Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 45:9
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.
9. take away your exactions ] Lit. remove your expulsions from my people. Ref. probably to unjust extrusion of persons from their possessions, of which the early prophets often complain, Isa 5:8; Mic 2:9; Mic 3:2-3, and the story of Naboth, 1 Kings 21.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 17. The dues to be given the prince, and his obligations to provide the materials for the ritual.
Eze 45:9 seq. The former unjust and irregular exactions of the princes shall cease. These exactions had not only been oppressive in their nature, but unjust and arbitrary from want of a fixed standard in weights, measures and currency.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The princes are exhorted to execute judgment, and abstain from exaction (literally ejection) such as that of Naboth by Ahab 1Ki 21:19.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. Take away your exactions from my people] 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Princes are here in Gods name, and by advice from him he made them princes, counselled, exhorted, and commanded.
Let it suffice; be content, aim not at more: he who gave no more can make this enough, and he will curse and blast what you indirectly, and by sinful, oppressive crafts, wrest from others.
Remove violence; put it far from yourselves, do not you use it, and so discountenance in others, that neither common subjects dare violate one another, nor your officers violate any of them.
Spoil; either the same as violence, or the effect of it, violent courses; rob the oppressed and spoil them.
Execute judgment; judge righteously, and they look the sentence be executed, for terror to the unjust, and relief of the oppressed.
And justice: this is added for emphasis, though the same thing.
Exactions; heavy taxes and impositions on estates or trade.
My people; whom I must, if you will not, right.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thus saith the Lord, let it suffice you, O princes of Israel,…. Christian kings and princes, for such there shall be in those times; and who will have large and ample salaries provided for them, as they should have to support their dignity; and with which they should be content, as they will be, and not encroach upon the properties of their subjects:
remove violence and spoil; from your administration; the sense is, do not use violence, and exercise rapine and spoil, let these be far from you; seize not on the goods of your subjects, or spoil them of them by heavy taxes and impositions, or by vexatious lawsuits, and unjust sentences:
and execute judgment and justice; between men; let everyone enjoy his own property; and when any matter of controversy arises about it, fairly hear and examine the case, and do justice:
take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord; such as had been exacted of them in former times by tyrannical and unjust princes: or, “your expulsions” b; driving them from their houses, estates, fields, and vineyards; either by taking them away from them, and annexing them to their own, as Ahab did; or by levying such taxes upon them they could not pay, and so were obliged to leave their inheritances and possessions. This, and some following verses, contain rules for regulating the civil state of the people of God in the latter day; which did not take place upon the Jews’ return from Babylon, as appears from Ne 5:15 but will be strictly observed by Christian princes in the latter day glory; see Isa 40:17.
b “delulsiones vestras”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus “expulsiones vestras”, Cocceius, Starckius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Rules of Justice. | B. C. 574. |
9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD. 10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. 12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.
