Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 44:9
Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that [is] among the children of Israel.
9 14. Such services shall not be performed by foreigners any more, but by the Levites who formerly ministered at the high-places. Because of their sin in leading the house of Israel astray they shall bear their iniquity and be excluded from the priesthood.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Eze 44:9-16
No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary.
Gods care of His altar
Is not this rather severe upon the stranger? The injunction does not rest upon the fact of the strangeness of the stranger, because in Eze 47:22-23 there is a distinct provision for the stranger in Israel. God will therefore have the stranger in Israel have his inheritance, his lot; but when it becomes a question of the altar, God naturally looks round for the Levite. In this case the Levite was not present; the Levite had gone away. How had the Levites disqualified themselves? The facts are given in the context and in the text itself. First, in Eze 47:10, they are gone away. The man who has exchanged vows with God should always be found in his place. When he goes away it is like high treason in the army; when such a man goes away it is as if a troop had been cut down with the edge of the sword. Gone away far. Observe that next word. It was not a little lapse, one step aside; but gone away far from Me. You cannot stop one inch away from God; one inch means two, and two inches mean a foot, and the foot soon grows into furlongs and miles. To what had they gone? They went astray from Me after their idols. Here is the prostitution of reason. Here is no theological mystery, but a mystery of daily life,–that a man shall know the true God, and turn away from Him; a man shall know that there is a coming eternity, and yet shall tabernacle himself in the huts of minutes and hours and all the other little details of perishing time. To know the right, and yet the wrong pursue, is the miracle of manhood. But were the Levites without excuse? They had their reasons. There was a general decadence in Israel. In Eze 47:10 we have these awful words–when Israel went astray. It was not the movement of a man or two here and there, or of a Levite or a priest, or an eminent legislator or leader; but all Israel in one great mass, as it were, went away, and the Levites went with them. Were not the Levites justified? May we not follow the times? The Lord will not have it so. It is the part of the Levite to stem the torrent of the crowd. It is the part of great statesmen and great writers and great characters to stop others from doing evil, not to go along with them. The Levites should have stood firm, whatever others did. Yet we must not make a perverted use even of this explanation. There God expects every man to be firm, and we only increase in responsibility as we increase in capacity, in opportunity, in faculty, and in profession. Whilst, therefore, it is quite right to expect that certain men should keep the faith and walk in the right way, our expectancy concerning them is no excuse why we ourselves should go wrong. The Lord will not deal with us in crowds, but in individual relationship to Himself, His throne, and His law. What was the result? Were the Levites wholly discharged? No; the word yet with which the eleventh verse opens point to an exercise of the Divine clemency that is really wonderful, and it is worth while to indicate this in words, because it continues unto this day. The Lord will never give up a man until the man literally wrenches himself out of the Divine grasp. What became of the errant Levites? First, they were deposed, put down to lower work; degraded, we may say, to the second place; taken down one step, three steps, a dozen steps, but still not wholly banished and excommunicated from the service of the sanctuary. Now this may happen with all of us. What some men might have been! They might have led us; instead of that they are put down to menial service. Search into the reason, and you will find there has been a moral lapse, or an intellectual infirmity, or some proof of disqualification. They are not cast into the bottomless pit, they are not put beyond the reach of light and hope and mercy; but it is of necessity that they should be deposed or degraded. What is true of men individually is true of men ecclesiastically. Churches are put into the second place; churches are put back into the third place. The Church that ought to lead the world because of its wealth, its learning, its historical opportunities and advantages, may so act that men who have no name, no status, no background of history, shall come forward by the voice and appointment of God, and lead the world into redemption and liberty and prospect of heaven. Was the Lord then left wholly without faithful men? You find the contrast in Eze 47:15. There is always a contrast in history. We thought in the preceding verses that all Israel had gone astray, we find in the 15th verse that the sons of Zadok kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me. There has always been a faithful party in the state. There has always been an element of constancy in all the mutation of men and times and institutions. God keeps watch over that permanent quantity; it is as His own ark in the wilderness of time. Sometimes the case of the ark has been brought very low; now and then in history it would seem as if the kingdom of God had been within a very short distance of extinction: but what is a short distance in the estimation of God? A hairs breadth is a universe; if there is one moment between a nation and destruction, in that one moment God can work all the miracles of deliverance. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity. This lies within our province and within our hope, may it lie also within our sense of duty, that it is possible for us though few to be faithful; it is possible when all others have proved faithless for us to be faithful found. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Faithful to our charge
