Eze 48:1-35

The Lord is there.

Ezekiels last vision

The following are some of the principal heads of prophetic instruction intended by the vision.

1. That there was to be an entire new state of things in the Church. This is intimated by the new order in the arrangement of the tribes, which is not according to the birth of the patriarchs, nor the blessing of Jacob, nor the allotments they received in the ancient division of the land by Joshua. It is farther intimated by the grant of a distinct portion to the Levites, who had formerly no inheritance among their brethren; and by the distance between the temple and the city–the former, which was anciently within the walls of the latter, being here separated from it by the intervening portion of Levi. There is also in this vision a portion on each side of the temple, the Levites, and the city, assigned to the prince. A new order of things was established by Christ and His apostles, an order very different from that which formerly existed; and by this the vision was in so far fulfilled, though there be nothing in the present state of the Church to literally conform to the subordinate parts. Nor is anything of the kind to be expected, since the New Testament constitution neither admits of a temple, Levites, or sacred metropolis, nor will ever be altered to the end of time. We may only remark, that by the double portion of the prince, our thoughts are led to Him who is the First-born among many brethren, and who is now gloriously manifested to be so in His exalted state. The figure, too, of his portion stretching on each side of the temple, the Levites, and the city, seems to coincide in meaning with those Scriptures which represent Him as in His royal character, the Lord of all sacred institutions, and the guardian of those ordinances by which the work of His priesthood is exhibited, and all its benefits realised by the children of men (Zec 6:13; Rev 1:13; Rev 1:16; Eph 1:21-22; Eph 2:20-21).

2. That the new constitution was to be as truly Divine in its origin, and as minute and exact in its authoritative appointments, as the ancient. This is suggested by the idea of a pattern shown to Ezekiel, as was of old done to Moses. And although this was not, as in the case of the carnal ordinances, a real plan to be strictly followed, but only a visionary and symbolical exhibition, yet on this very ground it must be doctrinally instructive, the minute detail of the several parts denoting that everything pertaining to the New Testament state, its laws, ordinances, and forms, should be as exactly appointed, and as authoritatively enjoined, as any thing in the dispensation by Moses.

3. That the new constitution would far excel the former in symmetry and beauty. This is suggested by the regularity which pervades this visionary distribution of things, and which far surpasses anything in the ancient allotments of the tribes, or the structure of their city and temple. The symmetry and beauty, symbolically expressed, must of course be spiritual, but not the less visible and pleasing will it be to the eye of the Christian.

4. That the new constitution was to be far more extensive in its range than the ancient. This is intimated by the greater magnitude of the city and temple. All the twelve tribes, too, have a portion assigned them, no doubt with a reference to the future conversion of all Israel, a much grander event than the restoration of the two tribes from Babylon. But as the twelve tribes in Rev 7:1-17; Rev 21:1-27 stand for the spiritual Israel or Church of God, the vision sets before us the provision made by the new constitution for the ingathering of the Jews with the fulness of the Gentiles. The gates of the city accordingly stand open in every direction.

5. That in the new constitution the Church would clearly exhibit her several aspects. Of old she was a great military body, an ecclesiastical nation, whose laws and constitution, though sacred, had necessarily a respect to what form the civil rights and privileges of man in other nations, and whose sacred censures partook in certain cases of the nature of civil punishment. Now, however, she was to be contemplated

(1) As a chosen society, a peculiar people, inheriting the earth, and solacing themselves in all that abundance of spiritual privilege which was anciently prefigured by the land of promise. They shall rejoice in their portion.

(2) As a scene of worship, distinctly marked out in this light by the temple, which stands apart, and hath in its vicinity the portion of the Levites. The latter are thus represented as more fitly accommodated for their sacred service than of old, and as no longer labouring under the disadvantage of the curse on literal Levi, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. This curse had no original connection with sacred office; it was restricted to the posterity of Levi, and ceases to display itself in the new constitution. Though ministers of the Gospel be scattered over the Church, we are taught to regard them as blessed with their portion, a body for whom provision should be made without subjecting them to any disadvantage, and as all, wherever they are, connected with the temple or system of ordinances, residing spiritually as one body in its vicinity.

(3) As the seat of government–of a sacred government, such as that for which God established the thrones of judgment in Jerusalem of old–denoted by the city. Thus completed in all her form, Christ ruleth in her to the ends of the earth; and her name shall be seen and acknowledged to be Jehovah-shammah, The Lord is there. (The Christian Magazine.)

Gods presence the Jews heaven

As yet the Israelite had no conception of a transcendent sphere of existence for men in the fellowship of God, such as we name heaven. Mans final abode even in his perfect state, was considered to be still on the earth. God came down and dwelt with men; men were not translated to abide with God. But Gods presence with men on earth gave to earth the attributes of heaven. Yet mans needs remained and Gods presence was the source of all things necessary to supply them. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

Honoured according to faithfulness

It is to be noticed that the places of more or less honour assigned to each tribe are regulated by the degrees of faithfulness to the Lord and His ordinances by which the tribes severally were characterised. Thus Judah and Benjamin, the tribes which adhered longest to the ordinances of the temple, and to the house of David, when the rest apostatised, shall hold the most honourable positions–Judah the place next the centre on the north; Benjamin the corresponding place of honour next the centre on the south. Dan, on the contrary, is to have the least honourable place, at the extreme north, as having been so early as the time of the judges in a great degree demoralised and heathenised. So in respect to the degrees of glory which await all the saints in the coming kingdom of God, the measure of honour will be regulated by the measure of faithfulness. He who lays out his one pound now so as to gain ten pounds for the Masters glory, shall then receive the government of ten cities; he who with his one pound gains five pounds shall have rule over five cities (Luk 19:15-19). (A. R. Fausset, M. A.)

Civic obligations

Those that live in the city are said to serve the city, for wherever we are, we must study to be serviceable to the place some way or other, according as our capacity is. They must not come out of the tribes of Israel to the city to take their ease, and enjoy their pleasures, but to serve the city, to do all the good they can there, and in so doing they would have a good influence upon the country too. (M. Henry.)

The central position of the sanctuary

The sanctuary was in the midst of them. There were seven tribes to the north of it, and the Levites, and the princes, and the citys portion, with that of five tribes more to the south of it; so that it was, as it ought to be, in the heart of the kingdom, that it might diffuse its benign influences to the whole, and might be the centre of their unity. The tribes that lay most remote from each other would meet there in a mutual acquaintance and fellowship. Those of the same parish or congregation, though dispersed and having no occasion otherwise to know each other, yet by meeting statedly to worship God together, should have their hearts knit to each other in holy love. (M. Henry.)

The name of the city; Gods presence the full blessedness of His people

In the allotment of the land to the tribes, and the construction and naming of the city with which this closing vision is taken up, there may be several local and temporary significations. It may be that, as in some other of the visions, there is first of all reference to the rapidly-nearing national and religious restoration of the Jews under the leadership of Zerubbabel, and Ezra, and Nehemiah. But the spirit-stirring events that are associated with the names of these patient heroes, while they fulfil very much that Ezekiel foresaw, could not have exhausted the meaning of these predictions. For such a city was never built, the blessedness here described was never perfectly enjoyed by the Jews at any time after their captivity. There may be a further literal fulfilment of the prophecy in the connection of the incarnate Christ with Jerusalem. When Simeon took the infant Jesus in his arms in the temple, when the sacred Boy of twelve inquired in that temple,–indeed, in every incident of His life and death connected with Jerusalem,–we have a revelation of what is meant by Jehovah-shammah. But that was not perpetual. That city knew not the day of its visitation, and Jehovah Himself was as a wayfaring man and stranger to it. Others find further fulfilment of the prophecy in some future restoration of Israel. Without again noting the difficulties that seem to stand in the way of the literal interpretation of this, as of the earlier visions, we simply and gladly insist that, if there be such national restoration, the glory and blessedness of the people of its city will be in a special manifestation and abiding consciousness of the presence of God.

I. Christly men have this experience in the Church. Any Church that may not truly be called by that name, Jehovah-shammah, that has not in its worship, and its activities, its social fellowships and philanthropic labours, Gods manifested presence, is no Church at all. An ecclesiastical society, it may be, a kindly club, a political institution; but a Church it is not. To the Church belongs by special, inalienable right, this name, Jehovah-shammah, for the Saviour has promised, Lo, I am with you all days, even unto the end of the world.

II. Christly men have this experience in the age. They see this name inscribed

1. On human affairs generally. In all the movements of the time towards liberty and light, in all that tends to lessen human woe and to increase human joy; in a word, in all that is true in art, science, exploration, civilisation, as well as in what is termed religion, God is felt to be moving. There is to the Christly man a keen interest and deep sacredness, for the Lord is there.

2. In all that concerns individual life. All things work together for good.

III. Christly men have this experience in nature. Every reader of the Prophets and of the Psalms has often felt that to the ear of Hebrew piety, nature was eloquent with the voice of God. Even Greek thought, as it peopled the groves and streams and mountains with divinities, was evidently groping after the unknown God, whose power upholds all, whose character is revealed in all, whose presence fills all, for in Him we live and move and have our being. To the Christly man who dwells much and earnestly on Christs teaching, who inbreathes Christs spirit, who imitates, however humbly, Christs life, the world, not only in its stars, in the skies that span it, or in its seas that roll around it, but in its sparrows and its lilies and its common grass, tells of God. To such a man every common bush is on fire with God.

IV. Christly men will have this experience perfectly in heaven. In heaven, consciousness of the devil will be known no more; the consciousness of others, that through their sin and sorrow and our weakness is often overpoweringly oppressive, will have given way to a happy and strong brotherhood; and consciousness of self, which is born of sin, and is the darkest and most inseparable shadow of Our selfishness, will be known no more. God dwells there in an effulgence of love from which none shrink. Christ is the centre of the city, and is so seen that in seeing Him all become like Him. (U. R. Thomas.)

The ideal city and its name

The prophecy of Ezekiel begins with the vision of a city. The temple in Jerusalem is destroyed, and the city laid in ruins, the land desolate, the princes dethroned, the people exiled. His prophecy closes with another vision, the reverse of this–it is a vision of the restoration of the temple, the return of Jehovah, the renewal of worship, the reestablishment of royalty, the reapportionment of the land, and the resettlement of the people. Now, this latter vision is contained in chaps, 40-48, and it is generally interpreted as a symbolical representation of the blessings and privileges of the Gospel dispensation. It cannot be taken literally. The dimension of the temple and of the city are too large for the land. The river is evidently ideal, and the equal partition of the country among the tribes impossible. We are, therefore, compelled to look upon this as symbolical. Moreover, there are certain very significant omissions. No day of atonement is known, and there is no high priest–evidently because, the great atonement of Christ having been offered, there is no need for any further sacrifice. Again, Christ is set forth not so much in His character as Priest, as in that of Prince. All these facts point to the truth that this vision represents the close of the Gospel dispensation. The state of things appears to be intermediate between the Jewish economy and the glories of the heavenly city. The temple and the city here delineated are larger than the temple and city of Jerusalem. The city is more like that which is described in the Book of Revelation, than like the ancient Jerusalem. The large space appropriated for sacred things indicates that the conditions here represented approach more nearly to the ceaseless and universal worship of the heavenly world. The glory of the city is that the Lord is there. He is enthroned and supreme. His law is obeyed. His worship is observed. His blessing is vouchsafed to His people. This is the crowning idea both of the vision and the prophecy as a whole. And it is this that is the glory of the dispensation conceived of as a city. May we not, then, infer that every city reaches its ideal, and becomes worthy to be a place of health and happiness in proportion as it answers to the description, The Lord is there?

I. Now observe, in the first place, that this is an age of great cities. The growth of the city in population and in wealth is far out of proportion with the country at large; and in many places, while the country is going down, the city is rising by leaps and bounds. London is probably two thousand years old, and yet four-fifths of its growth has been added during the century just closed. And from the centre of every city there is a large and ever-increasing circumference of population stretching out wider and wider, further and further, into the country. And there are three causes for this. The application of machinery to agriculture, lessening the number of hands required for farm purposes, the substitution of machinery for muscular power, and its application to manufacture. The worlds work was formerly done by muscle, and the word manufacture was applied to making by the hand; but now the word has come to be applied almost exclusively to work done by machinery. And since the machinery is in the cities it attracts the hands released from the farm. There is also the modern railway, making it easy to approach the city and supply it with food. Drummond has said that he who makes the city makes the world, and the problem of our great cities is the problem of our modern civilisation. Observe then, that there is a danger that materialism should capture the city. The great multitudes in the city seem to lower the sense of responsibility in the individual. Moral failure is not marked and reprobated as in the country home; vice is so common that it becomes less shocking, and its allurements are multiplied. The contagion of low ideas often proves deadening to the better nature. The sentiments of one person openly vicious have been enough to make for the decay of the street into the slum. Moreover, there is the increasing habit of people crowding together in such a way as to make even the decencies–to say nothing of the common comforts–of life to disappear. And this is one of the most formidable and increasing evils of the time. And it is a prolific parent of many other evils, driving men and women to the drink shops, impelling them to seek deliverance from the monotonous round of life by degrading recreations, until worldliness becomes the rule of their life. And the conditions of life are so severe, the competition so keen, the struggle so desperate, the continual tendencies among the people so unrelieved to drag them down, that multitudes are being driven down to the dregs of society. Now, unless such movements and tendencies can be checked and counteracted by moral sentiments and religious life, they will constitute a danger of appalling magnitude in many parts of the land. Saltpetre, sulphur, and some other ingredients that go to make gunpowder, are of themselves quite simple and harmless–they are non-explosive; but brought together they make gunpowder, and it has been well pointed out that neither ignorance nor vice is revolutionary, nor is ignorance when controlled by righteousness and conscience; but ignorance, vice, and wretchedness constitute social dynamite, of which the city slum is the magazine awaiting only the casual spark to make it burst into terrible destruction. What, then, is the remedy? Will repressive measures suffice? Men turn naturally enough to law and its administration. They would curb the drinking habits and gambling craze, and settle the housing problem by legislation. Far be it from me to utter one single word against law and its administration. I hold, indeed, that by wisely-conceived and well-applied law much maybe done for the benefit of the people, and my conviction is that we have not yet exhausted its possibilities. But for such evils as those of which I have been speaking law is no remedy. Indeed, the causes of these evils lie beyond the reach of civil government and its scope. They can reach to the actions of men, but not, to the inward principles from which they flow. They may check, but they cannot eradicate, the moral evil. Will social nostrums prevail? Equalise labour, and make all resources common; mete out from the general stock an adequate supply to each individual–and you will establish contentment and happiness. Will you? But what of the selfishness which demands this all-things-common policy? It is really a selfishness as portentous and mischievous as that of the most unprincipled employer who exploits the working classes. What is the real desire of those who put this policy forward, but that they may escape the penalty of their own indulgence? Will education and refinement be effective? We are counselled to increase and improve education, to open museums and picture galleries, to establish settlements and found libraries, and who but must say All hail! to such proposals? What are they but honest attempts on the part of those who enjoy the advantages of education, the opportunities of station and fortune, to share those advantages, as far as they can, with those less fortunate than themselves? Their aim is to elevate mens minds and to strengthen the deep foundations of moral character by love of justice and truth and mercy, and their tendency must be, I think, to increase the desire for elevating enjoyments, and correspondingly to make disgusting the low and degrading pleasures that embrute men. They will have their influence, we cannot doubt; they are the offspring of charity; they are Christian principles attempted to be applied for the benefit of society; their tendency must be, to a certain extent, to check the advance of vice. But when these things are proposed as remedies for moral evil, then we feel that they are inadequate. You may have the highest knowledge and the most exalted refinement in connection with the lowest and most degrading vices. Vice is no monopoly of the poor and toiling classes. It has appeared among the privileged, and among those in elevated stations, in forms almost more shocking than among the common people. Not here can we find the relief we want. What remains then? That the city be pure and prosperous, and delivered from the evils which threaten its happiness and prosperity, it must answer the description, The Lord is there. Religion must have free course, must be permitted to work out its transforming and purifying effects. Christian principles must be applied to social problems as well as to personal character and life. Nor is the reason of this difficult to understand. It is the degradation of the heart that produces viciousness of life, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ enters the heart and changes and purifies it, and thus commands and sanctifies the life. All the repressive and educating and refining agencies may leave the moral inclinations untouched, though they work in the same direction as the religion of Jesus Christ. But it is the grace of Christ which changes the devices of the mind and the desires of the heart, and turns the affections and inclinations from evil to good thoughts, and upward tendencies and desires. The religion of the Saviour, therefore, is just that which we need in order to bring about the changes for which the world–this part of the world–is waiting at the present time. It was the mighty, regenerating influences of this Holy Gospel which converted the old Roman Empire into a new world. It was this, after the failure of many other agencies, which changed the England of the eighteenth century, which was marked by almost unexampled irreligion, and made it to be in the main, a Sabbath-keeping and God-fearing nation. The most neutral historians confess with admiration the great moral reformation which followed the evangelical revival. The rough toilers in the coal pits of the North were melted to tears of penitence as they listened to the Gospel from the lips of Wesley; and the Cornish miners, warned by his faithful words, gave themselves to God at their work, hearing above them the sobbing of the sea. The sweater, the exploiter of labour, and the grinder of the poor, will speedily disappear, and with him all the sullenness and discontent of the toiling masses. No more will there be hatred of masters, restrictions of output, scamped work. There will be mutual trust and mutual confidence; selfishness and greed will gradually disappear before self-respect and self-restraint; and the higher and nobler element of self-sacrifice. A sweetness will breathe through the speech and life of the people, that shall tell of heaven; and men will be brought almost instinctively to say, The name of the city is, The Lord is there. Now, these things being so, what are the suggestions for our practical guidance? Surely it becomes us to bring our own spirit into harmony with the great realities of religion, that we ourselves may be the converted and sanctified children of God, that from us there may go out on every hand an influence that shall be a blessing to the community. And does it not follow that, this being realised, we must take the Gospel of salvation to the people? In addition to this, we may learn that Christian men should not shrink from public duties. There has, perhaps, been a tendency too marked for educated and refined and Christian men to shrink from taking their part in the life of the city; they shrink from the rude heckling of the election, or the rude encounter of the council chamber. The consequence is that men selfish and ignorant are apt to push into offices that men better qualified to occupy these positions ought to have. The danger is that there may come the rule of the worst for the worst. If our city councils, for instance, are not pure; if they abet and do not abate the evils and dangers of our people; if their influence is used to sustain those institutions that enrich the few for the permanent degradation of the many, then our cities may become cesspools of evil. Can we make our city pure? is the question every man should put to himself. With this object the mind must think, the hand must work, the purse must pay. We need also Christian altruism among our leading public men. In our age it is coming to be felt more and more that the hero is the man that stands forth armed not with sword and spear, but with love and kindness, and sympathy and generosity. In our age we are coming better to understand the principles of our holy religion, and to apply them. Let us see to it that our sympathy and generosity is of this Christlike and self-denying type, and we shall do something to hasten the period when the words of this ancient prophecy shall be brought to fulfilment, and the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there. The Lord is there! Then righteousness shall be there, and justice, and peace! And if the Lord be there, and His law be obeyed by the people, and they all come under the influence of His character and Spirits power, then will men be gracious to each other, kindness and goodwill will everywhere present themselves. The Lord is there! Heavenly dispositions will then be there, kindness of heart, nobility of life; and men will realise more and more that it is a blessed thing to know and reverence, and love and serve Him. Let us realise the great truth that God in our day is bringing to pass the fulfilment of this prophecy in this city. May we not say, The Lord is there? He is commanding the minds and touching the hearts of multitudes within the bounds of this city today. Let us not despair! There are terrible social evils and various other evils abroad, and sometimes men are downcast and heavy laden, and feel as though the Lord had forgotten. Never! Not for a moment! His purposes are marching towards their accomplishment all the time through all events. We are not under a government of blind chance. Let us never think that affairs have lost their connection with the government of God. (S. Whitehead.)

The ideal city

I. If God is there, there are some things that will be found along with Him.

1. Light. Men go to the sanctuary oppressed by the same questions as of old. Deep calleth unto deep from age to age. In Gods house should be the answers to the hearts deepest needs.

2. Life. Where God comes, death is vanquished. Spiritual life is like physical, and a mystery, but it must be fed; and a table is spread in the house of God.

3. Liberty. In the city of God all are free. In His house men are manumitted. To set the captives free is the first aim of the Gospel.

II. But if God is there, there are some things that will not be there.

1. Divisions. Some Churches torn by factions. What is aimed at is not unity in the faith–that will never be gained–but unity in the spirit.

2. Defections. It is sad when men leave church, but sadder when they leave Christ. If God is there, life becomes richer, service fuller, and love true to death.

3. Defeat. Strong weapons are being used against it. Criticism, indifference, ridicule, are doing their best. But the cause must go on to victory, because the Lord is there. (J. Wallace.)

The Lord is there

Between the fruits of natural and of spiritual religion there will always be considerable apparent resemblance. The amiability and generosity of the natural man will not be distinguished by the superficial observer from the charity of the Christian; nor are we called upon to disparage that which is beautiful and excellent in natural morality. At the same time, while there may be much in the uurenewed heart that is lovely and attractive, we must not shut our eyes to its true state before God, or refuse to recognise the radical deficiency which runs through all systems of natural religion or morality. We may love, we may even admire, but if the heart be really unrenewed, we must own the melancholy fact–the Lord is not there. Again and again, throughout the Word of God, we have it directly asserted, or incidentally implied, that God dwells, by His Holy Spirit, in the hearts of true believers, and that He dwells in them to form within them the New Adam, to develop the nature and spirit of Christ. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and Christ is in us, except we be reprobate, and the mystery of our calling is Christ in us the hope of glory. Do these words mean anything? Can they mean what their natural sense implies? or are they simply high-sounding flights of Eastern rhetoric? I must press on you the question, Can it be truly said of your heart, The Lord is there? Does your religion consist only of doctrines and observances, or has a new power entered your soul? and are you conscious of a reverent and sacred intimacy with your Divine Guest? What is religion without this? Take away my Lord, and earth becomes a dreary desert, time a cruel taskmaster, and eternity an abysmal gulf of horrible gloom. But, as it is true of every real Christian that the Lord is there, so it is the law of the life of the unrenewed that the Lord is not there. The man of the world awakes in the morning with no sense of the presence of his God: he may hurry through some form of devotion, but the Lord is not there. The world rushes in with all its thronging cares and busy excitements, and the battle of the day is fought, but the Lord is not there; and when he lays his head on his pillow at night, while he forms his schemes for the future, or congratulates himself on the past, it still remains true the Lord is not there. Years roll on, and the life without God draws towards its close; human nature loses its charms, the affections become paralysed, the genial enthusiasm of youth is a dream of the past, the barren routine of habit has fossilised all the higher faculties of the soul; but while the transient loveliness of humanity fades away, the sad truth still remains, the Lord is not there. When the last scene comes, there may be weeping friends around the bedside of the dying sinner, and some may speak oft the kindliness of his disposition, and some may tell how he ever did his duty to wife, and child, and friend; but the curtain falls upon the last scene in the sad drama of a wasted life, inscribed with the melancholy sentence, The Lord is not there! Follow his receding form, if your inward sight can penetrate so far into the dreary regions of eternal hopelessness, and as you gaze with horror into the blank solitude into which he plunges, can you not catch that distant cry, of agony which wanders like an everlasting echo through the deep night of hell, The Lord is not here! The Lord is not here! Gladly I turn to the other side of the picture. The prophet Ezekiel had been gazing at a wondrous revelation of future glory, and doubtless the mystic temple and city in every point of their elaborate details had been full of interest and instruction for his delighted soul; but as we raise the cornerstone only when the rest of the entire building is completed, so it was reserved for the last word of the Divine Interpreter to touch the deepest chord of joy within the prophets heart, and, as it were, to put the crown of glory upon the entire description in those marvellous words which I have read to you. We cannot doubt but that, in a further sense than we at present experience, those words will one day be fulfilled; at the same time, the blessed privileges to which we are heirs under this dispensation justify us in applying the description, and above all the crowning words, to the Christian Church. It, too, is a new Jerusalem that has come down to earth out of heaven, and its greatest glory is that the Lord is there. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)

The presence of Christ as the chief glory of heaven

I. An unveiled presence. The imperfection of the medium through which we now receive our knowledge of Him, constitutes the veil between Him and ourselves. It is not any deficiency in the amount of the knowledge communicated; nor any want of clearness in the communication itself, which constitutes the veil spread out between God and ourselves. No: that veil is found in our weakness, and inability to take in the truth in reference to God and spiritual things. But when we reach that heavenly city, whose name will be The Lord is there, this difficulty will be removed. Then, instead of seeing through a glass darkly, we shall see face to face.

II. A transforming presence. We meet with illustrations of the power of assimilation or transformation, that are highly interesting, both in the animal kingdom and in the world of nature. The chameleon, the tree frog, and various insects among the animal tribes, occur to mind as examples. These assume the colour of the substances on which they feed, or by which they are surrounded. There is a principle of assimilation between themselves and the materials about them. But let us rise a step higher. From the animal kingdom, we look up to the world of nature Yonder is the sun. When he rises in the east, and pours his glorious beams over the clouds that are floating around the horizon, what a marvellous change is wrought upon them! A moment ago they were dark, and gloomy, and unattractive. But look at them now. They are tinted with purple, and scarlet, and gold. The sun is present with them, and what a wondrous power of transformation that presence is exerting! And if, in this lower world, we find processes like these going on, need we be surprised to find the same principle of assimilation at work, only developing results more glorious far, in the heavenly world? And this is just what we do find. For when the redeemed are introduced into that heavenly city, whose name is The Lord is there, they shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is (1Jn 3:2). The same truth is brought out more clearly and absolutely by St. Paul (2Co 3:18). And there are two things connected with this transformation which are marvellous to think of. One is the extent to which it will be carried. It will not be the peculiarity of a few of the redeemed, but the privilege of them all. And then it will be no less marvellous when we think of the reality of this change. When the sun spreads his glory over the clouds of the sky, it is only the appearance of a change which the clouds put on. They remain essentially unaltered. They are the same clouds that they were before. But it is different with the heavenly transformation of which we are speaking. The likeness to God, which His presence imparts to the ransomed who stand around His throne, is real, and pervading in its nature.

III. A satisfying presence. We see many objects of beauty and grandeur in the world around us; and we find real pleasure in beholding them. But however great this pleasure may be, it is still true that the eye is not satisfied with seeing. And there are two things which account for the striking difference that exists between seeing the beauty that appears in this lower world, and seeing the King in His beauty. We look upon the beauties seen in the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the hills, the ocean; but we are not satisfied with seeing, because they are not ours. They do not belong to us. We cannot appropriate them to our own use. But it will be different when we stand and gaze on the glories of the Divine presence as displayed in heaven. It will be our privilege to point to Him and say–This God is our God. But it is possible to own things which do not meet our necessities, and which, therefore, cannot minister to our satisfaction and enjoyment. We see this illustrated in the case of the traveller in the desert, who was famishing with hunger. Arriving at a well, he saw a sack lying near it. Transported at the thought that he had found a supply of food, he hastened to open it, when he discovered to his intense disappointment that it was only a sack of pearls! He was a jeweller, and understood their value. They belonged to him by discovery. There was no one to dispute his right to claim them as his own. But how gladly he would have exchanged them all for a loaf of bread! And how much of lifes experience is in keeping with this! These things were not made to satisfy the soul, and they cannot do it. But in the presence of God, reserved for the redeemed in glory, both these elements meet. There is ownership for the ransomed in that presence, and suitableness to their wants.

IV. A progressive presence. This is a feature of the Divine presence peculiar to itself. It does not belong at all to earthly things. In all earthly possessions or pursuits, we find limits to their ability to interest and gratify; and these limits are soon reached. The things of earth pall upon us, and we soon tire of them. Even as we hold them in our grasp, we feel, in reference to them, the fulness of satiety. We feel that we have taken their measure. We have sounded their depths. We have scaled their heights, and have gone to the utmost boundaries of their length and breadth. Alexander conquered the world–and then, as tradition says, he wept because there were no other worlds to conquer. In nothing is the contrast more striking between earthly and heavenly things than it is here. There is a littleness about the one that is soon exhausted. There is a fulness about the other which defies exhaustion. Jehovah-Shammah: the glorious Lord, in whose presence we are to stand in heaven, is an infinite God. And all the elements of His character are infinite too. And it is this feature of His character which will afford material forever fresh development or progress in our knowledge and enjoyment of Him.

V. An eternal presence. We have this assurance when told that the covenant name we are considering will be connected with this heavenly city, from that day. This means the day when this city shall be revealed, and all the redeemed shall enter on the possession of its joys. From that day, on, and on, and on through all the ages of eternity, the name of the city will be Jehovah-Shammah: The Lord is there. The blissful presence of our covenant God and Saviour will be connected with that city, while life, or thought, or being lasts, or immortality endures. Here, everything is temporary; there, nothing will be so. The life given to those who enter this heavenly city will be everlasting life. The kingdom to which they belong is a kingdom that cannot be moved; an everlasting kingdom. And everything belonging to that kingdom, its joys, its honour, its relationship, will be everlasting too. As one has well said: There will be no hands on the clock of eternity, and no shadow on its dial. The very hours of heaven will be measured by the sunshine–not by the shadow. The life to come will be an eternal progression. It will be the life of the soul–life with God, and life like Gods. (R. Newton, D. D.)

Ezekiels last vision

1. The vision of these last chapters is the vision of a city rebuilt and a temple restored. Ezekiels temple and city seem to be only a magnified edition of the city and temple which he had known in his youth–which he had loved so fondly, and lost so early. The city and temple of St. John are purely ideal, symbolical. The city descends out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Its length and its breadth and its height are all equal. Literal temple, such as Ezekiel describes, it has none. I saw no temple therein, St. John writes; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Here, then, as everywhere in the pages of the Bible, we find growth, progress: first the lower, then the higher; first the earthly, then the heavenly; first the natural, then the spiritual. The new fulfils the old, has its roots in the old, affiliates itself to the old; but transcends and surpasses it. John, the exile of Patmos, must not be as Ezekiel, the exile of Chebar: even as the exile of Chebar could not be as the exile of Patmos. Both the one and the other wrote, as it were, in view of the ruins of a destroyed temple. But the temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar was destined to rise again from its ruins: not so the temple destroyed by the Roman armies under Titus. In the prospect of such a literal restoration, Ezekiel, the priest, might reasonably desire that the new might be as the old, only larger and more magnificent. And within certain narrow bounds and limits at last it was so. Herods pile was at least as stately and grand as that which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed. But all such hopes and visions would have been only an anachronism to St. John. It was well for Ezekiel to cherish them: it was impossible, it would have been folly, for John to do so. In the interval between the one and the other, the world had moved on some four hundred or five hundred years: and the fulness of the time had come; and it was possible to proclaim as the basis of a worldwide church, and the centre of a worship which should last until the end of time–not some visible temple made with hands, but this eternal truth: The hour cometh, and now is, etc.

2. We may pass now to what is of more immediate concern to ourselves; the thoughts suggested by the words of our text, and their connection with the New Year upon which we have so recently entered. Ezekiels last words, and, doubtless, they expressed his dearest hopes for the future, are these: The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there. We realise Ezekiels meaning more clearly and forcibly, if we alter the very negative name, Lord, into the English word which represents most accurately the Hebrew original–the Eternal, or the Changeless, or the Selfsame. The unchangeableness of Jehovah gives the prophet hope for the city that is to be. Let us then gather up all our own thoughts in reference to the future–our own future, and that of the nations around us–in this brief phrase of Ezekiels, as motto and watchword–Jehovah-Shammah–The Eternal is there. And if such watchword smites us with a sober, solemn awe, it is well that it should be so. It is well that we should remind ourselves, not merely at the beginning of a new year, but at all times, that the kingdom of God is, and will be, over and around us and all men, during the coming months; that we are in it and under it, as subjects and citizens of it; and that this kingdom is the kingdom of the Eternal, the Unchangeable, the Selfsame–the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Once, in the wilderness, under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites asked, in a season of weariness and cowardice, and of atheistic doubt, such as springs out of weariness and cowardice and feeds them, Is the Lord, is the Eternal, among us or no? In after years, just before he was taken from them by death, their great leader recurred to that question of theirs, and bade them beware of tempting the Lord again so. Ye shall not tempt the Eternal your God, as ye tempted Him at Massah. We will welcome the lesson for ourselves. Be the individual future of each one of us what it may, at any rate of this we may be sure, the Eternal will be there. He will be with us in it. Gods kingdom ours abideth, come what may. We cannot be taken out of its reach. Now this thought admits of many applications. It must ever be a thought of solemn awe. But in that awe terror may predominate, or comfort and peace and joy, according as we will have it. (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Jehovah-Shammah; a glorious name for the new year

These words may be used as a test as well as a text. They may serve for examination as well as consolation, and at the beginning of a year they may fulfil this useful double purpose. Do we reckon the presence of the Lord to be the greatest of blessings? If in any gathering, even of the humblest people, the Lord God is known to be present in a peculiarly gracious manner, should we make a point of being there? Very much depends upon our answer to these queries.

I. The presence of God is the glory of the most glorious place. What a glorious state this world was in at the very first, in the age of Paradise, for the Lord was there! The Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day, and communed with man; and man, being innocent, held high converse with his condescending Maker. The topstone of the bliss of Paradise was this all-comprehending privilege–The Lord is there. Alas! that has vanished. Withered are the bowers of Eden: the trail of the serpent is over all landscapes, however fair. Yet days of mercy came, and Gods saints in divers places found choice spots where they could converse with heaven. Amid a torrent of sin and sorrow, you may cross the stream of time upon the stepping stones of the places marked Jehovah-Shammah. The Lords delights were with the sons of men, and to them nothing brought such bliss as to find that still the Lord would be mindful of man, and visit him. In the days when God had called out unto Himself a chosen nation, He revealed Himself at Sinai, when the mountain was altogether on a smoke, and even Moses said, I do exceedingly fear and quake. Well might he feel a holy awe, for the Lord was there. In Canaan itself, the days of sorrow came when the nation went after other gods, and the Lord became a stranger in the land. When He returned, and delivered His people by the judges, then the nations knew that Israel could not be trampled on, for the Lord was there. I almost tremble when I remind you of the truest temple of God–the body of our Lord. The nearest approach of Godhead to our manhood was when there was found, wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger, that Child who was horn, that Son who was given, whose name was called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Speak of Gethsemane, and we tell you God was there. Before Herod, and Pilate, and Caiaphas, and on the Cross–the Lord was there. Though in a sense there was the hiding of God, and Jesus cried, Why hast Thou forsaken Me? yet in the deepest sense Jehovah was there, bruising the great sacrifice. God was in Christ Jesus on the Cross, and we, beholding Him, feel that we have seen the Father. O Calvary, we say of thee, The Lord is there. Here I might fitly close, for we can mount no higher; but yet we could not afford to leave out those other dwellings of the Invisible Spirit, who still by His presence makes holy places even in this unholy world. We have to remind you that God is the glory of the most glorious living thing that has been on the face of the earth since our Lord was there. And what is that? I answer, Jesus is gone; the prophets are gone; and we have no temple, no human priest, no material holy of holies. And yet there is a special place where God dwells among men, and that is in His Church. He has but one–one Church, chosen by eternal election, redeemed by precious blood, called out by the Holy Ghost, and quickened into newness of life–this as a whole is the dwelling place of the covenant God. Because God is in this Church, therefore the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. The Lord is there might be said of the Church in all ages. Flying forward, as with a doves wing, to the future that is drawing near, we bethink us of the truth that there is to be a millennial age–a time of glory, and peace, and joy, and truth, and righteousness. But what is to be the glory of it? Why, this, Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there! Up yonder, whither ninny of our beloved ones have already gone: up yonder, within that gate of pearl where eye cannot as yet see. What is it that makes heaven, with all its supreme delights? Not harps of angels, nor blaze of seraphim; but this one fact, the Lord is there. What must it be to be with God?

II. The presence of God is the best privilege of His Church. It is her glory that the Lord is there. Note this, and mark it well.

1. If the Lord be among us, the consequences will be, first, the conservation of true doctrine. God is with those who speak the truth faithfully, hold it devoutly, believe it firmly, and live upon it as their daily bread.

2. Where God is present, the preservation of purity will be found. The Church is nothing if it is not holy. It is worse–it is a den of thieves.

3. Where God is, there is the constant renewal of vitality. A Church all alive is a little heaven, the resort of angels, the temple of the Holy Ghost.

4. When the Lord is there, next, there is continuing power. With God there is power in the ministry, power in prayer, power in all holy work.

5. Furthermore, whenever it can be said of an assembly, The Lord is there, unity will be created and fostered. Saints who dwell with God love each other with a pure heart, fervently.

6. Where the Lord is, there is sure to be happiness. What meetings we have when the Lord is here! At the Masters Table I have often been so blest that I would not have exchanged places with Gabriel. The Lord was there: what more could I desire? Joy, delight, rapture, ecstasy–what word shall I use?–all these have waited around the Table of fellowship, as musicians at a kings banquet. If God be there, our heaven is there.

