foreign origin, which explains its rare and late occurrence, is stated at a threefold value,” according to its different worth in the several countries from which it came. The normal maneh = 20 shekels, corresponding to the 20 gerahs, stands first.—מָנֶה (1Ki_10:17; Ezr_2:69; Neh_7:71-72), from a comparison of the first passage—in which Hengstenberg, indeed, prefers to read מֵאוֹת instead of מָנּים—with 2Ch_9:16, it appears that a maneh is equal to 100 shekels, a result usually reconciled with our passage by saying that civil shekels, that is, Mosaic half-shekels, are intended to be meant in 2 Chronicles 9, since the בֶּקַע in the course of time became as shekel the widest spread large silver piece. But still 100 such shekels, or 50 Mosaic ones, by which Ezekiel reckons, would not be 20 + 25 + 15, the numbers given here, added together = 60 shekels; and besides, the three divisions and the putting of the 20 first remain unexplained! Hence Keil infers a very ancient corruption of the text. Hitzig, accepting like Hengstenberg three manehs, the only reasonable interpretation of the present text, supposes computation in gold, silver, and copper; that is, a gold, a silver, and a copper maneh. The Chaldee paraphrast, on the other hand, took the 60 shekels as the extraordinary value of the happy Messianic age (ומני רבא קודשא יהי לכון). The interpretation of the LXX., accepted by Boeckh (Metrol. Unters.) and Bertheau (Gesch. der Isr.), gives the following very insignificant proposition: The 5-shekel weight shall be to you 5 shekels, and the 10-shekel weight 10, and 50 shekels shall be a maneh.
Eze_45:13-17. The Oblation of the People
As formerly it was from the prince to the people, so now it is what the people have to render to the prince. The foregoing fixing of measures forms the transition, and the designation הַתְּרוּמָה in Eze_45:13, taken from Eze_45:1 sq., is also an intermediate link. The oblation is offered to Jehovah as being set apart for purposes of worship. It is to be the sixtieth part of wheat and barley. שִׁשָּׁה, to divide into six parts, hence here: to take off the sixth part.
Eze_45:14. חֹק הַשֶּׁמֶן is the ordinance of the oil, what the law of the oblation is to be in respect to the oil; namely, as explained by the apposition: הַבַּת הַשֶּׁמֶן, which Hengstenberg makes a parenthesis, and paraphrases thus: “the bath is the measure for the oil,”—the quantity taken from the bath of oil shall be the tenth part of it. The cor (1Ki_5:2 [4:22]; 2Ch_2:9 [10], 27:5), for dry goods and liquids, a post-Mosaic name of a measure; and hence it is not only added that the cor is ten baths, but also that it is the same as the homer, for ten baths (Eze_45:11) make a homer. [Hengst.: homer without doubt the native name; cor introduced from the Aramaic during or after the exile.] Thus the tenth of the bath is as regards the oil the hundredth part of the harvest.—Wine (specifically for the drink-offering) is not mentioned; small cattle however are
Eze_45:15—(the “oblation” in their case is to be one out of two hundred, and that one to come from fat pastures, to be well fed), but not oxen. The enumeration, says Keil, is not complete, but contains only the norm for levying the contributions; as Hengstenberg expresses himself: to serve as proof that the regulations here “do not bear the character of an actual tax,” but are only by way of example and outline. Philippson remarks: “This impost appears intended to serve as substitute for the tithes prescribed by Moses, which are not mentioned here.”—מַשְׁקֶה is “a watered district,” like Gen_13:10; a significant allusion: Israel after their return to their own land will be as richly blessed as ever the valley of Jordan was before its devastation.
Eze_45:16 consigns this oblation to the princes.—יִהְיוּ אֶל׳, they are to see to it that they render it. The prince is hereby on the one hand enabled to provide for the service of worship, as on the other his representation of the people is made manifest. Hengstenberg holds the amount of this oblation to be too great, and barley moreover was not used in worship, unless we understand that “the other expenses for the general good” were to be included.
Eze_45:17. Instead of הָיָה אֶל, which applies to all the people, we have now הָיָה עַל, that which concerns the prince only; on him it shall be incumbent. First, the things incumbent upon him are enumerated, and then is added what he has to do (הוּא־יַעֲשֶׂה), namely, as is obvious from his very position, that he shall defray the material expenses of worship, and in so far perform it. He is indeed “governor of the feast,” but not “officiator in presenting the atoning sacrifice on the feast days,” with a priestly dignity, such as Umbreit attributes to him. יַעֲשֶׂה may simply be: cause to be done (Eze_46:2). Hävernick again well observes: “Thus there arises a beautiful contrast to the former state of matters. Instead of violent exactions, harsh oppression, infamous tyranny, and mutual injustice and disloyalty, comes a settled order of things, conscientious gifts of the people which are holy gifts. The prince appears as the theocratic head, who truly cares for the weal and safety of Israel, who supports in the liveliest and demands in the strongest manner the close communion of the people with their God; not only administering justice, but also caring for the most sacred interests of the people,” etc.
Eze_45:18-20. The Sin-offering in the First Month
A solemn introduction: Thus saith, etc.—( “Taking occasion from the thought in Eze_45:17, the prophet now portrays, as a new, solemn cycle of feasts begins in Israel, what also the prophets elsewhere announce regarding the sacred festivals in the Messianic period, e.g. Isa_66:23; Zec_14:16,” Häv.) The whole mode of expression in Eze_45:18, as well as the comparison of Eze_43:18 sq. (of the difference between that and this), and the connection with what follows,—all this compels us to reject the view given by Hengstenberg, that corresponding to the consecration of the altar of burnt-offerings, we have to regard the consecration of the sanctuary as a solemnity occurring only once. Hengstenberg compares the seven days’ solemnity in the case of Solomon’s temple (2Ch_7:8), and the fresh consecration of the temple under Hezekiah (2Ch_29:18 sq.), but especially the consecration of the tabernacle on the first day of the first month in Exodus 40. Besides what we have said already, the following consideration tells against this view. Surely we may suppose a difference between these sanctuaries built by men, like the altar of burnt-offerings (בְּיוֹם הֵעָשׂוֹתוֹ), and the divine temple beheld by Ezekiel, when its consecration in this sense had already taken place by the coming in of the divine glory (Eze_43:2 sq.). The solemnity here ordained on the first and seventh days of the month (Nisan, Eze_45:21) is a yearly returning one, as is shown also by the reference in Eze_45:20 to continual recurrence. Num_28:11 sq. shows that the beginning of every month is to be solemnized, and Numbers 29 that there is to be additionally a special solemnity on the first day of the seventh month. On this comp. Ezekiel 46—The cleansing of the sanctuary is effected here through a young bullock, instead of the goat prescribed by Moses for the new moon,—an augmentation of the sin-offering as to the victim, just as in Eze_45:19 through the process which accomplishes the cleansing. The posts of the house (Eze_41:21) refer to the sanctuary (Eze_45:18), without distinction in respect to its two divisions, the altar of burnt-offerings and the gate (doubtless collective for all the three gates, for if only the east gate were meant, specific mention of it would hardly be omitted) of the inner court.
Eze_45:20, however, explains in direct terms that this cleansing of the sanctuary on the first and seventh days of the first month takes place from the ground (מִן), the cause which, in view of the holiness of the house, may be found in אִישׁ שֹׁגֶה, that is: the erring, frail man, and פְּתִי, either: folly, or, abstr. pro concreto: the fool (properly, the man open to every impression, easily led astray). The two designations are distinguished as actus and potentia, the occasional act and the natural disposition; but it has been rightly remarked that both denote sins of weakness. [Keil wrongly interprets מִן׃ “from, away from,” setting him free from his sin; for this neither agrees with the immediately following וְכִפַּרְתֶּם אֶת־הַבַּיִת, nor can it be found in the וְכֵן תַּעֲשֶׂה, which refers back to Eze_45:19.] “Thus shall the year, newly consecrated by such a beginning, most truly present the appearance of a holy year. At the same time this is the preparation for the feast of the passover in Eze_45:21” (Häv.). Since the great day of atonement (Lev_16:16 sq.) had the same end in view as the very expressive and augmented solemnity ordained here on the first day of the month, the single yearly day of atonement is otherwise quite passed over, and thus there is ground for the opinion that the solemnity here is meant to express the idea of the day of atonement for the worship of the future.
Eze_45:21-25. The Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles
Eze_45:21. The chief fundamental feast of Israel, the beginning of the feast-cycle, as afterwards its close, so that with the passover and the feast of tabernacles the whole circle of feasts in the narrower sense is either embraced (Häv.), or decreed as the annual feasts of the future (Keil). Comp. the original institution of the feast of the passover in Exodus 12.—חַג שְׁבֻעוֹת, to which is here added יָמִים, is: feast of seven days, because it always lasted seven days (comp. Num_28:17), so that the “continuous” feast is denoted, but not, as Hengst.: “in contrast to the feast of consecration,” but rather implying that in this connection recurring feasts are spoken of. The old translations render the designation simply: “a feast of seven days”; the addition: יָמִים, will at least distinguish it as seven-dayed from the “feast of weeks” (חַג שְׁבֻעוֹת), celebrated later at the close of harvest. Kliefoth, on the other hand, supposes that in future the passover will be held as a feast of seven weeks, which lasts seven weeks; and so not merely the seven days of unleavened bread, but the whole seven weeks will be passover—the feast of weeks shall be one with the passover. The ordinance regarding the מַצּוֹת relates (he holds) to the whole seven weeks up to the feast of first-fruits. See the refutation of this in Keil on the passage. The seven days of the feast in Eze_45:23 also tell very plainly what is meant. Comp. on Deuteronomy 16.
Eze_45:22 exhibits the prince in the charge imposed upon him (הוּא־יַעֲשֶׂה, here וְעָשָׂה).—בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא).—is the above-mentioned fourteenth day of the first month, the feast-day proper (הַפֶּסַח), on the evening of which the paschal lamb was slain and eaten.—The sin-offering precedes, whereas in Numbers 28 it follows after. In this way the idea of the day of atonement pervades also the passover of the future (for himself and for the whole people of the land). The victim, too, of the sin-offering on the first feast-day proper is not a goat, but a bullock! For the seven following days of the mazzoth there are ordained
Eze_45:23—as a burnt-offering, instead of the two bullocks of Moses, seven bullocks, and instead of the one ram in the law, here seven rams, all without blemish, לַיּוֹם, “for the day,” each of the seven days; and only the one goat as daily sin-offering is retained from the law of Moses. This enhancement of the feast-offerings, 49 bullocks and 49 rams as burnt-offering, is additional proof of an element which has already repeatedly shown itself, to wit, Israel’s state of grace for the future. In reference to the passover Hengstenberg observes: “That precisely the grace of redemption sealed by this festival was to receive so rich an accession by the events of the future.” The seven lambs of the first year ordained in the law are omitted by Ezekiel; we might say, because the Lamb of God, who is the fulfilment of this feast, will be sufficient in the Messianic times. But, as only befits the symbolized idea meant to be made prominent, the meat-offering
Eze_45:24—accompanying the burnt-offering surpasses even the measure of the latter. In the law there are to each bullock only three-tenths of an ephah of flour mingled with oil, two-tenths to the ram, and only one-tenth to each of the seven lambs; here a whole ephah, namely of flour, is appointed for each bullock and each ram, finally of oil one הִין (Eze_4:11).
Eze_45:25 describes the feast of tabernacles, the feast (בֶּחָג) falling on the 15th day of the 7th month, so designated because not expressed by name. Keil and Kliefoth assign as the reason for its not being named: “without doubt because the dwelling in tabernacles will for the future be discontinued.” What the prince has to perform in this feast is, as to time (seven days) and kinds of offering, the same as in the passover. Hengstenberg excepts from this similarity the number of victims. Comp. Num_29:13 sq. But the definition: as meat-offering, leaves us to suppose for the rest also nothing but a matter relative to number and measure, and Hengstenberg’s solicitude about the passover as “the root of all feasts,” seems in the case of such a comparison as is made here to overlook the fact that the number of victims, which indeed daily decreased, was far more signal and greater in the Mosaic feast of tabernacles; moreover, the eighth day, as concluding feast with its special offerings, is, as Keil observes, wanting here. Hävernick farther observes: “The sacred number seven dominates here both in the passover and in the offerings of the feast of tabernacles. The gradual decrease of the number of victims in the latter, explained by Bähr as a gradual decrease of the festal character of the seven feast-days, receives a fresh confirmation. Here, namely, an equal number of victims is appointed for every day. The distinction between the feasts themselves thereby almost disappears. Each day comes forth in its proper and symmetrical holiness. The sacred number seven pervades the whole cycle of feasts. The defective and imperfect character of the ancient mode gives place to a higher and more perfect form.”
additional note on Eze_45:18-25
[ “As it was more especially in connection with the stated and yearly festivals that the prince had to represent the people in the public service of God, so the prophet takes a rapid glance of these, and refers particularly to the first and the last. But he first mentions a consecration service with which the year was always to begin, and of which no mention whatever was made in the law (Eze_45:18-20). On the first and again on the seventh day of the first month, the sanctuary was always to be cleansed, that the year might be commenced in sacredness, and that all might be in preparation for the feast of the passover on the fourteenth day of the month. As the prophet has introduced a new solemnity before the passover, so for the passover itself he appoints quite different sacrifices from those named by Moses; instead of one ram and seven lambs for the daily burnt-offering, he has seven bullocks and seven rams; and the meat-offerings also vary. And while there were quite peculiar offerings prescribed in the law for the feast of tabernacles, constantly diminishing as the days of the feast proceeded; here, on the other hand, the prophet appoints the same as in the case of the passover. This shows how free a use was made by the prophet of the Old Testament ritual, and how he only employed it as a cover for the great spiritual truths he sought to unfold. They were not permanently fixed and immutable things, he virtually said, those external services of Judaism, as if they had an absolute and independent value of their own, so that precisely those and no other should be thought of; they were all symbolical of the spiritual and eternal truths of God’s kingdom, and may be variously adjusted, as is now done, in order to make them more distinctly expressive of the greater degree of holiness and purity that is in future times to distinguish the people and service of God over all that has been in the past.”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, pp. 485, 486.—W. F.]
HOMILETIC HINTS
On Ch. 45
Eze_45:1 sq. “Here in particular I acknowledge the weakness of my knowledge. I silently revere the mysteries of this passage. Neither will any mortal explain them completely, because that which God has prepared for them that love Him does not come into the heart of man. This indeed I see, that he speaks of the possession of the land of the living, as also the Revelation of John has borrowed much from this passage.” Thus Œolampadius expresses himself.—“God promises believers an inheritance, and will also give it them in due time, but that is in heaven” (Starck).—“God the Lord needs indeed no land for Himself, yet it is for His honour when real estates are bequeathed to churches and schools, that those who labour in them may receive their support from them, Gen_47:22” (Starke).—“They who live from God’s hand are content with His measure, even when it turns out small and modest” (Starck).—“It ought to be our joy to be near God, to be associated with Him” (Starck).
Ver, 2. “There is nothing twisted and crooked with God; with Him everything is straight” (Starck).—“The paths are often crooked and yet straight on which Thou makest Thy children come to Thee,” etc. (Arnold.)
Eze_45:3. The sanctuary was situated in the centre of all; so ought religion to be the central point of all life, and Christ the centre of true religion.—Religion, faith, Christianity ought not, either in the life of nations or of individuals, to be placed in a corner merely as a tolerated piece of antiquity.
Eze_45:4. “If those who labour in the church and the school have no official houses, still they must have houses to dwell in. Therefore it is fitting that the community should build such, and keep them in a habitable condition” (Starke).—“When ministers’ houses are near the church, they can the better attend to their office, 1Ch_9:27” (O.).—“The Lord’s faithful priests shall dwell beside Him, and be with Christ, for refreshment and revival from the strife and disquiet of men among whom they are scattered” (Cocc.).
Eze_45:5 sq. “Although a lesser service in the Church appears to be incumbent on church officers and school masters, yet care must be taken to provide them with food and lodging,” etc. (Starck.)—“Hence offices and ranks which are not mutually destructive ought to continue; only let each in his place belong to the Lord” (Tossani).—“The sanctuary is not included in the city or state as formerly, for God will not permit His kingdom to be confounded with the temporal power; this, however, does not mean that God cannot rule in the state, bu only that God’s kingdom and human kingdoms are different. For human authority is not to interfere in the kingdom of God, but the divine authority does interfere in the kingdoms of men, and God makes subjects obey their princes, servants their masters, and children their parents; and all obedience, if of the right kind, is paid to Him as the Lord, and to men as brethren and fellow-servants whom the common Lord has placed in authority for the Lord’s sake. But we do not obey God for the sake of a man, nor can any man by his power make us obedient to God,” etc. (Coco.)—“Hence when this prophecy places the sanctuary outside of the city, and yet annexes the sanctuary to the city, that indicates that in the kingdom of Christ states and governments will belong to the people of God; in which, however, the kingdom of God will not be absorbed nor confined” (Cocc.).—“The magisterial office is holy, and has also part in the holy, Num_7:1 sq.” (Cr.)—“For princes to have their domains is not unjust, but they should not seek to draw everything into these domains,” etc. (Starke.)
Eze_45:8 sq. “To protect, but not to fleece.—“Governments ought to give good heed to weights, measures, and coinage, and allow no inequalities to creep in” (Tüb. Bib.).—“Christians ought to be upright in their dealings, 1Th_4:6” (O.).—“Knowingly to pass spurious coin is intentional deceit, and so is the clipping of coins in order to lessen their weight” (Starke).—“Unjust gain does not profit the third generation. Lightly come, lightly gone” (Hafenreffer).
Eze_45:13 sq. “Even the small gifts of the poor, when given in true love, are an acceptable offering, Heb_13:16” (Cocc.).—“It is reasonable that a man set apart a considerable portion of his income for the glory of God and the support of the true worship, Rom_15:16” (Tüb. Bib.).—“The revenue for spiritual objects is most defrauded” (Starke).—There are liberals and liberals; the liberals of former days built churches, the liberals of to-day would like to tear them down; to the former, church endowment was an aim, to the latter an eyesore.—“Almsgiving in private is a fruit of faith; but not less so is liberality in endowments for churches and schools”(Cocc.).—The Christian munificence of our fathers was a very different thing from the duty of subscribing to associations imposed on their children, and from the whole ordinary system of collecting as it is carried on to raise supplies for the kingdom of God.
Eze_45:15. “The antitype of the lambs, the Lamb that bore the sin of the world” (Starck).—The sacrifices considered in Christ.—Christian sacrifices are spiritual sacrifices.—The fulfilling of the sacrifices in the Spirit of Christ.
Eze_45:17. “When Chris on the cross consecrated the new temple, He can celled our sins” (Heim-Hoff.).
Eze_45:18 sq. The new year of grace.—“At the beginning of the new year of grace, and with the newly rising light, the temple was again raised up or opened, and the true justification and sanctification through the sacrifice of Christ recognised and proclaimed” (Berl. Bib.).—Without cleansing there is no sanctuary for man, nor sanctification of him: “Let him who desires to be clean cleanse himself in the blood of Christ, 1Jn_1:7” (Starck).
Eze_45:20. Sin as error and seduction, and error and seduction as sin.—“We ought to attend divine service from beginning to end” (Cr.).
Eze_45:21 sq. The ever-renewed remembrance of redemption in every participation of the Lord’s Supper, and also in the experience of believers.—Every solemnization of the Lord’s Supper a fulfilled paschal solemnity.—But our passover is Christ, 1 Corinthians 5.—How wearisome are church festivals to the men of our time!—“This prophetic representation contains a beautiful pattern for many a land; yet the main matter is this, that the Holy Ghost teaches us here how firmly and fixedly God with His grace has settled down among us men, and how priesthood and royalty are upheld in Christendom from His fulness. But they must keep close to the sanctuary, and the magistracy must protect the confessors of the truth on the right and on the left. The deepest ground, however, is this: Christ’s disciples are all of them priests, and they themselves are also the royalty; they themselves offer sacrifice and also protect themselves, for God Himself is their strength through Christ. He who has the Spirit of Christ will easily understand the whole of this figure,” etc. (Diedrich).—“It behoves us to celebrate the feast of tabernacles in spirit and in truth so much more than the Jews the nearer we approach eternity. For the nearer we come thereto, the less ought we to hold by this world, but on the contrary ought to withdraw our thoughts from the earth, from houses, cities, and lands, and allow scarcely a thought to arise in us that we still have a portion on earth and in the world; but, since we only dwell in tabernacles, let us have our loins girded, as those who are ready to depart, that they may be with the Lord” (Berl. Bib.).—“Our home is above, to which we draw nearer every moment” (Heim-Hoff.).—Tabernacles ought to be as passover; that is, we ought to pursue our pilgrimage on the ground of eternal redemption.
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS ON CH. 40–46
1. Hävernick rightly finds “the nervous and lofty unity” in the prophecies of Ezekiel “manifested in this section also.” “The visions of the prophet find here their fairest completion and perfect rounding off.” Already in the exposition (on Eze_40:1 sq.) the harmony with the former part of Ezekiel’s prophecy has been remarked. Eze_43:3 expressly refers back to Ezekiel 1, 8. The free conformity in expression between our chapters and the whole closing portion generally, and the earlier chapters, has been often proved (comp. Philippson, p. 1294). The proof is the more striking when we consider the complete difference of the subject. That we have a vision here too harmonizes not only with Ezekiel 1, 8, but in general with the prophetic character of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 8, 15, 17. The prophet has repeatedly hinted at this close of his book. Thus Eze_11:16; Eze_20:40; Eze_36:38; Eze_37:26 sq. The last passage in particular might be regarded as the text for Ezekiel 40 sq. The eighth and following chapters required by the necessity of the idea our conclusion of the book.
2. In regard to analogies in the other prophets, Ezekiel’s contemporaries, as we may well conceive, will chiefly come into consideration. Hence, above all, Ezekiel’s fellow-labourer Jeremiah. Jeremiah represents the restoration and renewal of Israel as a rebuilding of Jerusalem, Jer_31:38 sq. (with this comp. in our prophet, Eze_47:13 sq., Ezekiel 48). Jer_33:18 is similar to Eze_44:9 sq. Hag_2:7 sq. follows entirely the thought here of a new temple, insisting on its glory in view of a meagre present. But still more analogous are the night-visions of Zechariah (Eze_2:5 [1] sq., Ezekiel 4, Eze_6:13 sq., Ezekiel 14).
3. The parallel between Isaiah and Ezekiel, as it stands in relation to the vision in Ezekiel 1 (p. 41), is not completed by citing Isaiah 60 as corresponding to the close of our book; but we shall have to seek the culminating point of Isaiah’s prophecy for the culmination of Ezekiel’s, in accordance with the office of this prophet to be the prophet of Jehovah’s holiness to obdurate Israel, —just as for the commencement Isaiah 6 is covered by Ezekiel 1—not so much in the close as in Ezekiel 53. The corresponding pendant to our closing chapters is the life-like description given there of the Messiah and His sacrifice of Himself. It is this self-sanctification of Jehovah through His servant Israel which in Isaiah corresponds to the self-glorification of Jehovah in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 40 sq.) by means of the new sanctuary and the new nationality; and this, again, accords with Ezekiel’s office, to behold the glory of Jehovah in the misery of the exile. In this respect Ezekiel stands to Isaiah somewhat as Easter and Pentecost do to Good Friday.