A beautiful story was told by Dr. Cooke, of Belfast, about a gunner at Waterloo. Just as the recruits came up, who were the means of turning, under Wellington, the great battle of modern days, the smoke and noise was so great that he could not see five yards in front of him. But he felt the swaying tides of the battle going this way and that, and did not know at one time whether he was among English or French, friends or foes; and Dr. Cooke asked him afterwards, Well, my friend, and what did you do? I stood by my gun, replied the man. And that is what we have to do.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Now God renews his former law against the permitting of the wicked and heathens to enter his sanctuary. None, of what quality soever, what interest soever they make, though princes, nobles, learned, travellers, that come to view nations and the rarities of them; none of these, or such like, shall on any colour of pretence be brought into my sanctuary. Perhaps Solomon showed Shebas queen too much, we are sure Hezekiah showed the ambassadors too much, yet we read not that either of them showed the sanctuary.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thus saith the Lord God,…. This that follows is the law and rule to be observed, and which will be observed by the churches in the latter day, though so little regarded now:
no stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary; of these [See comments on Eze 44:7] unregenerate men may not be admitted members of a Gospel church; for that is holy, and holiness becomes it; but they are unholy, and as unfit to be received as swine into a king’s palace; saints and they cannot talk together, their language being different, they are barbarians to one another; nor can they walk together, being not agreed in sentiment and practice; besides, such persons disquiet the churches of Christ by their quarrelsome behaviour in it, and immoral conversation out of it; and are dangerous and infectious persons, whether heterodox in principle, or immoral in life: and much less should such be admitted to public service, to preach the word, and administer ordinances; since they should be holy that bear the vessels of the Lord, his name, and Gospel; they are blind and ignorant, and so not apt and fit to teach others; they are dumb, and cannot speak to cases they are strangers to, as those of wounded consciences, tempted and deserted, or backslidden ones; they will bring in strange doctrines, foreign to the Scriptures, and the experience of saints; and it is no wonder they are unsuccessful in their ministry, and churches do not thrive under them; to which, among other things, we must impute the great decline of religion, even among Protestant dissenters, who, it is to be feared, have too many of this character among them: but there should not be here
of any stranger that is among the children of Israel; though they are among them, nay, though they are the children of them, and have had a religious education; yet being strangers to the grace of God, should not be admitted members, and much less ministers, of the churches of Christ.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verses 9-31:
Verse 9 reminds the priests and people of restored Israel that it is the Law of their Lord that no stranger, uncircumcised in either heart or the flesh should enter into His sanctuary, no matter how friendly he may be to any Israelite among His people; See that which it symbolized, Heb 12:14; Rev 21:24; See also Psa 50:16.
Verse 10 states that those Levites who had already defiled the Lord in these matters and in sanctioning idolatry, should bear the judgment consequence of their own willful and presumptuous iniquities, 2Ki 23:8. These priests were not to be restored to their place in the house of the Lord.
Verse 11 indicates the body of Levites that did not turn to idolatry, though having suffered in the captivity, could be restored to minister in the sanctuary, having charges at the gates of the house, where the sacrifices were washed and slain, and personally slay the burnt offering for the people, standing before the people to minister to them, 2Ch 21:13; 1Ch 16:1; Num 16:9.
Verse 12 restates that because these Levite priests had ministered to the masses of Israel and strangers among them, before idols in former days, and caused Israel to fall into a practice of iniquity. He had lifted up His hand against them to cause them to suffer for their iniquities. For sin does “find one out,” in places high and low, Num 32:23; Gal 6:7-8; Psa 106:26.
Verse 13 adds specifically that because of their abominable sins they should not come near to minister to the Lord in His sanctuary, in their priesthood office, but be made to bear the same of ostracism for their willful, presumptive abominations as described, Num 18:3; 2Ki 23:9.