We have here some general rules of justice laid down both for prince and people, the rules of distributive and commutative justice; for godliness without honesty is but a form of godliness, will neither please God nor avail to the benefit of any people. Be it therefore enacted, by the authority of the church’s King and God, 1. That princes do not oppress their subjects, but duly and faithfully administer justice among them (v. 9): “Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel! that you have been oppressive to the people and have enriched yourselves by spoil and violence, that you have so long fleeced the flock instead of feeding them, and henceforward do so no more.” Note, Even princes and great men that have long done amiss must at length think it time, high time, to reform and amend; for no prescription will justify a wrong. Instead of saying that they have been long accustomed to oppress, and therefore may persist in it, for the custom will bear them out, they should say that they have been long accustomed to it and therefore, as here, Let the time pass suffice, and let them now remove violence and spoil; let them drop wrongful demands, cancel wrongful usages, and turn out those from employments under them that do violence. Let them take away their exactions, ease their subjects of those taxes which they find lie heavily upon them, and let them execute judgment and justice according to the law, as the duty of their place requires. Note, All princes, but especially the princes of Israel, are concerned to do justice; for of their people God says, They are my people, and they in a special manner rule for God. 2. That one neighbour do not cheat another in commerce (v. 10): You shall have just balances, in which to weigh both money and goods, a just ephah for dry measure of corn and flour, a just bath for the measure of liquids, wine, and oil; and the ephah and bath shall be one measure, the tenth part of a chomer, or cor, v. 11. So that the ephah and bath contained (as the learned Dr. Cumberland has computed) seven wine gallons and four pints, and something more. An omer was but the tenth part of an ephah (Exod. xvi. 36) and the one hundredth part of a chomer, or homer, and contained about six pints. The shekel is here settled (v. 13); it is twenty jerahs, just half a Roman ounce, in our money 2s. 4 1/4d. and almost the eighth part of a farthing, as the aforesaid learned man exactly computes it. By the shekels the maneh, or pound, was reckoned, which, when it was set for a mere weight (says bishop Cumberland), without respect to coinage, contained just 100 shekels, as appears by comparing 1 Kings x. 17, where it is said three manehs, or pounds, of gold, went to one shield, with the parallel place, 2 Chron. ix. 16, where it is said 300 shekels of gold went to one shield. But when the maneh is set for a sum of money or coin it contains but sixty shekels, as appears here, where twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels, which in all make sixty, shall be the maneh. But it is thus reckoned because they had one piece of money that weighed twenty shekels, another twenty-five, another fifteen, all of which made up one pound, as a learned writer here observes. Note, It concerns God’s Israel to be very honest and just in all their dealings, very punctual and exact in rendering to all their due, and very cautious to do wrong to none, because otherwise they spoil the acceptableness of their profession with God and the reputation of it before men.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
1. The rights and duties of the prince (45:917)
TRANSLATION
(9) Thus says the Lord GOD: Let it suffice you, O prince of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute justice and righteousness; take away your exactions from My people, (oracle of the Lord GOD). (10) You shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. (11) The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. (12) And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. (13) This is the oblation that you shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of wheat; and you shall give the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of barley; (14) and the set portion of oil, of the bath of oil, the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is ten baths, even a homer; (for ten baths are a homer;) (15) and one lamb of the flock, out of two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel; for a meal-offering, and for a burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement for them, (oracle of the Lord GOD). (16) All the people of the land shall give unto this oblation for the prince in Israel. (17) And it shall be the princes part to give the burnt-offerings, and the meal-offerings, and the drink-offerings, in the feasts, and on the new moons, and on the sabbaths, in all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin-offering, and the meal-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.
COMMENTS
God appeals to the future rulers of His people to abandon the greed and corruption of their predecessors who did violence to the helpless and took spoil of them. He urges them to take away their exactions the unjust seizure of property; to rule in justice and righteousness (Eze. 45:9). The most common means of defrauding people was by means of unjust measures. The future leaders must eliminate this evil and demand that just weights and measures be used throughout the land. The ephah was a dry measure, the bath[530] a liquid measure (Eze. 45:10). Both were equal to a tenth of a homer,[531] which was the standard unit of measure (Eze. 45:11). A shekel (about 0.4 ounces) was equal to twenty gerahs. Sixty shekels made up a mina (KJV maneh).[532] The shekels were in use in denominations of twenty, twenty-five and fifteen in the days of Ezekiel (Eze. 45:12).
[530] An ephah and bath were equal to about five gallons.
[531] Homer, literally ass-load, was equal to about six bushels.
[532] Elsewhere it is fifty shekels which equals a mina. Perhaps the Jewish shekel had been devalued during the Exile to bring it into harmony with the Babylonian shekel.
The reason for the concern about weights and measures appears in Eze. 45:13. The people are to present offerings to their prince. He in turn had the responsibility of supplying the needs of the Temple service. A sixth of an ephah of wheat and barley was required (Eze. 45:13), a tenth of each bath of oil,[533] (Eze. 45:14), and one lamb out of a flock of two hundred. These required dues were to be used in Temple offerings to make atonement for the people (Eze. 45:15).