4. The different views, especially regarding the vision of the temple, may be distinguished generally as subjective and objective. I. The views which derive the explanation of Ezekiel 40 sq. solely or chiefly from Ezekiel’s subjectivity: (1) Already Villalpandus saw everywhere here only reminiscences of Solomon’s temple and of Solomon’s era, and consequently a similar line of thought to that in Ezr_3:12. Similarly Grotius, only that he reconciled the differences between Ezekiel’s temple and that of Solomon by ascribing them to the temple at the time of its destruction, just as Bunsen refers in this connection to 2 Kings 16. According to both these expositors, Ezekiel traced out from reminiscences a pattern for the future restoration. Thus, according to Ewald, Ezekiel becomes “a prophetic lawgiver.” “Such an undertaking, quite unusual in the case of earlier prophets,” is explained from the “predominating thoughts and aspirations of the better class of those days for the restoration of the subverted kingdom.” “Ezekiel probably meditated long, with passionate longing and lively remembrance, on the institutions of the demolished temple, etc.; what appeared to him great and glorious became impressed upon his mind as a pattern, with which he compared the Messianic expectations and demands, etc., until at length the outline of the whole arrangement which he here writes down pressed itself upon him!” “Above all, he sketches the holy objects, temple and altar, with the utmost exactness and vividness, as if a spirit (!) impelled him, now when they were destroyed, at least to catch up their image in a faithful and worthy form for the redemption that will one day certainly come; so that he must have diligently instructed himself in these matters from the best written and oral sources” (!). “Thus it is quite in keeping with Ezekiel’s way of prophesying, that he introduces everything as if he had been borne in spirit into the restored and completed temple, accompanied throughout by a heavenly guide, and had learned exactly from him all the single parts of this unique building as to their nature and use.” The paragraph Eze_47:1-12 is, in Ewald’s opinion, “from its great, all-embracing sense, quite adapted to bring to a close briefly and pithily all these presentiments!” “Yet when precepts more moral are to be given, or the perfected kingdom has to be described in its extent, reaching even beyond the temple, this assumed form (!) easily passes over into the simple prophetic discourse.” (2) While the foregoing view looks to realization, Hitzig, for example, entirely rejects the idea that Ezekiel “considered such things (as our chapters contain) possible, feasible, or probable, and relatively commanded and prescribed them.” “One does not or did not reflect that the prophet’s calling was to express the demands of the idea, indifferent in the first instance about their realization.” All is pure fancy, a mere castle-in-the-air, a kind of “Platonic sketch,” as Herder expresses himself. The self-criticism of this view of our chapters can hardly be more suitably given than when Hitzig continues: “Inasmuch as this or that could be set in order otherwise than he imagines, he would not in regard to plans and proposals have resisted obstinately, but would have known how to distinguish the unessential of the execution from the essential of the thing itself. He sketches the future in the form he must wish it to take, in which it really would have the fairest appearance. If the reality falls short of the image, then the idea is defectively realized; but the fault lies in the reality, not in the idea, and Ezekiel is not responsible for it.” This, moreover, is merely what already Doederlein and others have held with respect to the closing portion of our book. Similarly Herder: “Ezekiel’s manner is to paint an image entire and at length; his mode of conception appears to demand great visions, figures written over on all sides, even tiresome, difficult, symbolical acts, of which his whole book is full. Israel in his wandering upon the mountains of his dispersal, among other tongues and peoples, had need of a prophet such as this one was, etc. So also as regards this temple. Another would have sketched it with soaring figures in lofty utterances; he does so in definite measurements. And not only the temple, but also appurtenances, tribes, administration, land, etc. How far has Israel always, so far as depended on his own efforts, remained below the commands, counsels, and promises of God!” (3) Böttcher has attempted to combine both views, and after him Philippson, who expresses himself to the following effect: “Ezekiel the prophet, sunk in himself, brooding over matters in the distance and in solitude, had not, like Jeremiah, upon whom the immediate reality pressed, viewed the occurrences simply as punishment of defection and degeneracy, but was conscious also of their inward signification, which came to him in the appearance of a vision. Hence he represented the destruction of the temple as a suspension of the relation of revelation between God and Israel; and so much the more necessary was it to represent the restoration of that same relation as the return of God into the restored sanctuary. Now, from the peculiar character of Ezekiel, this necessarily had to assume a form at once ideal and real,—ideal in its entirety as something future, real as individual and special, matter of fact in its appearance.” As the “indubitable motive of the prophet,” the following is given: “to keep alive in the exiles in the midst of Babylonian idolatry the idea of the one temple, and the priestly institute consecrated to it, as the centre of the religion of the one God; and at the return into Palestine to confirm the life of the people in their calling, by the removal of all elements of strife, and by approximation to the Mosaic state of things.” Hengstenberg’s view is surprisingly near the above one; he says: “With the exception of the Messianic section in Eze_47:1-12, the fulfilment of all (!) the rest of the prophecy belongs to the times immediately after the return from the Chaldean exile. So must every one of its first hearers and readers have understood it. Jeremiah, whom Ezekiel follows throughout, had prophesied the restoration of the city and temple 70 years after the beginning of the Chaldean servitude, falling in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Thirty-two years had already elapsed. Forty years after the devastation of Egypt (Eze_29:13), the nations visited by the Chaldeans shall get back to their former state. According to Eze_11:16, the restoration is to follow in a brief space after the destruction of the temple. We have before us a prophecy for which it is essential (!) to give truth and poetry (! !), which contains a kernel of real thoughts, yet does not present them naked, but clothed with flesh and blood, that they may be a counterpoise to the sad reality, because they fill the fancy, that fruitful workshop of despair, with bright (!) images, and thus make it an easier task to live in the word at a time when all that is visible cries aloud, Where is now thy God? The incongruity between the prophecy of Ezekiel and the state of things after the exile, vanishes at once by distinguishing between the thoughts and their clothing, and if we can rightly figure to ourselves the wounds for which the healing plaster is here presented, and at the same time the mental world of the priest (Ezekiel), and the materials given in the circumstances surrounding him, for clothing the higher verities which he had to announce to the people.” II. The views which above all look to and keep hold of the objectivity of the divine inspiration of Ezekiel. The very regard which must, in one way or other, be paid to the circumstances under which the people for whom, and the Babylonian exile in which, Ezekiel prophesied, objectivizes in some measure his subjectivity, so that not all the views hitherto cited of our chapters and the ones that follow are to be designated as purely subjective; the properly objective, however, will be, that “the hand of Jehovah was upon him,” that he was brought “in visions of God” to the land of Israel. Here the distinction is drawn by his own hand between the prophet of Israel and the fanciful Jewish priest; and not only this, but the unavoidable and irreconcilable alternative presents itself: either Ezekiel was a man of God, or a deceiver, for whom the fact that he had deceived himself also with assumed divine objectivity were no excuse, but would only be his self-condemnation. The case of Ezekiel, for the sake of truth, is too solemn for thinking of “poetic clothing” in the case before us. The subjective for the form before us, is to keep in mind when considering it what that form is. It has pleased God to speak to us through men. If we take full account of the national peculiarity of Israel in general during the whole old covenant, and of the peculiar personality in the case of our vision here, that is, that Ezekiel is the priest-prophet, that he above all other prophets is, as Umbreit says, a “born symbolist” ( “in the temple which he erects he makes known his greatness as a symbolist, as well by what he says as by what he passes over in silence”),—if we concede to Umbreit the “surprising skill in popularizing instruction” which he observes in Ezekiel, we shall have to accept as the ultimate ground why Israel was the mediator of the world’s salvation, and Ezekiel was chosen to behold the temple of the future, divine wisdom and its purpose for the world, that is, the objective κατ̓ ἐξοχην above everything subjective. In accordance with this principle, we have to judge of (1) the view objectivized in this sense of a model for the rebuilding of the temple after the return from the exile, the supporters of which assume a building-plan “issued under divine authority,” given by Jehovah through the prophet. Although there is a resemblance between Exo_25:9; Exo_25:40 and Eze_40:4, yet it is not said to Ezekiel regarding Israel: “according to all that I show thee, the pattern of the dwelling, etc., even so shall ye make it;” the prophet is only to “convey,” announce (נָגַד) all that he sees to the house of Israel. From this circumstance, and not because the reality fell short of the idea (Hitzig, Herder), or, as Philippson adduces here, “the similar fate of so many Mosaic precepts,” the fact is explained that the post-exile temple was built without any regard to our vision. Only the fundamental reference to Solomon’s temple, which in general obtains in Ezekiel also, meets us in Ezr_3:12. This fact, the more remarkable considering the nearness of time, shows that Eze_40:4, soon after it was written, and when fully known, was not regarded as a divine building-specification. We do not need, therefore, to express, as Hengst., “the obvious impossibility of erecting a building according to the specifications here given.” The circumstance that the building materials are not given has at least not prevented the temple of Ezekiel from being, with more or less success, constructed and fashioned after his statements. Bunsen says that “the temple here forms a very easily realized, congruous whole, of which an exact outline may be made, as the prophet also has evidently done.” Umbreit, too, holds this latter view. And although we have to do not with an architect but with a prophet, yet nothing stands in the way of our believing that the subjectivity of Ezekiel was preeminently qualified for this vision, from the fact that he possessed architectural capacity” (Introd. § 7). (2) The symbolical view. It corresponds generally to the character of Holy Writ. (Comp. Lange, Rev. Introd. p. 11.) In particular it pays due regard to the law of Moses, to the part of it relating to worship, the subject here. Especially when the whole worship of Israel is concentrated in the temple, a symbolical view respecting a vision thereof will be quite in place. Thereby only its due right is given to this objective, to the divine idea, in the shape which it has above all assumed in
Israelitish worship. The symbolical character, moreover, is specially appropriate for the prophetic writings. As has already been often said and pointed out, the symbolical predominates in Ezekiel; and as to these concluding chapters, Hävernick adduces, as indicating their general character, the description of the circuit of the new temple (Eze_42:15 sq.), the representation of the entrance, etc. of the divine glory (Eze_43:1 sq.), the river (Eze_47:1 sq. etc.), and observes that “it is just such passages that form the conclusion to the previous description, and hence cast a light on it.” Comp. on Eze_43:10 sq. But everything architectonic is not a symbol, although everything of that nature will indeed primarily relate to the building to be erected, and will thereby at the same time in some way serve the idea of the whole. This character comes out clearly even in individual statements of number, yet all such measurements are not therefore to be interpreted symbolically. Nay, as the exposition shows, there are here bare numbers, resisting every attempt to trace them back to the idea. It is sufficient in respect to the numbers, that (comp. Umbreit, p. 259 sq.) 4, as “signature not only of regularity but also of the revelation of God in space,” e.g. in the quadrangle of the temple; 3, “the signature of the divine,” e.g. in the sets of three gates; 10, “perfection complete in itself,” occurring often; likewise the “sacred number” 7; and the number 12 in the tables for preparing the offerings (Ezekiel 40), represent symbolism. (On the symbolism of numbers, comp. Lange on Rev. Introd. p. 14.) Umbreit rightly maintains: “It is a symbolical temple, notwithstanding the arid and dry description, in which only exact specifications of the number of cubits and the apparently most insignificant calculations and measurings occur;” as he says, “quite in keeping with the poverty of the immediately succeeding age and the dignity of the most significant inwardness.” (3) The Messianic view (for which comp. Lange on Kings, p. 60 sq.) is only the taking full advantage of and applying the symbolic view in general. Symbol and type, emblem and pattern, must mutually interpenetrate one another in a law like that of Israel. What separates Israel from the heathen is its law; what qualifies Israel for the whole world is its promise. But now, because of sin, the law has come in between the promise and the fulfilment; that sin becoming the more powerful as transgression may make manifest for faith the grace which alone is still more powerful, and that consequently the necessity of the promise should be the more apparent; that is, the pedagogy of the law (and especially of its ethical part) to Christ. Thus the law of Israel is the theocratic expression of Israel, the servant of God, as he ought to be, and hence prefigures the servant of Jehovah who is the fulfilling of the law, as He is the personal fulfilling of Israel, inasmuch as in Him who was delivered for our transgressions, and raised again for our δικαιωσις, Israel after the Spirit is represented; so that here out of the law relating to worship rise up, as on the one hand sacrifice and the priesthood, so on the other the concentration of the whole of worship in the temple, this parable of the future, with reference to which Christ, John 2, gives the σημειον: Destroy (λυσατε) this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (ἐγερω), saying this of the temple of His body; as also the disciples remembered when He had risen from the dead, and as the accusation against Him ran (Mat_26:61). Accordingly the law, and especially the temple and its service, is σκιαν ἐχων των μελλοντων: the future σωμα is given in the σωμα του Χριστου (σωμα δε κατηρτισω μου, Hebrews 10). “This reference to the future,” says Ziegler (in his thoughtful little work on the “historical development of divine revelation”), “is the most dynamical among all the references of the law; its significance for its own time is so weak and unimportant, that it seems to exist solely for the sake of the future, although its office is the opposite of the office of the New Testament, which is formed and abiding in the hearts of men (διακονια της δικαιοσυνης, του τνευματος); still it was a sensible type, a strongly marked and distinctly stamped shadow of the coming substances, and yet, moreover, a veil which concealed it.” What has been said shows the typical signification of the vision of Ezekiel, in which the symbolical view of it is completed, and the pedagogic and providential necessity of that form borrowed from the legal worship in which it is enshrined. Here is more than what (as Hengstenberg can say) “suffices to employ the fancy.” For the anointed one is τελος του νομου. But as the Messianic view of our chapters is thus justified by the symbolic view, when we have taken into account the law, particularly the law of worship in Israel, so likewise the already (Doct. Reflec. 1) noted connection of Ezekiel 40 sq. with the previous chapters, especially with Eze_37:26 sq. (p. 351), yields the same result, as also the position after Ezekiel 38, 39 and the relation to this prophecy will have to be taken into consideration. What holds good of Eze_37:26 sq. will also be a hint for our chapters. But even the Talmudists saw themselves compelled (principally because of the treatment of the law of Moses, to be spoken of presently) to acknowledge “that the exposition of this portion would be first given in Messianic times,” as the “best” (according to Philippson) Jewish expositors recognised here “the type of a third temple.” The saying of Jesus in John ii. possibly alluded to the exegetical tradition of the Jews. Hävernick accommodates as follows: “The shattered old theocratic forms rather than new ones were above all cognate to the priestly mind of Ezekiel;” so “he sees nothing perish of that which Jehovah has founded for eternity; those forms beam before him revivified, animated with fresh breath, and lit up in the splendour of true glory; he recognises their full realization as coming in first in Messianic times.” As errors are still committed, e.g. by Schmieder, in the symbolizing of particulars, so the Messianic typology of a Cocceius has deserved, although only in part, the anathema on “mystical allegories,” which above all modern criticism utters; for our defect in understanding in respect of many particulars will always have to be conceded. The Christian idea, however, the Old Testament typical symbolizing of which we have here to expound, is not only the idea of Christ, but also the idea of the Christian Church, the kingdom of God in Christ. If the resurrection of the Anointed One comes into consideration in the first respect, so in the latter does the consummation of the kingdom of grace, after its last affliction, into the kingdom of glory; comp. Rev_21:22. The one is as eschatological in the wider, that is, christological in the narrower sense, as the other is eschatological in the narrower, or christological in the wider sense. By the translating of our passage into the higher key of John’s Apocalypse, the relation of Ezekiel 40 sq. to Ezekiel 38, 39 must be so much the more evident. Comp. Doct. Reflec. on xxxviii. and xxxix. We refer, finally, to what has been said in the Introduction, § 7, that Jehovah’s building in Ezekiel here (still more in its already actual reality for the seer, so that what already existed had only to be measured to him) forms the architectonic antithesis to the buildings of Nebuchadnezzar. As the figure of Gog with his people may have presented itself to our prophet through means of Babylon (comp. Doct. Reflec. on Ezekiel 38 39, p. 375), so from that same quarter may have been derived the representation given of the kingdom of God in its victorious opposition to the world. Hitzig, too (as we now first see when treating of the closing chapters), supposes that there probably “flitted before the eyes of the author living in Chaldea, when describing his quadrangle, the capital of the country and the temple of Belus,—the former, like the latter, forming a square, with streets intersecting one another at right angles.” Umbreit says of the vision of Ezekiel as a whole: “It is a great thought, which presents itself unadorned to our view in the prophetico-symbolic temple: God henceforth dwells in perfect peace, revealing Himself in the unbounded fulness of His glory, which is returning to Jerusalem, in the purest and most blissful unison with His sanctified people, making Himself known in the living word of progressive, saving, and sanctifying redemption. Everything is placed upon the ample circuit of the temple, whose extended courts receive all people, and through whose high and open gates the King of Glory is to enter in (Psa_24:7; Psa_24:9), and then upon the order and harmony of the divine habitation, the well-proportioned building (Eze_42:10); and the revelations of the holiest are stored up in the pure, deep water of His word, which in life-giving streams issues from the temple. The stone tables of the law are consumed (?), and the fresh and free fountain of eternal truth streams forth from the temple of the Spirit, quickening and vivifying in land and sea, awakening by its creative and fructifying power a new and mighty race on earth. And thus hast thou, much misjudged yet lofty seer, in the unconscious depth of thy mysteriously flowing language, set up upon the great, undistinguishing (comp. Jer_31:34), well-proportioned, and beautifully compacted building, a type of the simple yet lofty temple of Christ, from which flows the spiritual fountain of life !” From this Messianic view of the section we have to reject (4) the chiliastic-literal view, according to which Ezekiel describes what may be called either the Jewish temple of the future, or the Jewish future of the Christian Church. It is interesting to observe what kind of spirits meet together here in the flesh; e.g. Baumgarten and Auberlen, Hofmann and Volck (who acts as champion for him, and that partly with striking power of demonstration against Kliefoth), are combined here only in general because they make the community of God at our Lord’s Parousia to be an Israelite one. Comp. moreover, p. 357 and § 10 of the Introduction. Auberlen (Daniel and the Revelation of John, p. 348 sq., Clark’s tr.) expresses the apocalyptic phantasm as follows: “Israel brought back to his own land becomes the people of God in a far higher and more inward sense than before, etc.; a new period of revelation begins, the Spirit of God is richly poured forth, and a fulness of gracious gifts is conferred, such as the apostolic Church possessed typically” (!). (One can hardly go farther in the delusion of “deeper” knowledge of Scripture than to make primitive and original Christianity a type of Judaism!) “But this rich spirit-imparted life finds its completed representation in a priestly as well as in a kingly manner. That which in the ages of the Old Covenant obtained only outwardly in the letter, and that which conversely in the age of the Church withdrew itself into inward, hidden spirituality, will then in a pneumatic (!) manner assume also an outward appearance and form. In the Old Covenant the whole national life of Israel in its various manifestations—household and state, labour and art, literature and culture—was determined by religion, but only in an external legal manner; the Church, again, has to insist above all on a renewal of the heart, and must leave those outward forms of life free, enjoining it on the conscience of each individual to glorify Christ in these relations also; but in the millennial kingdom all these spheres of life will be truly Christianized from within outwardly. Thus looked at, it will no longer be offensive (?) to say that the Mosaic ceremonial law corresponds to the priesthood of Israel, and the civil law to its kingship. The Gentile Church could adopt only the moral law; so certainly the sole means of influence assigned to her is that which works inwardly,—the preaching of the word, the exercise of the prophetic office.”
(The Romish Church, however, has known how to serve itself heir satis superque to the Jewish ceremonial law!) “But when once the priesthood and the kingship arise again, then also—without prejudice to the principles laid down in the Epistle to the Hebrews (?)—the ceremonial and civil law of Moses will unfold its spiritual depths in the cultus and the constitution of the millennial kingdom (Mat_5:17-19). The present is still the time of preaching, but then the time of the liturgy shall have come, which presupposes a congregation consisting solely of converted people,” etc. etc. When Hengstenberg calls such interpretation “altogether unhappy,” that is the least that one can say about it; but even that could not have been said if Ezekiel’s descriptions really had the “Utopian character” which Hengstenberg attributes to them. He, however, justly animadverts upon the incongruity of expecting the restoration of the temple, the Old Testament festivals, the bloody sacrifices (!!), and the priesthood of the sons of Zadok, within the bounds of the New Covenant. Comp. Keil, p. 500 sq., who, both from the prophetic parts of the Old Testament and from the New, refutes at length the notion of a transformation of Canaan before the last judgment, and a kingdom of glory at Jerusalem before the end of the world. (Auberlen, who looks on the “first resurrection” as a “bodily coming forth of the whole community of believers from their hitherto invisibility with Christ in heaven,” makes the now “transformed Church again return thither with Christ, and the saints rule from heaven over the earth;” and from this he concludes that “the intercourse between the world above and the world below will then be more active and free,” etc. Hofmann’s transference of the glorified Church to earth, and his further connecting therewith the national regeneration of Israel, Auberlen declares to be “incompatible with the whole of Old Testament prophecy, to say nothing of its internal improbability.”)
ADDITIONAL NOTE ON Ezekiel 40-46
[Dr. Fairbairn’s classification of the views which have been held of Ezekiel’s closing vision generally, and in particular of the description contained in it respecting the temple, is as follows: 1. The historico-literal view, “which takes all as a prosaic description of what had existed in the times immediately before the captivity, in connection with the temple which is usually called Solomon’s.” 2. The historico-ideal view, that “the pattern exhibited to Ezekiel differed materially from anything that previously existed, and presented for the first time what should have been after the return from the captivity, though, from the remissness and corruption of the people, it never was properly realized.” 3. The Jewish-carnal view, held by certain Jewish writers, who maintain that Ezekiel’s description was actually followed, although in a necessarily imperfect manner, by the children of the captivity, and afterwards by Herod; but that “it waits to be properly accomplished by the Messiah, who, when He appears, shall cause the temple to be reared precisely as here described, and carry out all the other subordinate arrangements,”—a view which, strangely enough, is in substance held also by certain parties in the Christian Church, who “expect the vision to receive a complete and literal fulfilment at the period of Christ’s second coming.” 4. The Christian-spiritual or typical view, “according to which the whole representation was not intended to find either in Jewish or Christian times an express and formal realization, but was a grand, complicated symbol of the good God had in reserve for His Church, especially under the coming dispensation of the gospel. From the Fathers downwards this has been the prevailing view in the Christian Church. The greater part have held it, to the exclusion of every other; in particular, among the Reformers and their successors, Luther, Calvin, Capellus, Cocceius, Pfeiffer, followed by the majority of evangelical divines of our own country.”
To this fourth and last view Dr. Fairbairn himself strenuously adheres, expounding, illustrating, and defending it at considerable length, and with marked ability and success. We give his remarks in a somewhat condensed form.
“1. First of all, it is to be borne in mind that the description purports to be a vision,—a scheme of things exhibited to the mental eye of the prophet ‘in the visions of God.’ This alone marks it to be of an ideal character, as contradistinguished from anything that ever had been, or ever was to be found in actual existence after the precise form given to it in the description. Such we have uniformly seen to be the character of the earlier visions imparted to the prophet. The things described in chap, 1–3 and 8–11, which were seen by him ‘in the visions of God,’ were all of this nature. They presented a vivid picture of what either then actually existed or was soon to take place, but in a form quite different from the external reality. Not the very image or the formal appearance of things was given, but rather a compressed delineation of their inward being and substance. And such, too, was found to be the case with other portions, which are of an entirely similar nature, though not expressly designated visions; such, for example, as Ezekiel 4, 12, 21, all containing delineations and precepts, as if speaking of what was to be done and transacted in real life, and yet it is necessary to understand them as ideal representations, exhibiting the character, but not the precise form and lineaments, of the coming transactions. … Never at any period of His Church has God given laws and ordinances to it simply by vision; and when Moses was commissioned to give such in the wilderness, his authority to do so was formally based on the ground of his office being different from the ordinarily prophetical, and of his instructions being communicated otherwise than by vision (Num_12:6). So that to speak by way of vision, and at the same time in the form of precept, as if enjoining laws and ordinances materially differing from those of Moses, was itself a palpable and incontrovertible proof of the ideal character of the revelation. It was a distinct testimony that Ezekiel was no new lawgiver coming to modify or supplant what had been written by him with whom God spake face to face upon the mount.
“2. What has been said respecting the form of the prophet’s communication, is confirmed by the substance of it—as there is much in this that seems obviously designed to force on us the conviction of its ideal character. There are things in the description which, taken literally, are in the highest degree improbable, and even involve natural impossibilities.” Thus, for example, “according to the most exact modes of computation, the prophet’s measurements give for the outer wall of the temple a square of an English mile and about a seventh on each side, and for the whole city [i.e. including the oblation of holy ground for the prince, the priests, and the Levites] a space of between three and four thousand square miles. Now there is no reason to suppose that the boundaries of the ancient city exceeded two miles and a half in circumference (see Robinson’s Researches, vol. i.), while here the circumference of the wall of the temple is nearly twice as much.” And then, taking the land of Canaan at the largest, as including all that Israel ever possessed on both sides of the Jordan, it amounted only to somewhere between ten and eleven thousand square miles. Surely “the allotment of a portion nearly equal to one-half of the whole for the prince, the priests, and Levites is a manifest proof of the ideal character of the representation; the more especially, when we consider that that sacred portion is laid off in a regular square, with the temple on Mount Zion in the centre. … The measurements of the prophet were made to involve a literal incongruity, as did also the literal extravagances of the vision in chap. 38, 39, that men might be forced to look for something else than a literal accomplishment. …
“3. Some, perhaps, may be disposed to imagine that, as they expect certain physical changes to be effected upon the land before the prophecy can be carried into fulfilment, these may be adjusted in such a manner as to admit of the prophet’s measurements being literally applied. It is impossible, however, to admit such a supposition. For the boundaries of the land itself are given, not new boundaries of the prophet’s own, but those originally laid down by Moses. And as the measurements of the temple and city are out of all proportion to these, no alterations can be made on the physical condition of the country that could bring the one into proper agreement with the other. Then there are other things in the description, which, if they could not of themselves so conclusively prove the impossibility of a literal sense as the consideration arising from the measurements, lend great force to this consideration, and, on any other supposition than their being parts of an ideal representation, must wear an improbable and fanciful aspect. Of this kind is the distribution of the remainder of the land in equal portions among the twelve tribes, in parallel sections, running straight across from east to west, without any respect to the particular circumstances of each, or their relative numbers. More especially, the assignment of five of these parallel sections to the south of the city, which, after making allowance for the sacred portion, would leave at the farthest a breadth of only three or four miles a piece! Of the same kind also is the supposed separate existence of the twelve tribes, which now, at least, can scarcely be regarded otherwise than a natural impossibility, since it is an ascertained fact that such separate tribeships no longer exist; the course of Providence has been ordered so as to destroy them; and once destroyed, they cannot possibly be reproduced. … Of the same kind, farther, is ‘the very high mountain’ on which the vision of the temple was presented to the eye of the prophet; for as this unquestionably refers to the old site of the temple, the little eminence on which it stood could only be designated thus in a moral or ideal, and not in a literal sense. Finally, of the same kind is the account given of the stream issuing from the eastern threshold of the temple, and flowing into the Dead Sea, which, both for the rapidity of its increase and for the quality of its waters, is unlike anything that ever was known in Judea, or in any other region of the world. Putting all together, it seems as if the prophet had taken every possible precaution, by the general character of the delineation, to debar the expectation of a literal fulfilment; and I should despair of being able in any case to draw the line of demarcation between the ideal and the literal, if the circumstances now mentioned did not warrant us in looking for something else than a fulfilment according to the letter of the vision.