III. The presence of the Lord is our delight in every place. We will think of our own dear homes. What a delightful family we belong to if it can be said of our house, Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there! Has it a thatched roof and a stone floor? What matters? I charge you if your homes are not such that God could come to them, set your houses in order, and say, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Will you dare to dwell where God could not lodge with you? May all men say of your home, The Lord is there! Here is a Christian who lives alone, apart altogether from family life. All his dear ones are dead, or far away. In his lone chamber, when he bows his knee in secret prayer, or whenever he takes his walk abroad to meditate, if he be indeed a true lover of the Lord Jesus, the Lord is there. Some of us can bear witness that we have had the nearest approaches of God to our souls in times of intolerable pain, and even in seasons of intense depression of spirit as to earthly things. One might almost say, Send me back to my prison again, as one did say who lost Gods presence after he had gained his liberty. One might well cry, Ah! let me have back my pain if I may again overflow with the joy of the Lords presence. I thank God that you and I know what it is to enjoy the presence of God in a great many different ways. When two or three of the people of God meet together, and talk to one another about the things of God, the Lord is never away. Yes, but when Christian people go forth to work, when you come to your Sunday school, or go out with your bundle of tracts, to change them on your district, or when you join a little band and stand in the street corner yonder, and lift up your voice in the name of Jesus, you may expect, if you go with prayer and faith, that it shall be written, Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there. And now, from this time forth, beloved, ye that fear God and think upon His name, wherever you go, let it be said, Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there. Do not be found anywhere where you could not say that The Lord was there; but if you are called into the world in the pursuit of your daily vocation, cry unto the Lord, If Thy Spirit go not with me, carry me not up hence. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER XLVIII

This chapter contains a description of the several portions of

the land belonging to each tribe, together with the portion

allotted to the sanctuary, city, suburb, and prince, 1-29;

as also the measure and gates of the new city, 30-35.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLVIII

Verse 1. Now these are the names of the tribes.] See the division mentioned Nu 34:7-12, which casts much light upon this.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

From the north end; as the measurer began to bound the land first on the north side, so he will first place the tribe to whom the most northern lot fell, or rather was assigned by a Divine direction. To the coast; along through the coast that leads from the west or great sea to Hethlon. Hethlon: see Eze 47:15. Hamath; a frontier city of that name; see Eze 47:16; anciently the royal city of Toi, who congratulated David in his victory over Hadadezer king of Syria Zobah, 2Sa 8:9,10. Hazar-enan: see Eze 47:17, for I meet with no more concerning it. The border of Damascus; and so on by the border of Damascus, which lay further eastward than Enan, as geographers describe it. To the coast of Hamath: this is Syria, and perhaps might have been best so translated; along bordering on this coast the rest of the northern boundary did run. His sides; the land, or Dan, mentioned immediately after. East; that is, from the east point, where Mount Libanus joineth to Gilead, to the west point, which is supposed in the midland sea, near the hot baths or Sidon: see Eze 47:20. For Dan; the tribe of Dan, and the strangers that sojourn with him.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. DanThe lands are dividedinto portions of ideal exactness, running alongside of each other,the whole breadth from west to east, standing in a common relation tothe temple in the center: seven tribes’ portions on the north, fivein the smaller division in the south. The portions of the city, thetemple, the prince, and the priesthood, are in the middle, not withinthe boundaries of any tribe, all alike having a common interest inthem. Judah has the place of honor next the center on the north,Benjamin the corresponding place of honor next the center on thesouth; because of the adherence of these two to the temple ordinancesand to the house of David for so long, when the others deserted them.Dan, on the contrary, so long locally and morally semi-heathen (Jud18:1-31), is to have the least honorable place, at the extremenorth. For the same reason, St. John (Re7:5-8) omits Dan altogether.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Now these are the names of the tribes,…. That shall inherit the land; and an account is given of each of the portions of it they shall have for an inheritance; by which are meant, not the twelve tribes of Israel literally, among whom the land was never so divided as here, either in Joshua’s time, or after the captivity of Babylon, but the Christian church, or the people of Christ under the Gospel dispensation, as in Re 7:4, built upon the doctrine of the twelve apostles of Christ: the stranger sojourners are not here mentioned, who, according to the preceding chapter, were equally to inherit with the children of Israel, but are included; they being Israelites indeed, and fellowheirs, and all one in Christ, be they of whatsoever nation.

From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath: the division of the land, and the distribution of the portions, begin at the north, and so go on to the south, by the way of Hethlon and Hamath; of which see Eze 47:15 and along

by Hazarenan, the border of Damascus, northward to the coast of Hamath; see Eze 47:17:

for these are his sides east and west; the sides of the tribe of Dan next mentioned, and so of every other tribe; which was measured from east to west, and consisted of 25,000 reeds foursquare, as appears from Eze 48:8:

a portion for Dan; or, “Dan one” t; either one tribe, or one portion. This tribe has its portion first assigned it, though it was provided for last in Joshua’s time, and not sufficiently neither, Jos 19:40, and is left out in Revelation chapter seven, having fallen into idolatry; but here being provided for first, confirms what our Lord says, that the first shall be last, and the last first, Mt 19:30, and shows that the chief of sinners are received by Christ, and provided for by him, with grace here, and glory hereafter, who come to him, and believe in him; and that their inheritance is of grace, and not of works.

t “Dan una”, Cocceius, Starckius; “Danis tribus una”, Vatablus, Junius Tremellius, Polanus “pro Dane portio una”, Munster, Tigurine version, Piscator.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The division of the land, like the definition of the boundaries (Eze 47:15), commences in the north, and enumerates the tribes in the order in which they were to receive their inheritances from north to south: first, seven tribes from the northern boundary to the centre of the land (Eze 48:1-7), where the heave for the sanctuary, with the land of the priests and Levites and the city domain, together with the prince’s land on the two sides, was to be set apart (Eze 48:8-22; and secondly, the other five tribes from this to the southern boundary (Eze 48:23-29). Compare the map on Plate IV.

Eze 48:1. And these are the names of the tribes: from the north end by the side of the way to Chetlon toward Hamath (and) Hazar-Enon the boundary of Damascus – toward the north by the side of Hamath there shall east side, west side belong to him: Dan one (tribe-lot). Eze 48:2. And on the boundary of Dan from the east side to the west side: Asher one. Eze 48:3. And on the boundary of Asher from the east side to the west side: Naphtali one. Eze 48:4. And on the boundary of Naphtali from the east side to the west side: Manasseh one. Eze 48:5. And on the boundary of Manasseh from the east side to the west side: Ephraim one. Eze 48:6. And on the boundary of Ephraim from the east side to the west side: Reuben one. Eze 48:7. And on the boundary of Reuben from the east side to the west side: Judah one. Eze 48:8. And on the boundary of Judah from the east side to the west side shall be the heave, which ye shall lift (heave) off, five and twenty thousand (rods) in breadth, and the length like every tribe portion from the east side to the west side; and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it. Eze 48:9. The heave which ye shall lift (heave) for Jehovah shall be five and twenty thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth. Eze 48:10. And to these shall the holy heave belong, to the priests, toward the north, five and twenty thousand; toward the west, breadth ten thousand; toward the east, breadth ten thousand; and toward the south, length five and twenty thousand; and the sanctuary of Jehovah shall be in the middle of it. Eze 48:11. To the priests, whoever is sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept my charge, who have not strayed with the straying of the sons of Israel, as the Levites have strayed, Eze 48:12. To them shall a portion lifted off belong from the heave of the land; a most holy beside the territory of the Levites. Eze 48:13. And the Levites (shall receive) parallel with the territory of the priests five and twenty thousand in length, and in breadth ten thousand; the whole length five and twenty thousand, and (the whole) breadth ten thousand. Eze 48:14. And they shall not sell or exchange any of it, nor shall the first-fruit of the land pass to others; for it is holy to Jehovah. Eze 48:15. And the five thousand which remain in the breadth along the five and twenty thousand are common land for the city for dwellings and for open space; and the city shall be in the centre of it. Eze 48:16. And these are its measures: the north side four thousand five hundred, the south side four thousand five hundred, the east side four thousand five hundred, and the west side four thousand five hundred. Eze 48:17. And the open space of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, toward the south two hundred and fifty, toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty. Eze 48:18. And the remainder in length parallel with the holy heave, ten thousand toward the east and ten thousand toward the west, this shall be beside the holy heave, and its produce shall serve the workmen of the city for food. Eze 48:19. And as for the workmen of the city, they shall cultivate it from all the tribes. Eze 48:20. The whole of the heave is five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand; a fourth of the holy heave shall ye take for the possession of the city. Eze 48:21. And the remainder shall belong to the prince on this side and on that side of the holy heave and of the city possession; along the five and twenty thousand of the heave to the eastern boundary, and toward the west along the five and twenty thousand to the western boundary parallel with the tribe portions, it shall belong to the prince; and the holy heave and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst. Eze 48:22. Thus from the possession of the Levites (as) from the possession of the city shall that which lies in the midst of what belongs to the prince between the territory of Judah and the territory of Benjamin belong to the prince. Eze 48:23. And the rest of the tribes are from the east side to the west side: Benjamin one. Eze 48:24. And on the boundary of Benjamin from the east side to the west side: Simeon one. Eze 48:25. And on the boundary of Simeon from the east side to the west side: Issachar one. Eze 48:26. And on the boundary of Issachar from the east side to the west side: Zebulon one. Eze 48:27. And on the boundary of Zebulon from the east side to the west side: Gad one. Eze 48:28. And on the boundary of Gad on the south side toward the south, the boundary shall be from Tamar to the water of strife from Kadesh along the brook to the great sea. Eze 48:29. This is the land which ye shall divide by lot for inheritance to the tribes of Israel; these are their portions, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah.

The new division of the land differs from the former one effected in the time of Joshua, in the first place, in the fact that all the tribe-portions were to extend uniformly across the entire breadth of the land from the eastern boundary to the Mediterranean Sea on the west, so that they were to form parallel tracts of country; whereas in the distribution made in the time of Joshua, several of the tribe-territories covered only half the breadth of the land. For example, Dan received his inheritance on the west of Benjamin; and the territories of half Manasseh and Asher ran up from the northern boundary of Ephraim to the northern boundary of Canaan; while Issachar, Naphtali, and Zebulon received their portions on the east of these; and lastly, Simeon received his possession within the boundaries of the tribe of Judah. And secondly, it also differs from the former, in the fact that not only are all the twelve tribes located in Canaan proper, between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea; whereas previously two tribes and a half had received from Moses, at their own request, the conquered land of Bashan and Gilead on the eastern side of the Jordan, so that the land of Canaan could be divided among the remaining nine tribes and a half. But besides this, the central tract of land, about the fifth part of the whole, was separated for the holy heave, the city domain, and the prince’s land, so that only the northern and southern portions, about four-fifths of the whole, remained for distribution among the twelve tribes, seven tribes receiving their hereditary portions to the north of the heave and five to the south, because the heave was so selected that the city with its territory lay near the ancient Jerusalem. – In Eze 48:1-7 the seven tribes which were to dwell on the north of the heave are enumerated. The principal points of the northern boundary, viz., the way to Chetlon and Hazar-Enon, the boundary of Damascus, are repeated in Eze 48:1 from Eze 47:15, Eze 47:17, as the starting and terminal points of the northern boundary running from west to east. The words fix the northern boundary more precisely in relation to the adjoining territory; and in ‘ the enumeration of the tribe-lots begins with that of the tribe of Dan, which was to receive its territory against the northern boundary. refers to the name which follows, and which Ezekiel already had in his mind. is constructed asyndetos ; and is to be repeated in thought before : the east side (and) the west (side) are to belong to it, i.e., the tract of land toward its west and its east side. The words which follow, , are attached in an anacoluthistic manner: “Dan (is to receive) one portion,” for “one shall belong to Dan.” To we are to supply in thought the substantive , tribe-lot, according to Eze 47:13. “The assumption that one tribe was to receive as much as another (vid., Eze 47:14), leads to the conclusion that each tribe-lot was to be taken as a monas ” (Kliefoth). In this way the names in Eze 48:2-7, with the constantly repeated , must also be taken. The same form of description is repeated in Eze 48:23-28 in the case of the five tribes placed to the south of the heave. – In the order of the several tribe-territories it is impossible to discover any universal principle of arrangement. All that is clear is, that in the case of Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, and Ephraim, regard is had to the former position of these tribe-territories as far as the altered circumstances allowed. In the time of the Judges a portion of the Danites had migrated to the north, conquered the city of Laish, and given it the name of Dan, so that from that time forward Dan is generally named as the northern boundary of the land (e.g., as early as 2Sa 3:10, and in other passages). Accordingly Dan receives the tract of land along the northern boundary. Asher and Naphtali, which formerly occupied the most northerly portions of the land, follow next. Then comes Manasseh, as half Manasseh had formerly dwelt on the east of Naphtali; and Ephraim joins Manasseh, as it formerly joined the western half of Manasseh. The reason for placing Reuben between Ephraim and Judah appears to be, that Reuben was the first-born of Jacob’s sons. The position of the termuah between Judah and Benjamin is probably connected with the circumstance that Jerusalem formerly stood on the boundary of these two tribes, and so also in the future was to skirt Benjamin with its territory. The other tribes had then to be located on the south of Benjamin; Simeon, whose territory formerly lay to the south; Issachar and Zebulon, for which no room was left in the north; and Gad, which had to be brought over from Gilead to Canaan.

In Eze 48:8-22, the terumah, which has already been described in Eze 45:1-7 for a different purpose, is more precisely defined: first of all, in Eze 48:8, according to its whole extent – viz. twenty-five thousand rods in breadth (from north to south), and the length the same as any one (= every one) of the tribe-lots, i.e., reaching from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea (cf. Eze 45:7). In the centre of this separated territory the sanctuary (the temple) was to stand. , the suffix of which refers ad sensum to instead of , has not the indefinite meaning “therein,” but signifies “in the centre;” for the priests’ portion, in the middle of which the temple was to stand, occupied the central position between the portion of the Levites and the city possession, as is evident from Eze 48:22. The circumstance that here, as in Eze 45:1., in the division of the terumah, the priests’ portion is mentioned first, then the portion of the Levites, and after this the city possession, proves nothing so far as the local order in which these three portions followed one another is concerned; but the enumeration is regulated by their spiritual significance, so that first of all the most holy land for the temple and priests is defined, then the holy portion of the Levites, and lastly, the common land for the city. The command, that the sanctuary is to occupy the centre of the whole terumah, leads to a more minute description in the first place (Eze 48:9-12) of the priests’ portion, in which the sanctuary was situated, than of the heave to be lifted off for Jehovah. In Eze 48:10, , which stands at the head, is explained by which follows. The extent of this holy terumah on all four sides is then given; and lastly, the command is repeated, that the sanctuary of Jehovah is to be in the centre of it. In Eze 48:11, is rendered in the plural by the lxx, Chald. and Syr., and is taken in a distributive sense by Kimchi and others: to the priests whoever is sanctified of the sons of Zadok. This is required by the position of the participle between and (compare 2Ch 26:18, and for the singular of the participle after a previous plural, Psa 8:9). The other rendering, “for the priests is it sanctified, those of the sons of Zadok,” is at variance not only with the position of the words, but also with the fact, namely, that the assignment to the priests of a heave set apart for Jehovah is never designated as , and from the nature of the case could not be so designated. The apodosis to Eze 48:11 follows in Eze 48:12, where is resumed in . is an adjective formation derived from , with the signification of an abstract: that which is lifted (the lifting) from the heave, as it were “a terumah in the second potency” (for these formations, see Ewald, 164 and 165). This terumiyah is called most holy, in contrast with the Levites’ portion of the terumah, which was (Eze 48:14). The priests’ portion is to be beside the territory of the Levites, whether on the southern or northern side cannot be gathered from these words any more than from the definition in Eze 48:13: “and the Levites beside (parallel with) the territory of the priests.” Both statements simply affirm that the portions of the priests and Levites were to lie side by side, and not to be separated by the town possession. – Eze 48:13 and Eze 48:14 treat of the Levites’ portion: Eze 48:13, of its situation and extent; Eze 48:14, of its law of tenure. The seemingly tautological repetition of the measurement of the length and breadth, as “all the length and the breadth,” is occasioned by the fact “that Ezekiel intends to express himself more briefly here, and not, as in Eze 48:10, to take all the four points of the compass singly; in ‘all the length’ he embraces the two long sides of the oblong, and in ‘(all) the breadth’ the two broad sides, and affirms that ‘all the length,’ i.e., of both the north and south sides, is to be twenty-five thousand rods, and ‘all the breadth,’ i.e., of both the east and west sides, is to be ten thousand rods” (Kliefoth). Hitzig has missed the sense, and therefore proposes to alter the text. With regard to the possession of the Levites, the instructions given in Lev 25:34 for the field of the Levites’ cities – namely, that none of it was to be sold – are extended to the whole of the territory of the Levites: no part of it is to be alienated by sale or barter. And the character of the possession is assigned as the reason: the first-fruit of the land, i.e., the land lifted off (separated) as first-fruit, is not to pass into the possession of others, because as such it is holy to the Lord. The Chetib ya`abowr is the correct reading: to pass over, sc. to others, to non-Levites.

Eze 48:15-18 treat of the city possession. As the terumah was twenty-five thousand rods in breadth (Eze 48:8), after measuring off ten thousand rods in breadth for the priests and ten thousand rods in breadth for the Levites from the entire breadth, there still remain five thousand rods , in front of, i.e., along, the long side, which was twenty-five thousand rods. This remnant was to be , i.e., common (not holy) land for the city (Jerusalem). , for dwelling-places, i.e., for building dwelling-houses upon; and , for open space, the precinct around the city. The city was to stand in the centre of this oblong. Eze 48:16 gives the size of the city: on each of the four sides, four thousand five hundred rods (the , designated by the Masoretes as , has crept into the text through a copyist’s error); and Eze 48:17, the extent of the open space surrounding it: on each side two hundred and fifty rods. This gives for the city, together with the open space, a square of five thousand rods on every side; so that the city with its precinct filled the entire breadth of the space left for it, and there only remained on the east and west an open space of ten thousand rods in length and five thousand rods in breadth along the holy terumah. This is noticed in Eze 48:18; its produce was to serve for bread, i.e., for maintenance, for the labourers of the city (the masculine suffix in refers grammatically to ). By Hitzig would understand the inhabitants of the city, because one cultivates a piece of land even by dwelling on it. But this use of cannot be established. Nor are the workmen employed in building the city, as Gesenius, Hvernick, and others suppose; for the city was not perpetually being built, so that there should be any necessity for setting apart a particular piece of land for the builders; but they are the working men of the city, the labouring class living in the city. They are not to be without possession in the future Jerusalem, but are to receive a possession in land for their maintenance. We are told in Eze 48:19 who these workmen are. Here is used collectively: as for the labouring class of the city, people out of all the tribes of Israel shall work upon the land belonging to the city. The suffix in points back to . The transitive explanation, to employ a person in work, has nothing in the language to confirm it. The fact itself is in harmony with the statement in Eze 45:6, that the city was to belong to all Israel. Lastly, in Eze 48:20 the dimensions of the whole terumah, and the relation of the city possession to the holy terumah, are given. is the whole heave, so far as it has hitherto been described, embracing the property of the priests, of the Levites, and of the city. In this extent it is twenty-five thousand rods long and the same broad. If, however, we add the property of the prince, which is not treated of till Eze 48:21-23, it is considerably longer, and reaches, as has been stated in Eze 48:8, to the boundaries of the land both on the east and west, the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, as the several tribe-territories do. But if we omit the prince’s land, the space set apart fro the city possession occupied the fourth part of the holy terumah, i.e., of the portion of the priests and Levites. This is the meaning of the second half of Eze 48:20, which literally reads thus: “to a fourth shall ye lift off the holy terumah for the city possession.” This is not to be understood as meaning that a fourth was to be taken from the holy terumah for the city possession; for that would yield an incorrect proportion, as the twenty thousand rods in breadth would be reduced to fifteen thousand rods by the subtraction of the fourth part, which would be opposed to Eze 48:9 and Eze 48:15. The meaning is rather the following: from the whole terumah the fourth part of the area of the holy terumah is to be taken off for the city possession, i.e., five thousand rods for twenty thousand. According to Eze 48:15, this was the size of the domain set apart for the city.

In Eze 48:21-23 the situation and extent of the prince’s possession are described. For Eze 48:21, vid., Eze 45:7. , the rest of the terumah, as it has been defined in Eze 48:8, reaching in length from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. As the holy terumah and the city possession were only twenty-five thousand rods in length, and did not reach to the Jordan on the east, or to the sea on the west, there still remained an area on either side whose length or extent toward the east and west is not given in rods, but may be calculated from the proportion which the intervening terumah bore to the length of the land (from east to west). and , in front of, or along, the front of the twenty-five thousand rods, refer to the eastern and western boundaries of the terumah, which was twenty-five thousand rods in length. In Eze 48:21 the statement is repeated, that the holy terumah and the sanctuary were to lie in the centre of it, i.e., between the portions of land appointed for the prince on either side; and lastly, in Eze 48:22 it is still further stated, with regard to the prince’s land on both sides of the terumah, that it was to lie between the adjoining tribe-territories of Judah (to the north) and Benjamin (to the south), so that it was to be bounded by these two. But this is expressed in a heavy and therefore obscure manner. The words , “in the centre of that which belongs to the prince,” belong to … , and form together with the latter the subject, which is written absolutely; so that is not used in a partitive, but in a local sense (from), and the whole is to be rendered thus: And as for that which lies on the side of the possession of the Levites, and of the possession of the city in the centre of what belongs to the prince, (that which lies) between the territory of Judah and the territory of Benjamin shall belong to the prince. Hitzig’s explanation – what remains between Judah and Benjamin, from the city territory to the priests’ domain, both inclusive, shall belong to the prince – is arbitrary, and perverts the sense. The periphrastic designation of the terumah bounded off between the prince’s land by the two portions named together without a copula, viz., “possession of the Levites and possession of the city,” is worthy of notice. This periphrasis of the whole by two portions, shows that the portions named formed the boundaries of the whole, that the third portion, which is not mentioned, was enclosed within the two, so that the priests’ portion with the sanctuary lay between them. – In Eze 48:23-27 the rest of the tribes located to the south of the terumah are mentioned in order; and in Eze 48:28 and Eze 48:29 the account of the division of the land is brought to a close with a repetition of the statement as to the southern boundary (cf. Eze 47:19), and a comprehensive concluding formula.

If now we attempt, in order to form a clear idea of the relation in which this prophetic division of the land stands to the actual size of Canaan according to the boundaries described in Eze 47:15., to determine the length and breadth of the terumah given here by their geographical dimensions, twenty-five thousand rods, according to the metrological calculations of Boeckh and Bertheau, would be 1070 geographical miles, or, according to the estimate of the Hebrew cubit by Thenius, only 975 geographical miles.

(Note: According to Boeckh, one sacred cubit was equal to 234-1/3 Paris lines = 528.62 millimtres; according to Thenius = 214-1/2 P. l. = 481.62 millim. Now as one geographical mile, the 5400th part of the circumference of the globe, which is 40,000,000 metres, is equivalent to 7407.398 metres = 22, 803.290 old Paris feet, the geographical mile according to Boeckh is 14, 012-1/10 cubits = 2335-1/2 rods (sacred measure); according to Thenius, 15, 380-1/6 cubits = 2563-1/3 roads (s. m.), from which the numbers given in the text may easily be calculated.)

The extent of Canaan from Beersheba, or Kadesh, up to a line running across from Rs esh-Shukah to the spring El Lebweh, is 3 1/3 degrees, i.e., fifty geographical miles, ten of which are occupied by the terumah, and forty remain for the twelve tribe-territories, so that each tribe-lot would be 3 1/3 geographical miles in breadth. If, now, we reckon three geographical miles as the breadth of each of the five tribe-lots to the south of the terumah, and as the land becomes broader toward the south a breadth of 3-4/7 geographical miles for the seven tribe-lots to the north, the terumah set apart in the centre of the land would extend from the site of Jerusalem to Dothan or Jenin. If, however, we take into consideration the breadth of the land from east to west in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, or where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea, Canaan is eleven geographical miles in breadth, whereas at Jenin it is hardly ten geographical miles broad. If, therefore, the length of the terumah (from east to west) was fully ten geographical miles, there would only remain a piece of land of half a mile in breadth on the east and west at the southern boundary, and nothing at all at the northern, for prince’s land. We have therefore given to the terumah upon the map (Plate IV) the length and breadth of eight geographical miles, which leaves a tract of two miles on the average for the prince’s land, so that it would occupy a fifth of the area of the holy terumah, whereas the city possession covered a fourth. No doubt the breadth of the terumah from south to north is also diminished thereby, so that it cannot have reached quite down to Jerusalem or quite up to Jenin. – If, now, we consider that the distances of places, and therefore also the measurements of a land in length and breadth, are greater in reality than those given upon the map, on account partly of the mountains and valleys and partly of the windings of the roads, and, still further, that our calculations of the Hebrew cubit are not quite certain, and that even the smaller estimates of Thenius are possibly still too high, the measurements of the terumah given by Ezekiel correspond as exactly to the actual size of the land of Canaan as could be expected with a knowledge of its extent obtained not by trigonometrical measurement, but from a simple calculation of the length of the roads. – But this furnishes a confirmation by no means slight of our assumption, that the lengths and breadths indicated here are measured by rods and not by cubits. Reckoned by cubits, the terumah would be only a mile and a half or a mile and two-thirds in length and breadth, and the city possession would be only a third of a mile broad; whereas the prince’s land would be more than six times as large as the whole of the terumah, – i.e., of the territory of the Levites, the priests, and the city, – thirteen times as large as the priests’ land, and from thirty to thirty-two times as large as the city possession = proportions the improbability of which is at once apparent.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

      1 Now these are the names of the tribes. From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west; a portion for Dan.   2 And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Asher.   3 And by the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Naphtali.   4 And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh.   5 And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Ephraim.   6 And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Reuben.   7 And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah.   8 And by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.   9 The oblation that ye shall offer unto the LORD shall be of five and twenty thousand in length, and of ten thousand in breadth.   10 And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof.   11 It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.   12 And this oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy by the border of the Levites.   13 And over against the border of the priests the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.   14 And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the first-fruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD.   15 And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof.   16 And these shall be the measures thereof; the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.   17 And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty.   18 And the residue in length over against the oblation of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward: and it shall be over against the oblation of the holy portion; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that serve the city.   19 And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.   20 All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy oblation four-square, with the possession of the city.   21 And the residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions for the prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof.   22 Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince’s, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince.   23 As for the rest of the tribes, from the east side unto the west side, Benjamin shall have a portion.   24 And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion.   25 And by the border of Simeon, from the east side unto the west side, Issachar a portion.   26 And by the border of Issachar, from the east side unto the west side, Zebulun a portion.   27 And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side, Gad a portion.   28 And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward the great sea.   29 This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their portions, saith the Lord GOD.   30 And these are the goings out of the city on the north side, four thousand and five hundred measures.

      We have here a very short and ready way taken for the dividing of the land among the twelve tribes, not so tedious and so far about as the way that was taken in Joshua’s time; for in the distribution of spiritual and heavenly blessings there is not that danger of murmuring and quarrelling that there is in the participation of the temporal blessings. When God gave to the labourers every one his penny those that were uneasy at it were soon put to silence with, May I not do what I will with my own? And such is the equal distribution here among the tribes. In this distribution of the land we may observe, 1. That it differs very much from the division of it in Joshua’s time, and agrees not with the order of their birth, nor with that of their blessing by Jacob or Moses. Simeon here is not divided in Jacob, nor is Zebulun a haven of ships, a plain intimation that it is not so much to be understood literally as spiritually, though the mystery of it is very much hidden from us. In gospel times old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. The Israel of God is cast into a new method. 2. That the tribe of Dan, which was last provided for in the first division of Canaan (Josh. xix. 40), is first provided for here, v. 1. Thus in the gospel the last shall be first, Matt. xix. 30. God, in the dispensation of his grace, does not follow the same method that he does in the disposals of his providence. But Dan had now his portion thereabouts where he had only one city before, northward, on the border of Damascus, and furthest of all from the sanctuary, because that tribe had revolted to idolatry. 3. That all the ten tribes that were carried away by the king of Assyria, as well as the two tribes that were long afterwards carried to Babylon, have their allotment in this visionary land, which some think had its accomplishment in the particular persons and families of those tribes who returned with Judah and Benjamin, of which we find many instances in Ezra and Nehemiah; and it is probable that there were returns of many more afterwards at several times, which are not recorded; and the Jews having Galilee, and other parts, that had been the possessions of the ten tribes, put into their hands, in common with them, they enjoyed them. Grotius says, If the ten tribes had repented and returned to God, as the chief fathers of Judah and Benjamin did, and the priests and Levites (Ezra i. 5), they would have fared as those two tribes did, but they forfeited the benefit of this glorious prophecy by sin. However, we believe it has its designed accomplishment in the establishment and enlargement of the gospel church, and the happy settlement of all those who are Israelites indeed in the sure and sweet enjoyment of the privileges of the new covenant, in which there is enough for all and enough for each. 4. That every tribe in this visionary distribution had its particular lot assigned it by a divine appointment; for it was never the intention of the gospel to pluck up the hedge of property and lay all in common; it was in a way of charity, not of legal right, that the first Christians had all things common (Acts ii. 44), and many precepts of the gospel suppose that every man should know his own. We must not only acknowledge, but acquiesce in, the hand of God appointing us our lot, and be well pleased with it, believing it fittest for us. He shall choose our inheritance for us, Ps. xlvii. 4. 5. That the tribes lay contiguous. By the border of one tribe was the portion of another, all in a row, in exact order, so that, like stones in an arch, they fixed, and strengthened, and wedged in one another. Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren thus to dwell together! It was a figure of the communion of churches and saints under the gospel-government; thus, though they are many, yet they are one, and should hold together in holy love and mutual assistance. 6. That the lot of Reuben, which before lay at a distance beyond Jordan, now lies next to Judah, and next but one to the sanctuary; for the scandal he lay under, for which he was told he should not excel, began by this time to wear off. What has turned to the reproach of any person or people ought not to be remembered for ever, but should at length be kindly forgotten. 7. That the sanctuary was in the midst of them. There were seven tribes to the north of it and the Levites, the prince’s, and the city’s portion, with that of five tribes more, to the south of it; so that it was, as it ought to be, in the heart of the kingdom, that it might diffuse its benign influences to the whole, and might be the centre of their unity. The tribes that lay most remote from each other would meet there in a mutual acquaintance and fellowship. Those of the same parish or congregation, though dispersed, and having no occasion otherwise to know each other, yet by meeting statedly to worship God together should have their hearts knit to each other in holy love. 8. That where the sanctuary was the priests were: For them, even for the priests, shall this holy oblation be, v. 10. As, on the one hand, this denotes honour and comfort to ministers, that what is given for their support and maintenance is reckoned a holy oblation to the Lord, so it intimates their duty, which is that, since they are appointed and maintained for the service of the sanctuary, they ought to attend continually to this very thing, to reside on their cures. Those that live upon the altar must serve at the altar, not take the wages to themselves and devolve the work upon others; but how can they serve the altar, his altar they live upon, if they do not live near it? 9. Those priests had the priests’ share of these lands that had approved themselves faithful to God in times of trial (v. 11): It shall be for the sons of Zadok, who, it seems, had signalized themselves in some critical juncture, and went not astray when the children of Israel, and the other Levites, went astray. God will put honour upon those who keep their integrity in times of general apostasy, and he has special favours in reserve for them. Those are swimming upwards, and so they will find at last, that are swimming against the stream. 10. The land which was appropriated to the ministers of the sanctuary might by no means be alienated. It was in the nature of the first-fruits of the land, and was therefore holy to the Lord; and, though the priests and Levites had both the use of it and the inheritance of it to them and their heirs, yet they might not sell it nor exchange it, v. 14. It is sacrilege to convert that to other uses which is dedicated to God. 11. The land allotted for the city and its suburbs is called a profane place (v. 15), or common; not but that the city was a holy city above other cities, for the Lord was there, but, in comparison with the sanctuary, it was a profane place. Yet it is too often true in the worst sense that great cities, even those which, like this, have the sanctuary near them, are profane places, and it ought to be deeply lamented. It was the complaint of old, From Jerusalem has profaneness gone forth into all the land, Jer. xxiii. 15. 12. The city is made to be exactly square, and the suburbs extending themselves equally on all sides, as the Levites’ cities did in the first division of the land (Eze 48:16; Eze 48:17), which, never being literally fulfilled in any city, intimates that it is to be understood spiritually of the beauty and stability of the gospel church, that city of the living God, which is formed according to the wisdom and counsel of God, and is made firm and immovable by his promise. 13. Whereas, before, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were principally of Judah and Benjamin, in whose tribe it lay, now the head city lies not in the particular lot of any of the tribes, but those that serve the city, and bear office in it, shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel, v. 19. The most eminent men must be picked out of all the tribes of Israel for the service of the city, because many eyes were upon it, and there was great resort to it from all parts of the nation and from other nations. Those that live in the city are said to serve the city, for, wherever we are, we must study to be serviceable to the place, some way or other, according as our capacity is. They must not come out of the tribes of Israel to the city to take their ease, and enjoy their pleasures, but to serve the city, to do all the good they can there, and in so doing they would have a good influence upon the country too. 14. Care was taken that those who applied themselves to public business in the city, as well as in the sanctuary, should have an honourable comfortable maintenance; lands are appointed, the increase whereof shall be food unto those that serve the city, v. 18. Who goes a warfare at his own charges? Magistrates, that attend the service of the state, as well as ministers, that attend the service of the church, should have all due encouragement and support in so doing; and for this cause pay we tribute also. 15. The prince had a lot for himself, suited to the dignity of his high station (v. 21); we took an account of it before, ch. xlv. He was seated near the sanctuary, where the testimony of Israel was, and near the city, where the thrones of judgment were, that he might be a protection to both and might see the that duty of both was carefully and faithfully done; and herein he was a minister of God for good to the whole community. Christ is the church’s prince, that defends it on every side, and creates a defense; nay, he is himself a defence upon all its glory and encompasses it with his favour. 16. As Judah had his lot next the sanctuary on one side, so Benjamin had, of all the tribes, his lot nearest to it on the other side, which honour was reserved for those who adhered to the house of David and the temple at Jerusalem when the other ten tribes went astray from both. It is enough if treachery and apostasy, upon repentance, he pardoned, but constancy and fidelity shall be rewarded and preferred.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 48

DIVISION OF THE LAND

Verses 1-9:

SUMMARY

The order of the original division of the Holy Land under Joshua is only partly followed here. Seven tribes succeed each other in the northern part, from the north to south: 1. Daniel , 2. Asher, 3. Naphtali, 4. Manasseh, 5. Ephraim, 6. Reuben, and 7. Judah. Each occupies the land in full breadth, from east to west.

Then follows a three part separation of a portion to the Lord: 1) A northern portion for the Levites, 2) A central portion for the priests and the temple, and 3) a southern portion was for the city and those who served it. These three occupied a square which did not cover the full breadth of the land, but were flanked on the east and on the west by portions (property) assigned for the prince or ruler of the land.

There then followed south of Jerusalem five portions for the remaining five tribes: 1) Benjamin, 2) Simeon, 3) Issachar, 4) Zebulun, and 5) Gad.

The city of Jerusalem, where the Lord dwelt, was flanked or guarded by Judah and Benjamin, the two tribes that had continually held the greatest allegiance to Jehovah.

Verse 1 describes the portion given to Dan, in the north. He, as morally semi-heathen, was given the least honorable place in the extreme north part of the land, Num 34:7-9.

Verse 2 adds that bordering Dan from the east side to the west side of the land was one portion for Asher. No person of note in this tribe is ever mentioned in the Old Testament, but one notable one–Anna the prophetess is in the New Testament, Luk 2:36.

Verse 3 then assigns a portion for Naphtali by the border of Asher from the east to the west of the land. This is one of the regions of the Gentiles, to which our Lord appeared in His early ministry in Galilee, Mat 4:13-14; Luk 4:12.

Verse 4 adds that by the border of Naphtali, on the south, froni east to west was a property portion for Manasseh. Formerly the tribe of Manasseh had been split up between two and a half tribes, some on either side or Jordan, causing continual visits of kinsmen from one side to the other, a thing no more required hereafter in the new order of territory possessions.

Verse 5 further adds that from the border of Manasseh, from east to west, was a portion from Ephraim. This tribe with its two dependent tribes of Manasseh and Benjamin for near 400 years, formerly under the judges, held the pre-eminence in the land.

Verse 6 states that along the southern border of Ephraim, from east to west, was given portion for Reuben’s -possession. This tribe, because of Reuben’s incest, was formerly doomed not to excel, by mandate from the Lord, Gen 49:4. No distinguished prophet, priest, or king ever came from this tribe, Gal 6:7-8; Num 32:23; Exo 20:4-5. From this tribe came the mutinous Dothan and Abiram, Num 16:12; Num 16:25; Deu 11:6. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked both it and Gad, Jdg 5:16.

Verse 7 adds that from the east to the west along the south border of Reuben should be a portion for Judah, the sceptre bearing tribe, Gen 49:10; Mic 5:2.

Verse 8 sets out that along Judah’s southern border, from the east to the west, should be made an offering of the land with 25,000 reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from east to west. And the sanctuary (the temple) was to be located in the midst of it, or in the central portion of the allotment area, Num 34:13; Jos 13:6; Jos 14:2; Psa 16:5-6; Eze 45:1.