[533] The cor was identical to the homer. Cf. Eze. 45:11.
The prince had the responsibility of collecting the Temple offerings from the people (Eze. 45:16). He in turn provided the communal sacrifices offered throughout the year, as well as those special sacrifices offered on festival days (Eze. 45:17).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) Take away your exactions.Eze. 45:9-12 are an exhortation to the princes to observe justice in all their dealings. (Comp. Jer. 22:3.) Exaction is, literally, as in the margin, expulsion, or ejection, with allusion to such cases as 1Ki. 21:1-16. In the following verses the exhortation to justice is extended to the whole people. (Comp. Lev. 19:35-36; Deu. 25:13-15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Take away your exactions Or, relieve my people from your [ unjust ] ejectments (Toy). The history of Israel is full of the oppression of the princes (see Eze 22:25; Ezekiel 34; 1Ki 12:4-11; 2Ki 23:25; Jer 22:17), and the expulsion of the owners from their property (Isa 5:8; Mic 2:9; Mic 3:3).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God’s Word to the Princes of Israel ( Eze 45:9-25 ).
The Need For The Prince To Ensure Justice and Fair Weights and Measures .
‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Let it be enough for you, O princes of Israel. Remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice. Take away your evictions from my people,” says the Lord Yahweh. “You shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer. Their measure shall be in terms of the homer. And the shekel shall be twenty gerars. Twenty shekels plus twenty five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall be your maneh.”
This kind of cry was common among the prophets, for Israelite society brought dishonour on Yahweh and his covenant by their social behaviour. The princes of the future are to ensure righteousness in the land. They are to be satisfied with their own land, and ensure proper justice throughout Israel. They are to prevent violence and looting, and to ensure that men receive true justice and right judgments, and that the poor are not evicted by the rich for no good reason (compare Lev 19:13-15; Isa 3:14-15; Amo 3:10; Amo 6:3-6; Jas 5:1-6). They are to ensure true and correct weights and measures, and honesty in monetary exchange (compare Lev 19:35-36; Deu 25:13-16; Pro 11:1; Amo 8:5; Mic 6:10-12). These latter were a continual problem. Ancient balances had a wide margin of error and it is rare archaeologically to find two weights that agree. It was simple therefore to cheat the poor and helpless.
A homer meant originally a donkey load and came to mean approximately 220 litres (just over 48 gallons). An ephah was a vessel large enough to hold a person (Zec 5:6-10), and was used for measuring cereals. The bath was used for measuring liquids. The latter two were to be equivalent measures, one tenth of a homer.
The sixty shekels to a maneh was in accordance with usage in Babylonia. There is evidence of a fifty shekel maneh in pre-exilic times (compare Gen 23:15; Exo 30:24 ; 1Sa 17:5; Num 31:50, which all seem to point to the existence of a fifty shekel maneh) which explains the need for Ezekiel’s detailed explanation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Portion of the People
v. 9. Thus saith the Lord God, v. 10. Ye shall have just balances, v. 11. The ephah and the hath shall be of one measure, v. 12. And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. v. 13. This is the oblation that ye shall offer, v. 14. Concerning the ordinance of oil, v. 15. v. 16. All the people of the land shall give this oblation, v. 17. And it shall be the prince’s part to give burnt offerings,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Here are, precepts adapted to those that minister in the departments of justice, suited to Israel at all times, and upon all occasions. If the Reader wishes to know the proportion to our standard, in weights and measures, the table at the end of most Bibles will inform him.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 45:9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.
Ver. 9. Let it suffice you. ] Be content with your double portion, your so large a lot; and that ye may be so, hear the laws that I lay upon you: remove violence and spoil, execute judgment and justice; take away your exactions, &c.; see that ye have just balances and a just ephah. Let these things be done, or you will be quickly undone. Is it not enough to be above men, but you must needs be above mankind, as those princes would be that would not be under the law?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 45:9
9Thus says the Lord God, Enough, you princes of Israel; put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness. Stop your expropriations from My people, declares the Lord God.