“4. Yet there is the farther consideration to be mentioned, viz. that the vision of the prophet, as it must, if understood literally, imply the ultimate restoration of the ceremonials of Judaism, so it inevitably places the prophet in direct contradiction to the writers of the New Testament. The entire and total cessation of the peculiarities of Jewish worship is as plainly taught by our Lord and His apostles as language could do it, and on grounds which are not of temporary, but of permanent validity and force. The word of Christ to the woman of Samaria: ‘Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father,’ is alone conclusive of the matter; for if it means anything worthy of so solemn an asseveration, it indicates that Jerusalem was presently to lose its distinctive character, and a mode of worship to be introduced capable of being celebrated in any other place as well as there. But when we find the apostles afterwards contending for the cessation of the Jewish ritual, because suited only to a church ‘in bondage to the elements of the world,’ and consisting of what were comparatively but ‘weak and beggarly elements;’ and when, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we also find the disannulling of the Old Covenant, with its Aaronic priesthood and carnal ordinances, argued at length, and especially ‘because of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof,’ that is, its own inherent imperfections, we must certainly hold, either that the shadowy services of Judaism are finally and for ever gone, or that these sacred writers very much misrepresented their Master’s mind regarding them. No intelligent and sincere Christian can adopt the latter alternative; he ought, therefore, to rest in the former. And he will do so, in the rational persuasion, that as in the wise administration of God there must ever be a conformity in the condition of men to the laws and ordinances under which they are placed, so the carnal institutions, which were adapted to the Church’s pupilage, can never, in the nature of things, be in proper correspondence with her state of manhood, perfection, and millennial glory. To regard the prophet here as exhibiting a prospect founded on such an unnatural conjunction, is to ascribe to him the foolish part of seeking to have the new wine of the kingdom put back into the old bottles again, and while occupying himself with the highest hopes of the Church, treating her only to a showy spectacle of carnal superficialities. We have far too high ideas of the spiritual insight and calling of an Old Testament prophet, to believe that it was possible for him to act so unseemly a part, or contemplate a state of things so utterly anomalous. And we are perfectly justified by the explicit statement of Scripture in saying, that ‘a temple with sacrifices now would be the most daring denial of the all-sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ, and of the efficacy of the blood of His atonement. He who sacrificed before, confessed the Messiah; he who should sacrifice now, would most solemnly and sacrilegiously deny Him.’1
“5. Holding the description, then, in this last vision to be conclusively of an ideal character, we advance a step farther, and affirm that the idealism here is precisely of the same kind as that which appeared in some of the earlier visions,—visions that must necessarily have already passed into fulfilment, and which therefore may justly be regarded as furnishing a key to the right understanding of the one before us. The leading characteristic of those earlier visions, which coincide in nature with this, we have found to be the historical cast of their idealism. The representation of things to come is thrown into the mould of something similar in the past, and presented as simply a reproduction of the old, or a returning back again of what is past, only with such diversities as might be necessary to adapt it to the altered circumstances contemplated; while still the thing meant was, not that the outward form, but that the essential nature of the past should revive.” In this connection, Dr. Fairbairn refers to the vision of the iniquity-bearing in Ezekiel 4; to the sojourn in the wilderness spoken of in Ezekiel 20; to the ideal representation given of the king of Tyre in Eze_28:11-19; and to the prediction of Egypt’s humiliation in Eze_29:1-16. “Now in all these cases,” he goes on to remark, “of an apparent, we should entirely err if we looked for an actual repetition of the past. It is the nature of the transactions and events, not their precise form or external conditions, that is unfolded to our view. The representation is of an ideal kind, and the history of the past merely supplies the mould into which it is cast. The spiritual eye of the prophet discerned the old, as to its real character, becoming alive again in the new. He saw substantially the same procedure followed again, and the unchangeable Jehovah must display the uniformity of His character and dealings by visiting it with substantially the same treatment. If, now, we bring the light furnished by those earlier revelations of the prophet, in respect to which we can compare the prediction with the fulfilment, so as to read by its help, and according to its instruction, the vision before us, we shall only be giving the prophet the benefit of the common rule, of interpreting a writer by a special respect to his own peculiar method, and explaining the more obscure by the more intelligible parts of his writings. In all the other cases referred to, where his representation takes the form of a revival of the past, we see it is the spirit and not the letter of the representation that is mainly to be regarded; and why should we expect it to be otherwise here? In this remarkable vision we have the old produced again, in respect to what was most excellent and glorious in Israel’s past condition,—its temple, with every necessary accompaniment of sacredness and attraction—the symbol of the divine presence within—the ministrations and ordinances proceeding in due order without—the prince and the priesthood—everything, in short, required to constitute the beau-ideal of a sacred commonwealth according to the ancient patterns of things. But, at the same time, there are such changes and alterations superinduced upon the old as sufficiently indicate that something far greater and better than the past was concealed under this antiquated form. Not the coming realities, in their exact nature and glorious fulness—not even the very image of these things, could the prophet as yet distinctly unfold. While the old dispensation lasted, they must be thrown into the narrow and imperfect shell of its earthly relations. But those who lived under that dispensation might get the liveliest idea they were able to obtain of the brighter future, by simply letting their minds rest on the past, as here modified and shaped anew by the prophet; just as now, the highest notions we can form to ourselves of the state of glory is by conceiving the best of the Church’s present condition refined and elevated to heavenly perfection. Exhibited at the time the vision was, and constructed as it is, one should no more expect to see a visible temple realizing the conditions, and a reoccupied Canaan, after the regular squares and parallelograms of the prophet, than in the case of Tyre to find her monarch literally dwelling in Eden, and, as a cherub, occupying the immediate presence of God, or to behold Israel sent back again to make trial of Egyptian bondage and the troubles of the desert. Whatever might be granted in providence of an outward conformity to the plan of the vision, it should only be regarded as a pledge of the far greater good really contemplated, and a help to faith in waiting for its proper accomplishment.
“6. But still, looking to the manifold and minute particulars given in the description, some may be disposed to think it highly improbable that anything short of an exact and literal fulfilment should have been intended. Had it been only a general sketch of a city and temple, as in the 60th chapter of Isaiah, and other portions of prophecy, they could more easily enter into the ideal character of the description, and understand how it might chiefly point to the better things of the gospel dispensation. But with so many exact measurements before them, and such an infinite variety of particulars of all sorts, they cannot conceive how there can be a proper fulfilment without corresponding objective realities. It is precisely here, however, that we are met by another very marked characteristic of our prophet. Above all the prophetical writers, he is distinguished, as we have seen, for his numberless particularisms. What Isaiah depicts in a few bold and graphic strokes, as in the case of Tyre, for example, Ezekiel spreads over a series of chapters, filling up the picture with all manner of details,—not only telling us of her singular greatness, but also of every element, far and near, that contributed to produce it, and not only predicting her downfall, but coupling it with every conceivable circumstance that might add to its mortification and completeness. We have seen the same features strikingly exhibited in the prophecy on Egypt, in the description of Jerusalem’s condition and punishment under the images of the boiling caldron (Ezekiel 24) and the exposed infant (Ezekiel 16), in the vision of the iniquity-bearing (Ezekiel 4), in the typical representation of going into exile (Ezekiel 13), and indeed in all the more important delineations of the prophet, which, even when descriptive of ideal scenes, are characterized by such minute and varied details as to give them the appearance of a most definitely shaped and lifelike reality.
“… Considering his peculiar manner, it was no more than might have been expected, that when going to present a grand outline of the good in store for God’s Church and people, the picture should be drawn with the fullest detail. If he has done so on similar but less important occasions, he could not fail to do it here, when rising to the very top and climax of all his revelations. For it is pre-eminently by means of the minuteness and completeness of his descriptions that he seeks to impress our minds with a feeling of the divine certainty of the truth disclosed in them, and to give, as it were, weight and body to our apprehensions.
“7. In farther support of the view we have given, it may also be asked, whether the feeling against a spiritual understanding of the vision, and a demand for outward scenes and objects literally corresponding to it, does not spring, to a large extent, from false notions regarding the ancient temple and its ministrations and ordinances of worship, as if these possessed an independent value apart from the spiritual truths they symbolically expressed? On the contrary, the temple, with all that belonged to it, was an embodied representation of divine realities. It presented to the eye of the worshippers a manifold and varied instruction respecting the things of God’s kingdom. And it was by what they saw embodied in those visible forms and external transactions that the people were to learn how they should think of God, and act toward Him in the different relations and scenes of life—when they were absent from the temple, as well as when they were near and around it. It was an image and emblem of the kingdom of God itself, whether viewed in respect to the temporary dispensation then present, or to the grander development everything was to receive at the advent of Christ. And it was one of the capital ‘errors of the Jews, in all periods of their history, to pay too exclusive a regard to the mere externals of the temple and its worship, without discerning the spiritual truths and principles that lay concealed under them. But such being the case, the necessity for an outward an literal realization of Ezekiel’s plan obviously alls to the ground. For if all connected with it was ordered and arranged chiefly for its symbolical value at any rate, why might not the description itself be given forth for the edification and comfort of the Church, on account of what it contained of symbolical instruction? Even if the plan had been fitted and designed for being actually reduced to practice, it would still have been principally with a view to its being a mirror in which to see reflected the mind and purposes of God. But if so, why might not the delineation itself be made to serve for such a mirror? In other words, why might not God have spoken to His Church of good things to come by the wise adjustment of a symbolical plan? … Let the same rules be applied to the interpretation of Ezekiel’s visionary temple which, on the express warrant of Scripture, we apply to Solomon’s literal one, and it will be impossible to show why, so far as the ends of instruction are concerned, the same great purposes might not be served by the simple delineation of the one, as by the actual construction of the other.2
“It is also not to be overlooked, in support of this line of reflection, that in other and earlier communications Ezekiel makes much account of the symbolical character of the temple and the things belonging to it. It is as a priest he gives us to understand at the outset, and for the purpose of doing priest-like service for the covenant-people, that he received his prophetical calling, and had visions of God displayed to him (see on Eze_1:1-3). In the series of visions contained in Ezekiel 8-11, the guilt of the people was represented as concentrating itself there, and determining God’s procedure in regard to it. By the divine glory being seen to leave the temple was symbolized the withdrawing of God’s gracious presence from Jerusalem; and by His promising to become for a little a sanctuary to the pious remnant in Chaldea, it was virtually said that the temple, as to its spiritual reality, was going to be transferred thither. This closing vision comes now as the happy counterpart of those earlier ones, giving promise of a complete rectification of preceding evils and disorders. It assured the Church that all should yet be set right again; nay, that greater and better things, should be found in the future than had ever been known in the past,—things too great and good to be presented merely under the old symbolical forms; these must be modelled and adjusted anew to adapt them to the higher objects in prospect. Nor is Ezekiel at all singular in this. The other prophets represent the coming future with a reference to the symbolical places and ordinances of the past, adjusting and modifying these to suit their immediate design. Thus Jeremiah says, in Ezekiel 31:38–40: ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the gate of Hananeel to the corner gate. And the measuring line shall go forth opposite to it still farther over the hill Gareb (the hill of the leprous), and shall compass about to Goath (the place of execution). And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kedron, unto the corner of the horse-gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord.’ That is, there shall be a rebuilt Jerusalem in token of the revival of God’s cause, in consequence of which even the places formerly unclean shall become holiness to the Lord: not only shall the loss be recovered, but also the evil inherent in the past purged out, and the cause of righteousness made completely triumphant. The sublime passage in Isaiah 60 is entirely parallel as to its general import. And in the two last chapters of Revelation we have a quite similar vision to the one before us, employed to set forth the ultimate condition of the redeemed Church. There are differences in the one as compared with the other, precisely as in the vision of Ezekiel there are differences as compared with anything that existed under the Old Covenant. In particular, while the temple forms the very heart and centre of Ezekiel’s plan, in John’s no temple whatever was to be seen. But in the two descriptions the same truth is symbolized, though in the last it appears in a state of more perfect development than in the other. The temple in Ezekiel, with God’s glory returned to it, bespoke God’s presence among His people to sanctify and bless them; the no-temple in John indicated that such a select spot was no longer needed, that the gracious presence of God was everywhere seen and felt. It is the same truth in both, only in the latter represented, in accordance with the genius of the new dispensation, as less connected with the circumstantials of place and form.
“8. It only remains to be stated, that in the interpretation of the vision we must keep carefully in mind the circumstances in which it was given, and look at it, not as from a New, but as from an Old Testament point of view. We must throw ourselves back as far as possible into the position of the prophet himself. We must think of him as having just seen the divine fabric which had been reared in the sacred and civil constitution of Israel dashed in pieces, and apparently become a hopeless wreck. But in strong faith in Jehovah’s word, and with divine insight into His future purposes, he sees that that never can perish which carries in its bosom the element of God’s unchangeableness; that the hand of the Spirit will assuredly be applied to raise up the old anew; and not only that, but also that it shall be inspired with fresh life and vigour, enabling it to burst the former limits, and rise into a greatness and perfection and majesty never known or conceived of in the past. He speaks, therefore, chiefly of gospel times, but as one still dwelling under the veil, and uttering the language of legal times. And of the substance of his communication, both as to its general correspondence with the past and its difference in particular parts, we submit the following summary, as given by Hävernick:—‘1. In the gospel times there is to be on the part of Jehovah a solemn occupation anew of His sanctuary, in which the entire fulness of the divine glory shall dwell and manifest itself. At the last there is to rise a new temple, diverse from the old, to be made every way suitable to that grand and lofty intention, and worthy of it; in particular, of vast compass for the new community, and with a holiness stretching over the entire extent of the temple, so that in this respect there should no longer be any distinction between the different parts. Throughout, everything is subjected to the most exact and particular appointments; individual parts, and especially such as had formerly remained indeterminate, obtain now an immediate divine sanction; so that every idea of any kind of arbitrariness must be altogether excluded from this temple. Accordingly, this sanctuary is the thoroughly sufficient, perfect manifestation of God for the salvation of His people (Eze_40:1 to Eze_43:12). 2. From this sanctuary, as from the new centre of all religious life, there gushes forth an unbounded fulness of blessings upon the people, who in consequence attain to a new condition. There come also into being a new glorious worship, a truly acceptable priesthood and theocratical ruler, and equity and righteousness reign among the entire community, who, being purified from all stains, rise indeed to possess the life that is in God (Eze_43:13 to Eze_47:12). 3. To the people who have become renewed by such blessings, the Lord gives the land of promise; Canaan is a second time divided among them, where, in perfect harmony and blessed fellowship, they serve the living God, who abides and manifests Himself among them’3 (Eze_47:13-23).”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, pp. 436–450.—W. F.]
5. In connection with the wall with which the description begins, mention is forthwith made (Eze_40:5) of the “house.” This makes clear in the outset what is the principal building, to which all else is subordinate, although the wall is called a “building.” However large, then, that which the wall comprehends may appear to be,—and it is said in 40:2 to be “a city-like building,”—the “house” is still the kernel. Comp. the measuring from it in 40:7 sq. Hence the symbolized idea is the dwelling of Jehovah as a permanent one, especially when we compare Eze_37:26 sq. As type, the realization of the idea is to be found in the Word become flesh (Joh_1:14), as also the χαι νυν ἐστιν (Joh_4:23) farther shows that the worship in spirit and in truth, and thereby the fulfilling of the worship at Jerusalem, has come with Christ. Salvation (ἡ σωτηρια) is of the Jews, as our vision also sets forth in an architectonic form; they worship what they know. But as the law was given by Moses, so grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The original influence of the sanctuary on the first constituting of Israel as a people through the making of a divine covenant is still held by in Eze_37:26 sq. (Yes, Israel is Jehovah’s family, His house, εἰς τα ἰδια ἠλθε, Joh_1:11; Jehovah’s covenant with Israel is a marriage-covenant, Ezekiel 16.) The visibility of Jehovah’s dwelling, even in the vision here, although spiritual, must be looked on as a pledge of the entire relation of Jehovah to Israel, and especially of the promise of the Messiah. This is the sacramental character of Ezekiel’s vision of the temple specially insisted on by Hengstenberg. But the temple as the abode of Jehovah is a place of farther revelation, for Jehovah is the Self-revealing One. The very name Jehovah contains a pledge for the whole future of the kingdom of God, the Church of the future. Now this name, as is well known, coincides most essentially and intimately with the destination of this “house;” Ezekiel repeatedly emphasizes the fact that it is the name of His holiness, just as in connection therewith the sanctification of Israel is again and again expressed. Now, as this expresses also the ultimate aim of all Jehovah’s revelation in Israel, we must have got before us in the sanctuary the perspective to the end of God’s way with Israel and mankind in general, the vision of Israel fulfilling its destiny of being God’s tabernacle with men, and the consummation of the world in glory, Revelation 21, 22. But the holiness of Jehovah, the sanctification of Israel, is signified forthwith by the wall “round about the house.”
6. The significance of the wall, however, comes first info consideration in respect to the court of the people, so that in special the sanctification of Israel as the end and object of Jehovah’s dwelling in their midst is before all thus symbolically expressed. If the “house” is the central point of the whole, still the court completes the idea of the house; as we have the temple in its entirety, as it was meant to be, only when it has the two courts conjoined with it. The reference to the city, and farther to the whole land, which undoubtedly was always contained in the idea of the court, is moreover expressly given shape to in Ezekiel (comp. Ezekiel 48). The court here represents the Israel in the widest extent that appears before Jehovah, as it lives in the light of His countenance and of intercourse with Him; that is to say, it refers to the idea proper of a holy people. When, accordingly, the visionary-prophetic description in Ezekiel exhibits a striking difference from the brevity, incompleteness, and indefiniteness of the historical account in the books of Kings and Chronicles, this indicates, as respects the idea, another Israel than the people had hitherto been. Hävernick remarks on “the wide compass, in order to contain the new community,” and “the sanctuary extending itself on all sides of the temple indiscriminately,” “that which was formerly undefined is now,” as he says, “to receive a higher, a divine sanction.” Bähr, speaking of Solomon’s temple, says that the “almost total indefiniteness” of its court is owing to its “human character” in contrast to the idea and purpose of the house, and that even the court of the tabernacle, although measured and defined more exactly than that of the temple, shows numbers and measurements which indicate “imperfection and incompleteness.” This latter statement might possibly give a hint as to Ezekiel’s description of the courts of the temple, which is, on the contrary, so exact and detailed, and would at least be plainer than what Bähr says of the human as “not divine,” etc., while yet he must concede to the court a mediate divineness. Israel in the wilderness might, as Jehovah’s host, as the people under His most special guidance, still in some measure stamp this relation on the court of the tabernacle. In Solomon’s temple, on the contrary, the self-development, left more to the freedom of the people, especially as they now had kings like other nations, and when their position under Solomon was so influential, would be expressed in the characteristic indefiniteness of the people’s part in the sanctuary. But the Israel of the future, Ezekiel in fine would say, will be exactly and distinctly Jehovah’s possession. Hävernick (and Bähr too) cites for the conformation of the court, “shaping itself according to the need of the people and the times,” its well-known division by Solomon into two courts. After referring to 2Ch_20:5, and the various annexes, the cells, and the frequent defilement of this locality (2Ki_23:11-12), he concludes thus: “The treading of the courts (Isa_1:12) has now come to an end; the repentant people are ashamed of their sins, and draw near to their God in a new spirit, Eze_43:10. The new condition of the courts is a figure, an expression of the new condition of the community. (Comp. Zec_3:7; Rev_11:2.) Thus in Ezekiel’s symbolism the new garnishing of the courts comes to view as the quickening anew, the glorious restoration of the community of Israel.” [Comp. additional note on p. 388.—W. F.]
7. But the description in our vision begins with the gates, dwelling specially on the east gate. For the copiousness with which the gates are described, comp. Eze_43:11; Eze_48:31 sq. Hävernick, against Böttcher, dwells on their significance (p. 641 sq.); makes them since Solomon have acquired under his successors the “disturbing character of the incidental;” remarks that the law says nothing definitely regarding them; points out the profane use to which they were put (Jer_20:2); and maintains that, on the contrary, “the prophet assigns to them a definite relation to the whole of the building, so that they are thoroughly in conformity with the idea of the building.” But the contrast to Ezekiel 8 and those that follow is to be very specially observed. “Brought to the gates of the temple, the prophet had been witness of the idol-worship prevalent there. And he had seen the Shechinah departing out of the east gate. To this we have now a beautiful and complete contrast. Henceforth Jehovah will no longer see the holy passages in and out so contemptuously desecrated and defiled (Eze_43:7 sq.); on the contrary, the holy bands that keep the feast and offer sacrifice shall go in and out with the prince of the people in their midst (Eze_46:8 sq.; comp. Rev_21:25 sq.). But above all, the glory of Jehovah shall enter in by the east gate (Eze_43:1 sq.). Hence this gate is the pattern for all the others,” etc.
8. From the relation on the whole to the temple of Solomon, Bunsen thinks that “in general the old temple was the model;” only, on the one hand, the disposition of the parts was “simpler and less showy,” and on the other, “an effort was exhibited to attain to symmetry in the proportions and regularity in general.” While Tholuck and others remark on “the colossal size” in different respects, as indicating the pre-eminence of the future community, Hengstenberg finds throughout “always very moderate dimensions.” Unmistakeably there is a reference throughout to the temple which Ezekiel had seen with his own eyes; this explains the brevity and incompleteness partially attaching to the description, although in respect to the sanctuary proper this peculiarity of Ezekiel, who is otherwise so pictorial, demands some farther explanation. That the knowledge of the temple, whenever it could be supposed, is supposed in our vision (comp. on Ezekiel 41), especially when what was seen presented itself, as it were, in short-hand to the prophet, is only what we should naturally expect. But it corresponded also to the typology of Solomon and the glorious age of Solomon, which had entered so deeply into the consciousness of Israel, and was so popular, when Solomon’s temple forms the foil for the still future revelation of glory and the form it assumes. Ezekiel’s vision presupposes, indeed, that which it passes over in silence, but certainly not always that which it suppresses, as having to be supplied from the days of Solomon. A supposition of this kind is least of all permissible for the metallic ornaments, of which nothing whatever is said in passages in which, on the contrary, e.g. Eze_41:22, what is made “of wood” is particularly mentioned, or when explanations are made, such, for example, as: “This is the table which is before Jehovah.” The old is presupposed, and also something new and different is inserted in the old when not put in its place. What Hävernick observes generally regarding the use made of the sacred symbols of the Old Testament and the allusions to the law by our prophet, may be applied to the way in which reference is made to Solomon’s temple and the knowledge of it supposed: “He lives therein with his whole soul, but by the Spirit of God he is led beyond the merely legal consciousness, he rises superior to the legal symbolism,” etc. In the prophetic description in the chapters before us, we can perceive a struggle as of a dawning day with the clouds of morning; and if something testifies to the derivation of our vision from a higher source than a fancy, however pious, would be, we may take that something to be the sudden advent of peculiar and quite unexpected lights, which have in them at least something strange and surprising in the case of Ezekiel, who was not only familiar with ancestral tenets and priestly tradition, but strongly attached to both. One might sometimes say a less than Solomon is here (Mat_12:42), and yet not be satisfied with Hengstenberg’s reference to the troublous times in which temple and city were to be rebuilt, but (as Umbreit beautifully says) will feel constrained to take still more into consideration the “worth of the most significant inwardness” for “the poverty of the immediately succeeding times,” in view of “the new temple for the new covenant,” so that whatever of “apparently meagre simplicity” attaches to our temple-vision may have to be read according to the rule given in Mat_6:29. Umbreit aptly says: “In the interior of the abode of the Holy One of Israel, quite a different appearance indeed is presented from that in Solomon’s temple, and the splendour of gold and brilliant hues is in vain sought for therein; no special mention is made of the sacred vessels, and only the altar of incense is changed into a table of the Lord, which, instead of all other symbols, simply suggests the purely spiritual impartation of the divine life. The ark of the covenant was destroyed by the fire of God, and our prophet no more than Jeremiah cared to know about a new one being made, as also, indeed, it was actually wanting in the so-called second temple. It is enough that the cherubim resume their place in the sanctuary, and, entering through the open doors, now fill the whole empty house, in which the distinctions of the old temple are very significantly left out; for we no longer see the veils, and the whole temple has become a holy of holies.” In the same strain Hävernick says: “If Jehovah wills to dwell among a new people, He must do so in a new manner, although in one analogous to the former. It is the same temple, but its precincts have become different, in order to contain a much more numerous people; and all the arrangements and adjustments here testify to the faithfulness and zeal with which the Lord is sought and served. The whole sacred temple area has become a holy of holies; in this temple there is no place for the ark of the covenant (Jer_3:16), instead of which comes the full revelation of the Shechinah.” On the one hand, the legal form of worship is retained in every iota, or tacitly supposed; on the other, a new element, as with Eze_41:22, almost exactly what Christendom calls “the Lord’s table,” sheds its light over everything previously existing. On the one hand, the numbers and proportions express a magnitude and beauty, a majestic harmony, surpassing both the “tent” and the “temple” (Eze_41:1); on the other, there are unmistakeable indications, as respects the μορφη θεου, in the simplicity and plainness of the whole and the parts, of an ἐν ὁμοιωματι ἀμθρωπων γωνομενος, a χενωσις, and ταπεινωσις and here and there even a hint is perceptible of the outward poverty of the Church in the last times. Moreover, as the temple of Ezekiel consolingly presented to those who returned from the exile, approaching the more closely to them as respects its human character, its divinity and spirituality in their temple building, so again it contained a sacred criticism on the splendid edifice erected by Herod 500 years later (of the immensa opulentia of which the Roman Tacitus speaks),—a criticism which He who walked in this last temple of Israel, and who was Himself the fulfilling of the temple, completed κατα πνευμα, and as κρισις, κριμα.