Verse 9 concludes that the oblation land offering should be 25,000 reeds in length and 10,000 reeds in breadth, from east to west, forming a rectangle, south of Judah’s land of inheritance portion. See Jos 13:1-19. God was to dwell in His temple, in the midst of His city, in His land, as in the New Jerusalem, Rev 21:3.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

THE IDEAL ALLOTMENT OF THE HOLY LAND. (Chap. 48)

EXEGETICAL NOTES.The order of the original occupation of the Holy Land by the tribes under Joshua is partly, but only partly, followed. It is a new order of things, and its ideal character is evinced, as elsewhere, by exact and equal measurements. From north to south seven tribes succeed each otherDan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, Judah, each occupying the full breadth of the land from east to west. Then comes a portion separated as an offering to the Lord, into

(1) a northern portion for the Levites;
(2) a central portion for the priests and the Temple;
(3) a southern portion for the city and those who serve it. These three form a square which does not occupy the whole breadth of the land, but is flanked on either side, east and west, by portions assigned to the prince. Then follow, south of the city, five portions for the five remaining tribesBenjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, and Gadsimilar to those assigned to the seven. Thus the Levites, the Temple, and city are guarded by Judah and Benjamin, the two tribes who had throughout preserved their allegiance to the true sovereignty of Jehovah, and thus the plan expresses the presence of Jehovah among His people, summed up in the name of the city with which Ezekiels prophecy closes, The Lord is there.Speakers Commentary.

Eze. 48:1. A portion for Dan. Literally, Dan one. The same is repeated for each tribe, the usual mode in Hebrew of expressing distribution and implying equality in the portions. Dan, as morally semi-heathen, has the least honourable place in the extreme north.

Eze. 48:2. Asher. No one of note in this tribe is mentioned in the Old Testament. The prophetess Anna belonged to it (Luk. 2:36).

Eze. 48:4. A portion for Manasseh. The intercourse and unity between the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan and the nine and a half west of it had been kept up by the splitting of Manasseh, causing the visits of kinsmen one to the other from both sides of the Jordan. There shall be no need for this in the new order of things.

Eze. 48:5. A portion for Ephraim. This tribe, with its two dependent tribes, Manasseh and Benjamin, for upwards of 400 years under the judges held the pre-eminence.

Eze. 48:6. A portion for Reubendoomed formerly for incest and instability not to excel (Gen. 49:4). No distinguished prophet, priest, or king came from this tribe. To it belonged the mutinous Dathan and Abiram. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked it and Gad (Jdg. 5:16).

Eze. 48:15. The five thousand that are left. The remainder of the great square of 25,000 reeds from north to south. A profane place for the citynot strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular or common uses: so chap. Eze. 42:20.

Eze. 48:19. Out of all the tribes of Israel. Formerly the citizens of Jerusalem were out of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. Now all the tribes are to have an equal part in it, to avoid jealousies (2Sa. 19:43).

Eze. 48:23. Benjamin shall have a portion. This tribe alone with Judah had been throughout loyal to the house of David, so its prowess at the night of the national history was celebrated as well as in the morning.

Eze. 48:24. Simeon a portion. Simeon was omitted in the blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 33), perhaps because of the Simeonite prince who at Baalpeor led the Israelites in their idolatries with Midian (Num. 25:14).

Eze. 48:25. Issachar a portionits ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon. Compared (Gen. 49:14) to a strong ass crouching between two burdenstribute and tillage; never meddling with wars except in self-defence.

Eze. 48:31. The gates of the city. The twelves gates bear the names of the twelve tribes, to imply that all are regarded as having an interest in it.

Eze. 48:35. The Lord is there. The name of the city shall be no longer JerusalemThe vision of peacebut Adonai-shamaThe Lord is therebecause Jehovah will never again withdraw from it as He once withdrew, but will hold it as His everlasting possession.Jerome. Not that the city will be so called in mere name, but that the reality will be best ex pressed by this descriptive title (Jer. 3:17; Jer. 33:16; Zec. 2:10; Rev. 21:3; Rev. 22:3). A prophetic vision fulfilled in Emmanuel, God with us, who tabernacled among men (Joh. 1:14).

HOMILETICS

THE EARTHLY CANAAN A TYPE OF THE HEAVENLY

(Eze. 48:1-35.)

In this closing chapter we have a condensed summary of the magnificent vision described in the previous chapters with such fulness and exactitude. Reviewing the gradual development of the prophecy, Ezekiel catches up its chief features and groups them in a pictorial form calculated to arrest the attention and keep alive the hope of Gods people through the dreary years that followed. The lost land is restored and repeopled; from the ruins of the old Jerusalem rises a city exceeding in vastness and splendour the colossal buildings of antiquity; the Temple like a guardian angel occupies a lofty, central position, round which the current of city life and worship is continually circling, and from that Temple, like rays of golden light, the glory of the Divine presence is spread throughout the holy and happy land. The prophetic description suggests the Earthly Canaan as a type of the Heavenly.

I. In the significant position occupied by the Temple of Jehovah. The Sanctuary in the midst (Eze. 48:8; Eze. 48:10; Eze. 48:21). To the pious Jew the Temple was the glory of Palestine, the all-prominent, central object, towards which his gaze was ever directed, and wherever he prayed his face was reverently turned towards the holy place. In the midst of the heavenly Canaan the Temple stands conspicuous. Worship is the delightful employment of the glorified, and the very essence of their individual bliss (Rev. 5:14).

II. In the spectacle it presents of a united spiritual brotherhood (Eze. 48:29). The land was divided in equal portions among the tribes, and a holy oblation apportioned for the Temple, priests, Levites, prince, and people (Eze. 48:9-22). There was no ground, nor was there any disposition, to indulge in the envyings and jealousies that had vexed and torn asunder the different tribes.

Antipathies are none. In the heart
No passion touches a discordant string,
But all is harmony and love.

The charm of heaven is its inviolable unity. Each heart is bound together by the cord of love, and the union is cemented and strengthened by the worship and service in which all have a common interest. The unifying power is ever present in the object of their constant praise. There the prayer of Jesus has its most sublime realisation (Joh. 17:21-23).

III. In the honourable position assigned to those who have been conspicuous for fidelity. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who remained faithful to Jehovah when all the rest were renegade, have a place of honour in close proximity to the holiestJudah on the north and Benjamin on the south of the portion of land specially dedicated to the Lord (Eze. 48:7; Eze. 48:23). The priests, the sons of Zadok, who had kept the charge while the Levites went astray, are also generously remembered in the new order of things (Eze. 48:11). Man loses nothing by making a resolute stand for truth and righteousness. He may sink in the estimation of the temporising and may suffer for his principles; but it is more disastrous to sink in his own estimation, and still more in the estimation of God: that would be to entail suffering from which there is no relief. The faithful champion for the truth shall have victory in this life and distinguished reward in the next (Rev. 3:12; Rev. 7:14-17).

IV. In being presided over by the manifested glory of the Divine Presence. The Lord is there (Eze. 48:35). To the true Israelite the Temple of the earthly Canaan was a synonym for the Divine presence: there He dwelt, there He revealed His glory from between the cherubim, and thence He declared His law and governed His people. The light, the glory, the joy of heaven is the presence of the Divine King robed in peerless majesty and ever displaying the endless manifoldness of His matchless character. Its beauty, its splendour, its order, its purity, its ecstasy, are all summed up in the exulting factThe Lord is there!

LESSONS.

1. We learn that things earthly are the patterns of the heavenly.

2. In our darkest experiences we are cheered with the brightest visions of the future.

3. The supreme glory of heaven is a sight of the unveiled presence of Jehovah.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Eze. 48:1-7. The places of more or less honour assigned to each tribe are regulated by the degree of faithfulness to the Lord and His ordinances by which the tribes severally were characterised. Thus Judah and Benjamin, the tribes which adhered longest to the ordinances of the Temple and to the house of David when the rest apostatised, shall hold the most honourable positions. Dan, on the contrary, is to have the least honourable place at the extreme north, as having been so early as the times of the Judges in a great degreee demoralised and heathenised. So in respect to the degrees of glory which await all the saints in the coming Kingdom of God, the measure of honour will be regulated by the measure of faithfulness. Herein believers have the strongest incentive not merely to work, but to abound in the work of the Lord (1Co. 15:58).Fausset.

Eze. 48:8; Eze. 48:10; Eze. 48:21. The Sanctuary in the midst. The Centrality of the Church of God

1. A special mark of the Divine honour and affection.
2. Indicates its supreme importance to the universe.
3. The choicest blessings emanate from and converge towards it.
4. It is the seat of Divine authority and power.

Eze. 48:8. Thy heart is in thy midst; take heed to whom it belongs: is it a temple of God in which His Spirit dwells, or is it a habitation of unclean spirits? God has an eternal right to the centre of man. God is the centre of the spirit-world, and in Him everything lives and moves.Lange.

Eze. 48:10-14. Gods care for His Servants.

1. They shall have ample provision for all their needs (Eze. 48:10).

2. He will specially reward those who have been faithful to Him in times of trial (Eze. 48:11-12).

3. Their possessions shall be permanent and secure (Eze. 48:14).

Eze. 48:11. To err with the erring excuses no one; the way is broad, not for us to walk on it, but to call attention to the narrow path of life.Starck.

Eze. 48:13. The priests had their lot near the Sanctuary, and the Levites had theirs in the centre of the tribes, that they might be ready for the service of God and for the instruction of the people. Hence the Lord, having made the priests His first care, expects that they should make the souls of the people their sole concern.Sutcliffe.

Eze. 48:15-20; Eze. 48:30-35. A Happy City

1. Occupying a spacious area.
2. Commanding vast temporal resources.
3. Enjoying unexceptionable religious privileges.
4. Inhabited by a devout and contented people.
5. Providing ample facilities for ingress and egress.
6. A model of order, good government, unity, and peace.

Eze. 48:15-20. The city was ample and glorious, being about nine miles from gate to gate and thirty-six miles in circumference. The unbelief of the Jews in our Lords time was fostered by a literal interpretation of the prophecies which, under splendid figures taken from earthly scenes, shadowed forth that superior and spiritual empire which He came to establish, and their carnal hopes and prospects of temporal dominion and glory led to the rejection of the true Messiah. Nor is it much less delusive to expect a literal fulfilment of the predictions we have been contemplating, which would in effect be going back to that shadowy dispensation which the Gospel is intended to supersede, instead of advancing to that brighter and more spiritual glory to be revealed in the latter day, and would, instead of converting Jews to Christianity, bring back the Christian Church to a state of Judaism.Sutcliffe.

Eze. 48:18. Behold here the great goodness of God, who thinks of even the labourers in the city and cares for them. But every Christian ought to to be an upright labourer, as every stone, wherever it is placed, belongs to the building and contributes to its erection.Lange.

Eze. 48:19. Holy Citizens.

1. The citizens are holy men, not common, profane men; Israelites, not Gibeonites.
2. They are men chosen not out of one, but out of every tribe.
3. They are to be serviceableto improve their talents for the good of the city.Greenhill.

Eze. 48:20. All our dealings must be square, or else we are not of the holy portion, of the New Jerusalem.Trapp.

Eze. 48:23-34. As in the great family of man not one face answers precisely to another, but each is distinguished by some peculiarity, so it is amongst the children of God: therefore, though the sons of Israel were so many, they had all their distinguishing names, to which doubtless the searcher of their hearts and the orderer of their lives saw something corresponding in their character and history. Here also we see that, whatever our place may be, it is ordered for us by God, as the lots of the tribes in the earth; that, however we may enter into the kingdom of heaven, the peculiarity of our character shall be regarded there, seeing the names of its gates are not one but many; that, whatever the history of our preparation for it be, suitable character of glory is provided for us there, since its gates open upon every quarter of the earth.MFarlan.

Eze. 48:23. Let every man be content with the portion of temporal goods which he possesses, for the Lord has apportioned it (Mat. 20:14).Lange.

Eze. 48:30-35. The City of God

1. Is well and strongly founded.
2. Is comely and beautiful.
3. Has access to it from all parts.
4. Its happiness from the Lords inhabiting it.

The names of the twelve tribes are to be severally connected with the twelve gates of the city, for all alike shall have an interest in it in their respective places and situations. So the very humblest believer has his due place appointed to him in the heavenly city. That shall be a blessed change from the present scene of disorder and confusion to a world wherein all beneath God, from the highest to the lowest, know and keep their place in the most perfect harmony, love, and blessedness.Fausset.

Eze. 48:35. The glory and joy of heaven shall not be so much the absence of all present woes and the presence of all the other good things which God shall bestow, as it shall consist in this: the Lord Himself shall be there as the everlasting portion, joy, and light of His people.Fausset.

That such scenes should have been described with such assured confidence and at a time so deeply overspread with gloom, was indeed an ennobling triumph of faith over sight. It gave a most illustrious proof of the height in spiritual discernment and far-seeing insight into the purposes of Heaven, which is sometimes imparted in the hour of greatest need, especially to the more select instruments of the Spirits working. Here the heart of faith is taught never to despair, even in the darkest seasons. And when it is seen how much of the scheme delineated in the prophetic vision has already been accomplished, should not believers feel encouraged to look and strive for its complete realisation?Fairbairn.

Here endeth this remarkable vision, which, though greatly mystified by many of the attempts to explain it, stands forth to view on the sacred page as a noble specimen of Divine Wisdom, admirably calculated to inspire the captive exiles in Babylonia with the cheering hope of their resettlement in their own land and the restoration of their beloved metropolis and Temple. In contemplating it, the truly spiritually-minded Christian, with his thoughts raised above all earthly localities, will not perplex himself with subtle and trifling inquiries, but grasp the grand ideas which the vision suggests, and anticipate for himself in a future world a realisation of what was only dimly shadowed forth by that which is here describedHenderson.

HOMILETICS

JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH: THE CITY OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE

(Eze. 48:35.)

I. At abode of impregnable safety. The Lord is there. He will be always there, never to desert it as He did the earthly Temple because of the sins of His people. It is sustained and defended at every point by His invincible power. The enemy assails in vain; no weapon can pierce the invulnerable defence. Evil cannot invade its holy precincts. Its inhabitants are for ever freed from the struggles and warfare with sin with which their earthly life has been harassed. The Divine Ruler governs with irresistible and loving authority, and the order and peace of the city remain for ever unbroken.

II. An abode of unfading beauty and splendour. The Lord is there. The city shines with the reflected glory of His matchless perfections, and every part of the edifice is moulded into indescribable beauty and tipped with splendour. Perfection is the highest beauty. The Lord beautifies everything He touches. There is not a flower that blooms, a bird that flies, or a star that glitters but is adorned in every part of its wondrous structure with the reflected beauty of the Divine Artist. What, then, must be the inimitable beauty of the soul which, created in the Divine image, redeemed and transfigured by Divine love, is now admitted a citizen of the heavenly commonwealth, to bask for ever in the glory of the Divine presence?

III. An abode of endlessly satisfying joy. The Lord is there. In His presence is fulness of joy (Psa. 16:11). The withdrawal of that presence is the souls acutest misery, and is a catastrophe to be constantly deprecated (Psa. 51:11). The joy of earth is mingled with disappointment and distress; but in the city of the Divine presence no sorrow wrings the heart with anguish or brims the eyes with tears. The soul is satisfied for ever with the raptures of the ever-blessed God.

Let earth repent, and hell despair,

This City has a sure defence:

Her name is called The Lord is there,

And who has power to drive Him thence?Cowpan.

REFLECTED RAYS FROM THE BEST LITERARY LIGHTS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EZEKIELS TEMPLE

The whole wondrous vision is only the picture of a condition of surpassing glory, expressed in imagery peculiar to the prophet. No one thinks of taking the almost parallel visions of St. John in the Apocalypse as literal descriptions. We do not expect to see the holy city, the New Jerusalem, actually coming down from God, out of heaven, nor that it will be literally four-square, with walls and gates like an ancient town, nor that the walls will be over 200 feet high, or the city itself 1500 miles square, or that its buildings and spires will rise 1500 miles into the air; and yet it must be done, if the description is to be understood otherwise than figuratively. To Ezekiel and St. John alike, the only aim was to convey the highest conception of magnificence as each imagined it most vividly presented. Living in the age of Rome and great provincial cities, St. John thinks of a New Jerusalem such as he describes. imbued with a strongly Jewish and priestly bias, Ezekiel sees a glorious Temple rise before him, and all the details of a re-establishment of the Theocracy in Palestine, with transcendent splendour. To the mind of St. John, the Temple had ceased to be a central religious thought; in that of Ezekiel, the priest, it was supreme. In both, the inspired writer is left free to express the surpassing glory of the Messianic age in the only way possible to his modes of thought and the ideas of his age.Geikies Hours with the Bible.

It was probably a Jubilee year when this vision was seen. The Temple and city were in ruins, but God was pleased in this way to revive the hopes of His people.
Grotius and others have conceived that Ezekiel was simply guided to leave behind patterns on the basis of which the Temple should in after-days be rebuilt and its services restored. But an examination of the vision will show the insufficiency of this explanation. Not only was this plan never carried out, but it was, as Ezekiel must have known, incapable of execution. The physical features of the land would not admit of the separation of precincts a mile square, surrounded by a territory sixteen miles by forty-eight. The river, though connected with the stream brought by conduit-pipes into the actual Temple, soon passes into a condition wholly ideal, and the equal apportionment of the land to each of the twelve tribes is compatible neither with history nor geography. That the Temple and its services were symbolical of the Sacrifice and of the Priesthood of Christ the Epistle to the Hebrews sufficiently proves. The assemblage of the Christian Church around Christ as the central object of worship was that of which the assemblage of the people around the Temple was the type and representative; and it is more simple to understand the vision as portraying immediately the Church of Christ, than to refer to such a partial fulfilment as would give to the details an unreality discouraging to such as were looking to an actual rebuilding. But as the Jews already knew something of the typical character of the Temple services, this vision was intended to teach them more, and the very impossibility of realising its form was to draw them to the substance, and to give them prospects looking beyond any material reconstruction, just as Haggai consoled them for their disappointment at the erection of the second Temple by promises of spiritual glory.
Others have looked upon the vision as purely allegorical, and disregarding its symbolical character, have interpreted it according to mere fancy. But many of the details had an actual existence in the original Temple, and some were exactly repeated, as though they were essential and not accidental.
If we are surprised at the minuteness of the details, we must remember that it is of the essence of a vision that the seer has before him every line, as in a carefully drawn picture. In verbal illustration much is left undescribed, and the figures employed are often not carried out; but in a vision the seer at least has all before him, and it is the manner of Ezekiel to describe all he sees, and so to put his reader in the same position as himself. This may account for the insertion of details unimportant in themselves; but the numbers and figures employed are not without their meaning. Bhr has, in an elaborate treatise, shown that among the Eastern nations numbers and figures have ever had a highly symbolical character, and has applied such symbolism to the details of the Tabernacle and of the Temple. Without entering into particulars, we may remark that the symbolical numbers of the Temple of Solomon were repeated in the vision of Ezekiel, which reproduces with scrupulous accuracy the leading dimensions of the most holy part of the edifice, and, even where there are variations, employs constantly the same fundamental numbers and figures. Among the Hebrews the perfect figure was the square or the cube, and harmony was thought to be attained by exact equality, or by the repetition of like dimensions. Thus in the ideal Temple, as in the real, we find the fundamental measure of 100 cubits square, which is maintained in the Temple-court and in the court of sacrifice.
The vision is intended to depict the perpetual worship of the God of heaven in the Kingdom of Christ. To the mind of an Israelite the proper figure to represent this would be the Temple and its services, with people, priest, and prince each doing their fitting part.

In other parts of this book Ezekiel points forward to the spiritual teaching of the Gospel; here to a people mourning over a ruined Temple, scattered priesthood, and a captive king, the seer sets forth in visions that which the last of the prophets foretold in words (Mal. 1:11). This will also account for the absence of all mention of the high priest and his office. In the old dispensation the chief function of the high priest was the performance of the great act which typified the atonement wrought by the sacrifice and death of Christ for the sins of the world. This atonement was effected once for all upon the Cross, and in the new dispensation Christ appears in the midst of His people as their Prince and Head, leading and presenting their prayers and praises day by day to His Father in heaven.

It is to be observed that the vision represents the coming dispensation as a kingdom, and in this respect has especial reference to the rule of Messiah, foretold under the name of David. We find that Solomon took a special part in the Temple-services as king, and here there are new and remarkable provisions for the prince; and thus is brought forth, as a leading feature in the vision, the figure of a king reigning in righteousness, the representative of Jehovah upon earth.Speakers Commentary.

The description of the Temple does not correspond with the plan of the Tabernacle, or that of the first Temple. These were real buildings, and were erected according to the patterns shown by God Himself to Moses and to David; but this is an ideal communicated, not to a leader or king in order to be actually carried out, but to a seer, who wrote down his vision for the consolation of the captives of Babylon. It cannot even have been meant that this ideal structure should have been built by the Jews after the return from captivity, or at any subsequent period. The dimensions of the Temple, as given in the vision, are greater than the entire ancient city of Jerusalem. The dimensions assigned to the city are as great as the whole of Palestine between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, and could not be placed on a square centring at Mount Zion without covering part of that sea. Plainly the Temple is ideal, and so is the city. The vision was given to keep before the minds of the exiles the duty of rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple on their restoration to their own land. The stupendous scale of the vision was, we presume, intended to project the thoughts of devout readers into far-distant timesnot the times of the present Church of God, but those of the future glory and blessing on the earth, centring at Zion and Jerusalem, when the Lord shall be King over all the earth, and the Holy City shall be named Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there.Donald Fraser, D.D.

That there be things hard to be understood in the Sacred Scriptures these nine last chapters, as well as the beginning of Ezekiel, do abundantly testify; and such difficult things are in these last that they have made many men of the greatest parts to tremble at the thought of interpreting them. The Rabbins say that the first of Ezekiel and these last chapters are inexplicable secrets, and understood by none, and therefore forbid their disciples to read them; adding, when Elias shall come he will explain all things. Jerome, that great light in his time, professes his trepidation hereat, that he did knock at a closed door. Gregory the Great, when he went about this work, said, We pursue a midnight journey. Maldonate affirms that this last prophecy of Ezekiel is so difficult and dark that it appears scarcely possible to be understood. colampadius tells us that in chapter xlii. there is the grand difficulty which ancient expositors understood not; and he brings in Rabbi Solomon, who wrote upon the whole Talmud, saying that he thinks there is not anything extant which aids the understanding of it; and professes that neither by his own study, aid of ministers, nor by his own reading, he attained any help in understanding the meaning of this building, but only what he had from heaven: and of himself he saith, chap. 45, In this passage, above all others, I feel the weakness of my own understanding, yet silently I adore its mysteries. It is good to tremble at the Word of God, both what we understand and what we understand not; for all is of equal authority, and to him that trembles thereat the Lord looketh, and will let in light. The vision is dark, but God dwells in darkness; the Temple and city are dark, but Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there, whom we most humbly desire to let out some beams of light, whereby we may come to understand something of the incredible sweetness of these dark and deep things.
This vision, therefore, points out the introduction of a better hope, viz., the Church of Christ under the Gospel. A. Lapide tells us that many Rabbins and Jews refer this Temple and city to the Messiah, expecting that He should build them; and because this third Temple and new city are not yet built they think the Messiah is not yet come. That which the vision doth chiefly hold out unto us is, the building of the Christian Temple, with the worship thereof, under Jewish expressions which began to be accomplished in the apostles days. And that the spiritual Temple, consisting of believing Jews and Gentiles, is chiefly intended we may see from that correspondency between Ezekiel and John in his Gospel and Revelation.Greenhill.

The import of the vision in the main is this: that God would in due time accomplish the restoration of His exiled people to the land of their fathers, effect the reconstruction of their ruined Temple and reorganisation of its religious services, and bless them with manifest tokens of His favour. At the time it was granted, the Hebrews were in a state of the lowest depression in Babylon.
Fourteen years had elapsed since the destruction of their sacred edifice, and nothing could have been better calculated to revive their drooping hopes, reinvigorate their confidence in their Covenant-God, and encourage them to return to Palestine when the hour of their liberation should arrive, than the brilliant prospect of the restoration of their civil and religious privileges, which the prophet here holds out to their view.
Let now any reader of ordinary intelligence turn up the description of the vision, and let him be asked what is the impression which it naturally makes upon him, and which he finds it impossible to dismiss from his mind, and he will candidly own that it is that of a literal Temple. With respect to the waters, chap. 47, it is altogether different. Here there was nothing left for the Jews to do in bringing about the realisation of the vision. Having left the Temple, the seat of the Divine residence, and the source whence blessings were to flow to the restored Hebrew nation, the prophet is carried in vision southwards into the regions of the Dead Sea, which had been noted for everything that was forbidden and noxious in its aspectthe very embodiment of barrenness and desolation. These were now to be converted into fertility and beauty. As in the previous condition they were strikingly symbolical of the spiritually unproductive and abhorrent character of idolatrous Israel, so they were now to serve as images of the renewed state of things when God should bring back His people, and, according to His promises, bless them by conferring upon them abundantly the rich tokens of His regard. By the copious effusions of the influences of His Holy Spirit, He would restore His Church to spiritual life, and lender her instrumental in diffusing blessings to the world around.
The only apparently plausible objection that can be taken to the literal interpretation of the Temple is founded on the dimensions assigned to it. It remains, however, to be settled whether reeds be the measure intended, and whether the language be not susceptible of another construction. Nor is there any inconsistency in interpreting one part of the vision literally and the other symbolically. The cases are perfectly different. In the one a literal Temple was required to meet the circumstances of the exiled Hebrews; in the other, though outwardly restored, the Temple and Temple-worship would still have left them in a state of spiritual destitution, if they had not received the blessing from on high. The rich and abundant communication of this blessing we conceive to be beautifully set forth under the image of a river issuing forth from the Divine presence in the new Temple, and, increasing as it flows in the direction of the Dead Sea, spreading life and fertility wherever it comes.E. Henderson, D.D.

If any one will take up the full circuit of the wall that encompassed the holy ground, according to our English measure it will amount to half a mile and about one hundred and sixty-six yards. And whosoever, likewise, will measure the square of Ezekiel (chap. Eze. 42:20), he will find it six times as large as this (chap. Eze. 40:5), the whole amounting to three miles and a half and about one hundred and forty yardsa compass incomparably larger than Mount Moriah divers times over; and by this very thing is shown that that is spiritually and mystically to be understood.

The description of the Temple and city that he hath given in the end of his book, as it was a prediction of some good to come, so was that prediction true, thus far according to the very letternamely, that there should be a Temple and a city newly built; and so it was a promise and a comfort to the people then in captivity of their restoring again to their own land, and their enjoying Jerusalem and the Temple again as they had done in former time before their removing and captivating out of their own country. But as for a literal respondency of that city and Temple to all the particulars of his description, it is so far from it that his temple is delineated larger than all the earthly Jerusalem, larger than all the land of Canaan. And, thereby, the scope of the Holy Ghost in that ichnography (ground-plot) is clearly held out to be, to signify the great enlarging of the spiritual Jerusalem and Temple, the Church under the Gospel, and the spiritual beauty and glory of it, as well as to certify captived Israel of hopes of an earthly city and Temple to be rebuilt; which came to pass upon their return under Cyrus.Lightfoot.

The general scope of the vision may be twofold.

1. To assure the captives that they should not only return to their own land and be settled there, which had been often promised in the foregoing chapters, but that they should have, and therefore ought to be encouraged to build, another Temple, which God would own, and where He would meet and bless them; that the ordinances of their worship should be revived, and the sacred priesthood should there attend; and though they should not have a king to live in such splendour as formerly, yet they should have a prince or ruler that should countenance the Word of God among them, and should himself be an example of a diligent attendance upon it; and that prince, priests, and people should have a very comfortable settlement in their own land.
2. To direct them to look further than all this, and to expect the coming of the Messiah, who had before been prophesied of under the name of David (the man that projected the building of the first Temple), and who should set up a spiritual Temple, even the Gospel Church, the glory of which should far exceed that of Solomons Temple, and which should continue to the end of time. And the Gospel Temple, erected by Christ and His apostles, was so closely connected with the second material Temple, and was erected so carefully just at the time when that Temple fell into decay, being designed to receive its glories when it resigned them, that it was proper enough that they should both be referred to in one and the same vision; which vision, under the type and figure of a Temple and altar, priests and sacrifices, foreshowed the spiritual worship that should be performed in Gospel times, and that worship perfected at last in the kingdom of glory, in which, doubtless, these visions will have their full accomplishment; if not, as some think, in a glorious and happy state of the Gospel Church to take place on earth in latter days.Benson.

It is a great thought which presents itself unadorned to our view in the prophetico-symbolic Temple: God henceforth dwells in perfect peace, revealing Himself in the unbounded fulness of His glory, making Himself known in the living Word of progressive, saving, and sanctifying redemption. Everything is placed upon the ample circuit of the Temple, whose extended court receives all people, and through whose high and open gates the King of Glory is to enter in (Psa. 24:7-9), and then upon the order and harmony of the Divine habitations, the well-proportioned building (chap. Eze. 42:10); and the revelations of the holiest are stored up in the pure deep water of His Word, which in life-giving streams issues from the Temple. The stone tables of the Law are consumed, and the fresh and free fountain of eternal truth streams forth from the Temple of the Spirit, quickening and vivifying in land and sea, awakening by its creative and fructifying power a new and mighty race on earth. And thus hast thou, much-misjudged yet lofty seer, in the unconscious depth of thy mysteriously flowing language, set up upon the great undistinguishing, well-proportioned, and beautifully compacted building a type of the simple yet lofty Temple of Christ, from which flows the spiritual fountain of life.Umbreit.

The ideal Temple exhibits, not the precise literal outline, but the essential character of the worship of Messiah as it shall be when He shall exercise sway in Jerusalem among His own people, the Jews, and thence to the ends of the earth. A Temple with sacrifices now would be a denial of the all-sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ. He who sacrificed before, confessed the Messiah; He who should sacrifice now would solemnly deny Him. These difficulties, however, may be all seeming, not real. Faith accepts Gods Word as it is, waits for the event, sure that it will clear up all such difficulties. Perhaps, as some think, the beau-ideal of a sacred commonwealth is given according to the then-existing pattern of Temple-services, which would be the imagery most familiar to the prophet. The minute particularising of details is in accordance with Ezekiels style, even in describing purely ideal scenes. The old Temple embodied, in visible forms and rites, spiritual truths affecting the people, even when absent from it. So this ideal Temple is made, in the absence of the outward Temple, to serve by description the same purpose of symbolical instruction as the old literal Temple did by forms and acts. As in the beginning God promised to be a Sanctuary to the captives at the Chebar, so now at the close is promised a complete restoration and realisation of the theocratic worship and polity under Messiah, in its noblest ideal (Jer. 31:38-40). Israels province may hereafter be to show the essential identity, even in the minute details of the Temple-sacrinces, between the Law and Gospel (Rom. 10:4; Rom. 10:8). The ideal of the theocratic Temple will then first be realised.Fausset.

As to the Messianic character of the substance of this whole vision Jewish and Christian commentators are generally agreed; and the opinion which, according to Jerome, many of the Jews entertained, and which has been supported by the rationalistic expositors after the example of Grotiusnamely, that Ezekiel describes the Temple of Solomon destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar as a model for the rebuilding of it after the return of the Jews from the captivityhas not found much favour, inasmuch as, apart from all other objections to which it is exposed, it is upset by the fact that not only are its supporters unable to make anything of the description of the spring which issues from the threshold of the Temple, but they are also unable to explain the separation of the Temple from the city of Jerusalem; as it would never have occurred to any Jewish patriot, apart from Divine revelation, much less to a priest like Ezekiel, who claims such important prerogatives for the prince of the family of David in relation to the Temple, to remove the house of Jehovah from Mount Zion, the seat of the royal house of David, and out of the bounds and territory of the city of Jerusalem. But even if we lay aside this view, and the one related to it, viz., that the whole vision contains nothing more than ideal hopes and desires of better things belonging to that age, with regard to the future restoration of the destroyed Temple and kingdom, the commentators, who acknowledge the Divine origin of prophecy and the Messianic character of the vision, differ very widely from one another with reference to the question how the vision is to be interpreted; some declaring themselves quite as decidedly in favour of the literal explanation as others in favour of the figurative or symbolico-typical view, which they regard as the only correct and Scriptural one.Keil.

According to some we have here a model, according to which, on the return of the people, the Temple should have been rebuilt,a building specification by Divine authority. But this opinion forgets that we have here to do not with an architect but with a prophetwith one whose department is not the hands but the hearts, which he has to awaken to faith and hope. It cannot produce a single analogy from the prophetic region: nowhere have the prophets intruded into the department of legislation, for which under the old covenant other organs were provided. Especially all the other prophecies of Ezekiel of the time after the destruction bear not a legislative but a hortatory character. In particular, the adjoining prophecy concerning Gog and Magog leads us to expect that here also much will belong to mere pictorial description, which is excluded if we ascribe a legislative import to the section. To this is added the obvious impossibility of erecting a building according to the specifications given. These suffice only to give play to the imagination. We have in particular almost nothing of materials, to which so much space is devoted in the description of Solomons Temple. As a rule, the specifications are confined to the mere measures and distances; whence those who, like Villalpandus, have undertaken to give literal plans of Ezekiels Temple have been obliged to draw much from their own fancy. Lastly, in the building of the second Temple, it is manifest that no reference is made to Ezekiels Temple. As the reason of this cannot be sought in any doubt of the Divine mission of Ezekiel, whose prophecies were admitted into the canon, it can only be found in this, that men saw in this prophecy something else than a building specification. The restoration of the city and the Temple rests on the ground of the firm conviction of the living power and indestructibility of the Kingdom of God, the symbol of which was the Temple, according to a view pervading the whole of the Old and New Testament. And as the prophecy reaches beyond its first fulfilment, it guarantees that within the Kingdom of God life shall arise out of every deaththat the old covenant cannot go down without rising again gloriously in the new.Hengstenberg.

What is this Temple? The first obvious suggestion is, that Ezekiel was looking forward to the times of Ezra; that this Temple is an anticipation of that of which Zerubbabel brought forth the headstone. But the building which rises before the eyes of the seer covers an area which the second Temple never can have occupied. In Ezekiels vision there is a distinct allusion to that appearance of the glory of the Lord which belonged, the Jews say, exclusively to the elder building. Christian writers have availed themselves of these circumstances to decide peremptorily that the vision is of a spiritual, not an earthly Temple. The difficulties in the way of such an opinion are very great. Accurate admeasurements in feet and cubits seem as if they must relate to a visible, not to an invisible fabric. There are still two possible opinions. One is popular among many of our countrymen. It is, that a Temple exactly answering to Ezekiels description will appear hereafter in Jerusalem. The other, that Ezekiel carried with him into Chaldea the habits, the prejudices, and formality of the priestly order to which he belonged. Therefore, though he had high moral purposes and divine instincts, he could not but regard the reappearance of a Temple like that which Nebuzaradan had destroyed, only more magnificent, as the consummation of an Israelites dreams and hopes.

But where did the prophet get these measures? To what did they correspond? There cannot be the slightest doubt, I conceive, that the general form and construction of the building, the different parts of which it was to consist, the cherubim and palm-trees which were to adorn it, were suggested to him by that which he had actually seen. If he taught that the future was to be unlike the past, that there was no common root out of which they both grew, he would be faithless to his vocation, he would be forgetting the permanent and eternal Being. Solomons Temple had been Ezekiels primer or first lesson-book. I have anticipated what I have to say to those who maintain that Ezekiel is giving us the pattern of a Temple made of living stones, not of stones hewn out of an earthly quarry. By a spiritual Temple they do not, I trust, mean an unsubstantial Temple, one built of clouds and mists, one erected by the eye which sees it. They believe, doubtless, the spiritual temple to be a spiritual society, possessing a real unity inhabited by the Divine Presence resting on the Divine Name. Well, I do not doubt that Ezekiel saw more or less clearly the pattern in earthly forms. But we must remember, first, not to confound the pattern with the earthly forms which set it forth; secondly, we must assure ourselves that whatever is spiritual and substantial will seek to find some expression for itself, to make the things of earth into mirrors which may reflect at least a portion of its glory. In chap. Eze. 46:8 we have announced a great moral and political law which was a necessary and natural corollary from the doctrine that the Temple was to be the building which denoted the restoration of the national society. This is a law which those who merely talk of a spiritual Temple without believing that that Temple is to make its influence felt in this world would never dream of promulgating. This is a law which it was most strictly in the function of a Jewish prophet to assert, not as proceeding from him, not even as proceeding from Moses, but as coming from the mouth of the Lord.F. D. Maurice.

The views entertained upon the vision generally may be ranged under four classes. I. The historico-literal, which takes all as a prosaio description of what had existed in the times immediately before the captivity, in connection with Solomons Temple. II. The historico-ideal. According to it the pattern exhibited to Ezekiel differed materially from anything that previously existed, and presented for the first time what should have been after the return from the captivity, though from the remissness and corruption of the people it never was properly realised. III. The Jewish carnal view. It is the opinion of some Jewish writers that the description of Ezekiel was actually followed by the children of the captivity as far as their circumstances would allow, and that Herod, when he renovated and enlarged it, copied after the same pattern. But as this was necessarily done in an imperfect manner, it waits to be properly accomplished by the Messiah, who, when He appears, shall cause the Temple to be reared precisely as here described. IV. The Christian-spiritual or typical view, according to which the whole representation was not intended to find either in Jewish or Christian times an express and formal realisation, but was a grand complicated symbol of the good which God had in reserve for His Church, especially under the coming dispensation of the Gospel. There are several considerations to be kept in view in the interpretation of the vision.

