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Ezekiel 44

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The Closed East Gate 1–3

1
Then he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.
2
And Jehovah said unto me, This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, neither shall any man enter in by it; for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut. ​
3
As for the prince, he shall sit therein as prince to eat bread before Jehovah; he shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. ​

The Charge Concerning the Sanctuary 4–9

4
Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and, behold, the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah: and I fell upon my face. ​
5
And Jehovah said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of Jehovah, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entrance of the house, with every egress of the sanctuary. ​
6
And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,
7
in that ye have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant, to add unto all your abominations. ​
8
And ye have not kept the charge of my holy things; but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves. ​
9
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any foreigners that are among the children of Israel. ​

Demotion of Unfaithful Levites 10–14

10
But the Levites that went far from me, when Israel went astray, that went astray from me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. ​
11
Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house, and ministering in the house: they shall slay the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. ​
12
Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and became a stumblingblock of iniquity unto the house of Israel; therefore have I lifted up my hand against them, saith the Lord Jehovah, and they shall bear their iniquity. ​
13
And they shall not come near unto me, to execute the office of priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, unto the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. ​
14
Yet will I make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.

The Faithful Sons of Zadok 15–16

15
But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me; and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah: ​
16
they shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. ​

Regulations for Priestly Conduct 17–27

17
And it shall be that, when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. ​
18
They shall have linen tires upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat.
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And when they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they minister, and lay them in the holy chambers; and they shall put on other garments, that they sanctify not the people with their garments. ​
20
Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only cut off the hair of their heads. ​
21
Neither shall any of the priests drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.
22
Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away; but they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that is the widow of a priest. ​
23
And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. ​
24
And in a controversy they shall stand to judge; according to mine ordinances shall they judge it: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts; and they shall hallow my sabbaths. ​
25
And they shall go in to no dead person to defile themselves; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves. ​
26
And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.
27
And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin-offering, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Priestly Inheritance and Provision 28–31

28
And they shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance; and ye shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession. ​
29
They shall eat the meal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.
30
And the first of all the first-fruits of every thing, and every oblation of everything, of all your oblations, shall be for the priest: ye shall also give unto the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on thy house. ​
31
The priests shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself, or is torn, whether it be bird or beast.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Ezekiel 44

Verse 2

This gate shall be shut — 'Shut' (sagar) is said three times in vv.1–2. The reason is the LORD's own entry: 'the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east' (43:4), the side on which the glory had stood when it left the city (11:23). The same verb, bo, 'enter', is used of the LORD and of the man who may not.

Verse 3

the prince, he shall sit in it — The nasi, 'prince', is the ruler Ezekiel promised earlier: 'my servant David shall be their prince for ever' (37:25; cf. 34:24). He alone may sit in the shut gate's porch 'to eat bread before the LORD', entering and leaving by the porch, not through the gate. His place is set apart from the priests'.

Verse 4

the glory of the LORD filled the house — This is the same filling as at the tabernacle (Ex 40:34) and Solomon's temple (1 Kgs 8:11), and the sight that had sent Ezekiel to his face before (1:28; 3:23; 43:3). The glory that went up from the city on the east (11:23) has returned (43:4–5); the prophet is brought round by the north gate to look on it.

Verse 5

mark well, and behold with thine eyes — 'Mark well' is literally 'set thine heart' (sim with lev), said twice. It renews the charge from the start of the vision: 'behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee' (40:4). Eyes, ears and heart are all engaged for 'the ordinances' and 'the laws' of the house.

Verse 7

uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh — 'Strangers' is literally 'sons of a foreigner' (ben nekar). They served when 'ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood', though that bread was not to be offered from a stranger's hand (Lev 22:25). The lack is named twice: of heart (Jer 9:26) and of flesh. Stephen later says 'uncircumcised in heart and ears' (Acts 7:51).

Verse 8

keepers of my charge — One root, shamar, to keep, plays through the verse: 'ye have not kept the charge… but ye have set keepers of my charge'. The sanctuary's charge belonged to Aaron's sons and the Levites (Num 18:3–5). Israel handed it to others 'for yourselves', and the LORD answers by naming 'keepers of the charge of the house' himself (v.14).

Verse 9

uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh — The bar falls on lacking both circumcisions, not on birth alone. Elsewhere 'the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD' are brought to his holy mountain (Isa 56:6–7), and 'circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit' (Rom 2:29). The rule reaches 'any stranger that is among the children of Israel'.