9. The treatment of the side-building (Eze_41:5 sq.), especially in its connection with the temple-house, and the detailed description, kept now first in due correspondence with the sanctuary, of the building on the gizrah (Eze_41:12 sq.), are worthy of observation, although not so important as Hävernick makes them. With a touch of human nature, Hengstenberg connects the side chambers with Ezekiel’s dearest youthful reminiscences, reminding us at the same time of Samuel, who, as well as Eli, had even his bedroom in such a side-chamber of the tabernacle. According to Hävernick, Ezekiel’s description is meant to keep the annexe in fairest proportion to the sanctuary itself, etc.; it is the perfect building, instead of the still defective and imperfect one described in 1 Kings 6. The side-building and the gizrah are evidently distinguished in relation to the temple as addition and contrast. The description, too, given of both, suggests a still farther realization of the temple-idea, as regards priestly service and other modes of showing reverence to God, and also of the “in spirit and in truth” for this future worship.
10. As to the temple of Ezekiel’s vision considered æsthetically, Bähr’s thoughtful analysis (Der sal. Tempel, pp. 7 sq., 269 sq.) is so much the more applicable, as this visionary temple is still more animated and dominated by the religious idea of Israel, which in its futurity is the Messianic idea. The temple before us is in the highest sense of the word music of the future, although only a variation of an old theme. The import of this old theme, Solomon’s temple and the original tabernacle, will first find full expression in Ezekiel’s temple, whether its measures and numbers are the old ones or different. We must not employ here the classical criterion of the beautiful; sensuous beauty of form is not to be found here. The adornment of the edifice is limited to cherubim and palms, either together or separate; and of the cherubim it must be granted that, æsthetically considered, they are figures the reverse of beautiful. We meet, however, with nothing tasteless or repulsive, like the dog or bird-headed human forms, the green and blue faces of the Egyptian gods, or the many armed idols of the Indian cultus. But what a difference is there between the temple of Ezekiel’s vision and the fancy edifice, for example, the description of which is to be found in the younger Titurel (strophe 311–415, edited by Hahn; comp. Sulp. Boisseree on the description of the temple of the Holy Grail, Munich 1834),—the wondrous sanctuary on Mont Salvage, in which the ideal German architecture consecrates its poetic expression under the influence of reminiscences of Rev_21:11 sq.! (The chapel of the Holy Cross at Castle Karlstein, near Prague, presents to this day a partial imitation, and on a reduced scale, of the temple of the Grail.) A large fortress with walls and innumerable towers surrounds the temple of the Grail, like an extensive and dense forest of ebony trees, cypresses, and cedars. Instead of the guard-rooms (Ezekiel 40) and the express charge of the house (Ezekiel 44) of Ezekiel, are the guardians and protectors of the Grail,—the templars, a band of spiritual knights of the noblest kind, humble, pure, faithful, chaste men. And whatever of precious stones, imagery, gold, and pearls the poetic fancy was able to imagine, is collected around the shrine of the Holy Grail. In the heathen temple, with its attempts to represent the divine, and especially in the Greek temple, conformably to the innate artistic taste of the Greeks, with such beautiful natural scenery cherishing and demanding this taste, where sky, earth, and sea on every side suggest the divine as also the beautiful, the execution, form, and shape, distribution and arrangement of the parts, as well as all its decorations, correspond to the demands of æsthetics; but already in Solomon’s temple the ethical-religious principle of the covenant, and consequently of the theocratic presence of Jehovah among His people, penetrates and pervades everything else. Thus the tabernacle, and also the whole temple building, culminates in the holy of holies, which contains the ark of the covenant with the tables of the law, and in which the atonement par excellence is completed. A relation like this, then, is served by any form which rather fulfils its office than strives after artistic configuration, and the form has answered its purpose, provided it only is a religiously significant form. “Solomon’s temple,” says Bähr, “cannot stand as a great work of art before the forum of the æsthetic.” Human art in general goes along with nature, hence its mainly heathenish, its cosmic (κοσμος, “decoration”) character. Jehovah, on the contrary, is holiness, and no necessity of nature of any kind, no nationality as such, no deification of nature, no magic consecration binds Him to Israel, but the freest covenant grace, which has as its aim the sanctification of Israel as His people, with a view to all mankind. That Phœnician artists executed the building of Solomon’s temple (comp. for this the exhaustive critique of Bähr in the work quoted above, p. 250 sq.)—although (Krause, die drei ältesten Kunsturkunden der Freimaurer-brüderschaft, Dresden 1819) freemasonry makes grand masters after Solomon, who is held to represent the Father (omnipotence), King Hiram as Son (wisdom), and Hiram Abif as Spirit (harmony, beauty)—concerns chiefly the technical working in wood and metal. If the artistic execution, thus limited, of the temple decoration bore on it a Phœnician character, and the employment of table work coated with silver showed signs of Hither Asia in general, yet the Phœnician element, this mundane configuration, would not amount to much more than what the Greek language was, in which the gospel of the New Covenant, as well as that of the Old, came before the world. But a specifically Christian element, the really fundamental element in the first and oldest Christian church architecture, namely, that what is also called (it is true) “God’s house” is simply an enclosure of the congregation (οἰκο; ἐκκλησιας, των ἐκκλησιων οἰκος, domus ecclesiœ), is an approximation to the extension of the outer court in Ezekiel, which extension is quite in unison with the Christological method of our prophet, with the peculiar regard he pays to the people of the Messiah (Introd. § 9). Comp. 2Co_6:16; Eph_2:20 sq.; 1Pe_2:4. The Christian community forms in future the house of God, the temple; as also its development, externally and internally, is in the New Testament called edification, building. Voltaire has declared that he could remember in all antiquity no public building, no national temple, so small as Solomon’s; and J. D. Michaelis held that his house in Göttingen was larger; whereas Hengstenberg ascribes to Solomon’s temple, “inclusive of the courts, an imposing size.” The prominence given in Ezekiel to the east gate of the new temple, although the holy of holies still lies towards the west, may remind us of the projecting eastward of Christian church buildings from the earliest age, and especially of the Concha closing them on the east. As the glory of the God of Israel comes from the east (Ezekiel 43), so in the east is the Dayspring from on high (Luk_1:78; the Sun of Righteousness, Mal. 3:20 [4:2]), the Light of the world (Joh_8:12; Isaiah 4), which has brought a new day, the precursor and pledge of the future new morning and day of eternal glory (Rom_13:12; 2Ti_4:8). If the light-concealing stained windows of the Middle Ages are not to be traced back to the parts shut up and covered in Ezekiel’s temple, still the powerful tendency to elevation upwards, so appropriate to the Gothic style, has at least some support in the pillars (Eze_40:14), and even suggests an ἀνω τον νουν (Php_3:20; Col_3:1 sq.).
11. The designation of the temple in Ezekiel 43. as the place of Jehovah’s throne, etc., might make us suppose the existence of the ark of the covenant, unless its significance as (to borrow Bähr’s words) “centre, heart, root, and soul of the whole edifice” necessarily demanded an express mention, when, for example, we have in Ezekiel most exact accounts of the altars; comp on Eze_41:22. Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8) first became what it was meant to be from the fact that the ark of the covenant came into it. But the post-exile temple had an empty holy of holies, as Tacitus (Hist. v. 9) relates of Pompey, that “he by his right as conqueror entered the temple, from which time it became known that no divine image was in it, but only an empty abode, and that there was nothing in the mystery of the Jews.” (Comp. Josephus, Bell. Jud. v. 5. 5) The most probable supposition is, that the ark of the covenant disappeared at the destruction of Solomon’s temple, that it was consumed by fire. For the traditions of what became of it are mere myths; e.g. in 2 Maccabees 2, that Jeremiah, among other things, by divine command hid the ark in a cave in Mount Nebo, but when they who had gone with him could not again find the place, he rebuked them, and pointed to the future, when the Lord would again be gracious to His people and reveal i to them, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud would appear as formerly. [The Mishna makes it be hid in a cave under the temple, a statement which the Rabbins endeavour to confirm from 2Ch_35:3. Carpzov supposes the ark included in 2Ch_36:10, and holds that it was restored by Cyrus, Ezr_1:7; a statement which Winer rightly cannot find in that passage, but rather the reverse; while at the same time he is unable to agree with Hitzig, who concludes from Jer_3:16 that the ark of the covenant was no longer in existence even in the days of this prophet. According to the Mishna (Joma v. 2), there had been put in its place an altar-stone rising three fingers above the ground, on which the high priest on the great day of atonement set the censer.] That the symbolical designation of the temple expressed in Ezekiel with reference to the ark of the covenant is simply a legal technical term may be the more readily believed, as in certain respects in contrast thereto, at least in distinction therefrom (although this is strangely denied by Hengst.), the whole precincts of the temple, in consequence of the re-entrance of the glory of Jehovah, became a holy of holies in accordance with the law of this house; comp. on Eze_43:12. W. Neumann expounds Jer_3:16 of the new birth of Israel, when Jehovah will be glorified in the midst of His saints, that these shall no longer celebrate the ark of the covenant. He rejects the opinion of Abendana, who, from 43:17 of the same chapter, inferred that the whole of Jerusalem is to be a holy dwelling-place, and holds to Rashi’s view, that the entire community will be holy, and that Jehovah will dwell in its midst as if it were the ark of the covenant. “For the ark of the covenant as such is a symbolical vessel. As it contains within it the law, which testifies to the covenant (Deu_4:13; Deu_26:17 sq.), so the covenant-people are represented in it, the bearers of the law through worldly life, until the days when it shall be written on the hearts of the saints (Jer_31:31 sq.). The Capporeth represents the transformation of the creature transformed by Israel’s perfection in the Lord (?), the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, Isa_66:22-23. If this is the thought which lies at the root of the symbolism, then when the ark of the covenant is no longer kept in commemoration, the shadows of the Old Covenant have passed away, all has become new, and the redeemed are the holy seed (Isa_6:13), to whom Jehovah’s law has become the law of their life.” The eloquent silence in our prophet regarding the ark of the covenant will, moreover, be understood in respect to the man who speaks as Jehovah (comp. on Eze_43:7), that is, in a Messianic-christological sense, notwithstanding that Ezekiel’s Christology (Introd. § 9) has the Messianic people principally in view.
12. Ezekiel’s vision rests throughout on the law of Moses. Were it otherwise in our chapters, Ezekiel could have been no prophet of Israel, nor the Mosaic law the law of God. This legal character was, moreover, well adapted to put an arrest on a mere fancy portraiture, if not to make it altogether impossible. As to the departure from the law of Moses, which, however, he must concede, Philippson maintains that it is “not great,” and “is limited to the number of victims” (? ?). Hengstenberg denies any difference, calling it merely “alleged.” On the other hand, Hävernick, with whom many agree, speaks of Ezekiel’s “many differences and definitions going beyond the law of the Old Covenant,” while at the same time he rejects the idea that the prophet forms the transition to the farther improved system of the Pentateuch (Vatke), and affirms against J. D. Michaelis the unchangeable character of the law of Moses. Hävernick says: “These discrepancies rather show with so much the more stringent necessity, that a new condition of things is spoken of in the prophet, in which the old law will continue in glorious transformation, not abrogated, but fulfilled and to be fulfilled, coming into full truth and reality.” Bunsen speaks to this effect: “Ezekiel’s design was to make the ritual more spiritual, and to break the tyranny of the high-priesthood. For mention is nowhere made of a high priest, whereas a high-priestly obligation, although slightly relaxed, is laid upon the priests (Eze_44:22). The daily evening sacrifice falls away, and among the yearly feasts we miss Pentecost and the Great Day of Atonement, all which accords with the absence of the high priest and the ark of the covenant; instead of these comes an additional feast of atonement at the beginning of the year (Eze_45:18 sq.), and the amount of the morning sacrifice and the festal sacrifices is enhanced. There is, indeed, much reference to the original law throughout, and it is anew set forth with respect to transgressions and abuses that had crept in, special weight being laid on the precepts concerning clean and unclean (Eze_44:17 sq.; comp. Eze_22:26); but still more does Ezekiel go beyond the law, and gives additional force to its precepts.” We must call to mind the position generally of prophecy to the law of Moses. As prophecy is provided for in the law in the proper place (comp. our Comment on Deut. p. 134), namely, when Moses’ departure demanded it, so its foundation is traced back in Deu_18:16 sq. to Sinai, and thus it is thenceforth comprehended historically in the legislation. But although it thus stands and falls with the law, having by its own account, like all the institutions of Israel, its norm in the law, yet it rejoices in its extraordinary fellowship with God, its divine endowment and inspiration. And this not in order, like the priesthood, to teach after the letter, and to serve in the ceremonial; but the provision made and charge given already on Mount Sinai, as they make the official duty of prophecy to be the representation of God’s holy will against every other will, so they give to it the character of a legitimate as well as legitimatized officiality, which, like Moses, has to serve as the chosen means of intermediation in relation to the will of the Most High Lawgiver revealing itself; the calling is ordained in Israel for the continuity of the divine legislation. This latter qualification of the prophets of Jehovah in Israel afforded a foundation for their deepening of the legal worship, as opposed to hypocrisy and torpid formality, for their spiritual interpretation of the ceremonial; as, in view of their position towards the future, a consideration of the ecclesiastical and civil law in their bearing on the future followed as a matter of course. The idea which for this end dominates Ezekiel’s closing vision is the holiness of Jehovah, and the corresponding sanctification of Israel, their separation to Jehovah as a possession. It is the root idea which the law expresses and symbolizes in all its forms, whether of morality, worship, or polity. And as it is said already in Exodus 19 : “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests,” so it is also said in 1 Peter 2 of the Christian community, that they who are lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (comp. 1Pe_2:9). Peter thus makes a New Testament use of the same mode of expression regarding worship, which, carried out in Old Testament form, is Ezekiel’s representation of Jehovah’s service of the future, when Jehovah shall dwell for ever in His people. Comp. Eze_20:40. Ezekiel’s position, therefore, to the law of Moses is not that of freedom from legal restraints,—a position which might be subjective and arbitrary,—but what he applies from the law for the illustration of the future, and the way in which he does so, passing by some things, more strongly emphasizing others, or putting them into new shapes, derives its legal justification from the idea of the law as it shall be realized in a true Israel, that is, the Messianic Israel. That the Messiah, who says in John 17 : “And for them I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth,” remains as a person in the background, is quite in correspondence with Ezekiel’s Christology (Introd. § 9), which, as already said, characterizes the times and the salvation of the Messiah through the Messianic people.
13. “The proper significance of the new temple lies in the full revelation of Jehovah in His sanctuary, in the new and living fellowship into which God enters with His people by this His dwelling among them” (Häv.). As being a return, which it is in relation to Ezekiel 11, the entrance of the glory of the Eternal has, although with a New Testament application, corresponding to the: ἐγω μεθʼ ὑμων πασας τας ἡμερας ἑως της συντελειας του αἰωνος (Mat_28:20), also its Apocalyptic significance, as John says before the close of his Revelation (Ezekiel 22): ναι ἐρχου, Κυριε ʼΙησου.
14. If the idea of the court is unquestionably that of the people, whose Messianic perfection as Israel Ezekiel is to behold, then, since everything on the mountain of the vision here is “most holy” (Eze_43:12), the immediately following detailed description of the altar of burnt-offering and its consecration can only point to the future manifestation of Jehovah’s holiness and the sanctification of His peculiar people (1Pe_2:9). “What holds good of the altar refers also to the whole court; the blessing of the altar includes in it that of the community. By means of the expiation of the altar, the purpose of the divine love, to see a holy people assembled, is effected. The first act, consequently, in which the significance of the new sanctuary is expressed, is the complete expiation of the people, and its efficacy in this respect far surpasses in extent and glory that of the old sanctuary” (Häv.). Accordingly, if they who are sanctified are perfected εἰς το διηνεκες by the προσφορα μια (Heb_10:14), the full and complete offering on Golgotha, then the idea also of this altar of burnt-offering upon the very high mountain must be fulfilled. But as the offering which fulfils is the most personal priestly offering, so the sanctification of the people in Ezekiel’s typical temple takes place on the altar of burnt-offering in the priests’ court, which therefore still remains separated from the court of the people, as in Solomon’s temple, whereas in the tabernacle there was only one court. The symbolical representation of the dominant idea of the sanctification of the people was, from their being represented by the priests, rightly localized in a priests’ court, which gives it due prominence here, where everything hinges on locality and arrangement. Thus also, as Bähr observes, in the camp of Israel the priestly family in its four main branches encamped close around the sanctuary on its four sides. [Comp. with this section the Additional Note on Eze_43:13-27, p. 410.—W. F.]
15. As the shutting of the east gate (Ezekiel 44) for the future puts the key of Ezekiel’s temple into the hand of Him who, according to the typology of the law and the prediction of the prophets, is the Coming One of Israel, so the prince’s sitting and eating in the east gate must be taken as throwing light on the Messianic future of the people of the promise. It is very evident that by the “prince” is not to be understood the high priest of Israel. This interpretation, which was a Maccabean prolepsis, has now been abandoned. Kliefoth, Keil, and Hitzig justly dispute the indefinite sense which Hävernick gives to the נָשִׂיא, yet they do not sufficiently attend to what may be said in defence of Hävernick’s indefiniteness, and which certainly tells against those who make the future theocratic ruler to be one with the King David of Ezekiel 34, 37, because he too is called נָשִׂיא, as indeed he is also called רֹעֶה. They must own, however, that there is a difference between: “My servant David shall be king over them,” between the “one shepherd” who is “prince for ever,” and the הַנָּשִׂיא here, who comes into consideration quâ נָשִׂיא. Now if this must be granted, then it is only with justice that Hävernick observes that the designation נָשִׂיא sets before us the original, or, as he calls it, “the purely natural constitution of the Israelites” (Exo_22:27 [28]), although not so much because “the time of the exile had again limited the people to this original constitution, or left them only a poor remainder of it,” as because, looking, as in our vision we always should do, at the Messiah and His times, the discrepancy between theocracy and kingly power, which showed itself at the rise of the latter under Samuel, is to be adjusted on the original ground of the peculiarity of Israel. The נָשִׂיא is the prince of the tribe, as the tribal constitution of Israel put the juridical power and the executive into the hands of the natural superiors, the heads, of families and tribes. And even when in time of need, as in the days of the judges, a dictatorship, the power of one over all others, is had recourse to, it is potestas delegata, and is on both sides considered as nothing else. With a tribal constitution such as the natural constitution of Israel was, the want of an outward centrum unitatis might in itself be painfully felt, and the instituting of one be looked on as a political necessity; but that for Israel the necessity of the time as such should have demanded a permanent institution of the kind, is strikingly refuted by the days of the judges, for the present aid of Jehovah answered to the momentary distress, and raised up the competent helper from out of the tribes of Israel,—“then when they entreated and wept, the faithfulness of God helped them, and sooner than they supposed all distress was over,”—just as the former examples of Moses and Joshua showed that in the Israelitish theocracy the right men were not wanting at the right time. Jehovah alone, as on another side the fundamental canon of the priesthood still held up before the people, claimed as His due to be Israel’s king in political respects also. Originally there could be beside Him no other political sovereign, but merely the institution, in subordination to Him, of the princes of the tribes, and a sort of hegemony of a single tribe. The unity of the religious sentiment, which made the twelve externally separate tribes internally one community, had in earlier times made up for the want of an external centrum unitatis, and the free authority of certain individual representatives of this sentiment was quite in harmony therewith. Hence Jehovah says in 1 Samuel 8 : “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” Thus the demand of the people requesting a king must, having regard to Samuel, who occupied in Israel a position similar to that of Moses, be looked on as a symptom of disease, although the disease was one of development. We may concede to the elders of Israel who come before Samuel, Samuel’s age, which they urge; and still more, as the occasion of their demand, the evil walk of his sons. We can point to the picture exhibited in the later period of the judges, when everything, even the temporary alliance of individual tribes, appears to be in a state of dissolution; we can along therewith take into account the pride of Ephraim, in whose midst the sanctuary stood, and to whose claims of superiority, even over Judah, all the tribes were more or less compelled to bow. Nay, even in the law (Deu_17:14 sq.), where it refers to the future taking possession of Canaan, the future development of an Israelitish kingdom is taken into view by Jehovah Himself, and the very form foreseen in which the demand came to Samuel: “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are about me.” But although this possible desire of the people, because tolerated, is not expressly blamed, yet neither the self-derived resolution there: “when thou sayest: I will,” etc., nor the pattern: “like all the nations that are about me,” is spoken of approvingly; nor can there be behind the emphatic command: “thou shalt in any wise set him to be king over thee whom Jehovah thy God shall choose,” anything but a presupposed conflict with the kingly authority of Jehovah, against which provision must be made in the very outset. Accordingly, when Jehovah Himself takes into view the earthly kingship for Israel, He does so in a way not very different from what Christ says in Matthew 19 regarding the Mosaic permission of divorce because of Israel’s hard-heartedness: ἀπ’ ἀρχης θε οὐ γεγονεν οὑτω. But Jehovah is the Physician of Israel, who (Numbers 21) made Moses set the brazen serpent on a pole, as a remedy against the bite of the fiery serpents. That which expresses to the full the sentiment of the people under Samuel is also the undisguised: “like all the nations;” with this their request before Samuel closes emphatically as its culminating point. Although to Samuel the thing that personally concerned him: “that he may judge us,” which they gave as their object in the case of the king to be appointed, was displeasing, was in his eyes the bad element in the request, Jehovah first set the matter before him in the light that in His eyes the request for the “king” (מֶלֶךְ) was rather a rejection of His reigning over them, and explained to him the: “like all the nations,” in the mouth of the elders of the people, by their hereditary disposition: “they forsook Me, and served other gods.” Kingly power, such as the heathen nations have from early times, is a necessary self-defence of polytheism against its own divisive and centrifugal elements in the realm of politics; it is a socialistic attempt to arrange a life in community, and that is to unite, both to make the internal unity and order strong and powerful externally, and to keep them so. For מֶלֶךְ, from מָלַךְ, is derived from: “judging,” as still attested by the Syrian signification: “to advise,” and also by the fact that the kingly power in Israel arose from that of the judges: the ruler is he who stands over the opposing parties, over the strife, he who unites; very different from whom is מוֹשֵׁל, the tyrant, עָרִיץ, the coming to power by the right of the strongest. Thus kingly power is from the first peculiar to heathenism;
and because the boundary between the human and the divine is to the heathen consciousness a fluctuating one, kingship, especially in connection with the idolatrous worship thereof which grew up among the heathen nations, comes to be regarded as the contrast to the theocratic relations of the monotheistic people of Israel. Accordingly, when the people of Jehovah ask a king such as all the nations have (comp. 1Sa_8:20), this indicates that the theocratic consciousness is darkened and weakened in them; and thus a visible king appears necessary to them, because the invisible Ruler has, as it were, disappeared from their view. In times of religious and moral insensibility, inquiries are always directed to the political constitution; not to the state of society, but to the civil arrangements. And when Israel, forgetting the divine national prerogative they had enjoyed since leaving Egypt, placed themselves on a level with the heathen, then they must have looked on themselves with eyes like those of the heathen; it could not but occur to them, that in comparison with heathen monarchy they were, as Ziegler says, “a people poorly and weakly organized, visibly only republican, and therefore easy to be overcome by the heathen, whose power was concentrated in monarchy.” Thus Israel’s disease in desiring a monarchy “like the nations” was, that they had become infected by the political miasma of the polytheistic spirit of the age. For while the first king of Israel, Saul, very soon entered on the path of the heathen, the monarchy which is in accordance with the law of Israel first assumes shape with David, and then chiefly internally, and with Solomon, and then almost entirely externally. This, too, explains the significance of these two types of kings for the Messianic idea. Ziegler calls David: “the king among kings.” “He comprehended thoroughly the office of a king in a theocracy; he was the best mediator between the people and Jehovah. Because he was the servant of Jehovah, he was also the lawful king. Through him the kingdom became the very best means for attaining to the divine purposes.” Comp. Doct. Reflec. 14, etc. on Ezekiel 34, and Doct. Reflec. 21 on Ezekiel 37 But already with David—so that Solomon’s sinking down from the greatest external kingly glory into the surrounding polytheism, and the after-division of the royal power through its being broken into two kingdoms, only furnish the foil to it—the wider and higher future of Israel was founded in spirit, namely, as this future should be realized in the Messiah. According to the flesh, the Coming One of Israel is the son of David; according to the spirit of Messianic prophecy, David is the historico-personal basis, its personal foundation, a thoroughly prophetic personality; as Ziegler says: “Partly inasmuch as he is manifestly a τυπος του μελλοντος in many phases of his character and life, even in the minute particulars,—that, like Christ, he began his official career in his thirtieth year, and that he went weeping over the Kedron, and ascended the Mount of Olives with covered head; but also partly because in his psalms he manifests himself a prophet in the narrower sense of the word, a prophet who by his psalms really adds new elements of revelation to the old, his prophecies entering into the most minute details, his Son is the Spirit of his poetry. If the people were comprehended in Moses as the κεφαλη as to the law, we may say of David that they are gathered together in him as to the theocratic kingdom.” Hence these are far-seeing divine thoughts, and bearing special reference to the Messianic salvation which in 1 Samuel 8. Jehovah repeatedly urged upon Samuel, viz. to listen to the voice of the people, although the people will not at all listen to Samuel’s voice. Not that Israel had, as Ziegler supposes, to be set by the monarchy on a level with he world in order to be preserved in the world,—for it was just the monarchy that destroyed its national existence, by drawing it into the politics of the great world,—but (and this is the sole object in view in the law regarding the king in Deuteronomy 17) the possible conflict with Jehovah’s royal dominion over Israel was guarded against by this, that in the Israelitish monarchy, especially as represented by David personally and by Solomon regally, Jehovah made His “Anointed” for eternity assume a preparatory shape, that is, filled the heathen-political form of government, which might be and still more might become such a contrast to the true, the theocratic Israel, with that which is the final purpose of God’s dominion over Israel (just as already to the patriarchs kings were promised as their descendants). Accordingly in Deuteronomy also, as the Israelitish kingship rises up as on the foundation of the judgeship, so, parallel therewith, and in connection with the priestly office, the prophetic office rises up as a continuation of the revelation by Moses (כָּמֹנִי or כָּמוֹךָ, Deuteronomy 18), in whom, according to Peter, was the πνευμα Χριστου. And not less significantly does “the prince” in Ezekiel sit and eat in the gate, through which the glory of Jehovah had entered, and which it has Messianically sanctified. With him Israel appears again as what it was, just as the elders of Israel asked from Samuel a king like the nations, to be chief representative of Israel according to its tribal constitution; he who can be styled directly הַנָּשִׂיא,4 will be so in Messianic consecration and sanctification, so that Christian kingship might be symbolized. Umbreit observes: “Whereas at first every particular tribe had its Nasi, they now are all reunited under a single one. Thus an old name, and yet again new in its signification.” From this Umbreit infers a prince “clothed with great splendour (?), like another Melchizedek, who may combine well the rights of the state and of the Church in one spirit,” etc. etc. Yet surely Hävernick is right in finding indicated here the “true and complete harmony of civil and ecclesiastical order in the days of the Messiah.” “Christ has no vicar; to no one but Himself shall the kingdoms of the world belong; but to pious princes (to princes as they ought to be), to lawful magistrates and lords, pertains a prerogative over the faithful, which again is a duty and a service” (Cocc.). Comp. what is said on this point in the exposition of Eze_46:2. [See also Additional Note on p. 417.]