1. That the description purports to be a visiona scheme of things exhibited to the mental eye of the prophet in the visions of God. This alone marks it to be of an ideal character.
2. That this is confirmed by the substance of it, as there is much that seems obviously designed to force on us the conviction of its ideal character. There are things in the description which, taken literally, are in the highest degree improbable, and even involve natural impossibilities.
3. That some may be disposed to imagine that, as they expect certain physical changes to be effected upon the land before the prophecy can be carried into fulfilment, these may be adjusted in such a manner as to admit of the prophets measurements being literally applied. It is impossible, however, to admit such a supposition.
4. That the vision, as it must, if understood literally, imply the ultimate restoration of the ceremonials of Judaism, so it inevitably places the prophet in direct contradiction to the writers of the New Testament.
5. That, holding the description to be conclusively of an ideal character, we affirm that the idealism is precisely of the same kind as that which appeared in some of the earlier visionsvisions that must necessarily have already passed into fulfilment, and which therefore may justly be regarded as furnishing a key to the right understanding of the one before us.
6. That, looking to the manifold and minute particulars given in the description, some may be disposed to think it highly improbable that anything short of an exact and literal fulfilment should have been intended.
7. That it may be asked whether the feeling against a spiritual understanding of the vision and a demand for outward scenes and objects literally corresponding to it does not spring to a large extent from false notions regarding the ancient Temple and its ministrations and ordinances of worship, as if these possessed an independent value apart from the spiritual truths they symbolically expressed? On the contrary, the Temple, with all that belonged to it, was an embodied representation of Divine realities.
8. That in the interpretation of the vision we must keep carefully in mind the circumstances in which it was given, and look at it, not as from a New but as from an Old Testament point of view. We must throw ourselves back as far as possible into the position of the prophet himself. He speaks chiefly of Gospel times, but as one still dwelling under the veil and uttering the language of legal times.Patrick Fairbairn, D.D.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

D. The Apportionment of the Land 48:135

Now that the boundaries of the promised land have been spelled out, the prophet deals with the division of that land among the tribes. The whole territory west of Jordan is to be divided into twelve parallel portions running from east to west. No mention is made of the width of these tribal areas.[543]

[543] The Rabbis gave the width of these portions as 25,000 reeds. They equaled the dimensions of the sanctified portion with those of a tribal tract.

1. The seven northern tribes (48:17)

TRANSLATION

(1) Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end, beside the way of Hethion to the entrance of Hamath, Hazarenan at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath, (and they shall have their sides east and west,) Dan, one portion. (2) And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the west side, Asher, one portion. (3) And by the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side, Naphtali, one portion. (4) And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, Manasseh, one portion. (5) And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, Ephraim, one portion. (6) And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side, Reuben, one portion. (7) And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, Judah, one portion.

COMMENTS

Seven tribes are assigned territories north of the holy portion of the land, i.e., the Temple area and domains of the priests, Levites and prince. From north to south, these seven tribes are (1) Dan, (2) Asher, (3) Naphtali, (4) Manasseh, (5) Ephraim. (6) Reuben, and (7) Judah. The three tribes farthest away from the sanctuary are those descended from Jacobs concubines.[544] Judah, because of the Messianic blessing of Gen. 49:8-12, was given the honor of inheritance nearer to the sanctuary.

[544] Dan and Naphtah were born to Rachels maid Bilhah and Asher to Leahs maid Zilpah (Gen. 30:5-13).

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XLVIII.

The closing chapter of Ezekiel is mainly occupied with the distribution of the land in detail. Beginning at the north, a portion is assigned to each of seven tribes (Eze. 48:1-7); then the oblation is described, with its parts for the Levites, the priests and Temple, the city and those that serve it, and for the prince (Eze. 48:8-22), and lastly portions for the remaining five tribes. The chapter and the book close with an account of the size and the twelve gates of the city, the whole ending with its name, The Lord is there.

The distribution of the land is entirely different from that made under Joshua, nor is it easy to trace any historical reasons for it, except that the central portion, containing the Temple, the land of the priests and the prince, is flanked by the two tribes of the southern kingdom, Judah and Benjamin. The chapter can best be understood by the aid of a small map, the outline of which is traced from Dr. Wm. Smiths ancient atlas. This might be drawn with the lines between the tribes perpendicular either to the general course of the Jordan, or to the general coast-line of the Mediterranean. The latter would give a little more width for the oblation, but still not enough, and would leave no space at all on the west for the prince. The former arrangement is on the whole preferred. It will be seen that the tribes are not arranged either according to their seniority or their maternity. The territory falling to each tribe was much smaller than of old, partly because of the large space occupied by the oblation (fully one-fifth of the whole), and partly because the remainder was to be divided among the whole twelve tribes, instead of among only nine and a half. The portion thus given to each tribe was rather less than two-thirds that assigned, on the average, by Joshua.
(1) These are his sides east and west.Lit., The east side, the west side, shall be to him, meaning that the portion of Dan stretches across the country from the eastern to the western boundary. So of them all. The original portion of Dan was at the west of Benjamin, but a part of the tribe having conquered Laish, and settled at the extreme north, Dan is now made the most northern of the tribes. Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, and Ephraim are so far approximated to their old places as to be north of the sanctuary.

(8) In length as one of the other parts.The oblation, which has been already spoken of in Eze. 45:1-7 in a different connection, is here (Eze. 48:8-22) more exactly described. Its whole width is again stated as 25,000 reeds, and its length from the eastern to the western boundaries of the laud as one of the other parts, no account being taken in this of the varying distance between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. It cannot, however, be so placed as not to exceed that distance.

(9) The oblation.This is the same word as is translated offering in Eze. 48:8. It is used in this passage in three different senses:(1) as including the whole strip from the Jordan to the Mediterranean and 25,000 reeds wide; (2) for that part of this set aside for the priests, and for the Levites; (3) for the most sacred part of this, appropriated to the priests and Temple, 25,000 reeds from east to west, and 10,000 from north to south. This last portion, although in the middle, is mentioned first on account of its especial sacredness.

(10) In the midst thereof.The whole connection shows that this is to be understood strictly; the sanctuary was to be not merely within the priests portion, but in its centre.

(11) Sons of Zadok.See Note on Eze. 40:46.

As the Levites went astray.That the Levites were far more affected than the priests by the general apostasy, may be reasonably inferred from the fact that at the restoration less than 400 Levites, and as many Nethinims, returned (Ezr. 2:40-58; Neh. 7:43-60), while there were 4,289 of the priests.

MAP OF PALESTINE,
Showing the Divisions among the Tribes.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

1. The text is difficult. Toy probably gives the true meaning: “These are the names of the tribes. Onto the frontier of Hamath and to Hazar-enan, the territory of Damascus being on the north border from the sea by Hethlon, the north, from the east border to west border, Dan one portion.” The northern border, here assigned to Dan, has previously been described (Eze 47:16-17).

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Land Divided Among The ‘Northern’ Tribes ( Eze 48:1-7 ).

The land to be divided up is the land west of Jordan so that Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, who previously held land east of Jordan, have to be included. The whole scheme is artificial, very different from the previous division in the time of Joshua. Indeed considering the fact that there were already people living in the land, many of them Israelites who had been there for generations, and that the tribes were largely unidentifiable as entities, it is totally unrealistic. We must rather therefore see this as indicating a fair sharing of the land among the people of Israel and the resident aliens who would live among them, put in visionary terms. Ezekiel is expressing an idea rather than a practical event.

Eze 48:1-7

“Now these are the names of the tribes, from the north end towards the way of Hethlon to the entering in of Hamath (Lebo-hamath), Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath, and they shall have their sides east and west. Dan one portion, and by the border of Dan from the east side to the west side, Asher one portion, and by the border of Asher from the east side even to the west side, Naphtali one portion, and by the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh one portion, and by the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the West side, Ephraim one portion, and by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the west side, Reuben one portion, and by the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah one portion.”

This further confirms the idealistic picture. Seven tribes are dealt with, the number of divine perfection. It was to be seen as a divinely perfect dwelling in the land. The strips of land, ignoring the geography of the land, were to go from east to west across the land in strict portions, commencing with Dan who were to receive the northernmost section. Then the order of tribes from north to south, but north of the sacred district, was Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben and Judah, seven tribal allotments of equal size (Eze 47:14). Seven being the number of divine perfection adds to the artificial nature of the account. As the distance east to west would vary with the coastline this would theoretically have to be taken into account if they were to have equal portions. But this is not to intended literally. It is giving the impression of an equal position in the land.

This order does not conform to any other in the Old Testament. These tribal allotments are nothing like those given by Joshua nor are they as large (compare Joshua chapters 14-22). The general progression is possibly to be seen as from the most unfaithful tribe, Dan, who set up the original rival sanctuary (Jdg 18:30-31), to the most faithful, Judah, who remained faithful to the Davidic prince and to the sanctuary of Yahweh (1Ki 12:20). Judah, from which Prince would come, and who were faithful to the sanctuary of Yahweh, received the privilege of being adjacent to the sacred district to its north, while Benjamin, who were closely connected with them and supported them in the split, also remaining faithful to the sanctuary of Yahweh, were adjacent on the south (1Ki 12:20-21). The seven included sons from each of Jacob’s wives and concubines. Indeed the tribes that were descended from Jacob’s concubines (Dan, Asher, Naphtali, and Gad) received land to the far north and far south, while those who were descended from Jacob’s wives (four on each side) received land toward the centre of the land (see Gen 35:23-26). This may or may not be accidental.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The New Temple ( Eze 40:1 to Eze 48:35 ).

The book of Ezekiel began with a vision of the glory of God and the coming of the heavenly chariot throne of God in order to speak directly to His people through Ezekiel (chapter 1). He then recorded the departure of God’s glory from Jerusalem and the Temple because of the sins of Israel (chapters 8 – 11). This was followed by the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Now it ends with another vision, the return of God’s glory to the land and to His people (chapters 40 -48) depicted in the form of a heavenly temple established on the mountains of Israel to which the glory of God returns, resulting in the final restoration of ‘the city’ as ‘Yahweh is there’. Thus this part of the book follows both chronologically and logically from what has gone before.

Furthermore at the commencement of the book Ezekiel received his divine commission as a prophet (chapters 1 – 3), then he pronounced oracles of judgment against Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, declaring that Jerusalem must be destroyed (chapters 4 – 24). He followed this up with oracles of judgment against the foreign nations who had opposed Israel (chapters 25 – 32). Then on hearing of Jerusalem’s fall (Eze 33:21), the prophet proclaimed messages of hope for Israel, declaring that God would fulfil His promises to deliver and bless His people Israel, and would restore them to the land of their fathers and establish them in the land.

Yes, more, that they would be established there everlastingly under a new David, with an everlasting sanctuary set up in their midst (stressed twice – Eze 37:26; Eze 37:28) (chapters 34 – 39). And now he declares the presence of that new Temple, even now present in the land, invisible to all but him and yet nevertheless real in so much that it can be measured. It is ‘the icing on the cake’, the final touch to what has gone before (40-48). God is back in His land. For such an invisible presence, a glimpse of another world, present but unseen except by those with eyes to see, compare Gen 28:12; 2Ki 2:11-12; 2Ki 6:17; Zec 1:7-11. Indeed without that heavenly temple the glory could not return, for it had to be guarded from the eyes of man.

The heavenly temple can be compared directly with the heavenly throne with its accompanying heavenly escort which Ezekiel saw earlier (chapter 1). That too was the heavenly equivalent of the earthly ark of the covenant, and huge in comparison. So Ezekiel was very much aware of the heavenly realm and its presence in different ways on earth, for he was a man of spiritual vision.

But there is one remarkable fact that we should notice here, and that is that having been made aware of the destruction of Jerusalem, and looking forward to the restoration of Israel and its cities and the Satanic opposition they will face, and even speaking of the building of a new Temple, Ezekiel never once refers directly by name to Jerusalem in any way (in Eze 36:38 it is referred to in an illustration). This seems quite remarkable. It seems to me that this could only arise from a studied determination not to do so. He wants to take men’s eyes off Jerusalem.

Here was a man who was a priest, who had constantly revealed his awareness of the requirements of the cult, who had been almost totally absorbed with Jerusalem, who now looked forward to the restoration of the land and the people, and yet who ignored what was surely central in every Israelite’s thinking, the restoration of Jerusalem. Surely after his earlier prophecies against Jerusalem his ardent listeners must have asked him the question, again and again, what about Jerusalem? And yet he seemingly gave them no answer. Why?

It seems to me that there can only be two parallel answers to that question. The first is that Jerusalem had sinned so badly that as far as God and Ezekiel were concerned its restoration as the holy city was not in the long run to be desired or even considered. What was to be restored was the people and the land, which was his continual emphasis. Jerusalem was very secondary and not a vital part of that restoration. And secondly that in the final analysis the earthly Jerusalem was not important in the final purposes of God. Jerusalem had been superseded. His eternal sanctuary would be set up, but it would not be in the earthly Jerusalem (chapter 45 makes this clear). Rather it would be set up in such a way that it could more be compared to Jacob’s ladder, as providing access to and from the heavenlies (Gen 28:12) and a way to God, and yet be invisible to man. It is a vision of another world in its relationships with man (compare 2Ki 6:17). It was the beginnings of a more spiritual view of reality. And it would result in an eternal city, the city of ‘Yahweh is there’ (Eze 48:30-35).

Now that is not the view of Jerusalem and the temple of men like Nehemiah (Neh 1:4) and Daniel (Dan 9:2; Dan 9:16; Dan 9:19), but they were God-inspired politicians thinking of the nearer political and religious future not the everlasting kingdom. (Daniel does of course deal with the everlasting kingdom, but he never relates Jerusalem to it. He relates the everlasting kingdom to Heaven). Nor do the other prophets avoid mentioning Jerusalem, and they do see in ‘Jerusalem’ a place for the forwarding of the purposes of God (e.g. Isa 2:3; Isa 4:3-5; Isa 24:23; Isa 27:13; Isa 30:19; Isa 31:5; Isa 33:20-21; Isa 40:2; Isa 40:9; Isa 44:26-28; Isa 52:1-2; Isa 52:9; Isa 62:1-7; Isa 65:18-19; Isa 66:10-20; Jer 3:17-18; Jer 33:11-18; Joe 2:32; Joe 3:1; Joe 3:16-20; Oba 1:17-21; Mic 4:2-8; Zep 3:14-16; Zec 2:2-4; Zec 2:12; Zec 3:2; Zec 8:3-8; Zec 8:15; Zec 8:22; Zec 9:9-10; Zec 12:6 to Zec 13:1; Zec 14:11-21; Mal 3:4), although some of these verses too have the ‘new Jerusalem’ firmly in mind. And certainly God would in the short term encourage the building of a literal Temple in Jerusalem (Haggai and Zechariah). Thus all saw the literal Jerusalem as having at least a limited function in the forward going of God’s purposes, simply because it was central in the thinking of the people of Israel. Although how far is another question. However, Ezekiel’s vision went beyond that. It seems to be suggesting that in the major purposes of God the earthly Jerusalem was now of little significance. It was not even worthy of mention. It is now just ‘the city’.

Yet we find him here suddenly speaking of the presence of a new Temple in the land of Israel. But even here, although it is referred to under the anonymous phrase ‘the city’ (Eze 40:1), Jerusalem remains unmentioned by name. And the temple is not sited in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is simply a place called anonymously ‘the city’, whose future name, once it is redeemed and purified, is ‘Yahweh is there’ (Eze 48:35). What Ezekiel is far more concerned to demonstrate is that the glory of Yahweh, and His accessibility to His own, has returned to His people in a new heavenly Temple, which has replaced the old, and is established on a mysterious and anonymous mountain, rather than to stress His presence in an earthly Jerusalem. Indeed he will stress that this temple is outside the environs of Jerusalem (Eze 45:1-6).

This should then awaken us to the fact that Ezekiel is in fact here speaking of an everlasting sanctuary (Eze 37:26; Eze 37:28). This is no earthly Temple with earthly functions. There is no suggestion anywhere that it should be built, indeed  it was already there and could be measured. It is an everlasting heavenly Temple of which the earthly was, and will be, but a shadow.

It is true that a physical temple would be built, and they are specifically told that the altar described (but pointedly not directly ‘measured’) is to be made (Eze 43:18), for physical sacrifices would require a physical altar, and that will be the point of contact with the heavenly temple, but the important thing would be, not the physical temple, but the invisible heavenly temple, present in the land, of which the physical was but a representation. The ancients regularly saw their physical religious artefacts as in some way representing an invisible reality, and so it is here. A fuller picture of the heavenly temple is given throughout the Book of Revelation. And this temple was now ‘seen’ to be established in the land even before a physical temple was built. God had again taken possession of His land, and awaited the return of His people for the ongoing of His purposes.

But a further point, putting these verses firmly in its context, is that this will make them realise that once they have come through the trials brought on them by Gog and his forces, fortified by the presence of God in their midst, they will be able to enter the eternal rest promised them by God, for His heavenly, everlasting temple was here so that He could dwell among them in an everlasting sanctuary. This was thus putting in terms that they could understand the heavenly future that awaited His people. It was a fuller and more perfect sanctuary (Eze 37:26-28; Heb 9:11). And it had relevance from the beginning as the sign that God had returned to His land.

This section about the ‘heavenly’ temple can be split into five parts. The first is a brief introduction in terms of the vision that Ezekiel experienced (Eze 40:1-4). This is followed by a detailed description of the new temple complex with the lessons that it conveyed (Eze 40:5 to Eze 42:20), the return of Yahweh to His temple (Eze 43:1-9), the worship that would follow as a result of that temple (Eze 43:10 to Eze 46:24), and the accompanying changes that would take place with regard to His people as they ‘repossessed the land’ with the final establishment of a heavenly city (chapters 47-48), all expressed in terms of what they themselves were expecting, but improved on. To them ‘the land’ was the ultimate of their aspirations, a land in which Yahweh had promised them that they would dwell in safety and blessing for ever. So the promises were put in terms of that land to meet with their aspirations. But there are clear indications that something even more splendid was in mind as we shall see. The land could never finally give them the fullness of what God was promising them, and once the temple moved into Heaven, ‘the land’ would move there too.

But we should perhaps here, in fairness to other commentators, pause to recognise that there are actually a number of main views (with variations) with regard to these chapters, which we ought to all too briefly consider for the sake of completeness, so as to present a full picture. As we consider them readers must judge for themselves which one best fits all the facts, remembering what we have already seen in Ezekiel the details of a vision that reaches beyond the confines of an earthly land. We must recognise too that accepting one does not necessarily mean that we have to fully reject the others, for prophecy is not limited to a single event, but to the ongoing action and purposes of God. Nevertheless we cannot avoid the fact that one view must be predominant

1) Some have considered that what Ezekiel predicted was fulfilled when the exiles returned and re-established themselves in the land, rebuilding the physical temple and restoring the priesthood. However nothing that actually took place after the return from Babylon matches the full details of these predictions. Neither the temple built under Zerubbabel’s supervision, nor the temple erected by Herod the Great, bore any resemblance to what Ezekiel describes here. In fact, there has been no literal fulfilment of these predictions. And there does not seem to have been a desire for it. Thus this view disregards many of the main facts outlined and dismisses them as unimportant. It sees them as mainly misguided optimism or permissible exaggeration.

2) Others have interpreted this section spiritually. They have seen these predictions as fulfilled in a spiritual sense in the church, and certainly the New Testament to a certain extent confirms this view. Consider for example the use of the idea in chapter 47 in Joh 7:38. But many consider that this approach fails to explain the multitude of details given, such as the dimensions of the various rooms in the temple complex. They point out that Ezekiel’s guide was careful to make sure that the prophet recorded these details exactly (Eze 40:4). The reply would be that what they indicate symbolically is God’s detailed concern for His people. This view presupposes that the church supersedes the old Israel in God’s programme (as many believe that the New Testament teaches) and that many of God’s promises concerning a future for Israel find part of their actual fulfilment in the church as God’s temple and as the new Israel, symbolically rather than literally. There is certainly some truth in this position.

3) Still others believe that these chapters describe a yet future, eschatological temple and everlasting kingdom in line with Eze 37:24-28, and following 38-39, but that they again do so only symbolically. These interpreters believe that the measurements, for example, represent symbolic truth concerning the coming everlasting kingdom, including the dwelling of God among His people, the establishing of true and pure worship, and the reception by His people of all that He has promised them in fuller measure than they can ever have expected, but they do not look for a literal temple complex and the establishment of temple worship. Indeed they consider that such would be a backward step in the progress of God’s purposes.

It is claimed by those who disagree with them that this view also overlooks the amount of detail given, so much detail, they would claim, that one could almost use these chapters as general blueprints to build the structures in view. To this the reply is partly that the detail is in fact not sufficient to prepare efficient blueprints, and partly that they bear their own message. Indeed they argue that all the many attempts to make a reliable blueprint have failed. If taken literally, they argue, there are problems with the detail that cannot be surmounted. They are therefore far better seen as depictions of the concern of God for perfection for His people.

4) Still others also take this passage as a an apocalyptic prophecy but anticipate a literal fulfilment in the future. While they accept that some of the descriptions have symbolic significance as well as literal reality, and that some teach important spiritual lessons, and can also be applied to the eternal state, nevertheless, they argue, the revelation finally concerns details of a literal future temple to be built to these specifications, details of a system of worship and priesthood which will be literally established, and actual physical changes in the promised land, which will occur when a people identifying themselves specifically as Israel, not the church, dwell there securely (i.e. during what they call the Millennium).

Those who disagree with them point among other things to the impracticality of the plans for the temple, the impossibility of now establishing a genuine Zadokite priesthood, the contradiction of establishing a system of sacrifices when the New Testament points to a better sacrifice, made once for all, which has replaced all others, the discrepancies and difficulties with regard to the siting of the temple, and the unfeasability of dividing the land in the way described.

5) And finally there is the view that we are proposing here, that the Temple of Ezekiel was never intended to be built by man, but was rather a genuine and real presence of the heavenly temple which was from this time present invisibly on earth (invisible to all but Ezekiel, as the armies of God were present but invisible to all but Elisha –2Ki 6:17). It is saying that God has established Himself in His own invisible temple in the land ready to carry out His campaign into the future. This can then be seen as connected with the temple seen in Revelation in heaven, with the earthly temples to be built as but a shadow of the heavenly, and with the final temple in the everlasting kingdom. The strength of this position will appear throughout the commentary. Suffice to say at this point that there is nowhere in the chapters any suggestion that the temple should be built from the description presented (in complete contrast with the tabernacle – Exo 25:40). And this is even more emphatically so because instructions  are  given to build an altar for worship. Given Ezekiel’s visionary insight this fact in itself should make us hesitate in seeing this as any but a visionary temple already present in Israel at the time of measuring.

Whatever view we take we cannot deny that the New Testament does see God’s temple as being present on earth in His people (Eph 2:20-22; 1Co 3:16-17 ; 2Co 6:16; Rev 11:1), and that John in Revelation refers throughout to a temple in Heaven, and to a new Jerusalem, clearly related to some of the things described in these chapters. Furthermore his description of the eternal state, of life in ‘the new earth’ after the destruction of the present earth, is partly based on chapter 47-48 (Revelation 21-22). And we might see that as suggesting that once the Messiah had been rejected God’s heavenly temple was thought of as having deserted Israel, and as having gone up into Heaven where it was seen by John, although still being represented on earth, no longer by a building, but by His new people.

Bearing all this in mind we will now consider the text.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Chapter Eze 47:13 to Eze 48:35 The Division of the Land and the Establishment of ‘The City’.

Presenting Paradise to the people of Israel at their lowest ebb could only be by giving them a picture of the sharing of the land among ‘the twelve tribes’ and the establishment of God’s City under the Davidic prince. That was the expanded Mosaic dream, with every man living under his own vine and his own fig tree (1Ki 4:25). But it would depend on their true response and obedience, and as ever that was lacking. Thus the vineyard would be taken from them and given to others (Mar 12:9; Luk 20:16; Mat 21:41).

They could not dream that, under God, one day the vision of the ‘twelve tribes’ would become fulfilled in the redeemed from all nations of the world who would become the twelve tribes (Jas 1:1; compare 1Pe 1:1 and the idealistic picture of the sealed of God in Rev 7:3-8 who became the great multitude whom no man could number). This would occur as men from all nations were grafted into the olive tree (Rom 11:13-24) and adopted into the new covenant, becoming fellow-citizens with the true remnant of the old Israel – ‘the saints’ (Rom 9:6; Eph 2:19), and becoming the new seed of Abraham (Gal 3:7-9; Gal 3:29), thus themselves becoming the new Israel, the true people of God (Gal 6:16), made near by the blood of Christ (Eph 2:12-13).

That was God’s greater vision. It was regularly in one way or another portrayed by the prophets. In Abraham’s seed all the nations of the world were to be blessed (Gen 12:3; Gen 18:18; Gen 22:18; Gen 26:4; Gen 28:14), Israel were to be a kingdom of priests to the world in a world which all belonged to Yahweh (Exo 19:5-6), His servant Israel (the inner Israel who were to seek to restore the whole) were to be the servant to the nations to bring them salvation and the true worship of God (Isa 49:3-7), all nations would finally flock to a new Jerusalem to worship in a new heaven and a new earth (Isa 66:23; Isa 65:17; Zec 14:16-17), and so on. But that would first depend on Israel in the person of their Prince coming before God to receive the everlasting kingdom (Dan 7:13-14; Dan 7:27).

Thus having depicted the new Paradise Ezekiel will now portray the new sharing of the land among the people of God, the establishment of their prince, and the founding of a new city named ‘Yahweh is there’ (Eze 48:35). This is his picture of the final fulfilment of God’s purposes and of His final triumph, presented to those who would be its earthly source (it was from them that the Gospel would go out to the world – Act 1:8). It was given to them when they were at their lowest ebb, in order to lift them up and press them on towards full obedience. His people are to be redeemed and restored, in order to enter the everlasting kingdom. God’s triumph is put into words that may seem to us an anticlimax, but to the people of Israel it was their vision and their living hope. It would finally be fulfilled in a way better than he ever envisioned.

So as we look at these last two chapters from Eze 47:13 onwards, we must not be tied down to the detail. We must see them rather as God’s promise, put in terms of the day, that all the dreams that He had given to His true people would come to fruition.

In fact even when they ‘returned to the land’ Israel did not seek to fulfil this vision literally. It was a vision from the past, a dream, not something that they wanted to carry into actuality. Instead of gathering together in twelve tribes, the divisions between the tribes became blurred and almost overlooked, although many did still proudly see themselves as of a particular important tribe (compare Php 3:5), but without trying to gather that tribe into a particular section of the land. (Jesus, Who was of Judah, happily lived in Nazareth and was ‘a Nazarene’).

Most of those who belonged to the tribes remained in foreign countries. Intermarriage blurred the distinctions. There were no longer literally ‘twelve’ tribes, and apart from in the earliest days never strictly were (the contents fluctuated, although not in a major way), and this is constantly recognised in that when the twelve tribes are listed the lists tend to differ slightly depending on their purpose (Genesis 29; Gen 49:3-27; (the original twelve sons of Jacob) Num 1:5-15; Num 1:20-43 (here, and regularly, Joseph is divided into Ephraim and Manasseh, and Levi omitted – note 47:47); 2; 7; 13; 26; Deu 27:12-13 (the original twelve); Eze 33:6-25 (Simeon omitted); Joshua 15-21; 1Ch 2:1 (the original twelve); Eze 27:16 (Gad and Asher omitted); Rev 7:5-8 (Dan omitted, Ephraim called Joseph) compare the part lists in Judges 1; Jdg 5:14-18). It is the ideal that matters, that the full tribal confederacy made up of ‘twelve tribes’ was sharing God’s inheritance, not the detail. The ‘twelve tribes’ simply represent all the people of God.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Eze 48:35  It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.

Eze 48:35 “The LORD is there” Comments – ‘Jehovah Shammah’! What a wonderful name for God to reveal to His children when Israel was at their most spiritual low and further from the Temple than they had ever been in their history. In fact, the Temple was destroyed at this time in history. God is telling His people that He has not abandoned them, and is in fact working to restore their fellowship with Him.

The Lord’s presence was with the nation of Israel informer times before it fell into sin and idolatry under King Solomon (Eze 35:10). His presence will return when God’s plan of restoration for Israel is fulfilled, as prophesied in Eze 48:35.

Eze 35:10, “Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Israel’s Glorification Eze 35:1 to Eze 48:35 deals with the topic of Israel’s glorification. The description of the restored land of Israel and the new Temple and its worship (36-48) reveals a building and nation more majestic and beautiful that that found during the time of Solomon. These passages reveal the glorification that God has in planned for His people Israel. This glorification is different than what He has planned for the Church. The prophecies of this passage signify the fact that God has a much greater blessing in store for His people than any earthly kingdom in the past, even greater than Israel in its golden age of King Solomon. The future glories of the heavenly kingdom will far exceed the earthly. The Book of Jubilees (4.26-27) tells us that this Mount Zion will be sanctified in the new creation for a sanctification of the earth; through it will the earth be sanctified from all (its) guilt and its uncleanness throughout the generations of the world.

From these last chapters in the book of Ezekiel we know that the full restoration of Israel involves three key events that will take place in order to make their restoration complete and everlasting. These events will involve the restoration of Israel as a nation (36-37), the battle against Gog and its allies (38-39), and the restoration of the Temple and its worship (40-46) and its land (47-48).

Here is a proposed outline:

1. Judgment upon Edom Eze 35:1-15

2. The Restoration of Israel as a Nation Eze 36:1 to Eze 37:28

3. The Battle against Gog and its Allies Eze 38:1 to Eze 39:23

4. The Restoration of the Temple and its Worship and Land Eze 40:1 to Eze 48:35

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Restoration of the Land of Israel Eze 47:1 to Eze 48:35 deals primarily with the restoration of the land of Israel to the twelve tribes.

Eze 47:10  And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

Eze 47:10 “they shall be a place to spread forth nets: their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the Great Sea, exceeding many” – Comments – Jimmy Swaggart says Eze 47:10 refers to the spread of the Gospel to many kinds of nations across the earth, with multitudes being saved. [48]

[48] Jimmy Swaggart, “Amazing Answers To Prayers,” in The Evangelist (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, February 1988).

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Division of the New Canaan

v. 1. Now, these are the names of the tribes, as they followed in the order of their allotment, the land being divided into portions of ideal exactness. From the north end, along the extreme northern boundary, to the coast of the way of Hethlon, on the northwest, as one goeth to Hamath, this being the northernmost point, Hazar-enan, on the northeast, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west, his possession with the boundaries fixed toward the cast and toward the west: a portion for Dan, that is, so much should belong to Daniel

v. 2. And by the border of Dan, immediately south of his portion, from the east side unto the west side, as all the sections are described, a portion for Asher.

v. 3. And by the border of Asher, along its southern boundary, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Naphtali.

v. 4. And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh.

v. 5. And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Ephraim.

v. 6. And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Reuben. The northern tribes thus retained their relative position in the distribution of the land, the portion of Reuben being added at this point because he had formerly had his allotment east of Jordan.

v. 7. And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah, the tribe which had had the leadership in ancient Israel.

v. 8. And by the border of Judah, adjoining it on the south, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer, the section set apart for the Sanctuary and its surroundings, of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side, between the Jordan and the Mediterranean; and the Sanctuary shall be in the midst of it. Eze 45:1-6.

v. 9. The oblation that ye shall offer unto the Lord shall be of five and twenty thousand in length and of ten thousand in breadth. The priest’s portion, in whose midst the Temple was to be situated, was in the center of this consecrated portion.

v. 10. And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation, to yield dwelling-places for them, toward the north five and twenty thousand in length and toward the west ten thousand in breadth and toward the east ten thousand in breadth and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length, these being the measurements toward the four points of the compass; and the Sanctuary of the Lord shall be in the midst thereof.

v. 11. It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, Eze 44:15, which have kept My charge, being loyal to the ordinances and commands of the Lord when others became guilty of faithlessness, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites, the tribe of Levi in general, went astray. Eze 44:10.

v. 12. And this oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy, a heave-portion from the oblation of the land, by the border of the Levites.

v. 13. And over against the border of the priests, apparently along their southern boundary, the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth; all the length, or “the whole length,” shall be five and twenty thousand and the breadth ten thousand, the two lengths and the two breadths thus being clearly defined.

v. 14. And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, since God is the real Landowner, nor alienate the first-fruits of the land, which likewise belonged to the Lord, Exo 22:29; for it is holy unto the Lord.

v. 15. And the five thousand that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, after deducting the breadth of the priests’ and of the Levites’ portions, shall be a profane place for the city, common land, not used for sacred purposes, for dwelling, that is, for the erection of dwelling-houses, and for suburbs, for free use, for pasture and garden land; and the city shall be in the midst thereof.

v. 16. And these shall be the measures thereof, of the city district: the north side four thousand and five hundred and the south side four thousand and five hundred and on the east side four thousand and five hundred and the west side four thousand and five hundred, thus forming a perfect square of four thousand five hundred on each side.

v. 17. And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty and toward the south two hundred and fifty and toward the east two hundred and fifty and toward the west two hundred and fifty. The entire city district, with its suburbs, thus occupied a square with sides five thousand rods long, or one-fifth of the entire portion from east to west.

v. 18. And the residue in length over against the oblation of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward and ten thousand westward; and it shall be over against the oblation of the holy portion, that is, as a part of it, although assigned neither to the priests nor to the Levites nor to the city; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that serve the city, so that the workmen or laborers employed in the Temple city would derive their support from this land in the immediate vicinity.

v. 19. And they that serve the city, the laboring classes, shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel, that is, people from the various tribes would form this class and derive their support in the manner indicated.

v. 20. All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand, inclusive of the possession of the city; ye shall offer the holy oblation four-square, with the possession of the city, which was one-fourth the portions of the priests and Levites.

v. 21. And the residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, that is, bounding it and parallel to it, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions for the prince, whose portion would thus extend from north to south along the border of the holy territory; and it shall be the holy oblation; and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof, equally distant from the eastern and the western border.

v. 22. Moreover, from the possession of the Levites, beginning at their boundary, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince’s, which was located on either side, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, whose portions would be, respectively, north and south of the holy territory, shall be for the prince.

v. 23. As for the rest of the tribes, those whose portion would be in the southern part of the New Canaan, from the east side unto the west side, extending through the breadth of the country, Benjamin shall have a portion.

v. 24. And by the border of Benjamin, along its southern boundary, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion, designated here as a separate tribe, although formerly receiving his portion within the boundaries of Judah’s territory, Deuteronomy 33.

v. 25. And by the border of Simeon, from the east side unto the west side, Issachar a portion.

v. 26. And by the border of Issachar, from the east side unto the west side, Zebulun a portion.

v. 27. And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side, Gad a portion, whose territory in ancient times had been east of Jordan.

v. 28. And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, this being the boundary of the New Canaan, Eze 47:19, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the Waters of Strife in Kadesh and to the river toward the Great Sea, the “river” being the so-called brook or river of Egypt, which flowed into the Mediterranean Sea.

v. 29. This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their portions, saith the Lord God. The immense areas indicated show that the Lord intended to have a large covenant people in Messianic times, who would be united in the communion of saints.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

The closing chapter of the prophet’s temple-vision treats more particularly of the distribution of the land among the several tribes (Eze 48:1-29), and concludes with a statement concerning the gates, dimensions, and name of the city (Eze 48:30-35).

Eze 48:1-29

The distribution of the land among the several tribes. First, the portions north of the terumah (Eze 48:1-7); secondly, the terumah (Eze 48:8-22), embracing the portions of the priests and Levites (Eze 48:8-14), with the portions for the city (Eze 48:15-20) and the prince (Eze 48:21, Eze 48:22); and thirdly, the portions south of the city (Eze 48:23-30).

Eze 48:1-7

The portions north of the terumah. These should be seven, lie in parallel strips from the Mediterranean to the east border, and be allocated to the tribes of Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, and. Judah. The divergences between this and the earlier division under Joshua (14-19.) are apparent.

(1) In that Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh received portions on the east of Jordan; in this no tribe obtains a lot outside of the boundary of the Holy Land.

(2) In that the allocation commenced in the south with Judah; in this it begins in the north with Dan (for the reason, see Exposition).

(3) In that the most northern portions, those of Asher and Naphtali, started from a point a little above Tyre; in this the most northern portion, that of Dan, proceeds from the entering in or the south border of Hamath, some fifty or sixty miles north of Damascus.

(4) In that the portions were scarcely ever parallel; in this they always are.

(5) In that the portions of Judah and Reuben lay south, and that of Dan west of Jerusalem; in this all three are situated north of the city.

