1 And in your causing the land to fall in inheritance, ye lift up a heave-offering to Jehovah, a holy `portion' of the land: the length -- five and twenty thousand `is' the length, and the breadth ten thousand; it `is' holy in all its border round about.
2 There is of this for the sanctuary five hundred by five hundred, square, round about; and fifty cubits of suburb `is' to it round about.
3 And by this measure thou dost measure: the length `is' five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand: and in it is the sanctuary, the holy of holies.
4 The holy `portion' of the land it `is'; for priests, ministrants of the sanctuary, it is, who are drawing near to serve Jehovah; and it hath been to them a place for houses, and a holy place for a sanctuary.
5 `And of the five and twenty thousand of length, and of the ten thousand of breadth, there is to the Levites, ministrants of the house, for them -- for a possession -- twenty chambers.
6 `And of the possession of the city ye give five thousand of breadth, and of length five and twenty thousand, over-against the heave-offering of the holy `portion': to all the house of Israel it is.
7 As to the prince, on this side, and on that side, of the heave-offering of the holy place, and of the possession of the city, at the front of the heave-offering of the holy place, and at the front of the possession of the city, from the west corner westward, and from the east corner eastward -- and the length `is' over-against one of the portions from the west border unto the east border --
8 of the land there is to him for a possession in Israel, and My princes do not oppress any more My people, and the land they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
9 `Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Enough to you -- princes of Israel; violence and spoil turn aside, and judgment and righteousness do; lift up your exactions from off My people -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
10 Just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath -- ye have.
11 The ephah and the bath is of one measure, for the bath to bear a tenth of the homer, and the ephah a tenth of the homer: according to the homer is its measurement.
12 And, the shekel `is' twenty gerah: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels -- is your maneh.
13 `This `is' the heave-offering that ye lift up; a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of wheat, also ye have given a sixth part of the ephah of a homer of barley,
14 and the portion of oil, the bath of oil, a tenth part of the bath out of the cor, a homer of ten baths -- for ten baths `are' a homer;
15 and one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the watered country of Israel, for a present, and for a burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement by them -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
16 All the people of the land are at this heave-offering for the prince in Israel.
17 And on the prince are the burnt-offerings, and the present, and the libation, in feasts, and in new moons, and in sabbaths, in all appointed times of the house of Israel: he doth make the sin-offering, and the present, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.
18 `Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the first `month', in the first of the month, thou dost take a bullock, a son of the herd, a perfect one, and hast cleansed the sanctuary:
19 and the priest hath taken of the blood of the sin offering, and hath put on the door-post of the house, and on the four corners of the border of the altar, and on the post of the gate of the inner court.
20 And so thou dost do on the seventh of the month, because of each erring one, and because of the simple one -- and ye have purified the house.
21 `In the first `month', in the fourteenth day of the month, ye have the passover, a feast of seven days, unleavened food is eaten.
22 And the prince hath prepared on that day, for himself, and for all the people of the land, a bullock, a sin-offering.
23 And the seven days of the feast he prepareth a burnt-offering to Jehovah, seven bullocks, and seven rams, perfect ones, daily seven days, and a sin-offering, a kid of the goats, daily.
24 And a present of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, he doth prepare, and of oil a hin for an ephah.
25 In the seventh `month', in the fifteenth day of the month, in the feast, he doth according to these things seven days; as the sin-offering so the burnt-offering, and as the present so also the oil.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Ezekiel 45
Commentary on Ezekiel 45 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 45
Eze 45:1-25. Allotment of the Land for the Sanctuary, the City, and the Prince.
1. offer an oblation—from a Hebrew root to "heave" or "raise"; when anything was offered to God, the offerer raised the hand. The special territorial division for the tribes is given in the forty-seventh and forty-eighth chapters. Only Jehovah's portion is here subdivided into its three parts: (1) that for the sanctuary (Eze 45:2, 3); (2) that for the priests (Eze 45:4); (3) that for the Levites (Eze 45:5). Compare Eze 48:8-13.
five and twenty thousand reeds, &c.—So English Version rightly fills the ellipsis (compare Note, see on Eze 42:16). Hence "cubits" are mentioned in Eze 45:2, not here, implying that there alone cubits are meant. Taking each reed at twelve feet, the area of the whole would be a square of sixty miles on each side. The whole forming a square betokens the settled stability of the community and the harmony of all classes. "An holy portion of the land" (Eze 45:1) comprised the whole length, and only two-fifths of the breadth. The outer territory in its distribution harmonizes with the inner and more sacred arrangements of the sanctuary. No room is to be given for oppression (see Eze 45:8), all having ample provision made for their wants and comforts. All will mutually co-operate without constraint or contention.
7. 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].
12. 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]. The Septuagint reads, "fifty shekels shall be your maneh."
13-15. In these oblations there is a progression as to the relation between the kind and the quantity: of the corn, the sixth of a tenth, that is, a sixtieth part of the quantity specified; of the oil, the tenth of a tenth, that is, an hundredth part; and of the flock, one from every two hundred.
18. The year is to begin with a consecration service, not mentioned under the Levitical law; but an earnest of it is given in the feast of dedication of the second temple, which celebrated its purification by Judas Maccabeus, after its defilement by Antiochus.
20. for him that is simple—for sins of ignorance (Le 4:2, 13, 27).
21. As a new solemnity, the feast of consecration is to prepare for the passover; so the passover itself is to have different sacrifices from those of the Mosaic law. Instead of one ram and seven lambs for the daily burnt offering, there are to be seven bullocks and seven rams. So also whereas the feast of tabernacles had its own offerings, which diminished as the days of the feast advanced, here the same are appointed as on the passover. Thus it is implied that the letter of the law is to give place to its spirit, those outward rites of Judaism having no intrinsic efficacy, but symbolizing the spiritual truths of Messiah's kingdom, as for instance the perfect holiness which is to characterize it. Compare 1Co 5:7, 8, as to our spiritual "passover," wherein, at the Lord's supper, we feed on Christ by faith, accompanied with "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Literal ordinances, though not slavishly bound to the letter of the law, will set forth the catholic and eternal verities of Messiah's kingdom.