16. In regard to the priests of Ezekiel’s temple, Hengstenberg thinks the prophet “wishes to draw away the view from the dreary present,—the priests without prospect of office, the ruins of the priesthood,—and, on the contrary, presents to the eye priests in office and honour, in whom the Mosaic ordinances are again in full exercise and authority; and next he wishes to labour for the regeneration of the priesthood.” It is only surprising, when in accordance with Hengstenberg’s general view of our chapters the fancy is worked on here too by ideas of Mosaic priests, that the idea of the high priest is wanting, that this most powerful impression is disregarded. But as regards the removal of the degradation of the pre-exile priesthood, the mention of Zadok sets forth too prominently for this end just the age of David and Solomon. Ezekiel’s priests certainly are Mosaic priests, but the Mosaic priests had a people to represent of whom it is said in Exo_19:6 : “Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (at the passover the whole people acted as priests); so that it is certainly Mosaic, although according to the inmost idea of the Mosaic law, when the people of the future are in Ezekiel specially represented by the priests. But it is quite peculiar to Ezekiel, that, in order duly to set forth the sanctification of the people by the lofty holiness of their priests, the high priest appears in certain respects absorbed into the priests, and these are represented in a high-priestly aspect. As the people are dealt with in Eze_44:6 sq. for the bad priests set to keep the charge of Jehovah’s holy things (44:8), so the exemplification of priestly instruction of the people given in 44:23 is that of the true priests’ teaching to discern the difference between the holy and the profane, the unclean and the clean: the high-priestly sanctity of the priests is to serve for a high-priestly sanctification of the people; the high-priestly idea is to become a national reality, just as the aggregate of these Old Testament letters (for which comp. Zechariah 6) is the fulfilling word of the “body of Christ” as the Church. For the figure of Zadok, the typical high priest, taken from the very specially Messianically-typical age of David and Solomon, corresponds to only such a Messianic prospect. Zadok’s sons are called the true priests of the people, just as the true Shepherd of the people (Ezekiel 34, 37) is a descendant of David. And here we have a parallel exactly similar to that of Jeremiah 33, where the continuance of the Levitical priesthood is guaranteed in like manner as the continuance of the race of David, and similarly as to the increase of both,—in which respect there shall, according to Isaiah 66, be taken of the Gentiles for priests and for Levites; and so in this way the position of priests among the Gentiles, promised to Israel in Isaiah 61, fulfils itself as a universal priestly position. Hävernick makes a “special” blessing for the priesthood be connected with the “general blessing of the theocracy,” inasmuch as “not its hitherto meagre (?) form,” but the priestly office, “as a faithful expression of the idea inherent in it, will be established in perpetuity;” and he compares Mal_3:3 : “A new priesthood, made anew by the power of the Lord, arises on the soil of the Old Testament priesthood in the new theocracy;” just as Ezekiel’s main concern is “the priestly office in general,” so also the idea “of a really spiritual priesthood” comes to light in his writings, etc. When Hengstenberg compares Psalms 24 for the reformation of the priesthood, we observe that the “demands on His people,” spoken of there “from the coming of the Lord of glory,” are no specially priestly demands, but are addressed to the whole house of Israel; and the same is really the case with Isaiah 40, which he also cites. The Messianic references of the priesthood of the sons of Zadok, whereby (neither by Zadok personally, nor by Samuel) the prophetic word spoken to Eli (1Sa_2:27 sq.) is fulfilled, is not only maintained by the Fathers, but also by Keil;5 comp. on 1Sa_2:35 sq. The Berleburg Bible observes: “As in the person of Solomon the Spirit of prophecy pointed to the true and anointed Solomon, so also in this priest it points to the great High Priest, Jesus Christ.” Hengst. remains “quite on the ordinary priestly ground; the prospect into the New Testament relations remains completely closed.” According to him, the prophet has to do only with what is “to be accomplished after brief delay,” etc. On the other hand, Umbreit says: “The priesthood is quite in accordance with the transformation of the house of God. The old class of mediators between Jehovah and His people, consecrated by descent, has disappeared, and we no more find the high priest than we find the ark of the covenant. Instead of the Levites, who, together with the people, have to bear the guilt of the profanation of the covenant, there have come now only the inwardly worthy, the sons of Zadok, who should fulfil their significant name by maintaining fidelity in this ideal sense; and the supreme enhanced law of the new priesthood is the maintaining of inward purity from every outward stain, etc. Their outward support is the holy gift of Jehovah, so that they can say with the godly man in Psalms 16 : ‘Jehovah is my portion and my cup; my lot has fallen to me in pleasant places’ (Psa_16:5 sq.).” [Comp. Additional Note at pp. 419, 420.]
17. The temple building, with its sacred architecture on the basis of the first tabernacle, as Solomon’s temple most richly displays it, symbolizes essentially the same as that which in the priesthood of the temple of Ezekiel’s vision is illustrated liturgically by the ministrations in this temple. For the accomplished dwelling of the Holy One in Israel proclaims His people to be a sanctified, and therefore a holy people. These are the worshippers that the Father desires (John 4), a kingdom of priests, or a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2); just as the “prince,” representing the people civilly and politically, fulfils his idea in King-Messiah; while the priests, the “sons of Zadok,” represent them ecclesiastically and spiritually. This is the purpose and constitution of Israel, the people of God. What the temple is “in spirit,” the representation by the priesthood of the new temple gives “in truth,” that is, in faithfulness and trueness of life. In the former, everything is most holy; in the latter, all are high-priestly. But in Christ the idea to be represented is realized in so much the more priestly a manner, because we have here the community of the Lord, the κυριακον, where, in the case of Israel, was the congregation of the people, the עֵדָה, the קָהֵל. We might, moreover, find some difficulty in reconciling the omissions, and also the occasional so pregnant additions and stricter definitions taken from the idea of the law, in the ordinances regarding the priesthood, with what Hengst. maintains, namely, that the aim is, “by a few well-chosen strokes, to bring out the thought of the restoration of the Mosaic priesthood in its customs and its rights,” while it has been so easy for the exposition (which comp.) to show the prominence given throughout to the priestliness and sanctity of the priests’ office and the priestly order with reference to the people to be represented. As, moreover, the prince is, in Ezekiel 44, advanced to a privileged relation to the sanctuary (comp. Eze_45:13 sq.), so along with teaching, instruction, especially in holiness (בֵּין קֹדֶֹש לְחֹל) and sanctification (וּנֵין־טָמֵא לְטָהוֹר, Eze_44:23), the settlement of disputes by the judgment of God, the establishing of righteousness (as is perhaps indicated in the name “Zadok”), is specified in 44:24 among the official duties of the priests. The prince eats in the east gate in the enjoyment of peace; the priests have always to restore peace.
18. As, on the one hand, the burnt-offering is the predominant note in this temple-system of the future, so, on the other, in Ezekiel 45 “oblation” is said in reference to the whole land. It is the same idea of devotion to Jehovah which is expressed by both,—the national life consecrated to the Lord in fellowship with Him (comp. the sacrificial feasts, in the east gate, of the prince of this people), Israel’s state of grace. The disquisition on the oblation of holiness, etc., preliminary to Ezekiel 47, 48, and for which Eze_44:28 sq. furnishes the occasion, is significant from the very fact of being thus occasioned. For where priests and Levites are taken account of expressly according to their ministry in relation to Jehovah (Ezekiel 45), there the whole house of Israel (45:6), and the prince in particular, with their portions of land, appear in the light of sacred property belonging to Jehovah, and also as His servants, who, while His more peculiar servants, the priests, are to see to holiness and sanctification, have to endeavour after judgment and righteousness. In this way the new nationality dedicated to the Lord (chiefly by the burnt-offering, and symbolized by the “oblation”) has to exhibit itself in civil, social, and secular life. It is actually a new nationality in relation to land and people; but, considered by itself, and apart from Eze_44:28 sq., it appears to mean the division of the land, and especially the “oblation.” Spring has come, yea, the fields are now already white for the harvest (John 4). The “oblation of holiness” announces itself as the commencement of the future harvest. Ewald: “The holy portion, which is previously taken from the rest of the land (like the tithes from the fruits of the field), and set apart for its own special purpose, is here very expressively mentioned in the outset, and with manifest reference to the now completed description of the temple (44:2; comp. Eze_42:20); while the prophet evidently hastens more quickly over the portions connected therewith of the common Levites and the city of Jerusalem, in order to come to the portion and duties of the prince,” etc.
19. Hävernick says on Ezekiel 45 : “After the description of a so newly reviving order of things in church matters, it appears as a matter of course that the land itself must be treated as a new land, and stand in need of a new special division. This division stands in a converse relation to that under Joshua. While at that time the people before all, each particular tribe, receive their portion, and not until afterwards was a fixed seat in the land assigned to Jehovah, here Jehovah first of all receives a holy gift, which is presented to Him. A portion of land is separated for the sanctuary and the priests, and one of equal size for the Levites. The new temple is moreover kept separate by a kind of suburb, in order to point out its special holiness.”
20. The design of the Mosaic regulation, according to which priests and Levites, especially the latter, were to dwell dispersed among all the tribes, whereby the curse formerly uttered with respect to Levi by Jacob in his blessing of the patriarchs (Genesis 49) became fulfilled as a blessing for Levi and for all Israel, was to settle the tribe among Israel in accordance with its calling. Bähr says: “If the Levites were to preserve the law and word of God, and thereby spread religious knowledge, promote religious life, pronounce judicial decisions in accordance therewith, etc., then it was not only suitable, but necessary, that they should not all dwell in one place, in one district. Their dwelling dispersed reminded them to spread the light of the fear of God and piety among the whole people, to give preference to no tribe, and to neglect none.” On this we observe, that it is certainly not to be looked on as an abolition of the Mosaic ordinance that in Ezekiel priests and Levites are all concentrated in one place,—the negation of the former would necessarily have to be formally announced,—but the fulfilment simply comes in place of the former arrangement, inasmuch as the end proposed by that arrangement and regulation is present with and in the future Church. Hengst. thinks the relation of the priests and Levites to the sanctuary is meant to be made clear by their concentration in its neighbourhood. But already before this the cities of the priests at least were to be found in those tribal districts which lay nearest to the place of worship. The idea from which the grouping of the priests and Levites around the sanctuary has to be understood is rather what Jeremiah predicts: that they shall no more teach every man his brother, etc., that from the least to the greatest they all shall know Jehovah (Jer_31:34). The aim of dividing Levi among all the tribes, viz. to care for, preserve, and spread abroad everywhere the law and the testimony, is thus attained. The people of the future will be such that their liturgical representation and the dwelling of their priests and Levites in the neighbourhood of the temple suffice; and besides, this significantly brings out the thought that Levi, this election from the elect people, is a “people of God in the people of God” (Bähr). For, what was designed by the appointed cities, in which we already see them collected while they were dispersed among all the tribes, is fully accomplished in the land of the priests and the Levites (Ezekiel 45); and if Bähr’s interpretation of the number of the 48 cities of the priests and Levites as referring to the sanctuary (Symb. d. mos. Kult. ii. p. 51) needed confirmation, it might have it here, where what this interpretation makes of Levi’s dwelling in the midst of Israel is expressly stated of the dwelling-place of the priestly Levites: “a holy place for the sanctuary” (45:4). Accordingly it is with this diversity as respects the Mosaic law, which Philippson calls “the real” diversity, exactly as Christ says in Matthew 5.: “I am come not to destroy (καταλυσαι), but to fulfil,” and that: “not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled.”
21. The sanctuary, the land of the priests and Levites, and the prince’s portion, form almost the centre of the land. The city does not include the sanctuary, but is situated beside it, also in the midst of the land. “No jealousy about the possession of them can any longer separate the tribes” (Häv.). “This whole district,” says Bunsen, “is not to lie in the territory of a single tribe, which might thereby appear privileged, but, as accords with its sanctity, is separated from the tribal territories. In other words, the union-authority of the confederacy is to have a special seat for manifesting its activity. No wiser political idea could be devised. Hence Jerusalem still remains Jerusalem, but it no longer belongs to Benjamin.” The central sanctuary is that which unifies also the tribes of Israel, just as the priesthood, royalty, and public property grouped around it give local expression to the unity and oneness of the whole. Instead of the “violence-inflicting and heaven-assailing tower of Babel” (Neteler), “the tabernacle of Shem” has become “a divine sanctuary,” which then no longer symbolizes solely Jehovah’s dwelling in Israel, but is at the same time a type for mankind in general of His tabernacle with men (Rev_21:3), and of their being united to and under Him. Comp. the Doct. Reflec. on Ezekiel 47, 48.
22. Chiliasm—and this is conceivable of the Jewish Chiliasm, whereas such a final Judaism cannot but prove injurious to modern Christian Chiliasm (Gal_3:3)—forgets, while studying these closing chapters of our prophet, the beginning of his prophecy, the cosmic character of Ezekiel 1, which relates to creation generally, and on which the whole book is based. But indeed if πας ʼΙσραηλ in Romans 11 is the people, i.e. Israel after the flesh, then it is only logically consistent to interpret the requickening in Ezekiel 37 as a bodily resurrection of all dead Jews. Those who are raised become by this fact, or as at one stroke, converted to Christ; those who are alive are Christians already, or will become so in consequence of this; and this whole Israel returns to Palestine, and forms in a transformed state, as it is already marked out for being by this awakening, the focus of the “millennial kingdom” for fresh salvation to all nations. It is illogical to wish to pick out one piece here, and to understand another merely spiritually; but he who here says A must also say B. Whether the converted Jews are to live in their own land, “under kings of the house of David, as a people who are to be preserved and finally also converted,” as Kliefoth allows to be the doctrine of Scripture, or whether King David will then return and rule over Israel in glory, is rather an antiquarian than a theological question. Scripture teaches none of these fancies; nor does it speak of a kingdom of glory in the earthly Jerusalem, in which the Gentile Church is to be joined to Israel under the dominion of the then reappeared Christ-Messiah (as Baumgarten). According to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, it has been the destination of Israel, as the people separated from all nations from the time of their first fathers, to be a blessing to mankind. And the more its national theocracy expanded itself to universal Christocracy, which comprehended also the Gentiles under the blessing of the Messiah, the more evidently there becomes exhibited in Israel, with its ecclesiastical and political forms, the preformation of an Israel which wholly is what Israel exhibits only in type,—a people of God that comprehends the redeemed, the saints of all mankind; in which accordingly, as to its worship, and as to its nationality in general, traced back to its original idea, and also viewed with respect to its future realization, the whole and (what is specially emphasized) every part always exhibits holiness and sanctification, the service of the holy God in spirit and in truth (Psa_22:28 [Psa_22:27] sq., Psa 47:10 [Psa_47:9], Psa_102:16 [Psa_102:15] sq.; Isa_26:2; Isaiah 51, 60; Luk_1:17; Rom_9:24 sq.; 2Co_6:16; Tit_2:14; 1Pe_2:5 sq., 1Pe_2:9-10, etc.). Nation and nationality are historical and hence perishable colourings of the idea of mankind, which have entirely faded since the eternal idea of Israel has been fulfilled in Christ, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3), but man, the new man (Ephesians 2) ἐν δικαιοσυνη και ὁσιοτητι της ἀληθειας. What could be fulfilled according to the letter—which, however, is the expression borne by the spirit of fulfilment—has been fulfilled in the people of Israel by their rising and revival from the graves of the exile, by their return thenceforth to Canaan under Judah as “Jews,” by the period of the Maccabees, certainly in historical prelude only to the ideal, the entire, true fulfilment of the spirit-letter in the kingdom of God through Christ; according to which fulfilment the elect people are the people of the elect from all mankind, and the Jewish people now neither exist as a people, nor have a future such as Kliefoth would assign to them, namely, to be “holy in the same way that every Christianized nation (!) now is,” for ἐφθασε ἐπʼ αὐτους ἡ ὀργη εἰς τελος (1Th_2:16). For the Church of God in Christ, so far as it belongs to this world, the representation of its spiritual life in a service of atoning sacrifices and cleansings, as here in Ezekiel, can be no antithesis; for still, according to Hebrews 12, the εὐπεριστατος ἁμαρτια has to be laid aside, and (Jam_3:2) πολλαʼ πταιομεν ἁπαντες (comp. Eze_45:20). But to Ezekiel no other representation of the future could be given than in types of the sacred past of Israel—as of its law, so of the Davidic royalty and of Canaan as the land of promise. “But however prominent,” observes Keil, “is the Old Testament clothing of the Messianic prophecy in Ezekiel, yet even in this guise lineaments are found by which we recognise that the Israelitish-theocratic guise is only the drapery in which is concealed the New Testament form of the kingdom of God;” and he very justly refers to 1Pe_1:10 sq., while he farther says: “Even although the prophets, in their uninspired meditations on what they had prophesied as moved by the Holy Ghost, may not have known the typical signification of their own utterances, yet we who live in the times of fulfilment, and know not only the beginning in the appearing of our Lord, etc., but a considerable course of the fulfilment too in the eighteen hundred years’ spread of the kingdom of heaven on earth, have not so much to inquire after what the Old Testament prophets thought in their searching into the prophecies with which they were inspired by the Holy Ghost,—if these thoughts of theirs could be in any way ascertained,—but we have to inquire, in the light of the present measure of fulfilment (comp. 2Pe_1:19), what the Spirit of Christ, which enabled the prophets to behold and prophesy the future of His kingdom in figures of the Old Testament kingdom of God, has announced and revealed to us by these figures.” Apart from the occasional references of Ezekiel’s representation to paradise, to the first creation (comp. on Eze_36:35; Eze_16:53), to which there is a return in Christ through God’s new creation, the whole handling of the Mosaic law in Ezekiel, of its forms of worship as hieroglyphs of the future to be prophesied of the true Israel, can be understood only from the point of view of a transmutation of the law into its fulfilment.
Footnotes:
[1]Douglas’ Structure of Prophecy, p. 71.
[2]See the Typology of Scripture, vol. i. Ezekiel 1, 2, for the establishment of the principles referred to regarding the tabernacle: and vol. ii. part iii., for the application of them to particular parts.
[3]Hävernick, Comm. p. 623.
[4]It will each time be a more definite person, but that does not determine who it will be: only this perhaps is implied, that each nation may retain what is natural to it, what accords with its special character and historic development. The Bible dictates neither a church constitution nor a state constitution; but in Ezekiel there is symbolized what in every constitution, in itself human, ought to be the abiding, the higher: the humanly highest one (הַנָּשִׂיא) sits and eats in the east gate of the Highest, of Jehovah.
[5]“The final fulfilment comes with Christ and His kingdom; accordingly, the Lord’s Anointed, before whom the approved priest shall alway walk, is not Solomon, but David and David’s Son, whose kingdom shall endure for ever” (Keil).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v1 1-8. Having given directions as to what the temple…
1-8. Having given directions as to what the temple ministers should eat, the prophet now specifically states what portion of land shall be theirs, and also what portions shall be for the prince and the city (Eze_45:7). The only measure mentioned in the text is that of the Hebrew cubit (Eze_45:2).
Perhaps in every case where the A.V. supplies “reed” in the text it ought to be “cubit.” If this be the case, the “oblation” or “holy portion” of land thus set apart for the temple grounds, including the residence of the priests and Levites (Eze_45:4-5), would be a square of twenty-five thousand cubits [about seven miles). This square is divided by lot — or probably merely “allotted” — into several parts, as stated in the text and shown in the chart, page 235. The central “oblation,” or holy territory reserved for Jehovah, is twenty-five thousand cubits long (E. to W.) by twenty thousand cubits (Eze_45:1, LXX.) broad (N. to S.). In the exact center of this (Eze_48:8) is the sanctuary, five hundred by five hundred cubits (compare Eze_42:20) surrounded on every side by an open space of fifty cubits (Eze_45:2). Of the first “measure,” or area, a rectangle is cut off twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits (Eze_45:3), in which must necessarily fall the sanctuary, “which is most holy” (R.V.), and also the houses of the priests (Eze_45:4). This gives the priests a holy residence district in which to live, as well as a holy place for the sanctuary. Another rectangle exactly equal to that assigned to the priests is now assigned to the Levites “for a possession unto themselves” (R.V.), for “cities to dwell in” (LXX.). Still another rectangle just half the size allotted to the priests and Levites is now cut off from this central sacred area for the city (Eze_45:6), while “the prince shall have the land on both sides of the sacred reservation and the territory of the city, facing the two on the west and on the east, and equal in length to one of the portions of the tribes from the west border to the east border of the land. It shall be his possession in Israel; and the princes of Israel shall no more oppress my people, but shall give the land,” etc. (Toy, Eze_45:7-8).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–6 1. divide by lot] So the phrase originally signified,…
1. divide by lot] So the phrase originally signified, but probably it came to mean merely “divide” or assign portions to. Ezek. definitely fixes the positions of the tribes, and each tribe appears to have the same extent of territory assigned to it.
offer an oblation] Cf. Eze_44:30.
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holy portion of the land] i.e. out of, or from the land.
breadth … ten thousand] Grammar as well as context seems to require twenty thousand, cf. Eze_45:3; Eze_45:5, Eze_48:10; Eze_48:18. In Eze_45:3 this “measure” is divided into two portions each 10,000 broad. So LXX. For reeds, no doubt, cubits.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6 This and the first part of the following chapter…
XLV.
This and the first part of the following chapter form a remarkable portion of the book. They first describe the setting apart of a large part of the whole land for the sanctuary, the priests, the prince, and the city, in a way and in a geographical position entirely unknown either in the past or the subsequent history of the people (Eze_45:1-8). The portion assigned to the prince is to prevent violence and exaction on his part; in this connection all unjust measurements are to cease, and standard weights and measures are prescribed (Eze_45:9-12). Then follow directions for the tax or “oblation” to be paid by the people to the prince, that he may be able to furnish the required sacrifices (Eze_45:13-17). The chapter closes with directions concerning the daily sacrifices and the feasts, these feasts being in part unknown to the law; while some feasts that were prominent in the law are entirely omitted, and the ritual of nearly all is greatly changed. The whole is so different from the arrangements of the Mosaic economy, and so foreign to the restoration of that economy on the return from the exile, that it can only be explained of an ideal picture which both prophet and people understood was not to receive a literal realisation.
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(1) When ye shall divide by lot.—The same expression is used in Eze_47:22; Eze_48:29, as it had long before been used in Jos_13:6; but that it does not imply anything of chance is plain from the fact that in Ezekiel 48 a definite portion of the land is assigned to each of the tribes by name. The idea seems to be the same as is conveyed by our word allotment.
An oblation.—Literally a heave offering. This portion of the land is thus called from its analogy to the sacrificial gifts which were lifted up or heaved before the Lord. As a small portion of these was burned upon the altar and the rest given to the priests, so here, a small part of this territory was to be occupied by the sanctuary and the rest given to the priests and Levites. A fuller description of this oblation is given in Eze_48:8-22; it is here merely mentioned in connection with the support of the priests and the prince.
Five and twenty thousand.—In the original there is no mention of the measure to be used, but the English has rightly supplied reeds. This is plain both from the size of the precincts of the Temple, which are made 500 reeds square in Eze_42:16-20, and from the special mention of cubits in Eze_45:2 implying that the measure in other cases was different. The length is from east to west, as shown by Eze_48:8. This length of 25,000 reeds or 150,000 cubits is something over forty-seven statute miles. For its location and comparative size see the map under Ezekiel 48.