Eze 48:1, Eze 48:2

The names of the tribes. The tribe of Levi Being excepted, the number twelve should in the future as in the past division of the holy soil be preserved by assigning to Joseph portions (Eze 47:13), one for Ephraim and one for Manasseh. From the north end. On the former occasion the allotment had begun in the south of the land and proceeded northwards; on this it should commence in the north and move regularly southward. The alteration is sufficiently explained by remembering that, after the conquest, the people were viewed as having come from the south, whereas at the restoration they should appear as entering in from the north. To the coast of (better, beside) the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to (literally, to the entering in of) Hamath, Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus. This was the north boundary of the land from west to east, as already defined (Eze 47:16,Eze 47:17); and with this line the portion of Dan should begin. The portion should then, as to situation, be one lying northwards, to the coast of (or rather, beside) Hamath. That is to say, beginning with the border of Hamath, it should extend southwards. For these are his sides, east and west should be, And there shall be to him sides east, west, meaning “the tract between both eastern and western boundaries,” rather than as Hitzig translates, “And there shall be to him the east side of the sea,” signifying that his territory should embrace the land east of the Mediterranean;” or as Hengstenberg renders, And they shall be to him the east side the sea,” equal to “the tract in question should have the sea for its east border.” Then, as this applies equally to all the tribe-portions, Hengstenberg regards “to him” () as pointing to “the whole of the tribes combined into an ideal unity,” but expositors generally agree that “to him” should be referred to Dan, whom the prophet had in mind and was about to mention. A portion for Dan should be Dan one “portion,” (Eze 47:13), rather than “tribe,” , as Smend proposes. To take as alluding to the enumeration of the tribes is indeed countenanced by Ezekiel’s mode of numbering the gates (verses 30-35); but Ezekiel’s style in verses 30-35 will be preserved here also if precede “Judah,” thus: “the portion of Danone.” “The presupposition that one tribe should receive exactly as much as another led to the individual tribe’s portion being considered as a monas” (Kliefoth). In the first division of the land, Dan’s portion was small, and situated west of the territories of Ephraim and Benjamin.

Eze 48:3-7

After Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh (the whole tribe) Ephraim, Reuben, and Judah should receive portions, each the size of Dan’s, and, like his, stretching from the east side to the west, each joining on to the border of its predecessor, and the seven portions together occupying the whole space between the north boundary of the land and the portion of the Levites. Among the differences distinguishing this from the division made by Joshua, these may be noticed:

(1) Reuben and Manasseh are brought from the east of Jordan to the west, and Reuben inserted between Judah and Ephraim.

(2) In order to make room for these, Zebulon, Ephraim, and Benjamin are displaced, and located south of the city.

(3) Dan heads the list, instead of fetching up the rear as on the last occasion.

(4) Ephraim loses her former position next to Judah.

Eze 48:8-22

The terumah, or priests’ portion (Eze 48:8-12), with the portions for the Levites (Eze 48:13, Eze 48:14), for the city (Eze 48:15-20), and for the prince (Eze 48:1, Eze 48:22).

Eze 48:8

The terumah, already referred to (Eze 45:1-5), is here more minutely described.

(1) In situation, it should be by the border of Judah, i.e. contiguous to Judah’s territory on the south. Hence it should embrace all the above specified portions.

(2) In breadth, from north to south, it should be twenty-five thousand reeds, this being undoubtedly the word to be supplied.

(3) In length, it should be as one of the other parts, extending from the east to the west side of the land.

(4) In relation to the sanctuary, this should be in the midst of it, not necessarily in the exact geographical center of the whole terumah in the larger sense, but generally in a central position.

Eze 48:9-12

refer to the priests’ portion proper, setting forth

(1) its dimensions, 25,000 reeds along the north and south boundaries from east to west, and 10,000 reeds from north to south along the east and west sides, so that it should form an oblong or rectangle of 25,000 x 10,000 reeds548 square (geographical) miles;

(2) its relation to the sanctuary, which should stand in its midst, in this case should occupy the exact geographical center;

(3) its destination, viz. for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadokbetter than “that which is sanctified is for the priests,” as Ewald and Hitzig propose;

(4) its character, most holy; and

(5) its petition, by the border of the Levites, i.e. with the Levites‘ portion adjoining it, but whether on the north or the south is not stated, and cannot yet be determined (see on Eze 48:22).

Eze 48:13, Eze 48:14

The Levites’ portion is next described by its situation, as lying over against, “at or near,” answerable to (Revised Version), parallel with (Keil)the border of the priests; by its dimensions, as twenty-five thousand reeds in length, from east to west, and ten thousand reeds in breadth, or from north to south, i.e. it should be as large as the priests’ portionin point of fact larger, since the space necessary for the sanctuary required to be deducted from the former; by its tenure, which was such that the Levites could neither sell, exchange, nor alienate it, any more than under the Law the Levites could sell the field of the suburbs or pasture-lands of their cities (Le 25:34); and by its character, which, as consisting of the firstfruits of the land, i.e. of the first portion of the land heaved up or presented in offering (see Eze 45:1), was holy unto the Lord (cf. Eze 44:30). The changes in the text made by the LXX. and favored by Hitzig and Smend”to the Levites” instead of “the Levites” (Eze 48:13), and “twenty” instead of “ten thousand” (Eze 48:13)are unnecessary.

Eze 48:15-19

.In the same way the portion for the city receives detailed exposition.

Eze 48:15

gives four particulars.

(1) The city portion should consist of the five thousand reeds’ breadth of the entire terumah remaining after the deduction of the priests’ and Levites’ portions.

(2) It should lie over against (); in front of, and therefore parallel with, the five and twenty thousand cubit-lengths of which these were composed.

(3) In character it should be a profane place, i.e. a place devoted to common use as opposed to consecrated ground (comp. Le Eze 10:10) and designed for the city, i.e. for dwelling, and for suburbs, i.e. for the erection of houses, and for an open space or precinct () around the city, similar to that around the sanctuary (see Eze 45:2). Among the Romans “a space of ground was left free from buildings, both within and without the walls, which was called pomaerium, and was likewise held sacred”.

(4) The city should stand in the midst thereof, as the sanctuary in the midst of the priests’ portion (verse 10).

Eze 48:16

The dimensions of the city should be four thousand five hundred reeds on the four sides; in other words, it should form a square (comp. Le Eze 21:16). The , left unpunctuated by the Massorites, and marked as “written but not to be read,” should be omitted as an error.

Eze 48:18, Eze 48:19

The remaining portions of the terumah should be two strips of land, each 10,000 x 5000 reeds, one on each side of the city, the increase or produce of which should be for food unto them that serve the city. By “them that serve the city” Hitzig and Smend understand its ordinary inhabitants, since a district may be said to be cultivated through simple residence upon it (compare colere locum). Havernick, after Gesenius, thinks of the workmen who should be employed in building the city, against which may be urged that the city is supposed to be already built. Hengstenberg, with whom Plumptre seems disposed to agree, can only see in the city servers “a militia who take the city in the midst.” Keil and Kliefoth find them in the laboring classes, who should not in this future state, as so often in ordinary states among men, be destitute of a possession in land, but should receive an allotment for their maintenance. But an obvious objection to this view is that it hands over the city land exclusively to the laboring classes, forgetting that the “other” classes require support as well as they. Probably the best interpretation is to regard , “them that serve the city,” as standing in antithesis to the other two classes already mentionedthe Levites, whose office should be to serve the tabernacle (see Num 4:24, Num 4:26; Num 18:6, in which is employed to denote the service of the Levites); and the priests, whose special function should be to serve the altar (see Num 18:7, in which, again, the same verb is used). Thus regarded, “they that serve the city” will mean all engaged in secular pursuits in the city, which approximates to the view of Hitzig; and the prophet’s language will signify that all such should derive their sustenance from the city lands, i.e. should either have direct access to these lands to cultivate them for themselves, or should obtain a share in the produce of these lands for other services rendered to the city. With this accords the further statement that those who served the city should serve it out of all the tribes of Israel; i.e. its inhabitants should not, as formerly, be drawn chiefly from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but contain representatives from all the tribes of Israel (comp. Eze 45:6).

Eze 48:20

All the oblation, the whole terumah, must in this verse include the three portions already marked out for the priests, the Levites, and the city. Added together, they should form a square of five and twenty thousand reeds. Hence it is added in the second clause, Ye shall offer the holy oblation four square, with the possession of the city. Hitzig, Kliefoth, and Keil translate, “To a fourth part shall ye lift off the holy terumah for a possession of the city,” as if the sense were that the area of the city possession should be a fourth part of the area of the whole tern-mall. That 5000 of breadth is a fourth part of 20,000 of breadth may be admitted; but that the city portion was not in area a fourth of the other two, a little arithmetic will showthe area of the whole terumah being 25,000 x 25,000 reeds = 625,000,000 square reeds, and that of the city possession being 5000 x 25,000 reeds = 125,000,000 square reeds. Hence the Authorized and Revised Versions are probably correct in taking , “a fourth part (see Exo 29:40), as equivalent to (Eze 43:16), (LXX.).

Eze 48:21, Eze 48:22

The prince’s portion should take up the residue of the original oblation, or terumah (see Eze 48:8), from which had been withdrawn the aforesaid square containing the portions of the Levites, the priests, and the city. This residue should consist of two strips of land, situated one on each side of the holy oblation (here, of the priests and Levites) and of the possession of the city, and running along the whole length of the five and twenty thousand of the oblation (here the three portions composing the square), and extending eastward to the Jordan and westward to the Mediterranean. The last two clauses of Eze 48:21, which should read, And the holy oblation and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst of it, implies that the two parts of the prince’s portion, the eastern and the western, should be equal. Eze 48:22 teaches that the whole intermediate territory between the border of Judah (in the north of the terumah) and the border of Benjamin (in the south of the terumah), from the possession of the Levites (the north portion of the terumah) and from (equivalent to “to”) the possession of the city (the southern portion of the terumah), should belong to the prince. The mention of the possession of the Levites and the possession of the city as the extreme portions of the terumah, appears to indicate $hat the priests’ portion lay between. Ewald translates as if the prophet meant to say the sanctuary should lie between the possession of the Levites and the possession of the city (in the first place), and between the two parts of the prince’s land (in the second place), and yet again between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin (in the third place): but to read thus the text must be changed.

Eze 48:23-29

As for the rest of the tribes, these should follow on the south of the city portion, in parallel tracts, from east to westBenjamin: Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Gadtill the southern boundary of the land should be reached, which boundary is again defined as in Eze 47:19. Each tribe should receive, as those north of the terumah, one portion. The exact extent of this equal portion, though not stated, may be calculated

Latitude of entrance to Hamath34 20′
Latitude of Kadesh (say)30 30′
Difference3 50′
60 x 3 5/6230 geographical miles.
But the whole breadth of the terumah was 25,000 reeds = 37 geographical miles. Hence 23037 = 193 miles, which, divided by 12, gives 16 miles of breadth (from north to south) for each portion. The precise length from east to west is more difficult to estimate, in consequence of the varying widths of the land. Accepting this, however, as 55 miles at Jerusalem, the breadth of the prince’s portion from east to west would be only 2 miles on each side of the terumah; which, multiplied by 50 miles from north to south, would yield an area of 125 square miles on each side, or of 250 square miles in all. The disposition of the southern tribes differs from that made under the earlier division of the landSimeon alone lying where he had been formerly placed, in the south quarter, Issachar and Zebulun being fetched from the north, Benjamin from the middle, and Gad from the west to keep him company. Upon the whole, the new arrangement has several marked peculiarities which distinguish it from the old. While agreeing with the old in this, that the three tribes, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali retain their original places in the north, and the temple is not deprived of its central position between Judah and Benjamin, it differs from the old in placing the three northern tribes side by side from west to east, but after one another from north to south, and exchanges the positions of Benjamin and Judah, transferring the former to the south and the latter to the north of the temple and the city. Then, while under the old neither priests, Levites, nor prince had a portion, all three obtain one in this. And, finally, while under the old no regard was had to the temple, in the new this forms the central point of the whole.

Eze 48:30-35

The closing paragraph is devoted to a statement of the gates, dimensions, and name of the city.

Eze 48:30

The goings out of the city. These were not, as Hitzig, Gesenius, Ewald, Schroder, and Currey have supposed, the city exits, or gates, which are afterwards referred to, but, as Kliefoth, Keil, Hengstenberg, and Smend suggest, the extensions or boundary-lines of the city, in other words, the city walls in which the gates should be placed, and which are measured before the gates are specified. The north wall, with which the rest should correspond, should be four thousand and five hundred measures; literally, five hundred and four thousand (not cubits, as Ewald states, but reeds) by measure.

Eze 48:31-34

The gates of the city. These should be twelve in number, three on each side, and named after the twelve tribes (comp. Rev 21:12). The gates leading northward should be those of Reuben, Judah, and Levi, all children of Leah (Gen 29:32, Gen 29:35), as Keil observes, “the firstborn in age, the firstborn by virtue of the patriarchal blessing, and the one chosen by Jehovah for his own service in the place of the firstborn.” The same three occupy the first three places and in the same order in the blessing of Moses (Deu 33:6-8). Towards the east should lead the gates of Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan, the first and second sons of Rachel, and the third a son of Rachel’s handmaid (Gen 30:6, Gen 30:24; Gen 35:18). In the blessing of Moses Benjamin precedes Joseph (Deu 33:12, Deu 33:13). The south gates receive the names of Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun, again all sons of Leah. The west gates are those of Gad, Asher, and Naphtali, that is, two sons of Leah’s handmaid and one of Rachel’s. It is observable that in the naming of the gates Levi resumes his place among the tribes, which necessitates the substitution of Joseph the original tribe-father instead of Ephraim anti Manasseh his two sons. (On the phrase, one gate of Judah, literally, the gate of Judah one, see on verse 1.)

Eze 48:35

The entire circuit of the city should, according to the above measurement of the walls, be eighteen thousand reeds, i.e. 18,000 x 6 (cubits) x 1.5 (feet) = 162,000 feet = 30 miles. Josephus (‘Wars,’ 5.4. 3) reckoned the circuit of Jerusalem in his day to be thirty-three stadia, or four miles. The name of the city from that day should be, The Lord is there. It is debated whether “from that day” () should be connected with the preceding or the succeeding words, and likewise whether should be translated” there” or “thither.” The Authorized and Revised Versions, Ewald, Havernick, Hengstenberg, Schroder, and Smend agree that belongs to the antecedent clause, but differ as to whether it should be understood as equivalent to “from this time forth,” i.e. for all time to come (Ewald), or “from henceforth,” i.e. from that clay on, i.e. from the day of the city’s building (Hengstenberg), which seems the most natural interpretation. Kliefoth and Keil prefer to conjoin “from that day” with the clause following, and expound the prophet’s statement as saying that the city’s name should be, “Henceforward Jehovah is there, or thither.” Ewald, Hitzig, Keil, and Smend, with the two English Versions, decide for “there,” Havernick, Hengstenberg, Kliefoth, and Schroder for “thither,” as the sense of . That “thither” is the ordinary import of is undoubted; but that by Ezekiel. (see Eze 23:3; Eze 33:29, Eze 33:30) and others (Jer 18:2; Psa 122:5; 2Ki 23:8) it is used as “there” is also correct (see Gesenius, ‘Lexicon,’ sub rose). Happily, whichever rendering be adopted, the difference in significance is not material. If “there,” the sense is that Jehovah will henceforth reside in the city; if “thither,” that he will henceforth direct his regards towards the city. To object against the former view that Jehovah was in the future to reside in the temple rather than in the city is hypercritical, since, if Jehovah should make the temple his peculiar habitation, it would be for the sake of the city; if the latter view be taken, Kliefoth’s explanation must be set aside that” from this day on Jehovah would direct himself towards the city; that the city and all concerning it may come to pass.” As Keil observes, the name Jehovah Shammah was not to be given to the city before but after it was built (comp. Isa 60:14).

NOTE

On the significance of the temple-vision.

The substance of what has been ascertained in the foregoing Exposition may thus be set forth.

1. According to the vision shown to the prophet, on returning to take possession of their Own land in accordance with promises previously given (Eze 34:13; Eze 36:24 : Eze 37:12, Eze 37:21, Eze 37:25), the tribes of restored and reunited Israel should first separate from the soil a holy heave, or terumah, as a portion for Jehovah (Eze 45:1-8). This terumah they should divide into three parallel tracts: assigning that on the north, two-fifths of the whole, to the Levites for chambers anti for lands; that in the middle, also two-fifths of the whole, to the priests, for the sanctuary, which should occupy its center, and for houses in which they might reside; and that in the south, one-fifth of the whole, for the city, which also should stand in its middle, for dwellings and for suburbs (Eze 48:15). Two strips of equal area on either side of the terumah, one extending westward to the Mediterranean and another eastward to the Jordan, should be handed over as a portion for the prince, out of which he should provide burnt, meat, and drink offerings in the feasts, new moans, sabbaths, and other solemnities of the house of Israel (Eze 45:17). The remainder of the laud they should partition among themselves, allotting to each tribe an equal portion, which should extend from east to west across the entire breadth of the territory between the river and the sea, and be parallel to the holy oblation, but locating seven tribes north and five south of the terumah.

2. On returning to their own land, they should find that Jehovah had again, according to premise, established amongst them his sanctuary (Eze 37:26, Eze 37:27), a description of which the prophet gives. It is noticeable that no indication is furnished by the prophet that the people should erect an edifice after the pattern and according to the measurements of the house shown, but simply a statement made that such should be the sanctuary in which they should Worship.

3. On finding themselves once more in possession of the land which had been given to their fathers, and of a sanctuary prepared for them by Jehovah, the people of Israel should thenceforward serve him in accord-ante with the ordinances prescribed in the new Torah (Ezekiel 44-46.); should appear before him in the yearly feasts of the Passover and Tabernacles, in the monthly feasts of the new moon, in the weekly feasts of the sabbath, and in the daily ritual of sacrifice; should devolve upon the Zadokite (i.e. upon faithful) priests the duty of ministering at the altar, upon the Levites, to which rank the apostate (or unfaithful) priests of the monarchy should be reduced, that of attending to the sanctuary, or of serving the priests; and upon the prince that of providing the requisite sacrificial victims for the public festivals; the people for this purpose paying him the sixtieth part of their corn, the hundredth part of their oil, and the two-hundredth head of their flocks annually as a heave offering.

4. When Israel, thus revived and regenerated, restored and reunited, should serve Jehovah with a pure cultus, faithfully per. forming his commandments and walking in his ways, there should flow from the temple, as the habitation of Jehovah and the central institution of the land, down to the Jordan valley and into the Dead Sea, a miraculously increasing river, which should clothe the banks along its course with never-fading beauty and never-failing fertility, and on reaching the sea should render its waters salubrious, so that living creatures and fishes of every kind should swarm therein.

The question, therefore, which remains isWhat significance should be attached to this temple-vision? The answer will de-pond on whether the principle of interpretation applied to it is literal or metaphorical, historical or typical, actual or symbolical. Round these two methods of interpretation the different views that have been entertained of this temple-vision may with sufficient accuracy be grouped.

I. VIEWS WHICH GROUND THEMSELVES ON A MORE OR LESS LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE VISION. The only point which all the views in this class have in common is that they regard Ezekiel as having furnished the sketch of a new constitution for Israel, civil as well as, but chiefly, religious, to be actually put in force at some time in the future, either immediately subsequent to the exile or afterwards, by the erection of a temple, the institution of a worship and a division of the land in accordance with the specifications furnished by Ezekiel.

1. That the “temple-vision” was designed, in whole or in part, to provide a new constitution for the exiles who should return from Babylon when the seventy years of captivity had run their course, is a view which has always commanded support.

(1) It was favored by Villalpandus, who saw in Ezekiel’s “house” only a reminiscence of the Solomonic temple which the prophet, having conjured up before his imagination, placed on paper that it might serve as a model for the future shrine which the home-returning Israelites should erect; but inns-much as Ezekiel’s “house,” while exhibiting not a few correspondences with Solomon’s temple, at the same time discovered too many differences from that edifice to admit of being regarded as its exact transcript, critics soon perceived that the explanation of Villalpandus would require to be modified.

(2) Accordingly, Grotius substituted for the temple as first constructed by Solomon, the same edifice as it existed in Nebuchadnezzar’s time immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem. This, that scholar thought, would account for the variations from Solomon’s temple which were perceptible in Ezekiel’s “house;” but, as Kliefoth properly observes, while changes must undoubtedly have passed upon the temple (both upon the building and in its ritual) between the dates of its erection and of its demolition, these were little likely to be of such a character as to render it the harmonious and symmetrical structure it appears in Ezekiel’s vision.

(3) A third suggestion was then advanced by Eichhorn, Dathe, and Herder, and adopted by Hitzig, that Ezekiel’s temple was not so much modeled after Solomon’s as freely imagined and presented to the exiles as an ideal sketch of the new religious and civil order which should be established in Palestine after the return item captivity; while to the objection that no such order was established by the Jews who came back from Babylon, it was replied that that was not the fault of Ezekiel, but of the people, and no detraction from the splendor of the ideal which had been held up before them, but only an indication of their inability to convert that ideal into reality. This view, however, besides being open to the objections to be afterwards urged against it in common with others, has this difficulty of its own to contend with, that in introducing the subjective element of fancy as the primal source of the “vision,” it directly conflicts with the prophet’s statement that the vision was expressly shown him by supernatural agency.

(4) Closely allied to the preceding views, and in fact combining them, are those of Ewald, Kuenen, Wellhausen, Smend, Robertson Smith, Canon Driver, and their followers in Germany and in England. “Ezekiel may for a long time,” writes Ewald, “have pondered with burning desire and lively recollection on the institutions of the fallen temple and kingdom: what appeared to him great and glorious therein may have deeply engraven itself upon his heart as the model of a future restoration; with such historical memories he may have compared the Messianic expectations and demands in detail, and thus in spirit have projected for himself the most vivid pictures of the best constitution and arrangement of the details at the hoped-for restoration of the kingdom.” Kuenen (‘The Religion of Israel,’ 2.114) calls the passage now alluded to “a complete plan for the organization of the new Israel.” Wellhausen speaks of the whole “vision” as “a program for the future restoration of the theocracy.” Smend styles Ezekiel “a lawgiver, who outlines a complete life-ordinance for the Israel of the future.” Robertson Smith characterizes his Torah as “a sketch of ritual for the period of restoration.” Canon Driver says that Ezekiel 40-48, give “the constitution of the restored theocracy,” but adds that, “though the details are realistically conceived, it is evident that there is an ideal element in Ezekiel’s representations which in many respects it was found impossible to put into practice.” Thus, while presenting different shades of opinion, the interpreters and critics just mentioned, from Villalpandus downwards, are unanimous in regarding the “vision” as having been at once a temple plan, a cultus Torah, and a land act for the post-exilic age; but against this understanding of the “vision,” in the judgment of such scholars and expositors as Havernick, Fairbairn, Keil, Kliefoth, Wright, and Plumptre, the objections that may be urged are too numerous to admit of the belief that Ezekiel had any such intention as it supposes, viz. an intention to prepare beforehand a new constitution for the restoration era, which he believed to be at hand. These objections are the following:

(1) If Ezekiel actually did intend to leave behind him a program for the coming age, a constitution for the new theocracy which he foresaw should arise, it is, to say the least, remarkable that no suspicion of this appears to have crossed the minds of any of the post-exilic leaders, such as Zerubbabel, Joshua, Ezra, or Nehemiah, all of whom, besides, lived so close to Ezekiel’s time that they must have been aware of it had any such intention existed.

(2) Nor is it simply that the post-exilic leaders gave no indication that they regarded it as binding on them to carry out the wishes of Ezekiel as these were set forth in this temple-vision; but in proceeding with their work of restoration, in the reconstruction of the temple, in the reorganization of the worship, and in the redistribution of the land, they went back to the state and condition of things which had existed in pre-exilic times, building their new temple on the exact foundations of the old (Ezr 3:8-13), fashioning their worship in accordance with the prescriptions of the Levitical (or so-called priest-) code, and dividing their territory, if net after the land act of Moses, still less after that of Ezekiel.

(3) Add to this that, had the post-exilic leaders been desirous of following the directions of the “vision,” they would have found it in many points quite impracticable. Not to speak, at least in this connection (see below), about the “very high mountain” or the “temple-river,” which one scarcely sees how they could have improvised, it may be asked how they could have laid out on the summit of Moriah the precincts of the temple, which were 500 reeds square, or a compass of over three miles and a half; or measured off the terumah, which enclosed an area of 2500 square miles or nearly twice as large as the whole of Judaea; or divided the territory (which they did not possess) from the entrance of Hamath to the river of Egypt? Assuredly, if Ezekiel’s plan was thus one which could not have been carried cut, even had he meant it, Ezekiel may be credited with having had sufficient sense not to mean it.

(4) Then on the literal hypothesis, what is to be made of the “very high mountain” on which the temple was seen to rest, and of the river that increased without receiving any tributaries along its course; and of the sea, whose waters were rendered salubrious and made to teem with fish by the flowing into them of the temple-stream? A hill whose maximum elevation above the sea was not more than 2528 feet could hardly have been represented as a “very high mountain;” a water-canal or spring could scarcely have been made to do duty for a freely flowing river; while a visit to the Dead Sea will convince the most skeptical that its waters are today as unwholesome and fatal to life, both vegetable and animal, as they ever were. Considerations such as these are sufficient to indicate that the prophet never intended his language to be taken literally, or his “house” to be regarded as a new temple, his Torah as a new ritual, and his territorial distribution scheme as a new land act for the returned exiles.

(5) If more be needed to demonstrate that the prophet, in writing down these temple-measurements, sacrificial ordinances, and land arrangements, was not drafting a new constitution, for post-exilic Israel, it may be found in this, that he removed the temple so completely beyond the precincts of the city. Whatever significance may have lain in that as a symbol (to be considered in the sequel), it is obvious that no Jewish patriot could have been expected to acquiesce in such an arrangement (already it has been seen that they did not), on the supposition that it was meant to be actually put in force; and hence it may be almost pronounced certain that, whatever notions may have lurked in the prophet’s mind regarding it, he never seriously proposed it as a model to be copied by the builders of the post-exilic age.

2. A second view deserving mention, if less extended, is that of those who, while finding in the temple-vision a new constitution for restored and reunited Israel, and while conceding that in some small measure or degree it may have been put in force subsequent to the exile, nevertheless anticipate the coming of a golden age, when it will receive an exact and complete fulfillment, when the soil of Palestine will be divided, the temple erected at Jerusalem, and the worship of Jehovah established therein precisely as here outlined by Ezekiel.

(1) It is not difficult to understand how this idea should from the first have been favored by Jewish interpreters, who still expected Messiah, and believed that when he came he would not only replace the Jewish people in their own land, but set up the precise civil and religious arrangements that are here sketched.

(2) But besides these, not a few Christian millenarians have embraced this interpretation, holding, as they do, not only that Jesus is the Messiah, but that in connection with and prior to his second comingwhich they consider will introduce the thousand years’ reign of the risen saints upon the earthall the details of this vision will be carried out: the Jews, who shall then have become converted to Christianity, will return to their own land, which they will divide amongst themselves as here represented, erect a temple after the specifications here laid down, and institute a worship in accordance with the Torah here enjoined. Of this view a representative may be found in M. Baumgarten, who thinks that the points of contact between Ezekiel’s temple and Solomon’s are too numerous and close for one to resolve the whole picture into symbol and allegory, and who asks how, when Israel has returned to her God, she ought to give expression to her faith and obedience, if not in the forms and ordinances which Jehovah has given to themthese forms and ordinances being those embodied in Ezekiel’s temple-vision (see Herzog’s ‘Real-Encyclopadie,’ art. “Ezechiel”). But against this view, whether in its Jewish or Christian form, which expects a future glorification of the land, people, and religion of Israel, serious and insurmountable difficulties press.

(1) The objections already mentioned as declaring against the former view of a program for the pest-exilic ago speak with equal force against this, which simply transfers the building of the temple, the institution of the ritual, and the dividing of the land to a future Messianic age, either with the Jews, that of a first, or with the millenarians, that of a second, coming. It is true the advocates of this theory experience no difficulty in dealing with any of the unusual phenomena which ordinarily hamper the literal interpretation, such as the rapidly increasing river, the sweetening of the waters of the Dead Sea, and the exceeding high mountain, because they anticipate such a glorification of Palestine in the Messianic, or millennial, era as will not only admit of all these things being, but show them actually to be, realized. The passages of Scripture, however, which are supposed to promise the future external glorification of Canaan are, neither in the Old Testament (Isa 2:2-4; Isa 4:2-6; Isa 9:1-6; Isa 11:12; Jer 31:31 -44; Jer 33:15; Amo 9:8-15; Zec 14:8; Joel 4:18; Mic 7:9-13) nor in the New (Rom 11:15; Act 3:19-21; Rev 7:1-8; Rev 14:1-5; Rev 22:1, Rev 22:2), so clear and decisive that their literal interpretation cannot be disputed, as in reality it is, to the extent even of denial, by the majority of Bible students; and accordingly, to claim these as substantiating the proposition that Canaan is ultimately to undergo such a transformation as to render the realization of Ezekiel’s vision possible, is simply to beg the question at issue.

(2) In addition to this, the view undergoing examination is exposed to all those difficulties which tell against the millenarian doctrine in general, and this in particular, that the Jews will yet as a nation return to their own land. Were they to do so, it would not infallibly follow that they would re-erect a temple, worship Jehovah, and divide up the soil as here directed; but it is certain they would do neither of these things if they never did return; and that they never will return (as a nation) to occupy Palestine may at least be regarded as the more probable alternative of the two. Unless resort is to be had to miracle, it is not easy to discern how, after the Jews have renounced their unbelief and become Christian, they are to be prevented from intermingling with Christians and so losing one of their national characteristics, or how the tribal divisions which have for centuries been lost are again to be recovered, or how the land is to be rendered capable of sustaining them. Nor can one detect a sufficient reason for restoring the national existence of Israel in the closing years of the Christian dispensation, if not for the purpose of reintroducing the special worship of Judaism; and this, it should now be emphasized, occasions the greatest of all difficulties that impinge against the theory under review. For

(3) If Israel as a nation is, in some golden era or millennial period towards the close of time, to return to her old land, re-erect her old temple, and reinstitute her old worship, what shall then (or even now) be said of the truthfulness of those passages of Scripture which teach that the Levitical system of tabernacle (or temple) and altar, of priest and sacrifice, of type and symbol, of external commandment and visible ceremonial, was from the first provisional in its nature, intended to serve as a shadow of good things to come, and designed to be set aside for ever when the higher and more spiritual system of the gospel had been inaugurated by the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Messiah (see Hebrews 5-10.; and comp. Joh 4:21-24; Col 2:17; Gal 3:23-25)? The simple suggestion that in the glorious millennial era, when Christianity as a system of religion will be near the culmination of its triumphed progress through the centuries, the Church of God, either in whole or in part, should return to the beggarly elements of Judaism, and set up the worship of God by means of bloody offerings and all the paraphernalia of altars and priests, is too ridiculous to be entertained for a moment by any one who has attained to a proper conception of the spiritual nature of that religion which mankind eighteen centuries ago received from Jesus Christ. “The whole teaching of the New Testament,” writes Plumptre (unpublished manuscript notes),” and especially of the Epistle to the Hebrews, is opposed to the thought that the revival of a local sanctuary at Jerusalem, sacred above all other sanctuaries, the object of devout pilgrimages from all quarters of the world, with the perpetuation of annual sacrifices offered by the priests of the house of Aaron, living under the old ceremonial conditions, forms part and parcel of what we are to expect in the future history of Christendom. We are compelled, if we would be true to that higher teaching, to say that the visions of Ezekiel, like those of the Apocalypse, which in part reproduce them, can receive only, as symbols of the truth, a spiritual and not a literal fulfillment.” To this the weighty utterance of Delitzsch may be added: “The New Testament Divine worship knows of a central sanctuary neither in Jerusalem nor upon Gerizim, and the religion of Jehovah, after it has. become the religion of humanity, will never again return back into its chrysalis condition, and the setting up again of animal sacrifices as memorials of Christ’s death would be, in face of the offering which was made upon the altar of the cross (Heb 10:11-14), a return out of the essence into the shadow, out of the spirit into the letter, out of the law of freedom into the law of the ‘elements of the world,’ of which Christ was the end. A Christian world-cathedral belonging to Israel converted to Christ and again assembled in Jerusalema monument such as this of the history of salvation having reached its final aim, a finger-post like this directed heavenward towards God the All-mercifulwill necessarily be of another sort than the temple of Old Testament prophets still fast bound in shadow work.”

II. VIEWS WHICH GROUND THEMSELVES ON A SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATION OF THE VISION. A literal interpretation being impossible, the only alternative is to have recourse to the method of symbolic exposition; and, in addition to what has been already said, some things suggest themselves as strongly corroborative of this conclusion. First, there is the circumstance that the temple-plan, the ritual Torah, and the land act formed three successive parts of one extended “vision,” which was shown to the prophet while in a state of “trance” or ecstasy, and were thus, as to mode of communication at least, totally unlike the tabernacle model, the Levitical code, and the land arrangements which were directly exhibited or imparted to Moses without the intervention of a “vision.” Besides, the obvious correspondence of this closing vision to the earlier vision or visions (Ezekiel 8-11.), in which were represented the desecration and destruction of the first temple, lends countenance to the inference that here also, as there, the tableaux presented to the prophet’s inward eye were designed as symbols. Secondly, there is the absence of any instruction to the prophet, like that given to Moses, to see that all things were made, either by himself or others, according to the pattern which had been shown to him in the mount, From the beginning to the end no hint is discoverable that the prophet or his countrymen were expected to replace the building Nebuchadnezzar had overthrown by one fashioned after the pattern now disclosed. Thirdly, without emphasizing as strongly as Kliefoth does the numbers three, seven, and twelve, that run through the whole, the obvious symmetry maintained alike in the temple-buildings, sacrificial ordinances, and land arrangements, speaks for a symbolic as against a literal interpretation; and this impression is confirmed rather than weakened by observing that in respect both of the temple and the city, only (or principally) ground-measurements are recorded, while no allusion whatever is made to either building materials or architectural details. Fourthly, there are portions of this “vision” to which a symbolic interpretation must of necessity be assigned, as e.g. the temple-river and the healing of the waters of the sea; and this fact alone should be held as decisive, unless it should emerge that there are other portions to which a symbolic exposition is inapplicable. Fifthly, antecedent passages in Ezekiel, to which this temple-vision palpably looks back, declare more or less strongly for a symbolic interpretation. One of these has already been referred to, Ezekiel 8-11. Another is Eze 20:40-41, concerning which it may suffice to quote Plumptre’s words in this Commentary: “The fact that Israel itself is said to be the ‘sweet savor’ (Revised Version) which Jehovah accepts, suggests a like spiritual interpretation of the other offerings, though the literal meaning was probably dominant in the prophet’s own thoughts.” A third is Eze 37:26-28, in which a literal interpretation can be maintained only at the expense of truth, Sixthly, the analogy of similar prophetic adumbrations of Israel’s future supports the idea that here also the writer’s thought clothes itself in a symbolic dress. Let the pictures given by Jeremiah, Ezekiel’s contemporary (Jer 31:38-40; Jer 33:17-22), by Isaiah (Isa 60:1-22), Joel (Joe 3:18), Haggai (Hag 2:7-9), and Zechariah (Zec 6:9-15; Zec 8:1-8; Zec 14:8-21) be attentively studied, and the conviction will be hard to resist that one and all they were designed in figurative language to foreshadow the spiritual blessings of a future time; and if such was the prophetic style generally, it seems reasonable to infer that Ezekiel. like his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors, was accustomed to use the same. Seventhly, the symbolic interpretation admits of being carried out, which is more than can be affirmed of the literal; and this consideration should decide the question as to how the “vision” should be understood in favor of the former rather than of the latter mode of exposition.

But now assuming the symbolic method of interpretation to have been fully vindicated as the only one properly applicable to the temple-vision, a fresh inquiry risesOf what was the vision meant to be symbolic? And the reply to this may be stated in terms so general as to unite all who favor the ideal or allegorical method of interpretation. It may be said that the vision was designed to symbolize the great and gracious blessings Jehovah purposed at a future time, when he had turned again the captivity of Israel, to bestow upon his Church. So far as the terminus owl quern of this period of blessing is concerned, it is agreed by all expositors that that is the consummation of all things, when Israel’s last and mightiest enemies, Gog and Magog, shall have been destroyed; only then do interpreters fall out when the terminus a quo is required after. Some, like Diedati, Greenhill, and Hengstenberg, find the point of departure in the return from Babylon; others, as Luther, Calvin, Cocceius, Pfeiffer, Fairbairn, Havernick, Kliefoth, and Currey, begin with the Incarnation; while a third group, of whom Keil may be regarded as the representative, restrict the “vision” to the times of the consummation, i.e. to the perfect service of God in the heavenly world.

1. It seems impossible to doubt that the “vision” had a reference to the times immediately subsequent to the exile. Without conceding to Hengstenberg that the whole prophecy, with the exception of Eze 47:1-12, was destined then to receive fulfillment, or to Wellhausen that it was expressly composed as a new constitution for pest-exilic Judaism, it may be granted that the exiles in Babylonia were intended to derive from it the hope and promise of a return to their own land, a re-erection of their fallen temple, and a reinstitution of their ancient worship. Indeed, it is hard to see how they could have failed to deduce such an inference from a perusal of the prophet’s words. Forming, as the “vision” did, the last and culminating note of crenellation addressed to the exiles, if the picture it held up before their minds was not a mere ignis fatuus intended to misleadif it represented (even symbolically) any underlying realitythen that reality could only have been that in the future, it might be Aim and distant, Israel and Judah, once more united and enlarged by accessions from the Gentiles, or the Church of God whom they represented, should serve Jehovah with a pure cultus in a land he had prepared for and given to them: and not a large amount of insight would be required to conclude that if Israel and Judah had any such destiny before them in the future, then assuredly their exile must terminate and their divided tribes be once more united in the old country. Whatever may have been the true significance of that picture, if it symbolized anything in which Israel and Judah were to have a share, it could not but occur, at least to the prophet himself and the more thoughtful of his first readers, that it prognosticated the dawning of brighter days, when Jehovah should turn again the captivity of his people, and re-establish them in their own land.