Eze 45:9-10 These verses list what the governmental leaders should and should not do.
1. put away violence (BDB 329) and oppression (BDB 994) BDB 693, KB 747, Hiphil imperative plural
2. practice justice (BDB 1048) and righteousness (BDB 842) BDB 793, KB 889, Qal imperative (terms often paired, cf. Eze 18:5; Eze 18:19; Eze 18:21; Eze 18:27; Eze 33:14; Eze 33:16; Eze 33:19)
3. stop your expropriations (BDB 177, literally, lift your evictions) BDB 926, KB 1202, Hiphil imperative
4. have just balances, ephah and baths BDB 224, KB 243, Qal jussive
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Thus saith, &c. See note on Eze 44:9.
the Lord GOD. Hebrew. Adonai Jehovah. See note on Eze 2:4,
and. Some codices, with five early printed editions, omit this “and”.
exactions = evictions. saith
the Lord GOD = [is] Adonai Jehovah’s oracle.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 45:9-12
Eze 45:9-12
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD. 10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. 12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.
Regulations for offerings and feast days. Eze 45:9 to Eze 46:24.
The demand for Just Standards. Eze 45:9-12.
This section (Eze 45:9-12) is a rebuke of the priests for their dishonesty in the use of scales, weights, and measures used to weigh offerings brought to the temple. Abuse of these tools of the marketplace was a source of frequent mention in the O.T. (Lev 19:35; Deu 25:13-16; Pro 11:1; Amo 8:5; Mic 6:10-12). Amos preached against insincere worship and dishonest practices (Amo 8:1-6). He painted a sordid picture of people who were impatient because of the arrival of the Sabbath that interrupted their dishonest and deceitful business practices perpetrated on the populace. The people of Amos’ day loved dishonest gain more than they loved God. They were selfish and covetous; their lack of morality in the market reflected their loose attitude toward all standards of righteousness.
These dishonest merchants tampered with the scales, placed false bottoms in the measure used in the sale of grain, mixed chaff with the salable wheat, and shaved metal off the coins used in exchange (Amo 8:5-6) Concern for honesty applied to the temple precincts as well as the marketplace. In the temple animals were bought and money was exchanged by those who came to worship. These same practices were condemned by Jesus when He cleared His Fathers House of the den of thieves.
Ezekiel had already soundly rebuked the community leaders for their injustices (Eze 22:1-31). That he here also rebuked the priests was another reminder of how seriously God views honesty and probity in dealings between individuals. It was sad testimony to the lack of honesty among the spiritual leaders of Ezekiel’s day and a warning for spiritual leaders in every age (cf. Eze 22:1-22).
The princes (Eze 45:9) will be responsible for setting and enforcing a system of standard weights and measures to insure honesty in trade and exchange not only in the temple but for all commercial enterprises as well. God admonished the princes to avoid violence and oppression and to enforce justice. Also the priests will be responsible for receiving money, gifts for offerings such as grain and oil, and were also involved in exchange.
Standard weights and measures were necessary for acceptable offerings. This law set a standard to enforce justice that the prophets championed and God demanded. Accurate scales and dry measures were to be used in buying, selling and exchanging (Eze 45:10-11). The shekel was the unit of monetary exchange, and a standard weight for the shekel was set (Eze 45:12).
No standard conversion table has been established for the weights and measures named by Ezekiel. A homer was a dry measure of approximately five bushels. An ephah was one-tenth of a homer, making it about one-half bushel. A bath was a liquid measure of about five-and-one-half gallons. The shekel weighed an average of about four-tenth of an ounce and equalled twenty-four gerahs. The shekel was one-fifth of a mina.