The breadth shall be ten thousand.—The Greek here reads twenty thousand, and many would alter the text accordingly, but without any advantage. We know from Eze_48:8; Eze_48:20, that the whole width of the oblation was 25,000, the same as its length; and this was made up of three portions: the northernmost, 10,000 wide (Eze_48:13), for the Levites; the next, of the same width (Eze_48:10), for the priests, in the midst of which was the sanctuary; and the remainder, half as wide (Eze_48:15), for “a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs.” Yet while this whole territory is there called the oblation, the particular portion for the priests is also called by the same name (Eze_48:9). The word may therefore be used here in the same sense as there, for that part of the oblation which was for the priests: the oblation of the oblation.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–6 From the sustenance of the priests, (Eze_44:29-31) the new…
From the sustenance of the priests, (Eze_44:29-31) the new Torah naturally passes in the present chapter to the maintenance of the temple service as a whole, setting forth in the first section of the chapter (vers. 18) the portions of land that should be allotted respectively to the sanctuary, i.e. for the temple buildings, and the priests" and Levites" houses (vers. 15), to the city and its inhabitants, that they might be able to discharge their religious and civil obligations on the one hand to the temple, and on the other hand to the state (ver. 6), and to the prince to enable him to support himself and meet the charge of those public offerings which were required of him as the head of the community (vers. 7, 8); in the second section (vers. 9-17) dealing with the oblations the people should make to the prince for this purpose, reminding the prince, on the one hand, that these should not be levied from the people by extortion (ver. 9), and the people, on the other, that these should be delivered to the prince with honesty (vers. 10-16), and both that a certain part of the prince"s revenue from the people"s oblations should be devoted to the furnishing of offerings for the solemnities of the house of Israel (ver. 17); and in the third section (vers. 18-25) instituting a new feast-cycle, beginning with a Passover in the first (vers. 18-24) and ending with a Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh (ver. 25) month.
Vers. 1-8 The portions of land that should be allotted to the sanctuary, the city, and the prince.
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Moreover, When ye shall divide by lot the land (literally, and in your causing the land to fall) for inheritance. As the territory of Canaan had been originally divided by lot among the twelve tribes after the conquest. (comp. Num_26:55 Num_33:54; Jos_13:6, etc.) this same method of allocating the soil amongst the new community should be followed on a second time taking possession of it after the exile. Currey believes the phrase, "divide by lot," "does not imply anything like casting lots, but is equivalent to our notion of allotment, the several portions being assigned by rule." There is, however, little doubt "lots" were cast to determine, if not the actual size, at least the precise situation, of each tribe"s territory. (see Keil and "Pulpit Commentary" on Num_26:54) That no such methodical distribution of Canaan ever took place, or for that matter could hays taken place amongst the returned exiles, should be proof sufficient that the prophet here moves in the region of the ideal and symbolical rather than of the real and literal. Ye shall offer an oblation literally, lift up a heave offering (comp. Eze_44:30; Exo_25:2, 3 29:28 30:13, 14; Lev_7:14, 32 22:12; Num_15:19 Num_18:24) unto the Lord, a holy portion of the land; literally, a holy (portion) from the land. Very significantly, in the new partition of Palestine the Lord"s portion should be the first to be marked off and solemnly dedicated to Jehovah for the purposes to be forthwith specified. Those who, like Wellhansen and Smend, perceive in this allotment of land to Jehovah, and therefore to the priests, a contradiction to Eze_44:28, omit to notice first that Jehovah required some place on which his sanctuary might be erected, and the priests some ground on which to build houses for themselves; and secondly, that, so far as the priests were concerned, the laud was given by the people, not to them, but to Jehovah, and by him to them. (comp. on Eze_44:28) The exact site of this terumah, or "holy portion," is afterwards indicated; (Eze_48:8) meanwhile its dimensions are recorded. The length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. Whether "reeds" or "cubits" should be supplied after "thousand" has divided expositors. Bottcher, Hitzig, Ewald, Hengstenberg, and Smend decide for "cubits," principally on the grounds that "cubits" are mentioned in ver. 2; that "cubits" have been the usual measure hitherto, even (as they contend) in Eze_42:16; and that otherwise the dimensions of this sacred territory must have been colossal, in fact, out of all proportion to the Holy Land, viz. about 720 square miles (25, 000 reeds, or 42.5 miles, 10, 000 reeds, or 17 miles, = 722.5 square miles). Havernick, Keil, Kliefoth, Currey, and Plumptre favor "reeds," chiefly for the reasons that in ver. 2 "cubits" are specified, and are therefore to be regarded as exceptional; that the customary measuring instrument throughout has been a reed; (see Eze_40:5 Eze_42:16) and that the dimensions, which Ezekiel designed should be colossal, (comp. Eze_40:2) correspond exactly with the measurements afterwards given in Eze 48, if these he in reeds, but not if they be in cubits. As to the breadth of this terumah from east to west, Hitzig, Keil, Smend, Schroder, and Plumptre follow the LXX (eikosi ciliadav) in substituting 20, 000 for 10, 000, considering that the space referred to in ver. 3 appears as if meant to be taken from an already measured larger area, which could only be that of ver. 1 the portion in ver. 1 being the whole territory assigned to the priests and Levites, and that in ver. 3 the allotment for the priests. Kliefoth, however, contends that no necessity exists for tampering with the text, and certainly if vers. 1-4 be regarded as descriptive of the priests" portion only, and mi in the phrase, "of this measure" (taOZhhDMijAmiW), in ver. 8 be rendered "according to a sense it may have (see Gesenius, sub voce), the supposed difficulty disappears. In this ease the demonstrative this in the last clause will refer to the priests" portion exclusively; in the former ease, to the whole portion of the priests and Levites. That Eze_48:14 declares the Levites" portion to be "holy unto the land" does not prove it must have been included in the holy terumah of ver. 1 Nor does this concession follow, as will appear, from ver. 7.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-5Devotement and consecration.
In the ideal kingdom there was to be a certain portion of the land devoted to sacred objects to the sanctuary of Jehovah and to the residence of his ministers. This was called "a holy portion;" it was "an oblation unto the Lord." Thus in the very heart of the metropolis, in the most commanding situation, on the very best possible site, there was an abiding witness of the presence and the claims of God, and a continual recognition of and response to those claims on the part of the nation. In a country as Christian as ours the towers and spires of our sanctuaries, rising heavenward under every sky, standing strong and even thick among the homes and the shops and counting-houses of town and city, bear their testimony that God is remembered, that Jesus Christ is honored and worshipped by the people of the land. But better than this devotement of land and this building of sanctuaries, good as that is, is the consecration of heart and life to the Person and the service of the Redeemer. The first and essential step in this act is
I THE SURRENDER OF OURSELVES TO JESUS CHRIST. The clear recognition that we are not our own, but his; that he claims us in virtue of his surpassing love and. his supreme sacrifice; that he has "bought us with the price" of his own blood. (1Co_6:20) And the free and full surrender of ourselves to himself; the hearty and definite acceptance of him as our Divine Teacher, Lord, and. Friend; so that in the future it is the will of Christ, not our own will, that will be the determining power within us. This surrender or consecration of self necessarily includes
II THE DEDICATION OF OUR DAYS AND OUR POWERS TO HIS SERVICE. Being his, in the deepest thought of our mind and the strongest feeling of our heart and the most deliberate choice of our will, we can withhold nothing from him.
1. Not merely will one day in seven be given to worship in his sanctuary, but all the hours of all our days will be spent as in his presence and to his praise.
2. Not only shall we sing some psalms and utter some prayers "unto the Lord," but we shall use every faculty we possess, both of mind and sense, with the view of pleasing and of honoring him. And beyond this, or we might say, implied and included in this, is
III THE ASSIGNMENT OF OUR POSSESSIONS TO HIM AND TO HIS SERVICE. This includes:
1. The holding and the spending of all that we have in the spirit of obedience, having regard to his will in all that we do with our substance.
2. The assignment of some serious proportion of our means to the cause of God and of man, of religion and of humanity. What that proportion shall be, and what form it shall take land, money, time, labor is left to the individual conscience. There is no prescription in the New Testament. We are called unto liberty; but we are sacredly and happily bound to give all we can for such a Savior, in such a cause. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Ezekiel 45, 46
THE RITUAL
Ezekiel 45, 46
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IT is difficult to go back in imagination to a time when sacrifice was the sole and sufficient form of every complete act of worship. That the slaughter of an animal, or at least the presentation of a material offering of some sort, should ever have been considered of the essence of intercourse with the Deity may seem to us incredible in the light of the idea of God which we now possess. Yet there can be no doubt that there was a stage of religious development which recognised no true approach to God except as consummated in a sacrificial action. The word "sacrifice" itself preserves a memorial of this crude and early type of religious service. Etymologically it denotes nothing more than a sacred act. But amongst the Romans, as amongst ourselves, it was regularly applied to the offerings at the altar, which were thus marked out as the sacred actions par excellence of ancient religion. It would be impossible to explain the extraordinary persistence and vitality of the institution amongst races that had attained a relatively high degree of civilisation, unless we understand that the ideas connected with it go back to a time when sacrifice was the typical and fundamental form of primitive worship.
By the time of Ezekiel, however, the age of sacrifice in this strict and absolute sense may be said to have passed away, at least in principle. Devout Jews who had lived through the captivity in Babylon and found that Jehovah was there to them "a little of a sanctuary,". {Eze_11:16} could not possibly fall back into the belief that their God was only to be approached and found through the ritual of the altar. And long before the Exile, the ethical teaching of the prophets had led Israel to appreciate the external rites of sacrifice at their true value.
"Wherewithal shall I come before Jehovah, Or bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings, With calves of a year old? Is Jehovah pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of rivers of oil?"
"Shall I give my firstborn as an atonement for me, The fruit of my body as a sin-offering for my life? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; And what does Jehovah require of thee, But to do justice and to love mercy, And to walk humbly with thy God?" {Eze_11:16 Mic_6:6-8}
This great word of spiritual religion had been uttered long before Ezekiel, as a protest against the senseless multiplication of sacrifices which came in in the reign of Manasseh. Nor can we suppose that Ezekiel, with all his engrossment in matters of ritual, was insensible to the lofty teaching of his predecessors, or that his conception of God was less spiritual than theirs. As a matter of fact the worship of Israel was never afterwards wholly absorbed in the routine of the Temple ceremonies. The institution of the synagogue, with its purely devotional exercises of prayer and reading of the Scriptures, must have been nearly coeval with the second Temple, and prepared the way far more than the latter for the spiritual worship of the New Testament. But even the Temple worship was spiritualised by the service of praise and the marvellous development of devotional poetry which it called forth. "The emotion with which the worshipper approaches the second Temple, as recorded in the Psalter, has little to do with sacrifice, but rests rather on the fact that the whole wondrous history of Jehovahs grace to Israel is vividly and personally realised as he stands amidst the festal crowd at the ancient seat of Gods throne, and adds his voice to the swelling song of praise."
How then, it may be asked, are we to account for the fact that the prophet shows such intense interest in the details of a system which was already losing its religious significance? If sacrifice was no longer of the essence of worship, why should he be so careful to legislate for a scheme of ritual in which sacrifice is the prominent feature, and say nothing of the inward state of heart which alone is an acceptable offering to God? The chief reason no doubt is that the ritual elements of religion were the only matters, apart from moral duties, which admitted of being reduced to a legal system, and that the formation of such a system was demanded by the circumstances with which the prophet had to deal. The time was not yet come when the principle of a central national sanctuary could be abandoned, and if such a sanctuary was to be maintained without danger to the highest interests of religion it was necessary that its service should be regulated with a view to preserve the deposit of revealed truth that had been committed to the nation through the prophets. The essential features of the sacrificial institutions were charged with a deep religious significance, and there existed in the popular mind a great mass of sound religious impression and sentiment clustering around that central rite. To dispense with the institution of sacrifice would have rendered worship entirely impossible for the great body of the people, while to leave it unregulated was to invite a recurrence of the abuses which had been so fruitful a source of corruption in the past. Hence the object of the ritual ordinances which we are about to consider is twofold: in the first place to provide an authorised code of ritual free from everything that savoured of pagan usages, and in the second to utilise the public worship as a means of deepening and purifying the religious conceptions of those who could be influenced in no other way. Ezekiels legislation has a special regard for the wants of the "common rude man" whose religious life needs all the help it can get from external observances. Such persons form the majority of every religious society; and to train their minds to a deeper sense of sin and a more vivid apprehension of the divine holiness proved to be the only way in which the spiritual teaching of the prophets could be made a practical power in the community at large. It is true that the highest spiritual needs were not satisfied by the legal ritual. But the irrepressible longings of the soul for nearer fellowship with God cannot be dealt with by rigid formal enactments. Ezekiel is content to leave them to the guidance of that Spirit whose saving operations will have changed the heart of Israel and made it a true people of God. The system of external observances which he foreshadows in his vision was not meant to be the life of religion, but it was, so to speak, the trellis-work which was necessary to support the delicate tendrils of spiritual piety until the time when the spirit of filial worship should be the possession of every true member of the Church of God.
Bearing these facts in mind, we may now proceed to examine the scheme of sacrificial worship contained in chapters 45 and 46. Only its leading features can here be noticed, and the points most deserving of attention may be grouped under three heads: the Festivals, the Representative Service, and the Idea of Atonement.
I. THE YEARLY FEASTS
The most striking thing in Ezekiels festal calendar {Eze_14:18-25} is the division of the ecclesiastical year into two precisely similar parts. Each half of the year commences with an atoning sacrifice for the purification of the sanctuary from defilement contracted during the previous half. Each contains a great festival-in the one case the Passover, beginning on the fourteenth day of the first month and lasting seven days, and in the other the Feast of Tabernacles (simply called the Feast), beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and also lasting for seven days. The passage is chiefly devoted to a minute regulation of the public sacrifices to be offered on these occasions, other and more characteristic features of the celebration being assumed as well known from tradition.
It is difficult to see what is the precise meaning of the proposed rearrangement of the feasts in two parallel series. It may be due simply to the prophets love of symmetry in all departments of public life, or it may have been suggested by the fact that at this time the Babylonian calendar, according to which the year begins in spring, was superimposed on the old Hebrew year commencing in the autumn. At all events it involved a breach with pre-exilic tradition, and was never carried out in practice. The earlier legislation of the Pentateuch recognises a cycle of three festivals-Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest or of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Ingathering or of Tabernacles. In order to carry through his symmetrical division of the sacred year Ezekiel has to ignore one of these, the Feast of Pentecost, which seems to have always been counted the least important of the three. It is not to be supposed that he contemplated its abolition, for he is careful not to alter in any particular the positive regulations of Deuteronomy; only it did not fall into his scheme, and so he does not think it of sufficient importance to prescribe regular public sacrifices for it. After the Exile, however, Jewish practice was regulated by the canons of the Priestly Code, in which, along with other festivals, the ancient threefold cycle is continued, and stated sacrifices are prescribed for Pentecost, just as for the other two, Similarly, the two atoning ceremonies in the beginning of the first and seventh months, which are not mentioned in the older legislation, are replaced in the Priests Code by the single Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month, whilst the beginning of the year is celebrated by the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the same month. {Cf. Lev_23:23-32; Num_29:1-11}
But although the details of Ezekiels system thus proved to be impracticable in the circumstances of the restored Jewish community, it succeeded in the far more important object of infusing a new spirit into the celebration of the feasts, and impressing on them a different character. The ancient Hebrew festivals were all associated with joyous incidents of the agricultural year. The Feast of Unleavened Bread marked the beginning of harvest, when "the sickle first was put into the corn." At this time also the firstlings of the flock and herd were sacrificed. The seven weeks which elapse till Pentecost are the season of the cereal harvest, which is then brought to a close by the Feast of Harvest, when the goodness of Jehovah is acknowledged by the presentation of part of the produce at the sanctuary. Finally the Feast of Tabernacles celebrates the most joyous occasion of the year, the storing of the produce of the winepress and the threshing-floor. {Deu_16:13} The nature of the festivals is easily seen from the events with which they are thus associated. They are occasions of social mirth and festivity, and the religious rites observed are the expressions of the nations heartfelt gratitude to Jehovah for the blessing that has rested on the labours of husbandman and shepherd throughout the year. The Passover with its memories of anxiety and escape was no doubt of a more sombre character than the others, but the joyous and festive nature of Pentecost and Tabernacles is strongly insisted on in the book of Deuteronomy. By these institutions religion was closely intertwined with the great interests of everyday life, and the fact that the sacred seasons of the Israelites year were the occasions on which the natural joy of life was at its fullest, bears witness to the simpleminded piety which was fostered by the old Hebrew worship. There was. however, a danger that in such a state of things religion should be altogether lost sight of in the exuberance of natural hilarity and expressions of social good-will. And indeed no great height of spirituality could be nourished by a type of worship in which devotional feeling was concentrated on the expression of gratitude to God for the bountiful gifts of His providence. It was good for the childhood of the nation, but when the nation became a man it must put away childish things.
The tendency of the post-exilic ritual was to detach the sacred seasons more and more from the secular associations which had once been their chief significance. This was done partly by the addition of new festivals which had no such natural occasion, and partly by a change in the point of view from which the older celebrations were regarded. No attempt was made to obliterate the traces of the affinity with events of common life which endeared them to the hearts of the people, but increasing importance was attached to their historic significance as memorials of Jehovahs gracious dealings with the nation in the period of the Exodus. At the same time they take on more and more the character of religious symbols of the permanent relations between Jehovah and His people. The beginnings of this process can be clearly discerned in the legislation of Ezekiel. Not indeed in the direction of a historic interpretation of the feasts, for this is ignored even in the case of the Passover, where it was already firmly established in the national consciousness. But the institution of a special series of public sacrifices, which was the same for the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, and particularly the prominence given to the sin-offering, obviously tended to draw the mind of the people away from the passing interest of the occasion, and fix it on those standing obligations imposed by the holiness of Jehovah on which the continuance of all His bounties depended. We cannot be mistaken in thinking that one design of the new ritual was to correct the excesses of unrestrained animal enjoyment by deepening the sense of guilt and the fear of possible offences against the sanctity of the divine presence. For it was at these festivals that the prince was required to offer the atoning sacrifice for himself and the people. Thus the effect of the whole system was to foster the sensitive and tremulous tone of piety which was characteristic of Judaism, in contrast to the hearty, if undisciplined, religion of the ancient Hebrew feasts.
II. THE STATED SERVICE
In the course of this chapter we have had occasion more than once to touch on the prominence given in Ezekiels vision to sacrifices offered in accordance with a fixed rubric in the name of the whole community. The significance of this fact may best be seen from a comparison with the sacrificial regulations of the book of Deuteronomy. These are not numerous, but they deal exclusively with private sacrifices. The person addressed is the individual householder, and the sacrifices which he is enjoined to render are for himself and his family. There is no explicit allusion in the whole book to the official sacrifices which were offered by the regular priesthood and maintained at the kings expense. In Ezekiels scheme of Temple worship the case is exactly the reverse. Here there is no mention of private sacrifice except in the incidental notices as to the free-will offerings and the sacrificial meal of the prince, while on the other hand great attention is paid to the maintenance of the regular offerings provided by the prince for the congregation. This of course does not mean that there were no statutory sacrifices in the old Temple, or that Ezekiel contemplated the cessation of private sacrifice in the new. Deuteronomy passes over the public sacrifices because they were under the jurisdiction of the king, and the people at large were not directly responsible for them; and similarly Ezekiel is silent as to private offerings because their observance was assured by all the traditions of the sanctuary. Still it is a noteworthy fact that of two codes of Temple worship, separated by only half a century, each legislates exclusively for that element of the ritual which is taken for granted by the other.
What it indicates is nothing less than a change in the ruling conception of public worship. Before the Exile the idea that Jehovah could desert His sanctuary hardly entered into the mind of the people, and certainly did not in the least affect the confidence with which they availed themselves of the privileges of worship. The Temple was there and God was present within it, and all that was necessary was that the spontaneous devotion of the worshippers should be regulated by the essential conditions of ceremonial propriety. But the destruction of the Temple had proved that the mere existence of a. sanctuary was no guarantee of the favour and protection of the God who was supposed to dwell within it. Jehovah might be driven from His Temple by the presence of sin among the people, or even by a neglect of the ceremonial precautions which were necessary to guard against the profanation of His holiness. On this idea the whole edifice of the later ritual is built up, and here as in other respects Ezekiel has shown the way. In his view the validity and efficiency of the whole Temple service hangs on the due performance of the public rites which preserve the nation in a condition of sanctity and continually represent it as a holy people before God. Under cover of this representative service the individual may draw near with confidence to seek the face of his God in acts of private homage, but apart from the regular official ceremonial his worship has no reality, because he can have no assurance that Jehovah will accept his offering. His right of access to God springs from his fellowship with the religious community of Israel, and hence the indispensable presupposition of every act of worship is that the standing of the community before Jehovah be preserved intact by the rites appointed for that purpose. And, as has been already said, these rites are representative in character. Being performed on behalf of the nation, the obligation of presenting them rests with the prince in his representative capacity, and the share of the people in them is indicated by the tribute which the prince is empowered to levy for this end. In this way the ideal unity of the nation finds continual expression in the worship of the sanctuary, and the supreme interest of religion is transferred from the mere act of personal homage to the abiding conditions of acceptance with God symbolised by the stated service.
Let us now look at some details of the scheme in which this important idea is embodied. The foundation of the whole system is the daily burnt-offering - the tamid. Under the first Temple the daily offering seems to have been a burnt-offering in the morning and a meal-offering (minhah) in the evening, {2Ki_16:15; cf 1Ki_18:29; 1Ki_18:36} and this practice seems to have continued down to the time of Ezra. {Ezr_9:5} According to the Levitical law it consists of a lamb morning and evening, accompanied on each occasion by a minhah and a libation of wine. {Num_28:3-8; Exo_29:38-42} Ezekiels ordinance occupies a middle position between these two. Here the tamid is a lamb for a burnt-offering in the morning, along with a minhah of flour mingled with oil; and there is no provision for an evening sacrifice. {Eze_46:14-15} The presentation of this sacrifice on the altar in the morning, as the basis on which all other offerings through the day were laid, may be taken to symbolise the truth that the acceptance of all ordinary acts of worship depended on the representation of the community before God in the regular service. To the spiritual perception of a Psalmist it may have suggested the duty of commencing each days work with an act of devotion:-
"Jehovah, in the morning shalt Thou hear my voice;
In the morning will I set [my prayer] in order before Thee, and will look out."
The offerings for the Sabbaths and new moons may be considered as amplifications of the daily sacrifice. They consist exclusively of burnt-offerings. On the Sabbath six lambs are presented, perhaps one for each working-day of the week, together with a ram for the Sabbath itself (Smend). At the new moon feast this offering is repeated with the addition of a bullock. It may be noted here once for all that each burnt sacrifice is accompanied by a corresponding minhah, according to a fixed scale. For sin-offerings, on the other hand, no minhah seems to be appointed.
At the annual (or rather half-yearly) celebrations the sin-offering appears for the first time among the stated sacrifices. The sacrifice for the cleansing of the sanctuary at the beginning of each half of the year consists of a young bullock for a sin-offering, in addition of course to the burnt-offerings which were prescribed for the first day of the month. For the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles the daily offering is a he-goat for a sin-offering, and seven bullocks and seven rams for a burnt-offering during the week covered by these festivals. Besides this, at Passover, and probably also at Tabernacles, the prince presents a bullock as a sin-offering for himself and the people. We have now to consider more particularly the place which this class of sacrifices occupies in the ritual.
III. ATONING SACRIFICES
It is evident, even from this short survey, that the idea of atonement holds a conspicuous place in the symbolism of Ezekiels Temple. He is, indeed, the earliest writer (setting aside the Levitical Code) who mentions the special class of sacrifices known as sin- and guilt-offerings. Under the first Temple ceremonial offences were regularly atoned for at one time by money payments to the priests, and these fines were called by the names afterwards applied to the expiatory sacrifices. {2Ki_12:17} It does not follow, of course, that such sacrifices were unknown before the time of Ezekiel, nor is such a conclusion probable in itself. The manner in which the prophet alludes to them rather shows that the idea was perfectly familiar to his contemporaries. But the prominence of the sin-offering in the public ritual may be safely set down as a new departure in the Temple service, as it is one of the most striking symptoms of the change that passed over the spirit of Israels religion at the time of the Exile.
Of the elements that contributed to this change the most important was the deepened consciousness of sin that had been produced by the teaching of the prophets as verified in the terrible calamity of the Exile. We have seen how frequently Ezekiel insists on this effect of the Divine judgment; how, even in the time of her pardon and restoration, he represents Israel as ashamed and confounded, not opening her mouth any more for the remembrance of all that she had done. We are therefore prepared to find that full provision is made for the expression of this abiding sense of guilt in the revised scheme of worship. This was done not by new rites invented for the purpose, but by seizing on those elements of the old ritual which represented the wiping out of iniquity, and by so remodelling the whole sacrificial system as to place these prominently in the foreground. Such elements were found chiefly in the sin-offering and guilt-offering, which occupied a subsidiary position in the old Temple, but are elevated to a place of commanding importance in the new. The precise distinction between these two kinds of sacrifice is an obscure point of the Levitical ritual which has never been perfectly cleared up. In the system of Ezekiel, however, we observe that the guilt-offering plays no part in the stated service, and must therefore have been reserved for private transgressions of the law of holiness. And in general it may be remarked that the atoning sacrifices differ from others, not in their material, but in certain features of the sacred actions to be observed with regard to them. We cannot here enter upon the details of the symbolism, but the most important fact is that the flesh of the victims is neither offered on the altar as in the burnt-offering, nor eaten by the worshippers as in the peace-offering, but belongs to the category of most holy things, and must be consumed by the priests in a holy place. In certain extreme cases, however, it has to be burned without the sanctuary. {Cf. Eze_43:21}
Now in the chapters before us the idea of sacrificial atonement is chiefly developed in connection with the material fabric of the sanctuary. The sanctuary may contract defilement by involuntary lapses from the stringent rules of ceremonial purity on the part of those who use it, whether priests or laymen. Such errors of inadvertence were almost unavoidable under the complicated set of formal regulations into which the fundamental idea of holiness branched out, yet they are regarded as endangering the sanctity of the Temple, and require to be carefully atoned for from time to time, lest by their accumulation the worship should be invalidated and Jehovah driven from His dwelling-place. But besides this the Temple (or at least the altar) is unfit for its sacred functions until it has undergone an initial process of purification. The principle involved still survives in the consecration of ecclesiastical buildings in Christendom, although its application had doubtless a much more serious import under the old dispensation than it can possibly have under the new.