2. Similarly, the view of those who find in the vision a symbol of the Christian Church as a whole, or, in the words of Kliefoth, “the Christian Church in its origin, its development and influence in the world, and its completion in the hereafter,” has much to support it. That Ezekiel perfectly understood the significance of his own “vision” is not asserted, and is not likely to have been the case (see 1Pe 1:11); all that is wished to be affirmed by those who adopt this view is that Ezekiel’s picture of a new temple, a new worship, and a new land pointed to a state and condition of things which first began to be realized when the Christian dispensation was established by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and certainly there are few particulars in which the import of the symbol (looked at in this light) cannot be at once and clearly traced. Without claiming it as a point in favor of this view that the vision makes no mention of any building materials, inasmuch as the Christian Church is composed of “lively stones,” or believing and gracious souls (1Pe 2:5), the entrance into the temple of the glory of God (Eze 43:1-6) found and still retains its counterpart in the perpetual inhabitation of the Church by the Spirit of Christ (Eph 2:21, Eph 2:22). The awful sanctity with which the temple was surrounded, increasing as one approached it from the outside, beginning with the holy terumah, and advancing successively to the priests’ portion in the midst of which the temple stood, to the precincts five hundred reeds square which encompassed the court, to the suburbs or “void places” which ran round the outer wall, to the seven steps which conducted into the gateway, to the outer court, to the eight steps leading up to the inner court, and finally to the ascent by which access was gained to the “house,”all this fitly symbolized the superior holiness which should belong, and in point of fact does belong, to the Church of God under the gospel. So the absence of both high priest and great Day of Atonement in Ezekiel’s temple was an adumbration of the time when the ever-living High Priest of the house of God having put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, all Jehovah’s worshippers should be priests in their own right, whose services should be acceptable through Jesus Christ. The daily sin offering, and the similar offerings on the solemn feast-days, meant that in the Church of the future there should be a constant remembrance of the great Propitiation that had been offered once for all, and an ever-renewed appropriation of the same by those who worshipped. The greater symmetry and fullness in the burnt offerings and meal offerings served to typify the more thorough self-consecration of Jehovah’s worshippers, and their more intimate fellowship with him in the new dispensation. That the prince should be charged with the responsibility of providing victims for all the public festivals, and on the occasion of their celebration should enter and retire from the temple courts in their midst, was a foreshadowing of the truth that all the offerings of s Christian worshipper must be presented through Christ, who thus, as it were, ideally approaches the heavenly throne surrounded by his people. The miraculously flowing river rising in the temple, and increasing in width and depth as it flows, creating life and beauty wheresoever it comes, was an easily understood picture of the spiritually healthful and vivifying influences of the gospel The equal division of the land among the tribes, and the introduction of the sons of the stranger to equal privileges with the Israelite, may have been designed to intimate that when the new condition of things arrived to which the vision looked forward, i.e. when the Christian era dawned, the distinction between Jew and Gentile should no more exist (Eph 2:14-16), and all the members of the new Israel should share alike in the inheritance of which Canaan was the earthly emblem. The separation of the temple from the city may have pointed to the fact that in that coming age the Church should be an institution altogether distinct from and no longer identical with the state, as under the Hebrew dispensation it had been. These, with other instances that might be given, show how easily the whole symbol may be understood of the Christian Church on earth, which was the view commonly entertained by the Reformed theologians, who did not, except indirectly, employ it as typical of the kingdom of God in its perfect or heavenly condition.

3. This, however, is the view taken of the vision by both Kliefoth and Keil, the first of whom does not, while the second does, exclude all allusion to the present or historical condition of the Christian Church. In the vision Kliefoth, while discovering some things, as for instance the sin offerings, that can only be applied to the present or temporal form of the Church, finds others, as e.g. the temple-river, which he holds can only have its counterpart in the river of the Apocalypse (Rev 22:1). On the other hand, Keil argues that only one thing presupposes that Israel has still to take possession of (the heavenly) Canaan, viz.” the directions concerning the boundaries and the division of the land,” and proceeds to say, “It fellows from this that the prophetic picture does not furnish a typical exhibition of the Church of Christ in its gradual development, but sets forth the kingdom of God established by Christ in its perfect form.” In short, Keil regards the whole “vision” as a symbolic representation, in Old Testament language and ideasthe only way in which such representation could have been given so as to be intelligible to Ezekiel’s readersof the introduction of God’s spiritual Israel into their heavenly Canaan, and of the perfect service they shall there render to Jehovah. That the heavenly condition of the Church of God was designed to be depicted it seems necessary to hold, both from the position of the vision in Ezekiel’s book and from the contents (in part) of the vision itself. The vision occurs, as the last note of consolation offered to the exiles, after the vision of their moral and spiritual resuscitation and establishment in their own land, with David, Jehovah’s Servant and King, ruling over them, and in close connection with, if not immediately after, the final conflict with Gog, which leads up, one should say, quite naturally to the complete blessedness of the future life. Then the correspondence between the river in John’s description of the heavenly Jerusalem, and this temple-stream in Ezekiel’s vision, renders it impossible to exclude from the latter all allusion to the heavenly state. At the same time, there are points, even on Keil’s showing, that cannot well be harmonized with the theory that only the heavenly and glorified form of the Church is symbolized by the vision. One of these has been mentioned, the perpetuation of the sin offering; another is the precept concerning the hereditary property of the prince and its transmission to his sons; a third is the separation between the temple and the city; a fourth is the invasion of Gog, which, as Keil has observed, is represented as occurring after Israel has taken possession of the land. Hence probably it is wrong to restrict the significance of the “vision” so exclusively as Keil does to the heavenly world.

Upon the whole, it seems best to find a place for each of the above views in any interpretation of the vision; and this may be done by supposing that the vision was designed by its real Authorthe Spirit of Christ (1Pe 1:11)to set forth, by means of Old Testament imagery, a picture of that perfect service which ought to have been rendered from the first by Israel (after the flesh) to Jehovah, but was not, and which it was Jehovah’s promise to the exiles would ultimately be rendered by that new Israel (according to the Spirit) he was soon to call out of the ruins of the old. In this way, as setting forth the ideal of a perfect worship which will not be completely realized until Israel reaches the heavenly Canaan, the “vision” admits of Keil’s interpretation; but inasmuch as this ideal worship will not be attained to there unless the worship itself begins on earth in the Christian Churchto which not a few features in the symbol pointthe vision is also susceptible of Kliefoth’s exposition; while as the first step towards the calling out of the new Israel was taken when God turned again the captivity of the exiles, the view of Hengstenberg cannot be excluded.

A few words may be added on the bearing which the view just taken of the significance of the temple-vision has upon the chief critical question of the day as to the structure of the Pentateuch. The modern theory, begun by Graf and Reuss, but per-leered by Kuenen and Wellhausen, it is well known, is that, while the book of the covenant (Exodus 21-23 originated in the early years of the monarchy, and Deuteronomy not later than the reign of Josiah, the priest-code, as it is styled (Exodus 24-40. with some exceptions, the whole of Leviticus, and the most of Numbers), is a work of post-exilic origin, and that Ezekiel (40-48.) constituted, as it were, the bridge by which the law-making spirit of the Hebrew religion passed over from the popular legislation of the Fifth Book of Moses to the highly developed and minutely articulated system of Leviticus. Into the general question it would be out of place in this work to enter; the most that can be (lone is to indicate how far the theory is entitled to claim support from the temple-vision which has just been expounded and interpreted. Nor is it needful, in doing so, to dwell upon the alleged evidence of Ezekiel’s priority to Leviticus, derived from Ezekiel’s language and the contents of his sacrificial Torahthis has been more or less done in the course of expositionsince the validity or invalidity of such (so-called) evidence depends entirely on the correctness or incorrectness of the presupposition which is commonly made, viz. that Ezekiel designed to draft a new constitution for the post-exilic Church. Could this have been made out, it would by no means have followed that Ezekiel’s Torah, by its divergences from that of Leviticus, proved the later origin of the latter, since Ezekiel, having himself been prophet, no less than Moses, was at liberty to abrogate or modify any pre-existing law if impelled to do so by the Spirit that originally taught Moses; but inasmuch as it has not been and cannot be made out beyond reachable doubtrather, inasmuch as strong grounds exist for holding that Ezekiel had no such intention, but designed to provide a complex symbol of the perfect relations which should subsist between God and his (spiritual) Israel, it is clearly not permissible to argue that Ezekiel was suggesting for the first time the course which temple-legislation should pursue in the new era which should commence when the exile was ended and the restoration begun. If all that Ezekiel had in contemplation was to furnish a symbol of the sort already indicated, it is manifestly an inference not warranted by the premises that he desired to initiate a distinction which should afterwards be put in force between the priests who should serve the altar and the Levites who should serve the tabernacle, and to assign the former honor to the sons of Zadok, while inflicting the latter degradation on the Levites who had ministered at pre-exilic high places. If Ezekiel’s fetching in of the sons of Zadok was merely a device to obtain a symbol of faithful and pure service, then the whole theory which has been so ingeniously erected on the so-called degradation of the Levitesa passage which has been styled “the key to the Old Testament “runs the risk of falling to pieces, and, to use the words of Delitzsch, “the degradation of the Levites, which certainly appears in Ezekiel as an innovation,” becomes “another thing than a riddle to be solved by the new Pentateuchal theory.”

HOMILETICS.

Eze 48:1

(first clause, “Now these are the names of the tribes”)

Names.

The tribes are here severally named. Elsewhere whole pages of the Bible are taken up with lists of names. Let us consider the significance of this method of assortment.

I. NAMES INDICATE INDIVIDUALS. Each tribe has its name; each person also has his own private name. Thus the community is broken up into its several constituent elements. God does not treat men in the mass. He takes “one of a city, and two of a family” (Jer 3:14). Each tribe of Israel had its separate district, each family its own allotted inheritance.

II. NAMES DESCRIBE CHARACTERS. This was the case with names in Old Testament times. It does not apply among us, excepting in the case of soubriquets. But the old suggestiveness contains a lesson for all time. Different men have different characters. All these varieties are known to God, even though some of them may be concealed from our fellow-men. It might often have happened that by some accident, misunderstanding, or act of malice, a false name would be given to a persona good name to a Bad man, or a bad name to a good man. No such error can be found in God’s books, the books in which he reads the names of his people. There he notes the true character of all.

III. NAMES DIRECT APPEALS. We call a person by name to arrest his attention and to show that we desire to speak to him individually, and we write his name on a letter in order that it may be sent to him and accepted by him as intended for himself. Christ calls his sheep by name (Joh 10:3). He knows each member of his flock separately, and has direct, separate, personal dealings with every one. God called young Samuel by name. We do not expect audible appeals from heaven. Yet God is changeless, and he just as truly seeks us out separately now as he sought out Samuel in the days of the judges.

IV. NAMES PRESERVE MEMORIES. History would be a hopeless morass but for the solid ground afforded in definite names. If a man has done anything worthy of fame he is said to have made a name. His name is now treated with respect and handed down to subsequent generations. There are names of honor and names of infamy. To Christ is given the name that is above every name (Php 2:9). If one lives an ill life he may earnestly desire to be forgotten; but, alas! the stigma of disgrace is indelibly stamped on his name.

V. NAMES JUSTIFY CLAIMS. A signature gives authority. A name in a will entitles its owner to what is bequeathed under it. There are names “written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev 21:27), and all who own those names are entitled to an eternal inheritance with the saints in light. A man’s name may not be down in the list of Israel’s heirs, nor recorded in any Doomsday book on earth; yet if it is written in Christ’s records it is secure for a possession better and richer than the most valuable estate that can ever be enjoyed in this world.

VI. A CHANGE OF NAME SIGNIFIES A CHANGE OF STATUS. Jacob, “the Supplanter,” is named afresh Israel, “God’s prince” Christ’s people have a new name on their foreheads (Rev 22:4). We may leave the evil name of the old life and enjoy the blessings that attach themselves to a true Christian name.

Eze 48:14

An inalienable possession.

The people were not permitted to sell their allotments, and especial provision was made to prevent the priests from parting with their share of the fruits of the land.

I. THE CHRISTIAN INHERITANCE IS AN INALIENABLE POSSESSION.

1. No enemy can take it away. Christ secures it for his people, so that it is theirs forever. We may lose all earthly things in the shocks and changes of life, but the heavenly treasure abides. So long as we hold it truly, no moth nor rust can corrupt it, no thief can then break through and steal it.

2. The Christian has no right to part with it. He can deny Christ, renounce the gift of God, and abdicate his position as one of the kings and priests of God. But he has no right to act in this way. When once he is called into the kingdom it is with a view of never departing from it. Though left free from external constraints, the bands of conscience forbid his ever giving up his glorious heritage. The vows of Christian fidelity are irrevocable.

II. IT IS A SIN TO ENDANGER THE CHRISTIAN INHERITANCE. AS Christians, we have a charge to keep. Our estate in the kingdom of heaven is entrusted to us. But we may be false to our trust in various ways.

1. By neglecting it. So long as our heritage is faithfully kept no enemy can enter or injure it. But if the hedge is broken down the wild boar from the wood may come through and root up the tender vines (Psa 80:13). We need to watch over and carefully guard the privileges of the Christian life.

2. By renouncing it for worldly things. The priest might grow tired of his sacred office, and might prefer to have a farm of his own rather than be dependent on the sacrificial offerings of the people, while a lay Israelite, ambitious of the priesthood, might be glad to barter his estate for rank and office in the temple. This was forbidden. The Christian has no right to give up his allegiance to Christ and his inheritance in heavenly things for any earthly consideration. Having put his hand to the plough, he is never to look back.

III. THE INALIENABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN INHERITANCE RESULTS FROM ITS RELATIONS TO GOD. The portion of the priests was holy, not because they had it, but because it was primarily God’s share of the produce of the land. The Christian inheritance has special relations to God.

1. It is purchased by the death of Christ, the Son of God. A possession so acquired must have a profound sanctity attached to it. To throw away lightly a gift that was brought to us by means of the incarnation and crucifixion of our Lord is to despise God’s most wonderful condescension, to trample on the love of Christ in his most tremendous self-sacrifice. If he has died to make the inheritance ours, the least we can do is to prize it above all things.

2. It is still rightly owned by God. The priests enjoyed God’s portion of the produce. It was still God’s while they had it. Christ has called us into his kingdom to be his stewards. All we enjoy really belongs to him, and we shall have to give an account of our stewardship. If we destroy or alienate the vineyard with which we are now entrusted, we shall have no answer to give in the great day of reckoning.

Eze 48:15

A profane place.

We are not to suppose that this place was devoted, to evil uses. It was simply distinguished from the holy place of the temple. There were degrees of holinessall the land holy when compared with heathen countries; Jerusalem especially the holy city; the temple the holy site in Jerusalem; and the holy place and the holy of holies the most sacred center of the whole circle of sanctity. By comparison with the temple area the rest of the city of Jerusalem was called “profane”

I. GOD PROVIDES FOR THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. The so-called “profane place” was carefully mapped out, and ample provision was made for the life of the people in it. The laity was not ignored when the priesthood was provided for. It was never expected that the people would spend all their days in the temple, nor that they would need no comfort for their life in the world. God is not now only concerned with our attending to religious services at church. The greater part of life must be occupied with secular pursuits. These pursuits can be followed according to the call of God, and in occupying ourselves with them we may well expect that he will give the necessary supplies, guiding our energies, and ultimately blessing our toil if it is in accordance with his mind and will.

II. IT IS POSSIBLE TO LIVE A HOLY LIFE AMIDST THINGS CALLED PROFANE. The priests might be guilty of spiritual profanity while busily engaged in temple service; the laity might be truly occupied with a holy ministry, though on ground that was named profane. It is not necessary to be consecrated to the priesthood nor to enter a monastery in order to live “the religious life.” The work of the busy world must be carried on, and it would be simply disastrous if all who were inspired with pure and lofty aims were to withdraw from its many necessary occupations. Not only would the service of life be neglected for want of men and women to employ themselves in it, but what work was accomplished by others would be degraded in character. This would just amount to handing the world and all its concerns over to the powers of wickedness. Christians are called upon to take the exactly opposite course, and so to be “the salt of the earth” (Mat 5:13).

III. ADVERSE EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES DO NOT PREVENT SPIRITUALITY OF LIFE. The secularity of a man’s occupations does not prevent him from being a Christian of the very highest type. The supposed profaneness of his circumstances cannot be accepted as an excuse for godless, sinful living. Nothing would be really profane if the heart were true and spiritual; for “to the pure all things are pure.” It is sometimes supposed that it would be more easy for a man to live a religious life if he were a minister of religion. But then the temptation of professionalism would come in, and the business spirit endanger the sacredness of the most spiritual things, whereas when religion is wholly sought after for its spiritual use it is less in danger of sinking into a mere form. But the whole question turns on the spirituality of the character and conductrather than on the form of the occupations of daily duty.

Eze 48:19

Serving the city.

A militia, selected from all the tribes of Israel, is to be marshaled as the garrison of Jerusalem. Thus representatives of the whole nation are to have a share in the service of the city.

I. MEN SERVE GOD BY SERVING MAN. They who serve the royal city serve the king. If we love not our brethren whom we have seen, we cannot love God whom we have not seen (1Jn 4:20). But a true-hearted love for God must inspire practical love for man. Obedience to the two great commandments is one common experience in the heart of the servant of God. It is a mistake that any should urge “the service -f man” as a new religion for the age; this is the true ritual of the old religion of Christ (Jas 1:27). There is no Christianity without it. Christianity is most vigorous and fruitful when ministries of active benevolence are most vigorously maintained. Jesus was the Son of man, who “went about doing good.”

II. ALL CLASSES SHOULD TAKE PART IN THE SERVICE OF MAN. The one tribe of Levi was told off for the service of the temple; but every tribe was to he represented in the city guard. The special work of the Christian ministry devolves upon those who are specially adapted to it, and called by God to devote their lives to it. It is not every Christian who is required to occupy the post of a minister of a Church or to go out as a missionary to foreign lands. But every man, woman, and child should take part in the Christian work of helping others. Every class in society, every order of mind, every gift, faculty, and opportunity can and should be used for this wide and varied service.

III. A CITY HAS PECULIAR CLAIMS ON CHRISTIAN SERVICE. Jerusalem was to be specially provided for as the capital of the land. The metropolis needs to be carefully guarded. But every city has its claims. These depend on several considerations.

1. Great needs. A city is a heterogeneous collection of human beings. The energetic are attracted and the helpless are drifted there. In the city human life is lived at its best and at its worst. The poverty, the vice, the degradation, that haunt the purlieus of great cities call for especial attention. The enemies that now attack our cities are not armed men besieging after the old style. But strong drink; gambling; profligacy; cruel oppression of workpeople; fierce competition among traders; selfish inconsiderateness on the part of the public, making this competition almost a necessity of life; overcrowding, rendering common decency a physical impossibility, and infant mortality a frequent occurrence; the tremendously rapid growth of the centers of population overtaking the means of Christian work; the obscurity and loneliness of life in a crowd permitting the unfortunate to perish unheeded;these and other characteristic circumstances of modem city life call for redoubled energy on the part of all Christian people in great fields of work. Christ concentrated his ministry on the densely populated regions round about the Sea of Galilee.

2. Great influence. A city is a center of influence to all the region round about. The metropolis is the heart of the nation. If there is righteousness in the center, righteousness may flow through all the national life. Christianity, which came as a cosmopolitan religion, manifested from the first metropolitan affinities. The apostles concentrated their labors to a great extent on the principal cities of the empireJerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Corinth, Athens, Rome. The country-people were more slow to receive the gospel, and thus the names “pagan” and “heathen” came to stand for “non-Christian.” It will be a bad thing for Christendom if the cities are lost to Christ.

Eze 48:31

The city gates.

I. THE CITY GATES ARE FOR EGRESS. The citizens are not to remain always immured in their streets and houses. They are to go forth to the countrytill their vineyards, lead their flocks over the hills, visit their neighbors.

1. It is bad to be always in society. Christ called his disciples away from the multitude to a desert place, to rest awhile.

2. It is desirable to cultivate the spirit of enterprise. We English have our island home guarded by the friendly sea, but we take care to have many gates, and to go forth over the wide world. We travel and trade; in discovery and adventure the hardy vigor of the British race finds scope, and grows by exercise. It will be a misfortune for England if this spirit of enterprise gives place to a more indolent, self-indulgent tone of life. The same spirit should be seen in the Church. We ought to have more energy and daring, not content to enjoy our privileges at home, but eager to go forth and do some fresh service for our Master.

3. It is a Christian duty to carry missionary work out into the world. Christians should go out of the gates of Christendom to bring the standard of the gospel into heathen lands.

II. THE CITY GATES ARE FOR INGRESS.

1. Strangers should be welcomed. The gates of the city of God are open day and night (Rev 21:25). The heavenly Jerusalem is always ready to welcome new guests. The city is to be a metropolis of man, a center and home for all travelers in the weary journey of life. It is utterly contrary to the spirit of Christ for a Church to show any spirit of exclusiveness, any desire to keep its privileges to itself. Christianity is for the world. “Whosoever will, let him come,”

2. The citizens should return home. “Man goeth forth unto his work, and to his labor, until the evening” (Psa 104:23). “Then the ploughman homeward plods his weary way.” After work in the fields comes rest in the home. We cannot be always engaged in Christian enterprises. It would not be healthy for a Church to be wholly absorbed in mission work. It must also have its own loving fellowship and refreshing worship.

III. THE CITY GATES ARE FOR PROTECTION. They are gates, not gaps. The well cared-for city of the olden times had massive gates with stout locks and bars, and perhaps a portcullis at each gate for additional protection. The city of God has ample means of warding off the attack of the enemy of souls. God has not cast his people out in a waste, howling wilderness to be a prey to evil creatures. He has called them into “a city which hath foundations” and walls and gates. Christ himself is the Lord of this new Jerusalem, and all are safe who are with him. “There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1).

IV. THE CITY GATES MUST BE MANNED BY THE PEOPLE.

1. They need guards. The garrison of Jerusalem must concentrate its attention on the gates. Christ is the Captain, we are the soldiers; under him it becomes our duty to hold the gates. The sick, the aged, and women and children, are kept in the city while the men sally forth to attack the enemy. The gates must be guarded for the sake of the human trust within. The Church should guard the young, the feeble, the tempted,

2. The guards are severally apportioned. Each gate seems to be named after the tribe to whose soldiers it is allotted. There are various branches of the Christian Church, and there is separate work for each body of Christians. If one gate is taken, the city is endangered. Faithfulness is needed in all classes of Christians for the security of the whole Church.

Eze 48:35

A glorious name.

The restored city of Jerusalem is to receive a new name, “The Lord is there.” The announcement of this name makes a splendid conclusion to the Book of Ezekiel. The numerous and varied utterances of the prophet have carried us through scenes of shame and sorrow, and even of blood and terror; but above all has shone the vision of God and his grand providence, and the end of all is seen in the new city and temple of a renewed people.

I. THE NAME DESCRIBES A WONDERFUL FACT. Sin drives away the blessed consciousness of the Divine presence, though God is never really absent from any part of his dominions. But when God’s people are reconciled to him he draws near to them in inward communion.

1. A real presence. This is not the name of a truth unrealized. God is now present with his people. He does not govern his city by deputy; he himself dwells there.

2. A permanent presence. “The Lord is there.” This describes what is continuous. God is ever with his people.

3. A wide presence. He fills the city; all the citizens may enjoy his fellowship.

II. THE NAME DENOTES A HAPPY CONDITION. God is present for high and glorious purposes.

1. To protect. God is the Commander of the garrison, and he has innumerable heavenly armies whom he can summon to the relief of his hard-pressed people as occasion may require. If he is in our midst, we shall never be moved (Psa 46:5).

2. To govern. God is the Sovereign. If he comes, it must be to rule over us. The order and life of the Church depend on the Divine Spirit that dwells in the midst of her. But if God is thus present, he must be obeyed. Disobedience is sedition.

3. To bless. The very presence of God is sunshine to the soul. His communion with his people brings life and blessedness.

III. THE NAME COMMEMORATES A GREAT EVENT. “From that day.” This phrase indicates a definite period. There were ages when it could not be used; there is a particular time after which it can be used, viz. the time of the restoration of Israel, and the rebuilding of the once ruined and desolate city. The glorious name takes its rise from this glorious event.

1. After repentance. Sin caused God to withdraw from the city. He returns to meet his penitent people, he dwells in the contrite spirit.

2. Through redemption. God calls his people back to their land after he has redeemed them from the power of their enemies. Christ’s redemption opens the path for a return to God. Heour great Redeemeris the Way to God.

3. In restoration. The people come back to their home and rebuild their city; then God manifests himself in the midst of them. God dwells in his Church from the time of Christ’s great restoring work; he dwells in each soul as soon as it is restored to him. The thought of his presence commemorates our redemption.

IV. THE NAME PROCLAIMS AN IMPORTANT TRUTH. Not only is it stated that God will be with his people, but this truth is to be constantly set forth by standing in the very name of the city.

1. As a grateful acknowledgment. If God is with us, we ought not to be ashamed of so wonderful a fact, nor should we ungratefully ignore it. Let this be in the forefront of our banner, let it be the inspiration of our song!

2. As a necessary reminder. There is a danger lest God’s people should forget his presence

(1) in doubt and distrust, or

(2) in worldliness and self-sufficiency.

3. As an inviting gospel. Dwellers in other parts would learn the new, high name of the holy city, and so be led to seek the privileges of citizenship. A confession of Christian truth and a description of the blessings of the faith help to draw others to Christ and his grace.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON

Eze 48:11

Fidelity.

It was highly creditable to these sons of Zadok that, when the children of Israel generally and the Levites in particular went astray, they resisted the influence of a very general example, and remained faithful to the worship and service of Jehovah. “Faithful among the faithless,” they were recognized and remembered by God himself, and their fidelity was rewarded in the apportionment of the territory among, the people. It is a virtue which every Christian should aim at possessing and exercising.

I. FIDELITY IS IN CONTRAST TO GENERAL UNFAITHFULNESS. Doubtless there was a period in the history of Israel when apostasy was remarkably general. But such is the weakness and vacillation, the inconstancy and mutability, of human nature, that fidelity is in every age and in every state of society a noticeable virtue. When multitudes turn from God and abandon themselves to error or superstition, to infidelity and irreligion, they are conspicuous and commendable who cleave unto the Lord with purpose of heart.

II. FIDELITY IS DISPLAYED IN THE RESISTANCE OF TEMPTATION. Two considerations account for unfaithfulnessthe inducement of interest, indolence, worldliness, etc.; and the weakness of the moral nature, the frailty of resolution. To brave unpopularity, to dare to be singular, to turn a deaf ear to the instigations of the lower parts of the nature, to follow the guidance of deliberate convictions,such is the way of honor and of piety. Life is a scene of discipline; none can escape the probation; the faithful endure it and profit by it.

III. FIDELITY CONSISTS IN KEEPING THE LORD‘S CHARGE. We are all trustees to whom the great Ruler and Judge of all has confided a charge. It may be a deposit of truth, it may be a certain service to be rendered; but whatever it be, it is required in us as stewards that we be found faithful. There are those who boast of their fidelity so their fellow-men, who have, however, no just and practical sense of the duty of faithfulness to God himself. But of all our responsibilities the most sacred is that to him in whom we live and move and have our being, who has assigned to us our work and vocation on earth, and who will require of every one of us a strict account.

IV. FIDELITY IS A VIRTUE THE MANIFEST EXHIBITION OF WHICH MUST NEEDS INFLUENCE THE COMMUNITY FOR HIGHEST GOOD. The faithful are the salt of human society; they are a rebuke to the vacillating, and an encouragement and inspiration especially to the younger members of society whose aim it is to serve their generation according to the will of God. In Jewish history are to be found not a few illustrations of the beneficial effects of examples of faithfulness to God and to the mission and the witness appointed by God.

V. FIDELITY IS APPRECIATED AND REWARDED BY GOD HIMSELF. The text furnishes us with an instance of the Divine satisfaction with those who do not shrink from fulfilling the charge Committed to them. And our Lord Jesus Christ has assured us that those who are faithful in a few things shall he made rulers over many things. The prospect of Divine approval may well sustain the servants of God when they have to endure tribulation, persecution, and desertion because of their steadfastness and integrity in the discharge of sacred duty; all this God is “not unrighteous to forget.”T.

Eze 48:19

The service of the city.

Jerusalem was the metropolis of the Jewish state and of the Jewish Church. Accordingly, it was regarded as the charge of the whole nation. All Israelites had an interest in its peace and prosperity, and all recognized the honorable obligation of providing for its welfare. In his ideal reconstitution of the nation Ezekiel provided that the city lands should be cultivated, and the city service should be fulfilled by Israelites selected from all tribes, who also should serve as a militia for its defense. The principle is a Divine principle which applies to the Church of Christ, the true and spiritual Jerusalem.

I. A UNIVERSAL SERVICE. As all the tribes of Israel joined in serving their country’s metropolis, so in the Church of the Divine Redeemer no one is exempt from contribution to the common good. No one is so feeble or so obscure that his aid may be dispensed with. Every age and every land in which Christianity is professed furnishes a contingent to swell the army of the Lord.

II. A VOLUNTARY SERVICE. No other is acceptable to the Lord, who desires the heart, and who will accept no mechanical, unwilling labor. Cordiality is essential, even though power be slight and opportunity be limited. The professional and official element must always be regarded with anxiety and watchfulness, for the motive must be pure or else the work is marred.

III. A VARIED SERVICE. Each has his own special gift, and none should be undervalued, far less despised. Young and old, learned and lay, those in public and those in private life, all have their work to do, their part to fulfill. None can be spared. The Church is built upon its Divine Foundation through the labors of many minds, many voices, many hands. The one Master finds work for all.

“He has his young men at the war,
His little ones at home.”

IV. A DIGNIFIED AND HONORABLE SERVICE. To do anything at the bidding of such a Master, and for the progress of such a cause, may welt be esteemed a privilege. Our Lord himself, by his incarnation, ministry, and sacrifice, has done more than could have been done in any other way to teach us the true dignity of service. If it be an honor to serve a great nation, a powerful king, how much higher is the honor of serving the Lord Jesus and those for whom he died!

V. A SERVICE WHICH IS LIBERALLY RECOMPENSED. Our Lord himself saw of the travail of his soul, and was satisfied. And when the promise is given to his faithful servants and followers, that they shall enter into the joy of their Lord, this is equivalent to an assurance that, sharing his toil, they shall also share his recompense. The safety and the growth, the prosperity and the glory, of the city is an abundant reward to the citizen who works with diligence and self-denial for its good. And the Christian has no greater joy than to witness the increase and the fame of the heavenly Jerusalem, and no brighter hope than to share his Master’s throne.T.

Eze 48:35

The Lord is there.

A sublime close to a glorious book of prophecy. Ezekiel has had occasion to witness against Jerusalem, to upbraid the inhabitants of the city for their unfaithfulness to their God and to their privileges, to threaten chastisement and desolation, and to lament because his prediction has been fulfilled. But as he turns his vision away from the actual to the ideal, from the past to the future, from the Jerusalem that now is to the Jerusalem which is from above which is the mother of us all, from the Jewish state to the Church of God which that state foreshadowed, his mind is elevated with a sacred rapture, he beholds his brightest hopes fulfilled, God in very deed dwells with man”the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.”

I. TO DISPLAY HIS FAITHFULNESS TO THE CITY. The purposes and promises of God to man stand written indelibly upon the sacred page. Not one word that he has spoken shall fail; all shall be fulfilled. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” “The mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, but my faithfulness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee.”

II. TO RULE AND GOVERN THE CITY. Not with the harshness of a despotic tyrant, but with the wisdom and justice of a beneficent Sovereign, does Jehovah bear sway over his redeemed and happy Church. He represses all rebellion and disorder, he promulgates ordinances, he inspires a cheerful obedience, he maintains that order which is the expression of loyalty and contentment.

III. TO PROTECT THE CITY. The Lord has taken his Zion under his own guardian care. The foes of the city may be mighty, but her Friend and Protector is mightier still. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.” Fear cannot be, for danger cannot come where he is. He casts the shield of his almighty protection around his beloved. The walls of the city are salvation. The citizens may dwell in everlasting peace. No weapon that is formed against Zion shall prosper.

IV. TO DIGNIFY AND HONOR THE CITY. The presence and the throne of the Eternal Majesty shed a luster over the sacred metropolis. The seat of his government is by that very fact invested with an incomparable splendor and renown. The kings of the earth bring their honor into it. Every citizen shares in the dignity conferred by the throne of the great King.

V. TO ABIDE FOR EVER IN THE CITY. “The Lord is there.” The unfaithfulness and defection of the Israelites were such that the glory of the God of Israel removed by the east gate from the temple and the city of Jerusalem. But the prophet beholds him return to his chosen dwelling-place. And as Jehovah takes up his abode in his Church, he utters the assurance, “I will never leave thee!”T.

HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES

Eze 48:8-14

Religion the nucleus of human life.

The spiritual training of men has been uppermost in God’s mind. As a wise father trains his child, so God has been training us. From God earthly fathers have instinctively learnt their methods. With unparalleled patience God has been encouraging men to take the first step heavenward, then the next, and the next. The progress has been slow, often imperceptible; yet it has been continuous. Earth has been, and still will be, a great school-house, a religious university, and God’s lesson-books are numberless. The outline of God’s plan was sketched in Judaea, and the Hebrews (dull scholars as they were) have become teachers to the world.

I. RELIGION FILLS A CENTRAL PLACE IN A RENOVATED WORLD. “The sanctuary of the Lord shall be in the midst thereof.” As the light of truth permeates men’s minds, they will discover the supreme excellence of piety. Whatever will aid in the unfolding of their spiritual nature, whatever will promote increasing likeness to God, shall be most appreciated. Temporary good will sink into its proper place; will be appraised at its proper value. The outlook upon human destiny will be taken from a loftier elevation. Present possessions and enjoyments will be deemed, not final, but stepping-stones to higher things. And, from her central throne, Religion will radiate a benign influence over every interest men have in life. What the sun is to the solar system, or what the axle is to the wheel, or what the heart is to the human body, true religion will be among the concernments of our race.

II. RELIGION PROVIDES A GRADUATED SCALE OF EXCELLENCE. It produces states of purity, circle within circle. Central amongst the civilized nations lay the Hebrew peoplea “holy nationa peculiar people.” Among the Hebrew tribes was one tribe set apart and hallowed for God. Within this tribe was selected a consecrated family, and within this family a consecrated man. So also within Jerusalem, the holy city, there was a central portion holier still; within this enclosure a court sacred to the priests, and within this holy place the holy of holies. Thus God leads us step by step from a lower to a loftier life, from one stage of holiness unto another. We aspire and make endeavor after a nobler style of life; and lo! when we have attained it (as in ascending the Alpine mountains) we discover heights of excellence still above us, more attractive yet. Kindlier methods than those God uses on our behalf it is impossible to employ, and his benevolent ambition is to raise us to his own level of life and joy.

III. RELIGION PROMOTES UNITY AMID DIVERSITY. “The sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.” In other words, the several tribes of Israel were allotted their territory (in Ezekiel’s ideal sketch) in relation to the holy place. Their vital connection with the sanctuary determined their connection with each other. The distinction between the tribes was not obliterated; it served some useful purpose; but this common relation to the sanctuary bound them each to each. If they had any separate interests as tribes, they had larger and more precious interests as a nation. The more they valued the sanctuary the stronger was the attachment to each other. The nearer they got to God the less distance there was between each other. Among the citizens in Christ’s kingdom diversities in minor things will continue. Diversity adds to beauty and to usefulness. Diversity of function and office, diversity in opinion and in taste, is lawful; yet amid all lawful diversity there runs a bonda vital tieof true unity. The members of the body are various, yet the body is one. In all God’s works the same principle prevails.

IV. RELIGION BRINGS GOD EQUALLY NEAR TO ALL. As a fact in Jewish history, the tribe of Dan, being furthest removed from God’s sanctuary, became more worldly, idolatrous, and godless than the other tribes. In the new settlement of things, in Ezekiel’s vision, Dan shall have equal privilege with the rest. Type and parable wilt always lack some elements, which inhere in the substance. In the new kingdom God shall be within easy reach of all. Spiritual monopolies shall cease. Exclusive privilege has vanished. The devout heart in every tribe of men, or in any class of society, may find God always near. Distance from God is no longer geographical; it is moral. The slave and the pauper may have access to the great presence-chamber; the monarch, Jew or Gentile, may be barred out by their own unbelief. “With that man will I dwell, who is of an humble and a contrite heart.”

V. RELIGION HAS AMPLE REWARD FOR FAITHFUL SERVICE. The sons of Zadok had remained faithful in a time of general apostasy. Divine approval may not have been openly or profusely expressed at the time. Yet generous reward was in store. Permanent honor and permanent advantage appear as the prolific fruit. They shall dwell nearer to God than others do. The entire nation shall serve them. Their deed shall reflect honor upon their father’s name. The glory of their deed shall be perpetual, shall be world-wide. Their noble deed shall be the seed-corn for other deeds, and these again shall bear fruit in other lands. “The memory of the righteous is blessed.”