Just dealings precede acceptable worship. God abhors false balances (Pro 11:1; Amo 8:5; Mic 6:11) because they represent injustice and deceit (Eze 45:9-12). Jesus made this same connection between justice in our relationships and acceptable worship in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5:21-26).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Let it: Eze 44:6, 1Pe 4:3
remove: Neh 5:10, Psa 82:2-5, Isa 1:17, Jer 22:3, Zec 8:16, Luk 3:14
execute: Eze 43:14-16
take away: Neh 5:1-13, 1Co 6:7, 1Co 6:8
exactions: Heb. expulsions, Job 20:19, Job 22:9, Job 24:2-12, Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2, Mic 2:9
Reciprocal: 1Sa 10:25 – General 2Sa 14:26 – two hundred shekels Neh 5:7 – Ye exact usury Isa 16:3 – execute Eze 22:27 – princes Mic 6:10 – and Zec 7:9 – saying Zec 12:5 – the governors Mat 18:28 – and took Act 24:25 – righteousness 1Th 4:6 – go
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 45:9. At the time this scripture was being written the people of Judah (or Israel) were in captivity and the princes did not have the opportunity to oppress them. The warning admonition was to chastise the wicked head men for their past wrong doing and to command them about their conduct in the future.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 45:9-12. Let it suffice, O ye princes of Israel This is a reproof of the oppressions of the former kings and their chief officers. The title of princes of Israel is to be understood of such princes as the Jews afterward had of the Asmonan race; for there were no more princes to reign of the tribe of Judah till Christ came. Ye shall have just balances Ye shall take care that there be no deceit in private trade: ye shall provide just measures, both for buying and selling, both dry things and liquid: for the ephah was the measure of dry things, as the bath was of liquid. The homer was about ten bushels, which amounts to about eighty gallons in liquid things. And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs. This is made the standard of the shekel, Exo 30:13, which confutes the common opinion, that the weights of the sanctuary were double to those of common use. The shekel is usually valued at 2 Samuel 6 d. of our money; but some suppose it to be in value 2 Samuel 4d. of our money, and a little over. Twenty shekels, five and twenty, fifteen shall be your maneh Maneh is the same with the Greek , and the Latin mina, being both derived from it. A maneh, or mina, consists of sixty shekels, that is, thirty ounces of silver; which, reckoning every shekel at 2 Samuel 6 d. value, amounts to 7l. 10s. The dividing the maneh into twenty, twenty- five, and fifteen shekels, supposes there were coins of these several values, which, taken all together, were to be of the same weight with the mina.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 45:9-17. The Prince. (His duties and rights.)The ominous allusion in Eze 45:8 to the oppression of Israel by her kings in the past leads Ezekiel to an earnest exhortation to have done with injustice and to maintain inflexible moral principles in civil and commercial life for the days to come. This was to be secured by standardising the weights and measures, so that it would be beyond the power of the reigning monarch to alter them in his own interests. Five shekels shall be five (not less) and ten ten, and fifty shall be your mina. (So LXX Alex.) The exactions of Eze 45:9 are such iniquitous expulsions as Naboth had suffered at the hands of Ahab (1 Kings 21). The homer was about 11 bushels (dry measure) and 90 gallons (liquid measure): the shekel about 2 Samuel 6 d. (though its purchasing power was about ten times as great as now). The prince derived his revenues from a tax upon the people of 1 per cent, of oil, 1 of wheat and barley, and per cent of lambs; but from these revenues he had the obligation of providing for the offerings required in public worship. (In Eze 45:15 for fat pastures read, with LXX, families.)
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
45:9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it {b} suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.
(b) The prophet shows that the heads must be first reformed before any good order can be established among the people.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Regulations for offerings and feast days 45:9-46:24
This section contains seven subsections all of which deal with the same basic subject.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
An exhortation to Israel’s leaders 45:9-12
Mention of the proper leadership of the Israelites in the Millennium led to an exhortation to Israel’s leaders to practice justice and righteousness in the present and in the future.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord next commanded the leaders of the Israelites to stop destroying the people, treating them violently, and appropriating their possessions for themselves. This is a common cry in the Bible (cf. Leviticus 19; Leviticus 25; Numbers 35; Deu 25:13-16; Pro 11:1; Amo 8:5; Mic 6:10-12; Mat 5:23-24). Rather they should treat them fairly and do what was right.