Ezekiel 45
Division of the Holy Land Portion 1–8
Moral Duties of the Prince 9–12
Regulations for Offerings 13–17
Annual Festival Calendar 18–25
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Study Notes for Ezekiel 45
Verse 1
an holy portion of the land — Terumah, the word for the offering lifted up for the LORD, as the gifts for the tabernacle were (Ex 25:2). The land is divided 'by lot', as Num 26:55 commanded, and the first share cut out is the LORD's: 25,000 by 10,000, holy 'in all the borders thereof round about'. The full division is in 48:8–29.
Verse 2
five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth — The sanctuary square is the same 500 by 500 as the temple's walled court in 42:16–20. Fifty cubits 'round about for the suburbs' (migrash, open ground) is the word used of the open land round the Levites' cities (Num 35:2). The holy place is set apart on every side by an open margin.
Verse 4
come near to minister unto the LORD — Qarab, to draw near, is the priests' privilege: 'whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him' (Num 16:5). The portion is their place 'for their houses' and an 'holy place for the sanctuary'. They have no inheritance in the rest of the land, for 'I am their inheritance' (44:28).
Verse 5
the Levites, the ministers of the house — The Levites get a strip of the same size as the priests', 25,000 by 10,000, and the priests are 'ministers of the sanctuary' (v.4). The Levites who went astray after idols were made 'keepers of the charge of the house' (44:10–14). As they once had cities to dwell in (Num 35:2), they now have a strip of this land.
Verse 6
the possession of the city — A strip 5,000 by 25,000 beside the holy portion, 'for the whole house of Israel'. 48:15 calls it 'a profane place for the city', common ground set next to the holy portion, with the city 'in the midst thereof'. The city's name there is 'The LORD is there' (48:35).
Verse 7
a portion shall be for the prince — The prince's land lies on both sides of the holy portion and the city, east and west, as 48:21 repeats. The word is the nasi of 34:24, 'my servant David a prince among them', and in these chapters he is not called a king. His land is set out for him here so that he has no cause to take any from the people (v.8; 46:18).
Verse 8
my princes shall no more oppress my people — Yanah, to oppress. 34:4 charged the shepherds, 'with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them'. Here the prince has his own possession, and 46:18 states the rule: 'the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression… that my people be not scattered every man from his possession'.
Verse 9
Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel — 'Let it suffice' is the same call as in 44:6, 'let it suffice you of all your abominations'. 'Judgment and justice' (mishpat, tsedaqah) are the pair of 18:5, 'lawful and right'. 'Exactions' (gerushah) occurs only here, and the princes are told to remove it from the people.
Verse 10
just balances — 'Just' (tsedeq) is said three times, of the balances, the ephah and the bath, as in Lev 19:36, 'Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin'. Amos charged the dealers with 'making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit' (Amos 8:5). V.11 sets one measure for ephah and bath.
Verse 12
the shekel shall be twenty gerahs — The sanctuary shekel of Ex 30:13 and Lev 27:25, 'twenty gerahs shall be the shekel'. The three sums, twenty, twenty-five and fifteen shekels, add up to sixty, the maneh of this verse. The same word is rendered 'pound' in 1 Kgs 10:17 and Ezra 2:69.
Verse 13
the sixth part of an ephah of an homer — The oblation of grain is a sixth of an ephah from each homer. The ephah is a tenth of the homer (v.11), so the gift is one sixtieth, the same for wheat and for barley. It is given 'for the prince' (v.16), who from it provides the offerings of v.17.
Verse 15
to make reconciliation for them — Kapar, to make atonement, the verb of Lev 1:4: the burnt offering 'shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him'. One lamb in two hundred 'out of the flock' is added to the grain, the burnt offering and the peace offerings, so that the offering on the people's behalf comes from the people's own flocks.
Verse 17
the prince's part — The prince is to supply the burnt, meat and drink offerings 'in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths', and the sin offering and peace offerings. The kings had once done so from their own goods: Hezekiah 'appointed also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt offerings' (2 Chr 31:3). The sabbath burnt offering is set out in 46:4.
Verse 18
cleanse the sanctuary — Chata, literally to un-sin, the verb of 43:20. The first day of the first month is the day the tabernacle was first set up (Ex 40:2). The blood of the bullock cleanses the sanctuary, as on the day of atonement 'an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel' (Lev 16:16).
Verse 19
upon the posts of the house — The blood goes on three places: the posts of the house, 'the four corners of the settle of the altar' (as in 43:20), and the posts of the gate of the inner court. On the night of the first Passover the blood was struck 'on the two side posts and on the upper door post' (Ex 12:7).
Verse 20
for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple — Shagah, to stray, and pethi, the 'simple' of Prov 1:4, those who go wrong without meaning to. The second cleansing, on the seventh day, is for them. Heb 9:7 speaks of the high priest offering 'for himself, and for the errors of the people'; Ps 19:12 asks, 'Who can understand his errors?'
Verse 21
the passover, a feast of seven days — The passover on the fourteenth day and the seven days of unleavened bread are named together. Lev 23:5–6 has the passover 'in the fourteenth day of the first month at even', and the feast of unleavened bread on the fifteenth: 'seven days ye must eat unleavened bread'. Christ ate it with the disciples before he suffered (Luke 22:15).
Verse 22
a bullock for a sin offering — The prince provides it 'for himself and for all the people of the land'. He is named as one who needs a sin offering, as the ruler of Lev 4:22–23, who brings 'a kid of the goats'. The law for the passover week had 'one goat for a sin offering' (Num 28:22); here the offering is a bullock.
Verse 25
in the seventh month, in the fifteenth day — The day of the feast of tabernacles: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD' (Lev 23:34). Here it is called 'the feast of the seven days', with the same sin, burnt and meat offerings and the oil as at the passover (vv.23–24 give the number).