VI. RELIGION IS SUPREMELY VALUABLE. Concerning this consecrated land it was decreed, “They shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land.” Nothing can compensate for the loss of religion. It is solid consolation that true piety is inalienable. No power on earth or in hell can rob us of our faith, or of our purity, or cf our hope. It has the guarantee of almighty protection. You can no more alienate religion from a saint than you can alienate warmth from a sunbeam or saltness from the sea. All that a man hath will he give for his life; but the life of his spirit he accounts a thousandfold more precious yet. God’s friendship is treasure which no arithmetic can express. All comparisons fail.D.

Eze 48:35

The apex of glory.

“The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.” The final words of the prophet are golden, and deserve to be written in largest capitals. The architecture of the holy city is ideally complete; its finial shines out with immortal luster. The city is baptized with a new name. Instead of “Jerusalem,” it shall be “Jehovah-Shammah.” Names are often labels which falsify the reality. A worthless mine may be named “El Dorado.” A rotten ship may still bear the name Impregnable. But this name shall express the distinctive feature of the renovated city. Its glory shall not appear in chiseled marble and in burnished gold. In the new kingdom Christ shall set up, all the materials shall be spiritual, therefore impervious to decay. The charm and enchantment of the place will be this

“The Lord is there.”

It shall be nothing less than heaven in miniature. This illustrious name betokens

I. SECURITY. Real security is never a visible quantity. It does not consist of granite walls and bastions, nor yet of approved artillery. The walls of Jericho were a poor defense. Jerusalem was better shielded by an unseen angel against the legions of Sennacherib, than by all its towers and citadels and gates. The host of Israel, when invading Canaan, was invincible because the Lord was among them. The presence of God is no mere fancy; ’tis a substantial reality. And if he be among us he brings with him all the qualities of Omnipotence. He who reared the Alps by a word, cannot he defend us? He who created with a breath this solid globe, cannot he protect? He is to us better than all “munitions of rocks.” If he dwell in our midst, well may we triumphantly shout, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.”

II. EMINENT RENOWN. A city is deemed garnished with honor if it be the residence of a king. To have the presence of a monarch in their midst, to enjoy ever and anon his smile, is a privilege which all citizens prize. But how superior the renown of a city in which the King of heaven specially dwells! That he should stoop to sojourn among feeble mortals is an act of condescension peculiarly God-like. Compassion to the fallen is his delight, and he is satisfied if he can bestir in us holy ambitions. But what an honor! It is a difficult task to make it real to ourselves. His presence is the essential charm of heaven. He is its Light and its Life. Yet he deigns to dwell in an earthly empire I Will he not be equally the Life and Glory of the place? Will not this city acquire an eminence that shall cast into the shade all other renown? What other honor can we desire than this? Can ambition any higher climb? Is not this a climax of honor”God with us”? Such a city becomes the metropolis of the world.

III. INTERNAL ORDER. If our King dwell in our midst, and if he be endowed with qualities of supreme wisdom and supreme righteousness, then the order of the city will be complete. Oppression of every sort and kind will be unknown. Upon every act of violence he will frown, and his frown will suffice. The inhabitants will instinctively study his comfort. The least danger of losing his presence will make them loyal. They will feel intolerable shame at any act that would distress his mind. His laws and regulations they know to be righteous through and through. His administration of rule is kindly and gentle. It is a joy to please him. Resistance can find no corner wherein to lurk, for “his eyes are in every place.” To meet his gracious commands is not enough; they anticipate his every wish. For such a one service is a very banquet. At his feet they place heart and will.

IV. PROSPERITY. The presence of God among us brings real prosperity. From him, the eternal Fount of good, all substantial blessing flows. A hollow, transient prosperity may now and again be possessed without him; but it soon collapses,it is only penalty disguised. The foes of God have at times had a flash of apparent success. But again men looked; it had vanished; the possessors were hurled into destruction; into smoke had they faded away. As the rising, of the sun brings to us radiant day, so the smile of God alone gives success to agriculture, to commerce, to art, to legislation, and to literature. If God dwelt among us, every interest in human life prospers. Industry reaps a full reward. Contentment reigns in every home. The very deserts bud and blossom like the rose.

V. HIGH COMMUNION ALSO IS ENJOYED. Our King does not clothe himself in silent, proud reserve. The very opposite; he is free of speech, affable, familiar. All the stores of knowledge he has he is ready to communicate. It is his purpose to make us wise, righteous, beneficent, pure. He dwells among us that we may commune with him and learn of him. We have known and felt the rich gains to character and to spiritual progress we have made by an hour or two of converse with the great and good among men. We were lifted up to a higher plane of life. But what language can express the gain of purity and spiritual excellence we obtain from converse with God? It is at times a glad experience; but earth is too poor in speech to tabulate the gain. And it is a gain that abides. A stupendous change passed over the eleven apostles through their familiar intercourse with Jesus, and we have often envied them the high advantage. Yet we are not excluded. We are invited to closer friendship, to more intimate converse with God. Fools we are that we do not use the privilege. By communion with God we become like God.

VI. EXQUISITE JOY. As superior joy pervades like a sunny atmosphere the scenes of heaven, so an installment of the came joy fills the city on earth where God dwells. Joy springs out of the harmony between our souls and our surroundings. The highest joy is reached when our souls have perfect friendship with our Maker. Oat of this intimate relationship with God comes friendly relationship with all holy beings. Now “all things work together for our good.” Sorrow is but a preparative for a higher joy. The darkest cloud breaks into showers of blessing. Sorrow is ephemeral; joy is permanent. There are qualities in joy as well as varying measures. This joy is superlativethe cream of all joy. ‘Tis the selfsame joy that dwells in Jehovah’s heart. My peace,” said Jesus, “I give unto. you.” All other forms of gladness fade into nothingness m the presence of such joy as this. It Is a well-spring of bliss which can never be exhausted, because God can never be exhausted. “In thy presence is fullness of Joy.” “Then shall I be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.”

“O blest the city, blest the land,
That yield them to this King’s command!
O blest the heart set free from sin,
To which he deigns to enter in!”

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Eze 48:1-20

Characteristics of the kingdom.

The kingdom of God, here symbolized “with such imperfect materials of thought and utterance as then lay within the prophet’s reach,” was to be one that has not yet been realized; but with the overthrow of many superstitions, the breaking down of much corruption, and the birth and growth (or the revival) of much Christian zeal, it may be said that this fair vision is being fulfilledthat the kingdom of Christ is coming, though it is far from having come. Among its characteristics, as it shall one day be, are

I. GLORIOUS MAGNITUDE OF DIMENSION. (Eze 48:10. See homily on Eze 42:15-20.)

II. IT‘S A MIXTURE OF GRACE AND OF REWARD. The distribution of the land seems to have been without much (if any) regard to the meritoriousness of the tribes. Dan, which for its admission of idolatrous dements might have been last placed, comes first of all (Eze 48:1); on the other hand, marked preference is shown to “the priests of the sons of Zadok, which have kept my charge, which went not astray,” etc. (Eze 48:11). In the kingdom of Christ there is this same righteous and beneficent admixture.

1. It is of God’s grace that all sinful souls are taken back into his favor, and are partakers of eternal life (Eph 2:5; Rom 6:23).

2. A large reward is offered to steadfastness and fidelity (Luk 22:28; Mat 25:21; Rom 2:7; Rev 2:10).

III. COMMUNION AND CO–OPERATION.

1. The several tribes were so placed that they were as near to one another as could be; they were to be located side by side. And there was to be no barrier of sea or mountain wall, or even deep river between them; there was to be no hindrance to full communion (see Eze 48:1-8).

2. They were to unite in a common service. All the tribes were to take part in the service required for the city (Eze 48:19). When in the future the kingdom of God shall be what its Lord would have it, there shall be no separating walls keeping Churches and communities apart; there will be nothing standing in the way of fullest and happiest communion; differences of opinion or of organization will not be sources of division and separation; and while fellowship will be uninterrupted, co-operation for common ends will be common and complete,all will serve together.

IV. BEAUTY. The aspect presented by this vision is one of symmetry; the sanctuary of the Lord in the midst of it (Eze 48:10); the sacred city around the sanctuary; and the twelve tribes around the city. Here is the beauty of a symmetrical arrangement. The beauty of the Church will not, indeed, be of this visible, material order. That is quite out of the question. It must necessarily be moral, spiritual, if at all. And that it will be.

1. It will be fair with devotionconstant, systematic, and (withal) spontaneous devotion (see next homily).

2. It will be adorned with an admirable consistency of behavior, shunning the evil and pursuing the good which its Divine Master has either condemned or commended.

3. It will be beautiful with the spirit of a true catholicity, its members having a cordial regard and affection for one another, however they may differ in views and tastes.

4. It will be arrayed in the “beautiful garments” of sympathy and helpfulness.C.

Eze 48:31-34

God the Accessible One.

Admitting to the sacred city, in the midst of which, was ” the sanctuary of the Lord” (Eze 48:10), were twelve gates, three on each side of it, and bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Surely the significance of this arrangement was that the Divine Sovereign was always accessible to all his people; that he desired to be approached by them all in order that they might have fellowship with him, and that he might confer blessing upon them. In that kingdom, of which the vision is prophetic, the Divine Lord is accessible to all; and it is not only true that he may be approached by all who will seek him, but that it is his express, his strong desire that all his children should freely draw near to him and hold converse with him. God, as revealed and related to us in Jesus Christ, is accessible

I. AT ALL TIMES. The gates into the kingdom, or into the near presence of God, shall “in no wise be shut,” either day or night. There may be days and hours when we may be offered unusual facilities for coming before God, but there is no day and there is no hour when we may not draw nigh unto him, when he is not willing and even desirous that we should pour our prayers or our praises into his ear.

II. FROM ALL DIRECTIONS. These gates looked in all directionsnorth, south, east, and west. From all the four quarters of the land the children of Israel were to draw near to the sacred city and to the more sacred sanctuary of the Lord. From all possible directions are we now to approach God.

1. All geographical directions. There is no sort of favoritism anywhere. As well be born in any one place under heaven as in any other. There is no Jerusalem, no Gerizim, no Mecca, no Benares, no Rome, in the kingdom of Christ.

“Where’er we seek thee, thou art found,
And every place is hallowed ground.”

2. All moral directions. We may approach God from a great variety of spiritual standpoints.

(1) From that of the burdened sinner seeking forgiveness and release.

(2) From that of the son who has been painfully conscious of a long estrangement or a growing coldness, and who is anxious for full reconciliation and for close and happy, perhaps renewed, intercourse with his Father.

(3) From that of a rejoicing spirit longing to bring his gladness in holy and happy gratitude to the altar of the Lord.

(4) From that of the troubled and sorrowful soul seeking comfort of him who “raiseth up them that are bowed down.”

(5) From that of the seeker after righteousness, who is longing for more complete deliverance from evil and greater likeness to his Divine Leader, asking for the cleansing and renewing influences of the Spirit of God.

(6) From that of the earnest worker in the vineyard, pleading for the effectuating power which alone will make his efforts to be crowned with a true success. But from whatsoever direction a man draws near to God he will find an open gate, a welcome, a response. But there is now one Name only that is inscribed. All entrance is

III. THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. He is “the Door,” and “no man cometh unto the Father but by him.” By him both Jew and Gentile “have access unto the Father” (Joh 10:7; Joh 14:6; Eph 2:18). Jesus Christ is our Mediator (1Ti 2:5); he is the one Propitiation for our sins, having offered the one sacrifice for sins forever (1Jn 2:2; Heb 9:26; Heb 10:12). It is through him we come, and it is his Name we plead (Joh 16:23). He is the open Door, and whether we approach as sinners seeking reconciliation, or as children or friends seeking communion and blessing, we have constant admission to the ever-accessible Father of our spirits.C.

Eze 48:35

The presence of Christ in his Church.

Far more valuable to the Church of Jesus Christ is that Divine presence here promised than was the sacred Shechinah to the ancient people. The latter was only a mere symbol, once a year beheld by one man; but the former is a gracious power, to be appreciated and felt by every true Christian heart. “God is in the midst of her; The Lord is there,” or (as Fairbairn would translate it) “The Lord is thither or thereupon;” the Lord from his temple looks towards (or upon) the city, and through the city to the whole land. It is the presence of its Divine Lord in the midst of the Church that is here indicated, and it may well be the concluding, as it is the crowning, thought which gives completeness to the prophet’s vision.

I. HIS OBSERVANT PRESENCE. Jesus Christ is “with us always” (Mat 28:20); not in the body, but in the spirit; and his spiritual presence means his observation of us, his perfect knowledge of us all, his observation of our inner life and of our outward conduct, in the homes in which we live and in the different spheres in which we move, as well as when we are gathered together in his house or around his table. The near presence of our Lord is a thought which should preserve us from folly and from sin, which should urge us to duty and to kindness, which should sustain us in trouble and in loss.

II. HIS SYMPATHETIC PRESENCE. ‘We have need of his presence at all times, but we realize our need more especially and more profoundly in the time of our affliction. It is then we want a Divine Friend and an all-powerful Deliverer. Man fails us then; he may be something or even much to us, but he leaves much to be desired. And to feel that “the Lord is there,” in the trials of the household, in the anxieties of daily duty, in the pressing problems and sacred struggles of the Church, is much to the mind of the devout. In Jesus Christ we have a present, sympathizing Friend, who enters into our sorrows, who goes down with us into the deepest waters through which we have to pass.

III. HIS ACTIVE PRESENCE. Our Lord is with us, not only observing us and feeling for us, but also acting graciously upon us and through us.

1. Illuminating our minds by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit.

2. Sustaining our spiritual life by Divine communications of power (see Eph 1:19).

3. Responding to our devotion, accepting our praise and our adoration, hearing and answering our prayers.

4. Energizing and. effectuating our work, enabling us to speak for him, and making our words to be “mighty to pull down” and to build up. The near presence of Christ should be the most powerful incentive to the pursuit of spiritual worth and to the execution of Christian enterprise.

PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS.
1. Do not indulge in a vain regret. It would have been very pleasant to “see the Lord” as his apostles saw him, to look into his face, to hear his voice; and very honorable it would have been to minister to his necessities as they were permitted to do; but we can be, in fact and in truth, as near to him now as they were then; and still we listen to his word, and still we serve him most acceptably for inasmuch as we show kindness or render help to “one of these little ones of his,” we do the same thing “unto him'”

2. Do not cherish an unfounded hope. Many are the souls that lived long and died disappointed, expecting to have a present visible Savior amongst them. We need not add to their number; the words of promise find another fulfillment than this.

3. Realize the valuable truth, the invaluable truth, that our Lord. is with us now, loving us, caring for us, strengthening and Comforting us, governing and using us, blessing us with all priceless blessings.

4.

Make the present heritage a foretaste of the future. Live in such happy and holy Consciousness of the presence of the Lord that it will only be a change of scene and sphere, not of spiritual condition, when we are citizens of that country where “God himself shall be with them,” where “he who sits on the throne shall dwell among them,” of that city which may well be called “Jehovah-Shammah,” for “the Lord is there.”C.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

CHAP. 48

1And these are the names of the tribes: from the north end by the way of [toward] Hethlon, as one cometh to Hamath, Hazar-Enon, the border of Damascus northward to the border of Hamath, and they are to him the east2 side, the sea: Dan one. And on the border of Dan, from the east side to 3 the westward side: Asher one. And on the border of Asher, from the eastward 4 side to the westward side: Naphtali one. And on the border of Naphtali, from the eastward side to the westward side: Manasseh one.5 And on the border of Manasseh, from the eastward side to the westward 6 side: Ephraim one. And on the border of Ephraim, from the east side, and 7 to the westward side: Reuben one. And on the border of Reuben, from the 8 east side to the westward side: Judah one. And on the border of Judah, from the east side to the westward side, shall be the oblation which ye shall offer, five and twenty thousand in breadth, and the length as one of the tribe-portions from the eastward side to the westward side; and the sanctuary Isaiah 9 in the midst of it. The oblation which ye shall offer to Jehovah is in length 10 five and twenty thousand, and in breadth ten thousand. And to these, to the priests, shall the oblation of holiness be; northward five and twenty thousand, and seaward in breadth ten thousand, and southward in length five and twenty thousand; and the sanctuary of Jehovah is in the midst of it. 11 To the priests is the hallowed portion, [to those descending] from the sons of Zadok, who kept My charge, who went not astray when the sons of Israel 12 went astray, as the Levites went astray. And there is to them a heave-portion from the oblation of the land most holy, by the border [border district] of 13 the Levites. And the Levites [receive], over against the border of the priests, five and twenty thousand in length, and in breadth ten thousand; the whole length five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand. 14And they shall not sell of it, nor exchange, nor shall the first-fruits of the land pass 15 over [into another hand]; for [it is] holiness to Jehovah. And five thousand that are left in breadth before the five and twenty thousand that is profane, for 16 the city, for dwelling, and for open space; and the city is in its midst. And these are its measures: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the westward side four thousand and five 17 hundred. And there is an open space for the city, northward two hundred and fifty, and southward two hundred and fifty, and eastward two hundred and fifty, and westward two hundred and fifty. 18And the residue in length, over against the oblation of holiness, ten thousand eastward and ten thousand westward; and it is over against the oblation of holiness, and the produce 19 thereof is for food for the labourers of the city. And as to the labourers of 20 the city, they shall labour it out of all the tribes of Israel. The whole oblation is five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: a fourth-part shall ye offer the oblation of holiness, for a possession of the city. 21And the residue [belongs] to the prince, on this side and on that of the oblation of holiness, and of the possession of the city, before the five and twenty thousand of the oblation unto the border eastward, and westward before the five and twenty thousand toward the westward border, over against the tribe-portions, [it belongs] to the prince; and the oblation of holiness and the sanctuary of the 22 house are in its midst. And [namely] from the possession of the Levites, from the possession of the city [from that] in the midst, shall be the princes, between the border of Judah and between the border of Benjaminthe princes it 23 shall be. And the rest of the tribes: from the eastward side to the westward 24 side: Benjamin one. And on the border of Benjamin, from the eastward 25 side to the westward side: Simeon one. And on the border of Simeon, from 26 the eastward side to the westward side: Issachar one. And on the border 27 of Issachar, from the eastward side to the westward side: Zebulon one. And on the border of Zebulon, from the eastward side to the westward side: Gad 28 one. And on the border of Gad, toward the south side, to the right is the border: from Tamar to the strife-waters of Kadesh is the inheritance [along the brook] to the great sea. 29This is the land which ye shall divide of the inheritance to the tribes of Israel, and these are their portions: sentence of the Lord Jehovah. 30And these are the out-goings of the city: on the north side, four thousand and five hundred by measure. 31And the gates of the city after the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates northward; the gate of 32 Reuben one, the gate of Judah one, the gate of Levi one. And on the eastward side four thousand and five hundred: and three gates; the gate of 33 Joseph one, the gate of Benjamin one, the gate of Dan one. And as to the southward side, four thousand and five hundred by measure: and three gates; the gate of Simeon one, the gate of Issachar one, the gate of Zebulon one. 34 As to the westward side, four thousand and five hundred: its gates three; 35 the gate of Gad one, the gate of Asher one, the gate of Naphtali one. Round about eighteen thousand: and the name of the city from that day: Jehovah thither (Jehovah Shammah).

Eze 48:1. Sept.: . . . . , . . . . Vulg.: juxta viam pergentibus Emath atrium Enan

Eze 48:8. Vulg.: primiti, quas separabitis

Vet. 9.

Eze 48:10. . . . . . . . Vulg.: H autem erunt primiti sanctuarii sacerdotum

Eze 48:11. Vulg.: Sacerdotibus sanctuarium erit de filiis (Another reading: , Sept. Arabs.)

Eze 48:12. . . (Another reading: ; pro .)

Eze 48:14. , .

Eze 48:15.

Eze 48:17. Another reading: instead of , and instead of .

Eze 48:18. . . , . . . . . Vulg.: erunt sicut primiti sanctuarii fruges in panes his qui serviunt civitati.

Eze 48:20. Sept.: . . . . . Vulg.: Omnes primiti in quadrum, separabuntur in primitias sanctuarii et in possessionem civitatis.

Eze 48:21. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . , . . (Another reading: instead of .)

Eze 48:22. . . . .

Eze 48:28. . , . . , , (Another reading: pro ; ; .)

Eze 48:29. Another reading: .

Eze 48:34. Another reading: .

Eze 48:35. . . . . . . , , . .

EXEGETICAL REMARKS

Eze 48:1-29.The Division of the Land among the Tribes, with the Separation of the Part to be separated.

Eze 48:1-7.The Seven Upper Tribe-portions.

The division of the land, like the fixing of the boundaries (Eze 47:15 sq.), begins in the north, inclining thence to the south. Hitzig denies the significance of the number seven here: As the section itself regarding the Terumah is put in the middle, so his object is to move the central sanctuary, which must lie between Judah and Benjamin, but historically lay far nearer the south border than the north, as near indeed as possible to the centre, yet also toward the south. Hengst., on the contrary, argues from the division of the number twelve into seven and five,a division which often occurs also in the grouping of the Psalms, where the sacred number seven is always the chief number, and five appears only as its supplement. Even upon the land, says Hv., is the character of pleasing to God to be stamped throughout.

[The territory to be divided being thus obviously viewed in an ideal light, the division itself is conducted in the same manner,not as it ever could have taken place in the reality, but after rule and measure, in exact and regular portions, running alongside of each other the whole breadth from west to east, and standing in a common relation to the temple in the centre. Seven of the tribes have their portions on the north, on account of the greater stretch of the land in that direction with respect to the actual Jerusalem, and in the following order:Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, Judah; the latter having its place close by the central portion on the north, as Benjamin had on its south. This honour appears to have been given to these two tribes in consideration of their relative historical superiority, having so long adhered to the temple and ordinances of God, when the others deserted them. Dan, on the contrary, was placed at the extreme north, on account of the low religious character of the tribe, precisely as John, in representing the whole elect Church by twelve thousand from the several tribes of Israel, leaves Dan out altogether (Revelation 7). As there were actually thirteen tribes, he finds his twelve times twelve by omitting Dan, whose idolatrous and semi-heathen character made it border morally, as it did locally, on the Gentiles. Here the two tribes of Joseph are thrown into one, to admit of Dans having a place, but it is still the lowest place in the ideal territory of a blessed world. With these exceptions, we can discern no specific grounds for the particular places assigned to the tribes respectively. The order on the south side was, Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulon, Gad. But the. city, the temple, the prince, and priesthood, with their respective portions, being situated precisely in the middle, and not within the boundaries of any of the tribes, was intended to intimate that all were now to be regarded as having a common interest in them; and that the miserable and mischievous jealousies which had of old exercised so disastrous an influence, especially between Judah and Ephraim, should finally and for ever cease. All now should stand related as a united and compact brotherhood to the sanctuary of the Lord, from which, as a central fountainhead of life and blessing, there should continually stream forth manifestations of grace to all the people.Fairbairns Ezekiel, pp. 498, 499.W. F.]

Eze 48:1. The starting-point: the north end, Eze 47:15.The course goes from west to east; hence Hethlon and Hamath, and Hazar-Enon as the eastmost point. Hengst.: from Hazar, etc., to the border, etc., so that the northmost point is Hamath, Eze 47:17.The words: and they are (pertain) to him, refer to the tribe immediately named, Dan. , Keil: asyndeton = the east side and the west, the tract toward both sides. Hitzig: the east side of the sea, that is, what lies east from the sea, namely, from the north end of this east side, from Hazar-Enon. Hengst.: the east side, the west sea. But he takes him as the ideal unity of the tribes as a whole, although Dan (he says) was specially in the prophets mind. At the division of the land under Joshua, Dan had, west of Benjamin, taken possession of only a part of the lands breadth; but in the days of the Judges, Danites had pressed northward, and had named the conquered Laish Dan, so that Dan denoted the north border. Hengst. makes one of the prophets points of view to be to show the equality of all the tribes as members of equal rank in the body of the people of God. Thus in the case of the tribe allotments, and afterwards in the case of the gates, the sons of the handmaids and of the wives, and those of the latter again among one another, were intentionally and skilfully intermixed (Rev 7:5-8), and Dan the son of the handmaid stands at the head, because there is with God no respect of persons: Israel is a brotherly people, in which no member may raise itself above another. means: that Dan shall receive an inheritance, as Keil supplies , from Eze 47:13. Klief.: the single equal heritage for each tribe being considered as a monad. Similarly in what follows; and always, in distinction from the former order of things, taking in the whole breadth of Canaan, from the east side to the seaward side.

Eze 48:2. Asher.

Eze 48:3. Naphtali.

Eze 48:4. Manasseh.

Eze 48:5. Ephraim.

Eze 48:6. Reuben.

Eze 48:7. Judah, who is thus preceded by three pair of tribes, the list of the seven upper tribes closing with him, just as from him the whole people received even their name. Keil observes: Asher and Naphtali, who formerly occupied the most northern district, are ranged beside Dan; then follows Manasseh, since half-Manasseh formerly dwelt to the east of Naphtali; and Ephraim is ranged beside Manasseh, as formerly beside the western half-Manasseh. The reason for bringing in Reuben between Ephraim and Judah seems to be that Reuben was the firstborn of Jacobs sons.

Eze 48:8-22. The Special Portion cut off from the Land

Eze 48:8 places, moreover, the Terumah on the border of Judah. The normal condition of Israel is reached, according to which all the life of the whole land streams forth from its truly spiritual centre, and the unity of the whole community rests entirely upon the Lord Himself and His self-revelation in the midst of the people. In this way the fact also is explained that Judah dwells nearest the sanctuary, while Benjamin occupies a corresponding position on the south side of the temple. The reason of this is not so much the warlike character of these two tribes, as their attachment to the temple when the ten tribes revolted from it. Both tribes represent such a disposition, and the prophets higher spiritual point of view manifests itself in this division of the tribes, as differing essentially from the old division, inasmuch as this latter was determined principally by outward need and external relations (Hv.). According to Bunsen, Judah lay sufficiently near the centre in order, with Ephraim, to form the fulcrum of defence. The Terumah, which refers us back to Eze 45:1 sq., is employed, according to Hengst., sensu latiori, including also the portion of the prince; it rather appears, however, to be denominated a parte potiori, as it is expressly said: and the sanctuary is in the midst of it, although the five and twenty thousand in breadth will comprehend all, if the clause: and the length as one (any one) of the tribe portions from the eastward side to the westward (seaward) side, is to be understood in accordance with Eze 45:7. Then, however, Eze 48:9, the oblation, as it is distinctively called, which ye shall offer to Jehovah, will not, like that: which ye shall offer, in Eze 48:8, be the Terumah in the special sense. The sanctuary in Eze 48:8 forms the transition to this specializing.Thus also it cannot be misunderstood when in Eze 48:10 the oblation of holiness (comp. on Ezekiel 45) is adjudged to the priests, for the sanctuary lies in their portion.The clause: northward, etc., makes the upper boundary of this main division of the whole the same (25,000) in length, that is, from east to west, as the last-measured boundary southward. Westward and eastward, whereby the breadth is given, that is, in the direction from north to south, the measurement yields the same result in each case, 10,000. fixes in some measure more exactly the of Eze 48:8, whose suffix Keil makes refer ad sensum to , instead of to , At all events, there is not = therein (Hitzig).

The expression: in the midst, refers, however, neither to one of the tribe-portions nor to the oblation, but to the priests portion, which the oblation bounds off on all sides. In our verse the suffix refers more definitely to the oblation of holiness in its length and breadth, which are given as to the four sides.

Eze 48:11. Kliefoth renders , the hallowed portion, to the priests it shall belong. So also Rashi. Pual pass., as it is, can here denote nothing more suitably, especially as the suffix in the previous is thereby most easily explained. Most expositors, following the old translations, and influenced by Isa 13:3, render it in a plural sense; and similarly Kimchi takes it distributively: he who is hallowed of the sons of Zadok. The participle certainly lies inconveniently between and , but the plural in 2Ch 26:18 cannot decide in favour of the singular here, for the singular here would, as Hengst. grants, denote the hallowed part as distinct from the unconsecrated part,a restriction which can no longer be introduced in the case of the sons of Zadok (comp. Eze 44:15 sq.), after they have been repeatedly represented as the hallowed priestly personelle. What does this saying of Hengstenbergs mean: that they are sanctified by their fidelity, by which they made their election sure? It ought rather to be said that the part of the Terumah which is specially the Terumahthe oblation of holiness (as in Eze 48:10), or , as is said herebelongs to those who are the priests of the future, namely, to the priests who are taken from the sons of Zadok, who kept, etc. (referring to the sons of Zadok); comp. Eze 44:15. The denotes no selection or restriction among the sons of Zadok, but simply their descent, whence these priests are, with a reference back to what is contained on that subject in the previous chapters. [Keils objection in respect to tells, moreover, against such a view as this: to the priests it is consecrated,a view which indeed would correspond neither to the form of the text nor the facts of the case.] The mention of the going astray of the Levites, like whom the children of Israel went astray, shows, what hitherto is manifest throughout, namely, that the tribe of Levi, not the priestly family of Aaron, was intended; whereas Hengst., in order to have the necessary distinction and contrast, thinks of those who were as a punishment desecrated (?), degraded, and reduced to mere Levites. The meaning, on the contrary, is simply this: the sons of Zadok stood firm when the rest of Levi stumbled, and along with Levi, Israel. That some of the sons of Zadok also had gone astray, and in contrast to them the description here is given, is not the case.

Eze 48:12. , although no formal apodosis to Eze 48:11, most expressly confirms the view taken of Eze 48:11., as the following likewise shows, is less a part (Klief.) of the oblation, than an abstraction therefrom; hence in a spiritual respect somehow in relation to the oblation, what is most holy in relation to the sanctuary; Keil correctly: the offering from the oblation. But this Terumiah from the Terumah is designated most holy because it is this in relation to the part which belongs to the Levites. Observe how the old ordinances as regards places are converted into ordinances in reference to persons, and thereby Jehovahs relation comes out as a relation appearing in men. [Hengst.: the heave-portion which fell to the priests is designated most holy, because it has Gods sanctuary in the midst of it, and belongs to His most eminent ministers, in distinction from the part of the Levites, which has only the second degree of holiness, and from that of the city, which has only the third (?).] The closing definition: , not merely forms the transition to what follows, but also indicates that we have to imagine the priests portion as adjoining the south or the north side of the Levites portion.In Eze 48:13, accordingly, this latter is expressed, as it had to be expressed in respect of the Levites, namely: that they are to have their appointed portion close to the border of the priests (). Hengst.: In the description of the oblation, the prophet, for theological reasons, began with the middle portion, the priests part; it was then necessary to guard against the thought that the Levites part was separated by the city, or the city by the Levites part, from the sanctuary. The servants of the house, and likewise he inhabitants of the city, as constituting the holy assembly at the divine services, behoved to have the sanctuary as near as possible. Comp. for the determination of the circumference, Eze 45:5. As to the repeated closing clause: the whole length, it will lose its appearance of tautology if we assume with Kliefoth that it is meant to express briefly the two lengths (north and south) and the two breadths (east and west), instead of going through the cardinal points one by one, as in Eze 48:10.

Eze 48:14. Comp. Lev 25:34. It is regarded as the gift of first-fruits to Jehovah, to which the Lord has the sole right, and which thus may never come into the hands of another (Hv.). The ordinance applies naturally also to the priests, land, although it is expressly given only for the Levites part, because its holiness is less, so that the thought of its being saleable might more readily arise (Hengst.). (Qeri: ); the Kal is quite sufficient, there is no need of a Hiphil form.That which is acknowledged as first-fruits of the land is holy to Jehovah. Traffic is excluded where God is the landowner and the Levites only usufructuaries (Hengst.). This land is an offering; the heaving is one form for it, and the gift of first-fruits the other (Klief.).

As in Eze 45:6, so now in Eze 48:15, the possession of the city comes after the land of the priests and Levites. Kliefoth observes, referring to Eze 40:2 (?), that the prophet beheld the city to the south; hence it lay south of the priests portion and the sanctuary, and so the Levites portion lay north of that of the priests. Ezekiel, he goes on to say, setting out as he does from the middle of the Terumah, does not, as in the division of the land among the tribes, follow the direction from north to south, but takes first the more central priests portion (Eze 48:9-12); but the fact that he then (Eze 48:13-14) describes the Levites portion, lying north of it, and thereafter takes up the city-possession, lying south of the priests portion, has its ground in this, that the portion of the Levites is also holy, whereas the portion of the city is profane. It is still simpler to take as motive for the order observed, besides the reference to Ezekiel 45., the connection of priests and Levites with the central sanctuary. In this way the Levites necessarily preceded the city. The five thousand are left when we subtract twice ten thousand in breadth (Eze 48:9; Eze 48:13) from five and twenty thousand in breadth, that is, from north to south (Eze 48:8). is neuter, according to Hitzig; it is the particip. Niph. of , before the side in question, namely, from east to west; this gives a third oblong, which, however, is only half the breadth of the two former. is profane, in contrast to the former most holy and holy of the portion of the priests and Levites. Philippson: they are common land for the city, for dwellings, and for environs. These five thousand are set apart generally for the city (), and specially for dwellings and as precincts for free use, pasture, arable land, etc. As the city is the title for this portion of land, so the verse concludes by stating that the city is . Hengst. makes the feminine suffix refer to the city in the wider sense (), within which the city in the narrower sense lies. Kliefoth translates: in the middle in it. Since the city lies in the midst of the city-district, this makes it, as Klief. observes, lie right opposite the sanctuary in the south.

Eze 48:16 first subjoins the more exact statement in regard to the length from east to west, previously only indicated by . The oblation affords it a front of five and twenty thousand; its measure, however, is such as to make a square of four thousand five hundred on each side, to which is added in Eze 48:17 an open space of two hundred and fifty on each of the four sides. The found in the text, and left by the Masorites unpunctuated, is almost universally considered an error of transcription; Hengst., on the contrary, says: It points to this, that the south side equally with the north side has 4500 cubits; five stands for: on the five, or: to the five, etc. The length of the city-district (namely, city and free space), from east to west, amounts to 4500 + 250 + 250 = 5000, and to the same in breadth from north to south, so that the square in this respect occupies the entire breadth of the city-district, while it only comes to a fifth of the 25,000 in length from east to west. [The small compass of the city district (cubits!), observes Hengst., wholly excludes the inhabitants from agriculture.]

Eze 48:18 disposes of what remains of the length (Klief.: in the length) along the holy oblation, the section eastward and the section seaward, 10,000 each. This is to remain over against the holy Terumah, that is, as a part of it, although it is assigned neither to the priests, nor the Levites, nor the city (Klief.). Hengst. explains the phrase: over against the holy oblation, as indicating that we are not to imagine that the Levitical part is shoved in between, whereby the holy oblation would be separated from its guardians. The proventus, the of the , what of fruit the soil of these two districts yields, is destined for support () for the labourers of the city. They are further described in Eze 48:19, where it is said of them: (1) Hv.: By these are not meant slaves, nor (as Kimchi) such as cultivate gardens and fields (against which there is the ), but, as Gesenius puts it: those who perform service in building the city, which the prophet represents as an honourable office. The holy city as well as the temple belongs now to no single tribe, but to all Israel, so all the tribes take part in building and maintaining it, by workmen chosen for the purpose, who receive their support from land assigned to them situated in the immediate vicinity of the holy temple-district. Hvernick makes refer to , and the last thought of Eze 48:18 to be: the residue of the city-district shall serve for support to the workmen, and they shall cultivate it, for which they shall be bound to the service of the city. (2) Hengst. translates thus: who serve the city; and can only understand by this a militia (!) that take the city in the midst,military service is the only possible service on a large scale to a city,and, as is so emphatically stated, are encamped as a guard beside the holy oblation with the temple. On the north side of the holy oblation are the Levites as the militia sacra (Num 4:23; Num 8:24); on the south side the ministers of the secular arm, which has to protect the Church. Adjoining the provision made for these servants on both sides is the domain of the prince (?!), who is to be considered the commander of these guards. For , in the sense of military service, Hengst. refers to Eze 29:20. But if ever an exposition has missed the mark, it is here. We hear the mounting of guard on the Berlin University Platz, and Hengst. must also mention Egypt as an example of such military colonies endowed with land; he comforts himself with the thought that this militia is not to be gathered out of the lands of other lords, as formerly the Cherethites and Pelethites, but is to consist of such as are willing also to serve their Lord in this lower (!) sphere. (3) Klief.: The workmen of the city are the labouring class dwelling in it; in this city they are not to be destitute of possession, as is usual in the cities of men, therefore considerable portions of land are assigned to them for support; and to explain this Eze 48:19 subjoins, that from all the tribes of Israel (, transitively with the accus.) they are to employ these in labour; namely, when they come from all parts of the land to the holy city to the feasts, and because the land in the capital gives employment to labourers, etc. (4) Hitzig takes as colere locum, of cultivating through residence = to inhabit: hence, for the inhabitants of the city; Eze 48:19 : And as to the inhabitants of the city, people from all the tribes of Israel shall inhabit it., singular, stands as collective, but the suffix in does not refer to it, and to make it refer to would yield no suitable sense; hence we are to read: , and the reference to , which is certainly not of the common gender, is to be accepted. As in Eze 48:18 the masculine suffix in refers to , so also does the suffix in . Ewald translates thus: And every labourer of the city will cultivate it. Neteler: and as to the workman of the city, one will take him for workman out of, etc.