Verse 14 states, however, that the Lord would make or permit them to be standers, guardians, or “keepers at the gates,” or “keepers of the charge” of the house, for all the service, and for “all that shall be done in the house of the Lord,” Num 18:4; 1Ch 23:28-32. Ordained and anointed leaders of the Lord, because of open sins, may also be cut off from or deprived of, certain positions and honors of service, even in the church of the Lord today, as set forth by precedence and example of both old and new testament orders of worship and services, Psa 84:10; Mark was thus rebuffed for a time by Paul but later called for and commended as helpful and needful in his labors, Act 13:13; Act 15:37; Col 4:10; 2Ti 4:11.
Verse 15 certifies, however, that those Levite priests of the sons of Zadok, who had kept the sanctuary of Israel when the people went astray, should now come and stand before the Lord to administer the sacrifices of the fat and of the blood, Eze 40:46; 1Sa 2:35; Deu 10:8. See also 2Sa 8:17; 2Sa 15:24-29; 2Sa 20:25.
Verse 16 indicates that only those Levite priests who had kept themselves from idolatry in the past, could come into the inner court to minister to the Lord at the table of shewbread, and to keep his charge in matters of direct burning of incense and offering of sacrifices at the brazen altar; These are those who did not take part in the apostacy, 1Ki 2:35; 2Ch 24:3. In contrast, the priests of the line of Ithamar were excluded or discharged from this ministration in the temple, because of their moral corruption, similar to that of the sons of Eli against whom the same denunciation was spoken, 1Sa 2:32; 1Sa 2:35.
Verse 17 directs that the priests were to enter the gates of the inner court for their ministry, wearing linen or cotton garments, as directed by the law. They were forbidden to wear woolen garments in their ministry, within the gates of the inner court, because of the heat and perspiring uncleanness that it would generate in their ministry.
Verses 18, 19 direct that they should wear linen bonnets upon their head, and linen breeches, a symbol of purity, upon their loins, avoiding girding with anything that would cause sweat to increase, Exo 28:40; Exo 28:42; Exo 39:28. They were then directed to remove the ministering garments and leave them in their holy residence chambers and put on other garments before going into the outer court, court of the Gentiles to the people. They were to sanctify other garments before going into the outer court, court of the Gentiles to the people. They were to sanctify the people without wearing holy garments, Eze 46:20; Lev 6:27; Mat 23:17; Mat 23:19.
Verse 20 further states that they were not to shave their heads, as mourners did, nor permit their locks to grow long, as the priests were formerly forbidden to do, Lev 21:1-5. Only the luxurious, barbarians, and soldiers in warfare let their locks grow long, according to Jerome, Isa 28:7; 1Ti 3:8. Excess and flare was to be avoided on both sides. The obligation to let the hair grow freely, (uncut) was imposed upon the Nazarite, and only during the period of his vow, Num 6:5.
Verse 21 imposed total abstinence from wine upon the priest, while he was ministering in temple service; Such was not enjoined on them at other times, Lev 10:9. This restriction was a preventive or protective one, so that no enthusiasm of their devotional ministration might erroneously be attributed to their inebriation, or drunkenness, as in Peter’s case at Pentecost, Act 2:13; Act 2:15; Act 2:18.
Verse 22 forbids a priest from taking a widow as a wife, or a divorced woman as a wife, lest they should seem to sanction adultery, Lev 21:7; Lev 21:13-14. But they were permitted to take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, who had an Israelite father, or the widow that had a priest as a former husband; This was in order that they might be looked upon as good examples of sanctification in their moral and ethical social lives.
Verse 23 specifies that priests were to be teachers and examples of the law of the Lord in life, showing a clear distinction between the clean, (sanctioned by the Lord) and the unclean, condemned by the Lord, as reflecting both His holiness and justice in character, as described Lev 10:10-11; Eze 22:26; Mal 2:7. All was to encourage sanctification in life and service of the people of God, Rom 12:1-2; 1Co 6:19-20.
Verse 24 directs that in matters of controversy over principles of the law of the Lord, the priests were to stand in judgment, take a stand, guarding the commandments and judgments of the Lord in all His assemblies, hallowing His sabbaths, as Divinely directed, Deu 17:8; 2Ch 19:8; 2Ch 19:10; 1Ti 4:12; Eze 22:26.