Verse 10

gone away far from me — The Levites' fault is stated in two verbs: 'gone away far' (rachaq) and 'went astray' (ta'ah, used twice in the verse), 'after their idols'. The penalty, 'they shall even bear their iniquity' (nasa avon), is repeated in v.12; it limits their office rather than ending it (vv.11, 14).

Verse 11

slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people — The Levites keep the gates and take the killing of the offering, which was the offerer's own part (Lev 1:5, 'he shall kill the bullock before the LORD'). Sharath, to minister, occurs three times here: they serve the house and 'stand before' the people, while the fat and the blood go to Zadok's sons (v.15).

Verse 12

caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity — 'Fall' stands for mikshol, a stumblingblock, the word of 14:3 for the idols set up in the heart: 'the stumblingblock of their iniquity'. The Levites who served before idols became the stone Israel tripped on. 'Lifted up mine hand against them' echoes Ps 106:26, 'he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them'.

Verse 13

to do the office of a priest unto me — Kahan, to act as priest; the Levites who served idols are refused it. 'Come near' here is nagash, while Zadok's sons in v.15 are given qarab, the verb of bringing offerings. 'Holy things' and 'most holy place' both stand on qodesh, the holy. They bear their 'shame' (kelimmah), yet keep the house (v.14).

Verse 15

the sons of Zadok — Zadok the priest was not with Adonijah (1 Kgs 1:8) and took Abiathar's place under Solomon (1 Kgs 2:35). His sons 'kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray', the charge and verb (ta'ah) of vv.8–10, and now offer 'the fat and the blood' that strangers had profaned (v.7). See also 40:46; 43:19; 48:11.

Verse 16

come near to my table — Shulchan, table: in the vision the wooden altar is called 'the table that is before the LORD' (41:22), and Malachi says 'The table of the LORD is contemptible' of the altar (Mal 1:7). To come near (qarab) to it is to serve at the offerings. The verse names three duties: enter the sanctuary, minister at the table, 'keep my charge'.

Verse 17

clothed with linen garments — 'Linen' is pishtim, flax, and 'wool' is tsemer; the two are named together in Deut 22:11, 'a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together'. Here the priests wear linen alone when they pass the gates of the inner court 'and within'. The reason given is in v.18: nothing 'that causeth sweat'.

Verse 19

they shall not sanctify the people with their garments — The garments are holy like the chambers where they are laid: 'there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy' (42:14). Holiness is not carried out to the people, as 46:20 says of the offerings: 'that they bear them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people' (46:20).

Verse 20

shall only poll their heads — Kasam, to trim, occurs only here. Two extremes are barred: shaving, as Lev 21:5 forbids priests to 'make baldness upon their head', and unshorn locks, the mark of the Nazarite, who 'shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow' (Num 6:5). The hair is trimmed, neither shaved nor left long.

Verse 22

a widow that had a priest before — Ezekiel is stricter than Leviticus for ordinary priests: Lev 21:7 bars a woman 'put away from her husband', and only the high priest is barred from 'a widow' (Lev 21:14). Here no priest may take a widow unless she is 'a widow that had a priest before'; the rest must marry 'maidens of the seed of the house of Israel'.

Verse 23

the difference between the holy and profane — This is the charge of Lev 10:10–11, 'that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean', and the duty the priests had failed: 'they have put no difference between the holy and profane' (22:26). 'Teach' is yarah, to point out, the root of torah, law.

Verse 24

in controversy they shall stand in judgment — Priests as judges is the order of Deut 17:8–9, where a matter 'too hard for thee' goes 'unto the priests the Levites'. Deut 21:5 says of them, 'by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried'. They judge 'according to my judgments' (mishpatim), the LORD's own, and 'hallow my sabbaths'.

Verse 25

father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter — The permitted list follows Lev 21:2–3: mother, father, son, daughter, brother, and 'his sister a virgin… which hath had no husband'. Ezekiel's phrase 'that hath had no husband' is the same limit. The high priest alone may not defile himself even 'for his father, or for his mother' (Lev 21:11).

Verse 28

I am their inheritance — This is the word given to Aaron, 'I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel' (Num 18:20), and to the tribe in Deut 18:1–2. 'Inheritance' is nachalah, a land-allotment, and 'possession' achuzzah, a holding: the two words of landed property. The LORD himself stands in both places for the priests.

Verse 30

the first of your dough — Num 15:20 requires 'a cake of the first of your dough for an heave offering'. 'Oblation' is terumah, a portion lifted off and given; the firstfruits (bikkurim) are the priests' by Num 18:12–13. The promise attached, 'that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house', ties the household's blessing to what is given first.