A full account of this initial ceremony of purification is given in the end of the forty-third chapter, and a glance at the details of the ritual may be enough to impress on us the conceptions that underlie the process. It is a protracted operation, extending apparently over eight days. The first and fundamental act is the offering of a sin-offering of the highest degree of sanctity, the victim being a bullock and the flesh being burned outside the sanctuary. The blood alone is sprinkled on the four horns of the altar, the four corners of the "settle," and the "border": this is the first stage in the dedication of the altar. Then for seven days a he-goat is offered for a sin-offering, the same rites being observed, and after it a burnt-offering consisting of a bullock and a ram. These sacrifices are intended only for the purification of the altar, and only on the day after their completion is the altar ready to receive ordinary public or private gifts-burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. Now four expressions are used to denote the effect of these ceremonies on the altar. The most general is "consecrate," literally "fill its hand" (Eze_43:26)-a phrase used originally of the installation of a priest into his office, and then applied metaphorically to consecration or initiation in general. The others are "purify," "unsin," (the special effect of the sin-offering) and "expiate." Of these the last is the most important. It is the technical priestly term for atonement for sin, the reference being of course generally to persons. As to the fundamental meaning of the word, there has been a great deal of discussion, which has not yet led to a decisive result. The choice seems to lie between two radical ideas, either to "wipe out" or to "cover," and so render inoperative. But either etymology enables us to understand the use of the word in legal terminology. It means to undo the effect of a transgression on the religious status of the offender, or, as in the case before us, to remove natural or contracted impurity from a material object. And whether this is conceived as a covering up of the fault so as to conceal it from view, or a wiping out of it, amounts in the end to the same thing. The significant fact is that the same word is applied both to persons and things. It furnishes another illustration of the intimate way in which the ideas of moral guilt and physical defect are blended in the ceremonial of the Old Testament.
The meaning of the two atoning services appointed for the beginning of the first and the seventh month is now clear. They are intended to renew periodically the holiness of the sanctuary established by the initiatory rites just described. For it is evident that no indelible character can attach to the kind of sanctity with which we are here dealing. It is apt to be lost, if not by mere lapse of time, at least by the repeated contact of frail men who with the best intentions are not always able to fulfil the conditions of a right use of sacred things. Every failure and mistake detract from the holiness of the Temple, and even unnoticed and altogether unconscious offences would in course of time profane it if not purged away. Hence "for every one that erreth and for him that is simple" atonement has to be made for the house twice a year. The ritual to be observed on these occasions bears a general resemblance to that of the inaugural ceremony, but is simpler, only a single bullock being presented for a sin-offering. On the other hand, it expressly symbolises a purification of the Temple as well as of the altar. The blood is sprinkled not only on the "settle" of the altar, but also on the doorposts of the house, and the posts of the eastern gate of the inner court.
We may now pass on to the second application made by Ezekiel of the idea of sacrificial atonement. These purifications of the sanctuary, which bulk so largely in his system, have their counterpart in atonements made directly for the faults of the people. For this purpose, as we have already seen, a sin-offering was to be presented at each of the great annual festivals by the prince, for himself and the nation which he represented. But it is important to observe that the idea of atonement is not confined to one particular class of sacrifices. It lies at the foundation of the whole system of the stated service, the purpose of which is expressly said to be "to make atonement for the house of Israel." Thus while the half-yearly sin-offering afforded a special opportunity for confession of sin on the part of the people, we are to understand that the holiness of the nation was secured by the observance of every part of the prescribed ritual which regulated its intercourse with God. And since the nation is in itself imperfectly holy and stands in constant need of forgiveness, the maintenance of its sanctity by sacrificial rites was equivalent to a perpetual act of atonement. Special offences of individuals had of course to be expiated by special sacrifices, but beneath all particular transgressions lay the broad fact of human impurity and infirmity; and in the constant "covering up" of this by a Divinely instituted system of religious ordinances we recognise an atoning element in the regular Temple service.
The sacrificial ritual may therefore be regarded as a barrier interposed between the natural uncleanness of the people and the awful holiness of Jehovah seated in His Temple. That men should be permitted to approach Him at all is an unspeakable privilege conferred on Israel in virtue of its covenant relation to God. But that the approach is surrounded by so many precautions and restrictions is a perpetual witness to the truth that God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and one with whom evil cannot dwell. If these precautions could have been always perfectly observed, it is probable that no periodical purification of the sanctuary would have been enjoined. The ordinary ritual would have sufficed to maintain the nation in a state of holiness corresponding with the requirements of Jehovahs nature. But this was impossible on account of the slowness of mens minds and their liability to err in their most sacred duties. Sin is so subtle and pervasive that it is conceived as penetrating the network of ordinances destined to intercept it, and reaching even to the dwelling-place of Jehovah Himself. It is to remove such accidental, though inevitable, violations of the majesty of God that the ritual edifice is crowned by ceremonies for the purification of the sanctuary. They are, so to speak, atonements in the second degree. Their object is to compensate for defects in the ordinary routine of worship, and to remove the arrears of guilt which had accumulated through neglect of some part of the ceremonial scheme. This idea appears quite clearly in Ezekiels legislation, but it is far more impressively exhibited in the Levitical law, where different elements of Ezekiels ritual are gathered up into one celebration in the Great Day of Atonement, the most solemn and imposing of the whole year.
Hence we see that the whole system of sacrificial worship is firmly knit together, being pervaded from end to end by the one principle of expiation, behind which lay the assurance of pardon and acceptance to all who approached God in the use of the appointed means of grace. Herein lay the chief value of the Temple ritual for the religious life of Israel. It served to impress on the mind of the people the great realities of sin and forgiveness, and so to create that profound consciousness of sin which has passed over, spiritualised but not weakened, into Christian experience. Thus the law proved itself a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ, in whose atoning death the evil of sin and the eternal conditions of forgiveness are once for all and perfectly revealed.
The positive truths taught or suggested by the ritual of atonement are too numerous to be considered here. It is a remarkable fact that neither in Ezekiel nor in any other part of the Old Testament is an authoritative interpretation given of the most essential features of the ritual. The people seem to have been left to explain the symbolism as best they could, and many points which are obscure and uncertain to us must have been perfectly intelligible to the least instructed amongst them. For us the only safe rule is to follow the guidance of the New Testament writers in their use of sacrificial institutions as types of the death of Christ. The investigation is too large and intricate to be attempted in this place. But it may be well in conclusion to point out one or two general principles, which ought never to be overlooked in the typical interpretation of the expiatory sacrifices of the Old Testament.
In the first place atonement is provided only for sins committed in ignorance; and moral and ceremonial offences stand precisely on the same footing in the eye of the law. In Ezekiels system, indeed, it was only sins of inadvertence that needed to be considered. He has in view the final state of things in which the people, though not perfect nor exempt from liability to error, are wholly inclined to obey the law of Jehovah so far as their knowledge and ability extend. But even in the Levitical legislation there is no legal dispensation for guilt incurred through wanton and deliberate defiance of the law of Jehovah. To sin thus is to sin "with a high hand," and such offences have to be expiated by the death of the sinner, or at least his exclusion from the religious community. And whether the precept belong to what we call the ceremonial or to the moral side of the law, the same principle holds good, although of course its application is one-sided; strictly moral transgressions being for the most part voluntary, while ritual offences may be either voluntary or inadvertent. But for wilful and high-handed departure from any precept, whether ethical or ceremonial, no atonement is provided by the law; the guilty person "falls into the hands of the living God," and forgiveness is possible only in the sphere of personal relations between man and God, into which the law does not enter.
This leads to a second consideration. Atoning sacrifices do not purchase forgiveness. That is to say, they are never regarded as exercising any influence on God, moving Him to Mercy towards the sinner. They are simply the forms to which, by Jehovahs own appointment, the promise of forgiveness is attached. Hence sacrifice has not the fundamental significance in Old Testament religion that the death of Christ has in the New. The whole sacrificial system, as we see quite clearly from Ezekiels prophecy, presupposes redemption; the people are already restored to their land and sanctified by Jehovahs presence amongst them before these institutions come into operation. The only purpose that they serve in the system of religion to which they belong is to secure that the blessings of salvation shall not be lost. Both in this vision and throughout the Old Testament the ultimate ground of confidence in God lies in historic acts of redemption in which Jehovahs sovereign grace and love to Israel are revealed. Through the sacrifices the individual was enabled to assure himself of his interest in the covenant blessings promised to his nation. They were the sacraments of his personal acceptance with Jehovah, and as such were of the highest importance for his normal religious life. But they were not and could not be the basis of the forgiveness of sins, nor did later Judaism ever fall into the error of seeking to appease the Deity by a multiplication of sacrificial gifts. When the insufficiency of the ritual system to give true peace of conscience or to bring back the outward tokens of Gods favour is dwelt upon, the ancient Church falls back on the spiritual conditions of forgiveness already enunciated by the prophets.
"Thou desirest not sacrifice that I should give it,
Thou delightest not in burnt-offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." {Psa_51:16-17}
Finally we have learned from Ezekiel that the idea of atonement is not lodged in any particular rite, but pervades the sacrificial system as a whole. Suggestive as the ritual of the sin-offering is to the Christian conscience, it must not be isolated from other developments of the sacrificial idea or taken to embody the whole permanent meaning of the institution. There are at least two other aspects of sacrifice which are clearly expressed in the ritual legislation of the Old Testament-that of homage, chiefly symbolised by the burnt-offering, and that of communion, symbolised by the peace-offering and the sacrificial feast observed in connection with it. And although, both in Ezekiel and the Levitical law, these two elements are thrown into the shade by the idea of expiation, yet there are subtle links of affinity between all three, which will have to be traced out before we are in a position to understand the first principles of sacrificial worship. The brilliant and learned researches of the late Professor Robertson Smith have thrown a flood of light on the original rite of sacrifice and the important place which it occupies in ancient religion. He has sought to explain the intricate system of the Levitical legislation as an unfolding, under varied historical influences, of different aspects of the idea of communion between God and men, which is the essence of primitive sacrifice. In particular he has shown how special atoning sacrifices arise through emphasising by appropriate symbolism the element of reconciliation which is implicitly contained in every act of religious communion with God. This at least enables us to understand how the atoning ritual with all its distinctive features yet resembles so closely that which is common to all types of sacrifice, and how the idea of expiation, although concentrated in a particular class of sacrifices, is nevertheless spread over the whole surface of the sacrificial ritual. It would be premature as well as presumptuous to attempt here to estimate the consequences of this theory for Christian theology. But it certainly seems to open up the prospect of a wider and deeper apprehension of the religious truths which are differentiated and specialised in the Old Testament dispensation, to be reunited in that great Atoning Sacrifice, in which the blood of the new covenant has been shed for many for the remission of sins.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 THE APPORTIONMENT OF TERRITORY AROUND THE TEMPLE (Chap. 45)
THE APPORTIONMENT OF TERRITORY AROUND THE TEMPLE (Chap. 45)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Eze_45:1. “Divide by lot”—not by casting lots, but by allotment, the several portions being assigned according to rule. “Ye shall offer an oblation”—from a Hebrew root to heave or raise, because when anything was offered to God the offerer raised the hand. “Unto the Lord an holy portion.” The Lord’s portion is subdivided into throe parts—that for the Sanctuary (Eze_45:2-3), that for the priests (Eze_45:4), and that for the Levites (Eze_45:5). This provision for the priests and Levites, out of proportion in any actual arrangement, is no doubt intended to symbolise the reverence and honour due to God and expressed by liberality to His services and His ministers. “The length five and twenty thousand reeds, and breadth ten thousand.” The English Version fills in the ellipsis with reeds, according to chap. Eze_43:16. Cubits are mentioned in Eze_45:2, but not here, implying that there cubits alone are meant. Taking each reed at twelve feet, the area of the whole would be a square of sixty miles on each side. The holy portion of the Lord comprised the whole length and only two-fifths of the breadth. The form of a square indicates the settled stability of the community and the harmony of all classes.
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Eze_45:5. “A possession for twenty chambers”—meaning that the Levites, who live in twenty out of the thirty chambers mentioned in chap. Eze_40:17, shall have the portion of land for a possession.
Eze_45:6. “For the whole house of Israel.” This portion is to belong to the whole people, not to be subject to the encroachments made by the later kings of Judah (Jer_22:13).
Eze_45:7. “A portion for the prince.” “The prince’s possession is to consist of two halves, one on the west, the other on the east, of the sacred territory. The prince as head of the holy community stands in closest connection with the Sanctuary; his possession, therefore, on both sides must adjoin that which was peculiarly the Lord’s.”—Fairbairn. The definition of the prince’s territory was to prevent the oppressions foretold (1Sa_8:14), described (2Ki_23:35), and reproved (Jeremiah 22).
Eze_45:10. “Ye shall have just balances.” This fitly introduces the strict regulation of quantities in the prescribed offerings.
Eze_45:11. “The ephah and the bath.” The ephah was in use for dry measure, the bath for liquid. The homer seems to have contained about 75 gallons The homer was employed as a standard, for in calculation the ephah and bath were both after the homer, according to the standard of the homer, and were to be equal to each other.
Eze_45:12. “The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.” “The standard weights were lost when the Chaldeans destroyed the Temple. The threefold enumeration of shekels, twenty, twenty-five, fifteen, probably refers to coins of different value, representing respectively so many shekels, the three collectively making up a maneh. By weighing these together against the maneh a test was afforded whether they severally had their proper weight; sixty shekels in all, containing one coin a fourth of the whole (fifteen shekels), another a third (twenty shekels), another a third and a twelfth (twenty-five shekels).”—Menochius.
Eze_45:13. “This is the oblation that ye shall offer.” Here the offerings are reduced to regular order and the amounts ordained. In later days there were often shortcomings in these respects (Mal_3:8). This is obviated and regularity ensured in the new order of things.
Eze_45:16. “All the people shall give this oblation for the prince.” The people’s gifts were to be placed in the hands of the prince, so as to form a common stock out of which the prince was to provide what was necessary for each sacrifice.
Eze_45:18. “In the first month, in the first day of the month.” It is probable that this celebration is the first in a series of generally recurring ordinances, and in this case we have an addition to the Mosaic ritual.
Eze_45:25. “In the seventh month.” This is the Feast of Tabernacles (Num_29:12). Of the other great festival, the Feast of Weeks, no mention is made. Ordinances that are literal, though not slavishly bound to the letter of the law, will set forth the catholic and eternal verities of Messiah’s kingdom.
HOMILETICS
RELIGION THE TRUE BASIS OF EQUITY
(Eze_45:1-25.)
Humanitarianism professes to construct a morality apart from religion. It is contended that man has within himself the norm or rule of right, and by the exercise of his own will-power he can elect to do that which he ought to do and which it is best to do, and which is for him the highest good. But who is the man referred to? Is it the man formed in God’s image, who fell into sin, which must necessarily fetter all moral actions, and who is redeemed by Christ: or is it the man, the pure product of nature, working with the dim light of his own unaided reason, and ignoring every other god but the one centred in his own egoism? The notions of equity in the natural man must necessarily be crude, uncertain, distorted. Man needs, in order to act up to the highest level of justice, not only a revelation of the infallible standard of right, but the aid of Divine power to rectify and strengthen his moral faculties. We have in this chapter an illustration of Religion as the only true basis of Equity.
I. Seen in the impartial distribution of land (Eze_45:1-8). Here all is to be fairly and unchangeably allocated and according to the unchallengeable principles of religious equity. The form of a square for the land apportioned to the priests, the prince, and the people indicated the perfect harmony and satisfaction existing among these classes. There was no ground for envy, no temptation or disposition to invade and appropriate the territory of another. Nothing has exhibited the insatiable avarice of man more strikingly than his treatment of the land question: to gratify his greed for possession he has not hesitated to practise duplicity, fraud, and oppression. The tendency has been to accumulate the bulk of the land of a nation in the hands of the few, and scant respect has often been paid to the rights of the many. In the good time coming, when religion, and not simply utility, shall be universally acknowledged as the true basis of equity, the rights of king and people shall be readily recognised, and all occasion for lawless interference with each other’s possessions will be abolished (Eze_45:8).
II. Seen in the accurate adjustment and use of weights and measures (Eze_45:9-13). The moral degeneracy of the Jews was apparent in their business transactions. They tampered with weights and measures, and they were frequently charged with falsifying balances (Amo_8:5; Hos_12:7; Mic_6:11). There was ample ground for the severe reproof of the prophet that their ways were not equal (chap. Eze_33:17). Their trickery and over-reaching was an abomination in the “sight of God (Pro_11:1; Pro_20:23). The law of the land, however carefully framed and wisely administered, does not always secure perfect justice as between man and man, even when that law is interpreted in the light of equity. The morality of Christian times does not always reach the standard of Pagan honesty. When valuable presents were sent to Epaminondas, the celebrated Theban general, he used to say, “If the thing you desire be good, I will do it without any bribe, even because it is good; if it be not honest, I will not do it for all the goods in the world.” It is dangerous to trifle with conscientious scruples: it is better to suffer abuse and misrepresentation than to do wrong. The tender sensitiveness of the conscience, like the delicate bloom of ripe fruit, when it is once damaged can never be restored: the heart sighs in vain for the exquisite experience of a time of former conscious innocence. It does not pay to do wrong. A merchant one day, measuring a piece of cloth and finding it short, asked his clerk to help him to stretch it to the required length. The young man refused on conscientious grounds; he lost his situation, but he afterwards rose into fame and greatness, and his praise was in all the churches. It does pay to do right. Religion is the only true basis of equitable dealing as between man and man; it teaches us to render to each other that which is just and equal.
III. Seen in regulating the ordinances of worship (Eze_45:14-25). The exact directions given in these verses regarding the sacrifices indicate that everything connected with Temple-service must be regulated according to the strictest laws of equity. Of all places, the Sanctuary must not be polluted or its worship marred with mutilated offerings and half-hearted devotion. Morality alone, morality divorced from true religion, does not inspire worship—it lacks motive, lifting power. We cannot worship God till we know Him, and we never know Him till we love Him and the whole soul is swayed and thrilled with the influence of that love. The laws of ethics are but broken lights of a higher truth, and the fragments have been still more hopelessly shattered and inextricably confused by the infatuated attempts of men to construct them into a philosophy of religion that shall be independent of Divine sanctions. Vain dream! It is a repetition of the task of Sisyphus, who spent his time in rolling a stone up a hill, which as soon as it reached the summit rebounded again to the plain. The equitable demands of Divine worship can alone be met by the aid of genuine religion. The soul must be made good before it can be just to God or man.
LESSONS.—
1. The highest ideal of equity should be expressed in just and equal laws.
2. Religion, and not utilitarianism, is the true basis of equity.
3. Worship is acceptable to God only as it is in perfect harmony with justice and equity.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eze_45:1-9. The Land Question—
1. Should recognise the Divine ownership (Eze_45:1).
2. Should sanction a distribution in harmony with the rights and claims of all classes (Eze_45:2-8).
3. Should not allow unjust exactions, or the oppression of the weak by the strong (Eze_45:8).
4. By its equitable settlement removes temptations to robbery and wrong (Eze_45:9).
Eze_45:1-6. “The frequent occurrence of the number five in these measurements is remarkable, and if we consider that God has fitted in the human hand five instruments by which man fashions to his will the materials of the world—that these are the measure of his power over them—we may be instructed by this passage to believe that every Christian State is bound to provide for the maintenance of pure and undefiled religion, according to the measure of its power in the earth.”—M‘Farlan.
Eze_45:1. “A portion of the land was first reserved for the Lord. His Temple required an ample space of ground and His poor required support, and He ever lives their Guardian and constant Friend. If we expect the Lord’s blessing we must pay Him homage down to the widow’s mite. It is well, therefore, for men when they come to their inheritance to consecrate their fortune by a small offering to Heaven in this way, as it seemed the young ruler in the Gospel wished to do.”—Sutcliffe.
—“Those who live from God’s hand are content with His measure, even when it turns out small and modest.—It ought to be our joy to be near God, to be associated with Him.”—Starck.
Eze_45:3. “The Sanctuary was situated in the centre of all; so ought religion to be the central point of life, and Christ the centre of true religion.—Religion, faith, Christianity, ought not, either in the life of nations or of individuals, to be placed in a corner merely as a tolerated piece of antiquity.”
Eze_45:4. “The Lord’s faithful priests shall dwell beside Him and be with Christ for refreshment and revival from the strife and disquiet of men among whom they are scattered.”—Lange.
Eze_45:7. “Royalty which watches with a paternal eye for the public weal should be amply supported in return. The king is the Lord’s minister, and, next to a lot of land for the Lord’s house, his support is guaranteed in order and prior to the provision for ministers of religion. His portion was adjacent to the capital because he must reside contiguous to the court and the bench of justice.”—Sutcliffe.
—“For princes to have their domains is not unjust, but they should not seek to draw everything into these domains.”—Starke.
Eze_45:8. “To protect, but not to fleece.—Governments ought to give good heed to weights, measures, and coinage, and allow no inequalities to creep in.—Knowingly to pass spurious coin is intentional deceit, and so is the clipping of coins in order to lessen their weight.—Unjust gain does not profit the third generation. Lightly come, lightly gone.”—Lange.
Eze_45:9-12. An Ideal Commonwealth—
1. Where God is acknowledged and obeyed.
2. Where the ruler is just and powerful.
3. Where oppression and violence are unknown.
4. Where commerce is conducted on principles of strictest equity.
—“
1. Princes and magistrates commonly are covetous and cruel.
2. Christianity does not overthrow but establish magistracy.
3. The great thing required of them is to do justice, execute judgment and justice, do wrong to none, neither suffer wrong to be done.
4. Princes are not to rule by prerogative in an arbitrary way, but they themselves are tied to the laws of God and bound by them.”—Greenhill.
Eze_45:9. “Self-interest and avarice, that have hitherto wrought so perniciously, shall no longer prevail among the people of the future, but rather righteousness, a spirit of willing sacrifice.”—Hengstenberg.
—“How happy would nations be if their princes ruled in justice, not for self-aggrandisement, but for the glory of God and as holding their authority under Christ; and how happy the people so governed would be, living in tranquillity, prosperity, and true godliness!”—Fausset.
—“This is the voice of God to all the rulers of the earth—‘Take away your exactions, do not oppress the people; they are Mine. Abolish all oppressive taxes.’ ”—A. Clarke.
Eze_45:10. Just Balances—
1. Requisite as between man’s actions and his conscience.
2. As between man and man.
3. As between man and God.
4. Will be used in the final judgment.
Eze_45:13. “Even the small gifts of the poor, when given in true love, are an acceptable offering (Heb_13:16).—It is reasonable that a man set apart a considerable portion of his income for the glory of God and the support of true worship.—The revenue for spiritual objects is most defrauded.”—Lange.
Eze_45:16-25. A Good King—
1. Is interested in the religious welfare of his people (Eze_45:16).
2. Sustains the ministers of the truth in their sacred work (Eze_45:17-21).
3. Makes generous provision for the national worship of God (Eze_45:17; Eze_45:22-25).
—“These offerings would be perpetual remembrancers to the prince of the sacred character he maintained as the head of such a people, and would supply him by Divine enactment with what was needed to fulfil this part of his office without resorting to arbitrary and oppressive measures. Expressed more generally, it was a symbol of the perfect harmony and mutual co-operation which should exist in such a holy communion in regard to the public service and glory of God; without constraint or any sort of jarring, the several classes would freely and faithfully do their parts. They were all symbolical of the spiritual and eternal truths of God’s Kingdom, and may be variously adjusted, as is now done, in order to make them more distinctly expressive of the greater degree of holiness and purity that is in future times to distinguish the people and service of God over all that has been in the past.”—Fairbairn.
Eze_45:17. When Christ on the cross consecrated the new Temple, He cancelled our sins.
Eze_45:18-25. “This order of solemn services does not follow exactly the order of Moses, of Solomon, or of Ezra, who, on the return from captivity, rearranged the festivals on the Mosaic pattern. Familiar as Ezekiel was with every detail of the Levitical law, this deviation can scarcely have been accidental, and we may herein recognise fresh indications that the whole vision is symbolical, representative of the times when, after the oblation of the one Sacrifice, reconciliation and sanctification were effected for man through the presence of God dwelling in the midst of the people.”—Speaker’s Commentary.
Eze_45:18. “At the beginning of the new year of grace, and with the newly rising light, the Temple was again raised up or opened, and the true justification and sanctification through the sacrifice of Christ recognised and proclaimed.”—Lange.