Verses 25, 26 direct that the priests should not go near or touch a dead person to defile themselves, except it should be for compassionate purposes where the dead person had no close relative alive at all to dispose of their corpse. After the priests had cared for such a dead person, they are to reckon to him seven days of separation, after he is cleansed, before he can go back into the holy sanctuary for Divine service, Num 6:10; Num 19:11.
Verse 27 directs that on the day the priest returns to the inner sanctuary to minister he must offer for himself a sin offering, (for) with reference to, his cleansing, or sanctification, as prescribed Lev 4:3.
Verse 28 asserts that the sanctuary shall be to them for an inheritance, then the Lord added, “I am their inheritance, and ye shall give them no possession in Israel,” for the Lord affirmed that He was their possession, Num 18:20. He is the all sufficient supply and possession for His servants, Deu 18:1; Jos 13:14; Jos 13:33.
Verse 29 directs that the ministering priest should eat (of) the: 1) meat offering, 2) the sin offering, and 3) of the trespass offering. And every dedicated or devoted thing in Israel was also to fall to them, as prescribed, Lev 6:18; Lev 7:6; Lev 27:21; Num 18:14.
Verse 30 adds that the: 1) firstfruits of all; 2) every oblation of all kinds, and 3) the first of their dough, was to go to the priests. This was to provide for the physical needs of him and his family, in order that spiritual blessings might, through him, come upon the homes of all to whom they ministered in spiritual matters, Num 15:20; Pro 3:9-10; 1Co 9:9-14.
Verse 31 finally concludes that the priest shall not eat of anything that is dead of itself, or torn (crippled), either of fowl or beast, a thing that was defiling or unclean under the law, Lev 17:15; Lev 22:8. In this manner the law of holiness was strictly enforced, Exo 22:31.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(9) Shall enter into my sanctuary.To guard against the evils of the past, the command is now given that none of the strangers described shall even enter the sanctuary; but our version gives a wrong impression of this prohibition by rendering, nor uncircumcised in flesh. It should be, as in Eze. 44:7, and. The command is not that no uncircumcised person should be allowed to enter the sanctuary, for the residence of strangers among the Israelites is expressly provided for in Eze. 47:22-23; but the emphasis here, as before, is upon the uncircumcised in heart. No godless heathen should be allowed to enter in to profane the Divine worship.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9-16. It is not necessary to suppose, with Wellhausen, that these alien religionists (Eze 44:7-8) had ever been the assistants of the higher order of priests in the inner court. It is far more probable that they had been assistants of the Levites. It is by no means proved that all the Levites up to this time had been accustomed to perform the highest duties of the priesthood, and that the whole tribe was now degraded by Ezekiel to the position which these foreigners had formerly occupied. This is an unproved hypothesis and is opposed to the explicit statements of Scripture. The Levites, as a whole, were themselves the assistants of the higher priestly order (Num 8:19; Num 18:6), and had charge of the vessels, etc., connected with the temple in general, while Aaron and his sons had exclusive charge of the altar sacrifices and vessels of the sanctuary, or inner temple (Num 18:2-6; Num 18:23). Ezekiel does call the Levites priests, but this by no means proves that up to this time all priests ( kohanem) had exercised the same functions. As we have shown in the Introduction, “Ezekiel and the Levitical Law,” the surrounding nations in their temple ritual recognized several orders of the priesthood, each having different functions, and this same distinction between the kohanem who were priests in the higher sense and “keepers of the altar” and the kohanem who were priestly Levites and assistants and “keepers of the house,” is made not only in many places in other books, such as 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Deuteronomy (Eze 18:1-6), but even in Ezekiel itself (Eze 40:45-46). Such Levites as had, previous to this exercised the higher priestly functions either by right or by sufferance seem from Ezekiel’s words to have been leaders in the great apostasy toward idol worship, of which the prophetic and historical books are full, being willing to minister in “high places” and on heathen altars, which Ezekiel himself declares had even been brought into the temple of Jehovah. (See chap. 8; Eze 20:27-30, etc.; compare Jdg 17:12; 2Ki 23:8-9.) For this reason they are from this time to be degraded from this higher office, which is henceforth to be filled only by one branch of the Aaronic family, the Zadokites, which had proved most faithful (1Ki 2:27; 1Ki 2:35). The term kohen (priest), which probably had been taking on gradually a more narrow technical meaning as in the history of other rituals now becomes exclusively reserved for the higher order of clergy. (See Introduction.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 44:9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that [is] among the children of Israel.
Ver. 9. Shall enter into my sanctuary. ] See a like prohibition in 1Ti 3:3 ; 1Ti 3:8 Tit 1:7 . Such as were the scribes and Pharisees, the Arian bishops, the Popish priests, the cleri (ut vocant) – dehonestamenta among us, till cast out.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 44:9-14
9Thus says the Lord God, No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary. 10But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity. 11Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. 12Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn against them, declares the Lord God, that they shall bear the punishment for their iniquity. 13And they shall not come near to Me to serve as a priest to Me, nor come near to any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. 14Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the house, of all its service and of all that shall be done in it.
Eze 44:10 Some Levites were excluded because of their idolatry (cf. Eze 44:12; chapters 8-10). Also Ezekiel goes back to the days of Solomon when he excluded the priestly line of Abiathar from ministering in the temple. Ezekiel extends this ban (cf. Eze 44:15).
The other members of the tribe of Levi were to be temple servants with the responsibility of
1. being gate keepers, Eze 44:11
2. accepting the sacrifices of the people, Eze 44:11
3. slaughtering and butchering the sacrifices brought by the people, Eze 44:11
4. not approaching YHWH’s altar or holy things, Eze 44:13
5. keeping charge of the temple (implying the daily activities of cleaning, preparation, and maintenance), Eze 44:14
Eze 44:12 I have sworn against them This is literally lifted up My hand. See note at Eze 20:5.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Thus saith, &c. This emphatic commencement is repeated in Eze 45:9, Eze 45:18; Eze 46:1, Eze 46:16; Eze 47:13. Compare Eze 31:10, Eze 31:15; Eze 43:18.
stranger = foreigner.
children = sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 44:7, Psa 50:16, Psa 93:5, Joe 3:17, Zec 14:21, Mar 16:16, Joh 3:3-5, Tit 1:5-9
Reciprocal: Exo 12:48 – let all Lev 21:23 – go in Isa 35:8 – the unclean Jer 9:26 – uncircumcised in Jer 33:18 – General Eze 28:10 – the deaths Eze 32:25 – all of them Mal 2:4 – that my Mar 13:14 – where Act 7:51 – uncircumcised
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 44:9. Under no condition was a stranger (one outside the nation) to be permitted to participate in the offering of sacrifices. This was not only because they were uncircumeised in the flesh, but also were unfit with regard to their character.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 44:9-14. No stranger shall enter into my sanctuary To offer any sacrifice or oblation there, (see Eze 44:7,) nor be suffered to go beyond the precincts appointed for proselytes. The Levites that are gone far from me, &c. Many of the Levites departed from Gods service, and fell into idolatry; first in the general apostacy of the ten tribes, and afterward under Ahaz, and other wicked kings of Judah: see 2Ki 23:9. These, God here says, should bear the punishment due to their iniquity, and be degraded from attending upon the higher offices belonging to the priesthood, and thrust down to lower services: see Eze 44:13. Many of the priests and Levites, who had been employed in the service of the first temple, lived to see the second, as appears from Ezr 3:12. But the descendants of former idolatrous priests and Levites may be here meant; or, the ordinances here prescribed were intended to be standing rules, which were to be always observed whenever such a case as that here specified should happen. Yet they shall be ministers, &c., having charge at the gates Performing the office of porters, or other inferior offices belonging to the Levites. They shall slay the burnt-offering, &c. Shall kill and flay the beasts appointed for the sacrifices. And they shall stand before them, &c. They shall be servants to the people, in performing the most servile offices belonging to the temple. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, &c. They led the people into idolatry, by giving them a bad example. Therefore have I lifted up my hand against them I have solemnly sworn that I will punish them for this their sin. They shall not come near me, &c. They shall not offer any sacrifice at my altar, or come into the temple to perform any part of the priestly office there. So Josiah discharged the priests that had been guilty of idolatry from attending upon the service of the altar, 2Ki 23:9.