—Let us begin our years, our months, our weeks, and days with self-examination, repentance, faith, prayer, and devotedness to God, and spend them in like manner.
Eze_45:20. “Sin as error and seduction, and error and seduction as sin.—We ought to attend Divine service from beginning to end.”—Lange.
Eze_45:21. “Every solemnisation of the Lord’s Supper a fulfilled paschal solemnity.—But our Passover is Christ.—It behoves us to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in spirit and in truth so much more than the Jews the nearer we approach eternity.—Our home is above, to which we draw nearer every moment.”—Lange.
—“Hereafter there shall be a new Passover and a new Feast of Tabernacles observed in Israel, with ceremonies vastly exceeding in glory those of the same feasts under the Old Testament. The antitypical, perfect, and eternal realities of Christ’s manifested Kingdom shall be set forth with observances which, though literal, are not to be slavishly bound down to the letter of the old law, but which shall bring out all the heretofore hidden glories and excellences of that law viewed in its essential spirit.”—Fausset.
Eze_45:22-25. “The sin-offering to be sacrificed first of all, the sins of prince and people being transferred to it as the priest confessed them with his hands on the head of the victim, to show their conviction that the wrath of God must abide on them till transferred to another who should die in their stead; then came the burnt-offerings, to show that, being clear of guilt in His sight, He would accept their service and transfer it with themselves into His heavenly glory by the Spirit, as the burnt-offerings were by the fire of the altar.”—M‘Farlan.
Eze_45:25. “By these feasts and sacrifices also we are reminded of the spiritual joy the saints have in their communion together under the Gospel and spiritual sacrifices they offer up to God by Christ.”—Greenhill.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Section 5 (Eze 45:1-25; Eze 46:1-24).
Section 5 (Eze 45:1-25; Eze 46:1-24).
Divine government exercised in the apportionment of the land, and the establishment of ordinances for worship and service
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{Verse 1 ’breadth’: It may be better to read here 20,000 with the LXX. This is preferred by Keil, Davidson, and others. It seems to make ver. 3 more intelligible. "Of this measure [or, out of this measure, i.e. the 25,000x20,000]" they were to measure 25,000x10,000 for the priests, and in this the sanctuary was located. Thus the previously mentioned allotment of 500x500 plus 50 cubits all around was in this portion given to the priests. Ver. 5 tells us to whom the remainder of the 25,000x20,000 was assigned, namely, the Levites who received a portion equal in size to that of the priests. Both these portions are called holy in Eze 48:10; Eze 48:14, thus agreeing with Eze 45:1 if read with the LXX -"This shall be holy [the 25,000x20,000] in all the borders thereof round about." The adjoining possession of the city is not called holy. -(J. Bloore)}
1. The apportionment of the land and the arrangement of the heave offering, which includes the Sanctuary, we have already considered. Little more need be added here, except to notice that it is the Lord’s portion that is specially in view. The tribal portions are stated in Eze 48:1-35. It is given first place, and the order in which the parts of this heave offering are mentioned emphasizes the Lord’s pre-eminence. That of the priests and Levites comes first, for what has to do with the Sanctuary is of chief importance. This is the more evident since the priests, portion is first mentioned, although the central division of this offering from the land.
Ver. 8 shows how moral considerations govern throughout. The possession given to the Prince has in view the correction of past abuses when those who ruled in Israel appropriated for themselves the possession of others, as in the case of Naboth’s vineyard (1Ki 21:1-29). Naboth’s refusal was based on the Lord’s word. His mind as to the change of possession had been given in Num 36:7-9. The inheritance was not to remove from tribe to tribe, but each one was to cleave to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers; and provision was made to redeem any possession that had been sold because of poverty (Lev 25:25-28). The book of Ruth affords us precious lessons in this connection. God’s care that each of His people should have preserved to him the allotted inheritance, teaches us the unchangeable character of His giving (for all was determined by lot which He disposed), and that there is an individuality which He designs should be preserved in the inheritance. Thus the person and his portion in the land as allotted of God (Num 33:54; Jos 14:2; Num 36:2-3; Pro 16:33) are so identified in His mind that no separation is to take place -individuality, distinctness and abiding character are involved in this. Israel lost her inheritance, and the land reverted to Him who had given it and who claims it as His. But Israel is to be brought back, and the land will be again divided by lot according to this vision of Ezekiel. Then shall its apportionment to the redeemed people abide according to the purpose of God.
Abuses such as that of Ahab’s were decried by the prophets (Isa 5:8). Micah pronounces, "Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away; and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage" (Mic 2:1-2). Hosea says, "The princes of Judah are become like those that remove the land-mark" (Hos 5:10; see Deu 6:21; Deu 19:14). The oppression of the ruling classes had grown in evil from the days of Solomon. Ezekiel found the princes of the land "like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain" (Eze 22:27). The prevalence of such oppression finds confirmation from many passages in the prophets, and these show how deep and vile was the corruption -religious, moral, and civic -which destroyed the life of both kingdoms (Israel and Judah) until there was no remedy, the unsparing stroke of judgment must fall. How good to know that the day of restoration shall not be darkened by this evil -"My princes shall no more oppress My people."
The lesson of this history is patent. With departure from God’s order and the ways of truth and righteousness which His Word directs, oppression, tyranny, and violence come in as the means to establish man’s unrighteousness and its evil brood. This marks the line of Cain at the very beginning, and human history bears its sad and solemn witness to the inevitable consequences of rejecting the revealed knowledge of God, whether in the individual, the family, the Church, or the nation. Under this incubus creation groans, and will continue to do so until He comes whose rod of iron shall smite, breaking in pieces the oppressor, bringing liberty to creation and freeing the nations from the shackles in which sin and Satan’s power have bound them.
2. In the light of that coming day when the last blow of the oppressor’s cruel will shall have fallen, and his terror cease from the earth, the prophet calls for that response in his day which would be in accord with the evident mind of God.
The admonition of these verses reaffirms the ordinances of the Law (Lev 19:15; Lev 19:35-36; Deu 25:13-15) . In the Proverbs we are assured that a false balance, divers weights and measures, are an abomination to the Lord (Pro 11:1; Pro 20:10); and by Micah He denounces the prevailing injustice scant measure, deceitful weights. Amos also exposes the same wickedness (Micah 8: 4-7).
Isa 5:10 makes clear that both liquid and dry measure are mentioned by Ezekiel, the bath being the former and the ephah the latter. The homer is made the standard for both, a measure approximately estimated at 11 bushels, or 90 gallons.
As to weights, the shekel is to be that of the Sanctuary, twenty gerahs (Exo 30:13; Lev 27:25). The latter part of this verse is difficult to understand. The maneh is usually taken to equal fifty shekels; here it seems to be sixty, that is, 20+25+ 15; but if this is so, the reason for giving it in three parts is not apparent. Kiel inclines to consider the text corrupt; but Hengstenberg and Hitzig suppose a maneh of threefold value, but evidence for this is lacking. If the talent is correctly estimated as 60 maneh, the statement here seems at variance with Exo 38:25-26, an analysis of which gives the following result: 603,550 persons gave each half a shekel. This would give 301,775 shekels, deducting the 1,775 leaves the 300, 000, which would be equal to the 100 talents, these being taken as sixty manehs each, requires each maneh to equal fifty shekels (100x60x50=300,000). This is true of the later Jewish weight system. The passage remains obscure. Some critics suggest the adoption of the LXX as read in the Alex. MS., "Five (shekels) shall be five, and ten shekels ten, and fifty shekels shall be your maneh," meaning that all shall be genuine of equal and full weight. This at least is in accord with the moral significance of the context.
This insistence upon judgment, justice, honest measure and weight, may serve to remind us of the character of the Millennial age. It is the time when righteousness shall reign and all conform to the divine standards (Psa 45:1-17; Isa 11:1-5; Isa 32:1-5; Isa 32:16-19; Isa 33:5-6; Isa 60:17-18; Isa 61:10-11; Jer 33:15; Dan 9:24).
3. Here what relates to the worship of the people -their gifts, the feasts, and other regulations -is given in seven sub-sections. First, we considered the place of the Sanctuary (vers. 1-8) then ways of holiness and truth enjoined (vers. 9-12); and now the order of worship, the manner of approach to God. This teaches us that right ways in practical life are the garments which must first invest those who are to be worshipers. The removal of evil and the following of righteousness must characterize those who offer their gifts to God. Of this the fine white linen in which the priests are clothed for service is the symbol. Apart from the accompaniment of obedience and practical righteousness, God can take no pleasure in mere outward observances and lip worship (Isa 1:10-17; Mat 15:7-9). He desires mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings (Hos 6:6). Obedience is better than sacrifice. God looks upon the heart, His searching eye penetrates the mask of outward appearance, and what He desires of His people is that they should do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him (Mic 6:7). This order, namely that of practical righteousness preceding activity in worship, fits well with this as a fifth section -the number that speaks of responsibility to maintain and be exercised in godliness as under the government of God with whom relationship has been established through grace. This principle holds good for us as well as Israel. This the Epistles abundantly teach. The marvelous grace which they reveal as ours only obligates us to answer the more fully to the righteous and holy requirements of Him whose love and grace we now know. The hands that are lifted up to Him are to be holy hands, the sacrifices of our lips confessing His name are to be yielded up from hearts true in their purpose for His glory, the out-breathing of lives yielded up to obedience in sincerity and truth -our bodies presented as living sacrifices.
(1) Let us now consider the various features of the order of worship. First we have the gifts of the people. These consist of wheat, barley, oil, and lambs, in the measure and proportion stated. All is given to the Prince from all the people of the land, and he is to supply the various offerings at the yearly and monthly feasts, on the sabbaths, and in all the solemnities. These gifts have their significance. As to the lamb little remark is needed, we are so familiar with it as the type of Christ, the Lamb of God. Oil is the well-known symbol of the Holy Spirit; this is associated with the oblation of an ephah presented with the various sacrifices. The cereals too we think of in relation to Christ, the Bread of Life (wheat), while also the food of the poor and humble, to be which He Himself entered into humiliation (barley). Barley was, and still is, to some extent, the food of the poor (Rth 2:17; 2Ki 4:42; Joh 6:9; Joh 6:13). Its connection with Gideon makes it a type of those who are despised and of lowly condition. Then wheat is the figure used by the Lord in reference to His people, those really His whom He will gather into His barn. It thus becomes a symbol of what is true and genuine as the result of the divine work. Such alone are acceptable to God. On the other hand the barley may suggest the humble station of those who become God’s people, and the lowly place they must take to enter into blessing with Him. To be converted man must become as a little child. It is to the babes that the Father makes His revelation of the Son. To the poor the gospel is preached, and "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Not many mighty, not many noble are called; but the despised and those of no account in the eyes of the world become God’s peculiar treasure.
But aside from these suggestions, this heave-offering from all the people teaches the recognition of God’s goodness and bounteous giving from the lowest to the highest, from the least to the greatest form of blessing (barley, wheat); realized in the power of the Spirit (oil), and redemption (the lamb). This should be true of all God’s people, whether the form of blessing be earthly or heavenly.
Terumah, the word for heave-offering, means a sacrifice or gift offered up, that is, as raised or lifted up in presentation for acceptance, and as such devoted to Jehovah’s service. In the Law the right shoulder is the usual heave-offering, the type of service, and that the most efficient, for the right shoulder is the one best able to bear the burden. It is the term applied to the gifts of Israel for the tabernacle, and in that connection we learn what God’s mind is as to the inward state of those who offer: it is heart-willingness, the spirit of being wholly yielded up to God in devoted service, the inner attitude answering to the outward act as the gift is heaved or lifted up. Here in Ezekiel it is specially connected with the oblation which accompanies the sacrifices mentioned in these regulations (Eze 45:24-25; Eze 46:5; Eze 46:7; Eze 46:11; Eze 46:14-15); and then with two forms of offering, the burnt and peace-offerings, the latter being always mentioned in the plural, which thus emphasizes the ideas of thanksgiving and fellowship so prominent in those offerings (Lev., Notes.). Since the gift of lambs is only mentioned in the heave-offering of the people, and later in the sacrifices of the sabbaths and new moons and the daily burnt offering (Eze 46:3-5; Eze 46:13-15), it would seem that the people are particularly associated with these occasions. We may conclude that the other animals of sacrifice, the bullocks, rams, and he-goats, are of the Prince’s own providing, though in doing so he doubtless fills a representative place. In one case this is specifically stated (ver. 22). Yet that the people are identified with all these sacrifices may be seen in that an oblation accompanies each supplied out of the cereal-offering of all the people. The sacrifices for the purgation of the House (vers. 18-20) appear rather to be the responsibility of the priests, though the indefiniteness of the address -"Thou shalt" -may leave it open to question.
(2) Now the yearly feasts are stated; and first the offerings to cleanse and atone for the House. Two occasions are mentioned, on the first and seventh of the first month. This is a remarkable deviation from the Levitical order. The great day of atonement is not mentioned, and these two occasions in the first month seem to take its place. The bullock only is offered, whereas in Lev 16:1-34 there are the bullock and two goats, as well as the two rams for burnt-offerings. Yet the object in view is similar, cleansing and atonement respecting the House and those who err. We hear of no ark or mercy-seat, as of old, upon which the blood is sprinkled; but the blood is put upon the posts of the House, upon the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. Which gate is not specified, though most likely the north gate was meant, for here the work of preparing the sacrifices took place.
The omission of not only the day of atonement, but also the offering of firstfruits, Pentecost, and the blowing of trumpets, is significant. In fact, at the time to which the vision of Ezekiel applies, all these will have been accomplished. The resurrection of Christ, the formation of the Church, and the regathering of Israel answer to them, while all that the day of atonement typified, including its application to Israel (Lev., Notes, p. 344), will have also found its fulfilment.
Evidently these sacrifices which open the year cannot be considered in the same light as those of old. These point back to the basic work of redemption at the Cross, as those of the past pointed forward to it -those anticipated it, these memorialize it. At the same time they constitute a continual reminder of God’s holiness, which must take notice of the least departure.
Next in order comes the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. Here there are also marked differences from the Mosaic order, which required for each of the seven days two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, and an oblation of fine flour mingled with oil, graded for each (Num 28:19-21). Ezekiel requires seven bullocks and seven rams for each of the seven days, and no lambs. In both cases there is also the daily sin-offering of one he-goat. The oblation is one ephah for a bullock, and one for each ram, and an hin of oil for an ephah. In addition there is on the first day a bullock for a sin offering for the Prince and all the people, a feature not included in Numbers. The significance of this feast has been fully given in its place (Exodus, Notes), and in considering the offerings in Leviticus the spiritual meaning of the animals of sacrifice has been adequately stated. Here, then, let it suffice to notice that the offerings required are much richer than under the Law. This emphasizes the fulness of obedience in service (bullock) and consecration (ram). The omission of the lambs would concentrate attention upon. the one lamb of this feast -the Passover lamb, and so upon Christ, the Lamb of God.
The third, and last, yearly feast is that of tabernacles. Referring again to Numbers (Num 29:12-34) we find here an entire change, and on the whole a simplified ritual, since it is to be the same as at the previous feast of unleavened bread. The eighth day appears omitted also, for its significance finds fulfilment in the establishment of the kingdom with its glorious new beginning of righteousness, peace, and rest for Israel, the nations, and creation itself.
(3) The ordinances which relate to the weekly and monthly feasts -sabbaths and new moons -are now given. In connection with them a distinctive feature appears in regard to the east inner gate. This is closed for the six working days, but opened on the sabbath and the day of the new moon. At this open gate Prince and people worship (vers. 2, 3). The Prince is distinguished by alone having permission to enter its porch, and standing there to worship during the offering of his sacrifices. This brings these acts of worship into line with the great altar, and the entrance of the House, immediately before the indwelling glory.
Again comparing Num 28:9-15 we see there are marked differences.
Numbers
Sabbath: Two lambs, with their oblation of two-tenths parts of fine flour mingled with oil, and the required drink offering.
New Moon: Two bullocks, one ram, seven lambs, with their graded oblations. One goat for a sin-offering.
Ezekiel
Sabbath: Six lambs, one ram, with an oblation of an ephah for the ram, and that for the lambs is left to the Prince’s generosity: and oil, a hin for an ephah.
New Moon: One bullock, one ram, six lambs, with an oblation of an ephah for a bullock, and for the ram, and for the lambs according to the Prince’s generosity: and oil, a hin for an ephah.
This new order of sacrifices gives greater prominence to the sabbath, while the greatly increased oblation in all cases may signify the increased fruitfulness and prosperity of those Millennial days; and the emphasis on the sabbath suggests that what it means for the earth and creation is then blessedly realized in the righteousness, peace, rest and abundant blessing of the kingdom. The enlarged oblations which answer to the meal-offerings of old, and are typical of Christ’s Person in its human perfection, may well speak of the enhanced appreciation of Him in that day when He will no longer be One having no beauty that He should be desired. Of Him then will it be sung, "Thou art fairer far than the sons of men: grace is poured into Thy lips. . .Thy throne, O God, is forever and aye; the sceptre of Thy kingdom is an even sceptre." The larger proportion of the oil intimates the greater fulness of the Spirit, and so of apprehension. The offerings are increased threefold, for there is full realization through redemption of the victory of good over evil (6) in the sabbath-keeping of that coming day.
As to the differences on the feast of the new moon we can say little. The monthly return of the moon speaks of constant renewal under the good hand of God, and that of course of the creature, weak and nothing in itself, ever dependent upon the sufficiency and ministry of the Creator; like the moon, in itself nothing, and getting all its light from the great source of light and power, the sun. It has its special reference to Israel, but yields its lessons also for the Church and the individual (Numbers, Notes, p. 498). The bullock and ram must still speak of service and consecration, but in the victory of known redemption.
(4) Certain directions as to the times of public worship follow. First, the Prince cannot enter the inner court. He comes into the porch of the east gate, which is at the outer end toward the court of general assemblage, and goes out the same way. This shows that he is not privileged to pass through the gate.
The people are to enter by one gate and leave by the opposite one. Only two gates are available for them, the north and south, for the outer east gate was perpetually closed. This rule of the Sanctuary is, in effect, "Let all things be done fittingly and in order" (1Co 14:40). We have referred to the meaning of the north when considering that gate. The south affords another lesson. To go southward is to go toward Egypt -the land of the serpent, with its lure for the flesh, and its bondage too, though with this may be found a measure of ease and pleasure which gratifies the natural man. Abram travelled there to escape the famine and the exercise of dependence upon God alone. We are kept by His power through faith, not sight, but that means a path of both exercise and discipline. Relaxing influences are found in the south; they may be pleasant for a season, but there too we experience the burning heat which parches the earth and destroys fruitfulness. "How many have found the hot breath of worldly prosperity the destruction of spiritual fruit." In the tabernacle it is suggestive to find the table of the showbread on the north side, for the truth of communion is what we need and get there, where also we learn how through sacrifice judgment is forever removed so that our darkness is turned to light. But on the south side of the ’tabernacle, opposite the table, the candlestick was placed, for as we walk in the light of the Spirit we do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh -the south does not attract. Instead we bear the fruit of the Spirit, of which the motif used in designing the candlestick plainly speaks. Spiritually speaking, we need to pass through both the north and the south gates, for thus the altar and the House come into view and their lessons are impressed upon us.
(5) The oblation, or meal-offering, is now specially emphasized by repeating its measure in relation to the sacrifices. Typical of Christ in His perfect humanity it brings Him before us as the Son of Man, the One in whom full, perfect and holy Manhood is united with full Deity, for in Him the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. It is fitting that that which speaks of Him in this character should receive prominence in these visions of Ezekiel, for they refer to the time of the kingdom of the Son of Man, when He as that will take up His great power and reign, possessing Himself of the inheritance of which He is the appointed Heir.
(6) This next ordinance shows the distinctive place of the Prince. The east gate is opened to him whenever he presents his freewill offering. It seems clear that he fills a representative place, and this being so may not his special privilege suggests the preeminent place of Israel as compared with other nations who come up to the mountain of Jehovah’s House?
(7) Finally, the daily burnt-offering is prescribed. In contrast to the Levitical order it is offered in the morning only. The oblation is increased from one-tenth to one-sixth, and the oil from one-quarter of a hin to one-third.
4. Further warning against oppression is given, and the purpose expressed that each preserve his own inheritance. This latter feature is guarded in the regulation concerning the division of the Prince’s inheritance. It must remain in his family, so that a portion given to a servant reverts to him in the year of jubilee, or liberty.
5. In this concluding part we are told about the kitchens for the priests and for the people. The care to keep what is priestly from the people is meant surely to maintain a sense on both sides -with the priests and people -of the sanctity of the service of Jehovah, so guarding against all undue familiarity, as a result of which in. the past so much had crept in to defile the courts of Jehovah’s house.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Lands for the Priests, Levites, Prince, and City
The Lands for the Priests, Levites, Prince, and City
The division of the whole country is described in ch. 48, which includes the substance of the present passage, and shows the position of these lands in relation to those of the tribes. The holy portion (Fig. 7, a b g h) was to be 25,000 cubits long (a b, g h) and 20,000 cubits broad (a g, b h). The sanctuary (s) was to occupy a square of 500 cubits each way, with a border on every side of 50 cubits more. The holy portion was to be subdivided into a portion (e f g h) 25,000 by 10,000 cubits, containing the sanctuary, and allotted to the priests; and a portion (a b e f) of the same size, allotted to the Levites. Alongside the priests, portion was to be a strip (g h c d) 25,000 by 5,000 cubits, for the city and the people. These three portions would form a square of 25,000 cubits each way, and E. and W. of this the possessions of the prince (P, P) were to extend to the boundaries of the land.
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1. Ten thousand] RM 'twenty thousand.' Reeds] should be 'cubits'.
3. And the most holy place] RV 'which is most holy.'
5. The five and twenty.. the ten] omit the with RV. For twenty chambers] read with LXX, 'for cities to dwell in,
6. For details of this portion see Eze_48:16-19.
7. The length.. portions] RV 'in length answerable unto one of the portions, i.e. the tribal portions on the N. and S. See Fig. 8 and Eze_48:22.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The portions of the priests, the Levites, of…
CHAPTER 45
1. The portions of the priests, the Levites, of the whole house of Israel, and the prince (Eze 45:1-8)
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2. Concerning the prince (Eze 45:9-17)
3. The feast of Passover and the feast of tabernacles (Eze 45:18-25)
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Portion of the Land
The Portion of the Land
v. 1. Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, the division of the land being thought of as in the time of Joshua, ye shall offer an oblation unto the Lord, as consecrated to His service, an holy portion of the land, literally, "holiness from the land," as of something separated for sacred purposes; the length, namely, of this strip of land set apart for the Lord, shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about.
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v. 2. Of this there shall be for the Sanctuary, as shown in 42:20, five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about, and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof, as its environs, a space to be kept free of buildings, lest they come too close to the sacred square of tile Temple compound.
v. 3. And of this measure, that is, according to this measure, shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand and the breadth of ten thousand; and in it shall be the Sanctuary and the Most Holy Place, or, "therein shall the Sanctuary be the Most holy Place. "
v. 4. The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests, the ministers of the Sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the Lord; and it shall be a place for their houses, so that they would have sufficient room for their dwellings on this sacred strip, and an holy place for the Sanctuary.
v. 5. And the five and twenty thousand of length and the ten thousand of breadth, that is, another strip of the same size, shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, as performing the minor services of the Temple, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers, an expression which may mean that the Levites occupied barrack-like cells with smaller portions of pasturage.
v. 6. And ye shall appoint the possession of the city, as the capital of the new nation, five thousand broad and five and twenty thousand long, this being the total area or region under its immediate control, over against the oblation of the holy portion, that is, running next to the strip reserved for the Sanctuary; it shall be for the whole house of Israel, all tile tribes having an equal interest in it.
v. 7. And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion and of the possession of the city before the oblation of the holy portion and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward and from the east side eastward, extending outside of the boundaries of these strips as far as the country extended toward the east and west; and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border, so that the Strips belonging to the prince run parallel to the strips assigned to the several tribes.
v. 8. In the land shall be his possession in Israel, or, "it shall be land to him for a possession in Israel"; and My princes shall no more oppress My people, as had been the case with many of the former rulers; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes, assigning the several parts as described in chapter 47. The context once more clearly indicates that an ideal country and nation is meant, which we cannot understand but of the spiritual Israel, of the Church of God.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues giving Ezekiel his message to the house of Israel.
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twenty-five thousand cubits in length ... ten thousand cubits in width ... five hundred cubits ... fifty cubits in width
Each cubit was about 54 centimeters. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 40:5. AT: "25,000 cubits long ... 10,000 cubits wide ... 500 cubits ... 50 cubits wide" or "about 13.5 kilometers long ... about 5.4 kilometers wide ... about 270 meters ... about 27 meters wide" (See: Biblical Distance)
all its area round about
"all of the area inside of the borders around it"
translationWords
lots
inherit
sacrifice
Yahweh
holy
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5 45:1-8 The division of the restored Promised Land among…
45:1-8 The division of the restored Promised Land among the tribes is described in detail in chs 47–48, but the central sacred section is described here because it included the area set aside for the priests to live in. Regaining a share in the land was a pressing concern for the exiles at a time when they had none. Ezekiel’s interest, however, was not simply in promising that the land would be divided among them in a fair way. He wanted to remind them of what the Promised Land was about in the first place. It was a land in which God would dwell among his people. At the outset, therefore, the central part of the land would be assigned to the Lord as his holy portion. The main purpose of this was to provide a zone of holiness and protection around the Temple.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.