Eze 48:20 sums up the whole, namely, of the previously described oblation, as a square of 25,000, i.e. inclusive of the possession of the city; and then describes the possession of the city as a fourth-part of the oblation of holiness, as the portions of the priests and Levites in the narrower sense are called, which have a breadth of 20,000, of which the 5000 of the possession of the city are a fourth. Philippson, on the other hand, translates thus: In square form shall ye offer the holy oblation, together with the property of the city; as similarly Ewald. And already Hvernick took as: in addition to the possession of the city.

Eze 48:21; comp. Eze 45:7. The portion of the prince on both sides, east and west, of the oblation described in Eze 48:8 (25,000 from east to west). , translated by Ewald: close to; by Hengst.: over against; by others: along, with reference to the east and west skirt of the Terumah, which was only 25,000 long. The position is described first eastward, and then, with some variations (instead of , now , with omission of the oblation; instead of , now ), westward likewise; while in conclusion there is added: close to the tribe-portions. It is scarcely necessary to remark in explanation, that the princes portion abuts on the north (like the Levites portion) on the portion of Judah, on the south (like the possession of the city) on the portion of Benjamin. That which lies eastward and westward between Judah and Benjamin belongs to the prince, to whose domain the suffix in refers, namely, to .

Eze 48:22 describes the same object, only instead of eastward and westward, it is now from north to south; hence, setting out from the possession of the Levites, namely, in the north, and from the possession of the city.The designation does not belong to (Keil), but stands as an asyndeton, like: possession of the Levites, and: possession of the city; and counts as the third the central part, namely, the portion of the priests, with the lately-mentioned temple-sanctuary, after mention has been made of the two outer parts. Thus, what is to be the princes domain extends from north to south, namely, on both sides (Eze 48:21); and when it is described as in the direction of north to south, it is represented as lying between the border of Judah and between the border of Benjamin. The question, moreover, of Ezekiel 45 is renewed here: rods? or cubits? Keil and Kliefoth reckon by rods, because, reckoned by cubits, the princes land would be more than six times as large as the whole Terumah; whereas, measuring by rods, the actual size of the land is in correspondence. Hengst. adduces the fifty stadia of Hecatus in proof of the 18,000 cubits of Jerusalem.

Eze 48:23-29.The Five Lower Tribe-portions

Eze 48:23.The rest of the tribes follow southward: first, Benjamin, which tribe opens the series on this side, as Judah closed it on the other. Three pairs precede Judah, and two pairs follow Benjamin: first, Eze 48:24, Simeon; thereafter; Eze 48:25, Issachar; then, Eze 48:26, Zebulon; and, finally, Eze 48:27, Gad.For Eze 48:28 comp. on Eze 47:19.

Eze 48:29, a closing formula. Hengst.: It is said of the inheritance, because a part of the whole was not to be distributed, but to be previously set apart as holy ground.

[The desire of giving due prominence to the sacred portions in the centre, leads the prophet again to enter into some statements regarding the Terumah, or oblation, and its subdivisions. Nothing of importance is added to what was said before, except that the 5000 rods apportioned out of the 25,000 square to the city is here laid off in a square of 4500, with the 250 all round for suburbs. This space for the city was not strictly holy ground, in the sense that the sacerdotal portions were, and hence it is called profane or common. But being thus immediately connected with the sacred portions, and standing apart from the individual tribes, the city built on it formed a fit and proper centre to the whole landin its position and its structure the bean-ideal of a theocratic capital, encompassed by the most hallowed influences, and fitted to exert a uniting and healthful effect upon the entire community. Hence the prophet closes the description by the mention of some things regarding the city which might serve more deeply to impress the feeling of its being the suitable representative and common centre of the community. Itself occupying a central position, and immediately in front of the house of God, it was also to have twelve gates, bearing the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel; in token that all the family of faith had their representation in it, and, as if they were actually resident in it, stood before the Lord for the enjoyment of His favour and blessing. He specifies, again, the entire circumference of the city, 18,000 rods (between twenty and thirty miles), as a symbol of the immense numbers of the covenant-people under the new and better dispensation of the future, immeasurably transcending what had existed under the old. And to exhibit the character of the city itself as representative of the community at large, and indicative of its own relative position, it was to bear from that day, namely, from the period of the beginning of this new and better order of things, the honourable name of Jehovah-Shammahnot, as has been already stated, Jehovah-there, but Jehovah-thither, or thereupon. For it was in the temple, rather than in the city, that the Lord was represented as having His peculiar dwelling-place. But His eyes were to be ever from the temple toward the city, and again from the city toward the whole land. The manifestations of His love and goodness were to radiate from the chosen seat of the kingdom through all its borders; He in all, and all united and blessed in Him. So that the consummation of this vision substantially corresponds with the object prayed for by our Lord, when He sought respecting His people that they might be where He was, and that they might be all one, as He and the Father are one; He in them, and they in Him, that they might be made perfect in one.Fairbairns Ezekiel, pp. 499, 500.W. F.]

Eze 48:30-35.The City as to Extent, Gates, and Name.

In continuation of Eze 48:15 sq., we have now in Eze 48:30 the out-goings of the city, that is, the outlets, with evident reference to the gates; for the boundary-lines marked out by walls (Hengst.), the extremities into which a city runs out (Keil), are only such in virtue of the gates. The measure here on each of the four sides is 4500; comp. Eze 48:16.The detailed account begins, as in the dividing of the land, and so with evident reference thereto, from the north.

Eze 48:31. The gates are designated after the names of the tribes of Israel. There are three gates to each side, hence twelve in all; comp. Rev 21:12. The naming does not follow the position of the tribe-district, and thus the omitted tribe of Levi appears here in the north, honoured by a gate named after it. The three sons of Leah (as Deuteronomy 33) are first mentioned; as Keil observes: the first-born by age, the first-born in virtue of the patriarchal blessing, and the one chosen of Jehovah for His service instead of the first-born of Israel. In Eze 48:32 the three east gates, where Joseph is named next after Levi, and comprehends in his name his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh (Rachels sons and the son of her handmaid, Keil). In Eze 48:33 the three south gates bear the names of the other three sons of Leah; and, lastly, in Eze 48:34 the west gates are given, after the names of the other three sons of the handmaids, as Keil observes.

Eze 48:35. Then follows the close of the book; it closes with a name, with the symbolical name of the city, whose whole compassdoubtless calculated likewise in a symbolical point of viewis given as: 4 4500 = 18,000. Kliefoth remarks on this number, that it =Isaiah 12 1500; hence, a product of 12 by a multiple of 10. The city of the people of God, says he, has now become the capital of the new world. Neteler connects with it the millennial kingdom, saying: A thousand years are with God as one day, and one day as a thousand years; hence the city is called the millennial kingdom (!).The name of the city is annexed to its whole circumference, just as before the gates named follow the statement of the extent. Thus it appears that the name of the city itself now expresses the same relation to Jehovah which the names of the gates did to the people of the covenant. Hitzig translates: The name of the city is from that day: Jehovah there, and understands this to mean: from the day of its being built. Hvernick makes the following excellent remarks on the whole connection: Already in the foregoing the thought was made prominent, that Jerusalem should be the common property of all the tribes. Over against the temple, the place of the divine revelation is Jerusalem, the Church of God, living before and in Him. As such, it forms a closely knit together, indissoluble whole, a stately unity rooting itself in God. In order duly to set forth this thought, there is annexed to the division of the land among the individual tribes a consideration of the city itself. For that division is nothing less than an isolating or dissevering of the individual tribes; but forthwith the higher unity of the prophetic intuition, again embracing and knitting all firmly together, presents itself. The community is one accepted of God and hallowed to Him; standing itself in the presence of God, it forms the one true stem of the new Church, and has thereby reached its full destination. In the first place, the greatness of the community expresses itself to the prophet in the compass of the city; and then in its name, its quality, its holiness. From that day, that is: henceforth for ever, Isa 43:13. The name itself is: Jehovah thither, not: Jehovah shall dwell there. For Ezekiel distinguishes between temple and city: Jehovah does not properly dwell in Jerusalem, but, in the proper and highest sense, only in His sanctuary. Thence He looks toward Jerusalem, is turned thither with the fulness of His love and grace. What now makes Jerusalem a true city of God is the love entirely turned toward it, the good pleasure of God resting upon it, etc. Hengst.: means: from the day when what is described will be so; it does not and cannot mean: always, and just as little can it mean: from to-day. is not: there, but, as always: thither. But query Eze 23:3 in Ezekiel himself, if not Eze 32:29 sq. He explains the name from Deu 11:12. This Jehovah thither manifested itself in the most glorious manner in the appearing of Christ, in the many attempts He made to gather the children of Jerusalem, in His tears over Jerusalem. When, however, His own would not receive Him, then the Jehovah thither, which had availed for the restored city five hundred years, passed over to the new people of God, the legitimate continuation of Israel and Jerusalem (Mat 21:43), to which Jesus had promised to be with them unto the end of the world.Kliefoth with right expresses himself against an alteration of the punctuation ( into , and the name of the city is henceforth: Jehovah is its name), and also against the idea that can mean anything else than: thither. But then the name purports that Jehovah will raise Himself up thither, toward the city, and will do so from the day, that is, from to-day, that this city and what depends upon it may come into being.

In view of the total ruin of the people of God, the whole comfort of the prophets predictions, the full significance of his labours, is yet once more completely summed up in the last words of his ministry. Schmieder says: Notwithstanding the irregularity of the natural boundaries, Ezekiel views the Holy Land as a rectangular, oblong quadrilateral, etc. The centre falls exactly at Sychar, where Jesus speaks to the woman of Samaria (John 4). Mount Gerizim is the site of the new temple, but the Holy City is at a distance of about five miles off; the place in which it is situated is the place of Bethel. The revelation of John contains in its closing chapters cognate views, which presuppose and surpass, but do not exactly interpret Ezekiel.

ADDITIONAL NOTE

[Thus ends the marvellous vision of the prophetalike marvellous whether we look to the lofty pattern (true in the spirit, though unavoidably wearing the garb of imperfect forms and shadowy relations) which it embodied of better things to come in Gods kingdom, or to the time chosen for presenting this to the Church of God. The cause of Heaven was then at its lowest ebb. The temple that had been, together with the kingdom it symbolized and represented, were laid in ruins; they were to be seen only in broken fragments and mournful dilapidations, as if smitten with the powerful curse of an irrecoverable perdition. Yet from the midst of these howling desolations, as from the very suburbs of hell, the prophet ascends, with assured step, the mount of vision, and has there exhibited to his view, not, indeed, the very image of better things to come, but the ideal pattern after which the blessed and glorious future was to be fashioned. He even sees it as already present; and, with such imperfect materials of thought and utterance as then stood at his command, he gives it forth to the Church and the world as a thing which his own eyes had beheld, showing how God would certainly dwell with His people in a manner He had never done beforehow He would at once immeasurably extend the sphere of His kingdom, and greatly elevate the condition of those who belonged to itand how, through the copious effusions of His life-giving Spirit, the former imperfections should be done away, the most remote regions of the divine territory hallowed and blessed, and even the peculiar haunts of cursing and desolation made to rejoice and blossom like the rose.
O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true !
Scenes of accomplished bliss! which, who can see,
Though but in distant pro pect, and not feel
His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy?
That such scenes should hare been described with such assured confidence, and at a time so deeply overspread with gloom, was indeed an ennobling triumph of faith over sight. It gave a most illustrious proof of the height in spiritual discernment, and far-reaching insight into the purposes of Heaven, which is sometimes imparted in the hour of greatest need, especially to the more select instruments of the Spirits working. And surely the children of the kingdom now must be chargeable with neglecting an important privilege, if they fail to profit by so inspiriting an example. Here the heart of faith is taught never to despairnot even in the darkest seasons. And when it is seen how much of the scheme delineated in the prophetic vision has already been accomplished, should not believers feel encouraged to look and strive for its complete realization, assured that God is ready to hear their cry, and to second with the aid of His Spirit the efforts that are made to dispossess and drive out the hostile powers that continue to linger in His kingdom? It is theirs, if they feel thus, not only to contend in the best of causes, but also with the surest prospect of success; for the Lord Himself is upon their side, and His Word of promise must be established.
Thus heavenward all things tend. For all were once
Perfect, and all must be at length restored.
So God has greatly purposed; who would else
In His dishonoured works Himself endure
Dishonour, and be wronged without redress!
Come, then, and added to Thy many crowns,
Receive yet one as radiant as the rest,
Due to Thy last and most effectual work,
Thy word fulfilled, the conquest of a world.
Fairbairns Ezekiel, pp. 501, 502.W. F.]

DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS

1. Ch. 4046 show the temple and its service; Ezekiel 47, 48, the land and the city. It may be said that in these two parallels temple and service stand related to each other, as do land and city. The temple comes to expression in its service, as the land finds its most expressive name in the city, Eze 48:35. But the land gets sanctification, healing, and quickening from the temple; so that the waters which stream forth from the temple in connection with the entrance of the glory of Jehovah into the sanctuary, and transmit the blessing of the temple to the land, are the kernel, as they are the connecting link between the two closing sections of our prophetic book.

2. Hvernick sums up what has preceded in the expression (Rev 22:3): And the throne of God, etc., shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. Ch. 4043 treat of the new and glorious indwelling of the Lord in Israel; Ezekiel 44-45 of the new service of the Lord which shall follow on the ground of that completion of all the divine manifestations of grace; now, however, according to him, the rich blessing of God which comes upon the new community from the new indwelling of God is described. This latter assertion cannot be upheld in the face of Ezekiel 47; at least, Eze 48:1-12 of that chapter, keeping, as they do, within Canaan, appear to exhibit in a very characteristic manner the perfection of Israel, rather than to contain an account of what accrues to the new community of the Lord in the way of a rich blessing of God. The community of the future, with the service which obtains in this temple, is described as being what it should be. For as Jehovah (Eze 36:27) puts His Spirit within Israel, so He makes them walk in His statutes, and keep and do His judgments. But this sanctification of Israel comes (Eze 37:28) with the sanctuary in the midst of them. Hence not only the specially priestly temple-service (Ezekiel 44), but likewise the representation therein of the people by the prince, yea, the people themselves (Eze 46:3; Eze 46:9), and that, as Ezekiel 45 shows, as to judgment and justice (comp. Eze 44:24) in all their affairs (Eze 45:9 sq.), appear in connection with the sanctuary. When Ezekiel portrays the new community as conformed to the law in their worship, this specially manifests the connection of the sanctification of Israel with the sanctuary of Jehovah (in accordance with Eze 37:28); in general, however, the prophet comes in this way only to that which he has always throughout his book prophesied as the form of the sanctification and holiness of Israel. Only the deviations here and there from the Mosaic law in the service of the future defined by the temple, and in general, the freedom which prevails in this respect in the ordinances (while Ezras scrupulously exact adherence to the law shows the direct opposite), presuppose so very significantly for this future of which Ezekiel prophesies the fulfilling of the law in the popular life. The letter of the law is, as to its spirit, learned in the Spirit which Jehovah put within Israel (comp. also Eze 39:29), in that it is lived, in that the idea of the law has become the life of the people. Thus there is an end to the pdagogy of the law. The fulfilled idea of the law, as exemplified by our prophet, realizes itself in a newness of life. But that this newness has still its expression in a legal form, in the forms of the Mosaic worship, as little disparages the new reality of the future, as when in the New Testament the sacrificial service furnishes clothing for the thoughts of the Christian life. It is, however, a proof not only of the priestly, but of the historical standpoint generally of Ezekiels prophecy; it is the necessary shell which adheres thereto. Comp. besides the Doct. Reflec. on Ezekiel 40-46.

3. The waters from the sanctuaryto which they are finally traced back again in Eze 48:12, and consequently are represented as belonging theretono doubt raise up fruit-bearing trees on their banks; but the significance of this is not the amplification, e.g. of Eze 34:26 sq., that is, the fruitfulness of the land (Eze 36:8 sq., 29 sq.); for as the aim of this water is the healing of the Dead Sea (Eze 47:8 sq.), so likewise the foliage of these fruit-trees serves for healing (Eze 47:12). We may say: As the aim of the temple-sanctuary is sanctification, so that of the waters from the sanctuary is healing, so that sanctification and healing are the two leading theological thoughts dominating the whole closing part of Ezekiel. But with the thought of healing the completion of Israel is already alluded to.

4. Eze 16:53 prophesied the ethical restoration of Sodom, and the same thought returns here with the healing of the waters of the Dead Sea. Since the Dead Sea, like Sodom and Gomorrah, stands throughout the whole of Scripture as a type of judgment, the judgment is, in the character of threatening, by its healing symbolically removed from the sight of Israel. Israel by its sanctification is exempted from judgment, has no further judgment to fear (Eze 39:29). The healing of the Dead Sea in its land, which immediately precedes the settling of the boundaries and the division of the land (Eze 47:13 sq.), is the characteristic symbol of the completion of Israel, the community of God. Only the salt pools and pits of Eze 47:11 still remain, but in the same way as when in the closing verse of Isaiah (Isa 66:24) they go out and look upon the carcases of the apostates, whose worm dieth not, etc., and who are an abhorring unto all flesh.

5. From Genesis onward, which also relates the genesis of Israel as the people of God, there runs through Holy Scripture a twofold reference, namely, to the people of the promise, and to the Promised Land. This twofold reference meets us here also in these closing chapters. But as we have repeatedly seen, the people of Israel are to be taken in their prophetical character of the future as referring to mankind, and the land of Israel is to be taken as referring to the earth. Now in Ezekiel, people and land become united in the symbol of the sanctuary, of the temple in the midst of the twelve tribes and their portions of land, as indeed the prophet accentuates this centre, which thus unites all the parts into a whole. By this the idea is symbolized which has realized itself in the Son of man, who unites mankind in Himself; who as the second Adam is the centre for the whole earth; who can say: To Me is given all power in heaven and on earth, go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, and preach the gospel to the whole creation! We have there the sanctuary for sanctification, and here the Saviour for healing; preparation and fulfilment, beginning and end.

6. Stier on Joh 7:38 rightly interprets the word of Scripture to which our Lord appeals there as referring to Christ Himself (Words of the Lord Jesus, vol. 5 p. 282 sq.; Clarks Tr.). When here in Ezekiel the healing, life-giving waters flow from the temple, then, at least according to what Scripture here says (but comp. also Joel 4[3] 18, and afterwards Zec 14:8), the fulfilment cannot possibly be sought for in him who believes in Christ, ( corresponds to the (Ezekiel 48:37), just as in Joh 6:35 and mutually correspond.) The , out of whose , can also according to John only be He the Baptist (Joh 1:33) Saw , and with allusion to whom he says in general (Joh 3:34): . This One who is the Anointed explains to the Jews (John 2) the temple of His body. Consequently He not only could, but must have understood of Himself what the Scripture says of the rivers of living water flowing out, as He also began by saying: If any man thirst, let him come unto Me; and this quite apart from the circumstance that, as the feast suggested ever since the march through the wilderness, the spiritual rock that followed was, as Paul expressly says in 1Co 10:4, the Anointed One. Zec 12:10 also was very clearly uttered with this reference, as Jesus, too, in Joh 7:39 spoke of the Spirit, not that should flow out from him that believes on Him, but that they should receive () who believe on Him; for (in the sense of the outpouring of Zec 12:10) was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Comp. Joh 20:22. Thus Christ has interpreted Eze 47:1-12 as referring to the Spirit of Pentecost. When Stier, in accordance with his apocalyptic mysticism, makes the thought be included here of the community of the Lord, particularly in its glorious final perfection, but only the community as a whole, in so far as the Lord Himself flows through and tills it, sends forth from it His streams of blessing,that goes beyond the letter, upon which Stier insists so much, and beyond the sense and spirit of the letter in John; and, moreover, the word of prophecy in Ezekiel does not point to such a perfection. We may at all events say with Roffhack (Ev. Johannis, i. p. 302 sq.): In the derived sense the saying may hold good of believers; for twelve Galilean fishermen and publicans produced that spiritual movement in the world, the swell of whose waves still at the present time presses onward to the remotest ends of the earth. Interpreted as referring to believers generally, observes Roffhack, it could not but wholly mislead thousands regarding their own faith and that of their brethren.

7. Hengstenberg says in his commentary on our prophet: We shall have to regard as the Mediator of this salvation for the whole world the exalted Descendant of David, who, according to Eze 17:23, grows up from a feeble sapling to a glorious cedar, under which all fowls dwell; to the fowls of every wing there, correspond here the fish of every kind in Eze 48:10. In harmony with our prophecy, the salvation here announced took its beginning in the time of the second temple, and poured itself forth from the place where Jesus had the chief seat of His activity over the nations of the earth (comp. on Joh 7:3-4). In the Christology, 2d ed., he observes in particular: In Ezekiel the water issues forth under the threshold of the house toward the east; according to the Apocalypse, the stream of water proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb. John has completed Eze 47:1 from Eze 43:7. The reason why the streams of salvation now proceed from the sanctuary, is that the Lord has entered into it with His glory. From the temple, now lying in ruins, they could not issue, because the temple was not yet truly the place of Gods throne. This the sanctuary, that is, the Church, first became through Him in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Henceforth it is called Jehovah there, Eze 48:35. As the announcement of the indwelling of the glory of the Lord in Ezekiel 43 found its fulfilment in Christ, so John points to this when he speaks of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In his commentary he says: The relations of the New Testament to our section (Eze 47:1-12) are very rich and manifold. In reference to it the Lord, in Mat 4:18-19, speaks to Peter and Andrew. On it rests the miraculous draught of fishes by Peter at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus (Luke 5), and likewise the draught after the resurrection (John 21). Jesus with evident design embodies, at the commencement and the close, the contents of our prophecy in a symbolic act. Not less allusive to our prophecy is the parable of the net which gathered of every kind (Mat 13:47). Finally, in Rev 22:1-2, the last and most glorious fulfilment is announced.

8. Other prophets, too, have the symbol of a temple fountain (comp. Joel 4:[3] 18, and Zec 14:8), but nowhere is it seen so beautifully carried out as here (Umbreit). The fundamental passage, or at least the older passage, is Joels. It is not necessary, however, to consider Ezekiel as borrowing from Joel; the thought is applied as originally in him as in Joel or Zechariah; the only thing common to the three is the water. But unmistakeably there is a connection between the three prophetic passages. That which the healing of the Dead Sea, this removal of a spectacle of judgment as old as the days of Abraham, signifies in Ezekiel as to the fulfilment of Israel, is in Joel, likewise as to Israel, expressed in the watering of the valley of Shittim, which symbolizes as fulfilled the wilderness-journey of Israel, their period of probation generally. With the east sea Zechariah takes up Ezekiels thought of judgment of the Dead Sea, but with the west sea he subjoins thereto reference to the salvation coming from the Jews unto the Gentiles. The Israel completed in the Messiah, in Christ, the temple, draws water with joy from the wells of salvation (Isa 12:3). When Jehovah counts and writes up His people among the nations (Psalms 87), all His springs are in Zion. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, it is said in Isaiah 55, for there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the dwelling-place of the Most High (Psalms 46), whereas judgment passes over the world in the morning of the day of the Lord. Peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; I healed it, Isa 57:19.

9. Before we take up for comparison the representation given in the Revelation of John, let us first consider the order in our prophet. That which was prophesied to Israel specially in Eze 37:26 is carried into effect in Ezekiel 40-48, in which the Messianic salvation as to land and city is symbolically set forth in the temple, its service, and the waters. These chapters are eschatological in the sense that Christ and the Christian Church are the end, the fulfilment of Israel. Ch. 38 and 39, again, contain eschatology in another sense, that is, the Christian sense; see p. 374 sq. These chapters are a specifically apocalyptic enclave in Ezekiel, whose close (Eze 39:21 sq.) then points back to Ezekiel 37, by way of preparation for the following chapters, and to form connection with them. Thus Gog and Magog stretch beyond Ezekiel 40-48. Since, then, the schema of the fulfilment of Israel, as sanctification to be Gods people in the spirit that is to be poured forththis fulfilment set down just as it took place through the Messiah, by means of the Christian Churchis summarily expressed in Eze 37:26 sq. and Eze 39:29, the last conflict of this fulfilled Israel, that is, of the Christian Church, is foreseen in the apocalyptic chapters 38 and 39, so that the world-progress of the gospel, and the development of the nationalities for and against Christ and His community, will lie between Eze 37:26 sq., or, we may say, between Eze 39:21 sq., and Ezekiel 3839 120. After the legal , with which, although according to the freedom of the spirit of fulfilment, the completion of the Old Testament Church is described in Ezekiel 40 sq., there comes, as early as Ezekiel 45, but much more in Eze 47:13 sq., the historical of the taking possession of and dividing the Promised Land. As, in order to understand the temple, we must go back to its idea, especially after the entrance of the glory of the Lord (Ezekiel 43), and as in connection therewith (Ezekiel 44) the service of the community of this sanctuary is understood of the worship of the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost, so in like manner the only significance which the undeniably symbolical temple-water assigns to the land and the twelve tribes, and to the city with its gates, is that which the people of Israel has, through the Christian Church, obtained for the earth, the territorium of the kingdom of God (Keil); for, in the Church of Christ, Israel has become complete as to the members, just as in Christ, the Messiah of Israel, as to the head. The Chiliastic interpretation of our chapters, even if correct in assuming that the letter of Ezekiels prophecywhich, however, is symbolicalrelates to Israel and Canaan, that is, that what is meant is an earthly, historical fulfilment, must still be regarded as advocating a restoration to the pristine condition, irrespective of the fulfilment of the Old Covenant in the New.

10. It harmonizes with the chronological order given in Ezekiel that Johns Apocalypse takes up in Eze 20:8 sq. the prophecy of Ezekiel through Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38.), that is, in its specifically apocalyptic passage (p. 373), and this after previously introducing in Rev 19:17 sq. the final conflict against Christ of anti-christianism and pseudo-Christianity, and the judgment and overthrow of the latter as the beginning of the end; we have seen (p. 377) why the colouring of the description in the Apocalypse is borrowed from Eze 39:17 sq. That this and the other final conflict (Gogs) both belong to the history of the Christian Church of Israel, is perhaps indicated by the mention of the , both as to those who have it (Rev 19:20) and those who have it not (Rev 20:4), which reads as parallel to Eze 44:15, although the Old Testament framework of the description of the sons of Zadok has something essentially different of its own (not yet overthrow, but degradation is inflicted upon those who stumbled, in contrast to the sons of Zadok). But if Ezekiel in Ezekiel 40-48 beholds Israel perfected on earth in the temple and its service, and placed in its twelve tribes within the bounds of Canaan, and if this symbolical representation is a prophecy of Christ and the Christian Church, the kingdom of God in this guise on earth, then the Apocalypse of John interprets the certainly apocalyptic hint that these closing chapters of our prophet come after the attack, etc. of Gog, and, beginning by making Rev 20:11 sq. the end of the world, the last resurrection and the final judgment precede Gogs attack; hence it interprets our Ezekiel 40-48 as referring to the perfection of the Christian Church, the kingdom of glory (Rev 21:1 to Rev 22:4); and here, corresponding to Ezekiels earthly description (Canaan), the Apocalypse describes a new earth, and also retains throughout the Old Testament colouring of our prophet. The justification of interpreting Johns Apocalypse with this application is to be found in the principle that the perfection of the Christian kingdom of God at the end of the world is just the full final perfection of Israel in Christ, just as Israel after the Spirit and the Church of Christ are only one continuous thing. That which the general judgment in John carries out in its reference is indicated by the giving over to salt in Eze 47:11, with respect to the completion of Israel; and as the (Dead) Sea, in Eze 48:8 there, is healed to life, so in Rev 20:13 the sea gives up its dead, and there is no more sea (Eze 21:1), and there shall be no more death (Eze 21:4). That Keil says too much when he says: The prophetic picture in Ezekiel 40-48 gives a clear idea of the kingdom of God erected by Christ in its full configuration, is already evident from his own limitation of this assertion, for he supposes merely a partial Old Testament outline to this New Testament image of the heavenly Jerusalem, Revelation 21, 22 But still more markedly does the comparison of the Apocalypse present essential differences. While Ezekiels temple is situated in Canaan, as repeatedly stated in Ezekiel 45, 48, the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:2; Rev 21:10) comes down out of heaven from God. The distinction is not this, that in Ezekiel city and temple are separated, but that the Now Jerusalem of the Apocalypse has no temple whatever, God and the Lamb are its temple (Eze 21:22); and this furnishes the most express confirmation of the explanation given of Ezekiels temple, as referring to the dwelling of God in Christ. While in Ezekiel the entire circuit of the temple is most holy (Eze 43:12; Eze 45:3), in John this now holds of the city. The glory of God entering into and filling the temple in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 43, 44) lightens the city, etc., in Rev 21:23; its gates, too, are not shut; compare, on the contrary, Eze 44:2; Eze 46:1 sq. So also it can be said that the holy city of the Apocalypse is called the bride (Eze 21:2; Eze 21:9) of the Lamb, just as He is alike her Temple and her Bridegroom. The closing representation of Johns Revelation is occupied with this city of twelve gates, and is accordingly borrowed from the close of Ezekiel, from the city Jehovah Shammah (Eze 48:35). Apart from particulars, the ample magnificence of precious stones and gold, etc. in Rev 21:18 sq. forms a noteworthy contrast to the meagre simplicity of Ezekiels temple (p. 445). Moreover, the cube form (Rev 21:16), like the most holy place, comes very specially into consideration for the New Jerusalem. But in respect of the river of the water of life (Rev 22:1 sq.), it has to be noticed that in the Apocalypse it flows in the midst of the street of the city, and that the leaves of the tree of life on either side are designated as , a still clearer reference to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 47), and, in accordance with the original promise that in Abrahams seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, removing for the Gentile world (as already in Rev 21:24) the apparent limitation to Israel of Ezekiels prophetic description; as Neumann expresses it: The transformation of Israel to a blessed eternity is the consecration of the nations, Isa 60:3 sq. Hengst., who in the 2d edition of his Christology makes the symbolical view of our closing chapters be confirmed beyond question by the Apocalypse, just as he attributes to the entire description of the new temple, in its main points, a Messianic character (and of such a kind that under the New Testament the fulfilment is always going on, while the completion belongs to the future),in his commentary on Ezekiel cannot keep the Apocalypse and the prophet far enough apart, simply, indeed, on the ground that in Ezekiel everything is mundane, there everything is supramundane; neither of which is the case, not even in the form of expression, and also not so in the sense expressed. At all events, Hengstenberg finally concedes in his commentary that the fact cannot be mistaken, that in a certain (?) sense the entire description of the new temple bears a Messianic character, etc.

11. The Mosaic law may, in respect to worship, be said to culminate in the temple, just as its goal and that of the temple is the Anointed One, as the fulfilling of the law in general; and so the spirit of the law, as well as the Spirit of Christ, may be considered as the water flowing from the temple. Both met together at the first Pentecost of the Christian Church, and moreover, those of Israel on whom the Spirit was poured forth were assembled in the temple; and the preaching of Peter was like a first bursting forth of these waters from the temple.
12. The Dead Sea has its place in worship also. The Talmud Menachoth prescribes that the salt used in sacrifice should be salt of Sodom. Every sacrifice receives in the salt the death-consecration, and consequently it is just this use which explains why the waters of life flow into the sea of death. As all the health and blessedness of a glorified future well forth in the former, so in the latter surges the torment of the curse, all the woe of the divine judgments which culminate in death (Neum.).

13. The fishers in the vision (Eze 47:1-12) are not mere figures in the landscape, however true it is not for the East alone that fishing is part of the picturesque in a well-watered region. For what Ezekiel treats of is not so much the abundance of water as the abundance of life, of living fishes. And so, too, Neumann has no right to bring in the fishes as palatable food (Num 11:5; Neh 13:16), as the third kind of Sabbath food among the Jews, in order to get an inviting attraction, which is altogether foreign to our vision. True it is, however, and needing no reference to the fishponds beside the temples of Paphos and Hierapolis, and the fish idols Derceto, Oannes, and Dagon, that in the multitude of fish is mirrored the most exuberant (!) and richest fulness of life. Neumann observes, moreover, the lively movement in the element of all purity, in order to contemplate in this figure the most blessed existence of the sinless. In the Talmud the Messiah, too, is called fish, and according to Abarbanel the constellation Pisces announces His birth. The swarming life of the fishes in Eze 48:9 sq. is dramatized by means of the fishes. Neumann says on this occasion: To man was given the dominion also over the fish of the sea, Gen 1:28; Psa 8:9 [8]. He has now grasped the sceptre. Comp. Isa 19:5; Isa 19:8. The greatness of the affliction there testifies to the greatness of the blessing here. In Jer 16:16 the fishers are the executors of the judgment; in Eze 26:3 they are sureties for the fulfilled judgment. Yet where a Dead Sea became alive, there the fishers in their ceaseless movement, in the ardour of their activity, testify that here the curse is changed into a blessing.

14. The palms of Engedi continued to be known to a late period, and although the vineyards of Son 1:14 have disappeared, still there was here a place of life not far from the seat of death. May not (asks Neumann) the other fountain (Eneglaim) have been in equally beautiful natural scenery? like two oases on the border of the Dead Sea? And the names fountain for oxen and fountain for goats surely indicate pasture grounds. Thus the fountains would encompass like a silver frame the steppe that was to be transformed, and from their brilliancy the figure itself would become light.

15. It is only in accordance with the specifically Israelitish tenor of Ezekiels prophecy, particularly in this closing section, that in Eze 47:22 the reference to the Gentiles keeps itself within Israel; enough has been said in the earlier chapters for supplementing and explaining. Hofmann compares Isa 14:1 sq.; on which Delitzsch observes that the letter of the promise at all events is not in a New Testament form, because the community (ecclesia) has no other mode of manifestation for Old Testament days and Old Testament perception than the national form. This national form of the community is broken up in the New Testament, and will never be restored.

16. When the new earth is designated as Canaan, and the new humanity as the nation of Israel with its twelve tribes, this is because that has appeared in the new humanity and the new earth which was aimed at, begun, and prefigured in Israel and Canaan. In proportion, however, as the kingdom of God extends itself on earth, and the salvation of Christ finds faith in men, the people of God become cumenical, gain over the earth, and obtain the mastery of the world, until God gifts it to them as a new world. The Revelation of John omits all features which refer back to the previous development, because it has to do with the absolute consummation. God will one day make the new altar; life will give health to the sea of nations; at last we have the consummation before our eyes. Our temple-vision may be compared to paintings (Kaulbachs frescoes), which attempt to represent historical developments upon one sheet, and must be interpreted and understood like these (Klief.).

17. The city Jehovah Shammah forms the antithesis not to Babylon alone, but also to the city of Gog (Eze 39:16). Perhaps, too, the permanent grave of Gog (Eze 39:11 sq.) and the healed Dead Sea stand to each other in significant contrast.

18. Hofmann thinks the hope which was ever and anon whispered to the national community of God under all circumstances is not lost either to the community of God which then existed in the form of a nation, or to the nation which was called as such to be the community of God; and the fulfilment will correspond in both respects to the prophecy.

HOMILETIC HINTS

On Ch. 48

Eze 48:1 sq. As the tribe of Dan stands at the beginning, so in the kingdom of God the last are first, Mat 19:30 (Starck).Believers are all Israel, and are so in truth, because according to the Spirit of sanctification.

Eze 48:8 sq. Thy heart is in thy midst; take heed to whom it belongs: is it a temple of God in which His Spirit dwells, 1 Corinthians 3? or is it a habitation of unclean spirits, Luk 11:26? (Starke.)God has an eternal right to the centre of man; hence He says to man: Give Me thine heart; God is the centre of the spirit world, and in Him everything lives and moves.We ourselves ought to be Gods oblation (Starck).

Eze 48:11 sq. Teachers, above all men, ought to keep Gods commands and do that which they teach others. They ought to attach themselves chiefly to the sanctuary of the Lord, around which they dwell (Starke).God is near to them who show themselves to be His priests and ministers in this world.To err with the erring excuses no one; the way is broad, not for us to walk on it, but to call attention to the narrow path of life (Starck).

Eze 48:14. Simon Magus wanted to buy the power of imparting the Spirit; but that is not permitted, because it comes solely from the Lords portion, which may not be bought or sold (Heim-Hoff.).In the administration of church-estates nothing ought to be applied to ones own use (Starke).

Eze 48:15 sq. Wherever believers dwell, their city is always one and the same.The city pertains to the holy, as respects the eternal destination of its inhabitants, for the members of the Church are called with a holy calling; it is in very truth the fellowship of the saints, of the truly anointed, for Christ, the glorious Head, is its Temple and Sanctuary. But in the actual state in which the Church appears in this world, the righteous and the hypocrites are intermixed, and there are many nominal Christians who count as dead, that is, in the death-list of the Church, in which list, indeed, those who have died in the Lord are not inserted; but from the appearance which she presents here, the Church universal on earth must also be regarded as a profane Church (after Starck).On all the four sides which bound the world, and always by thousands. Thus the Church has spread from the fulness of the Godhead. This her false friends forget when they believe they must enrich her; but not less so her enemies and persecutors, when they imagine they needed only to rush upon her at full speed, thinking her small and contemptible, and that she and God and conscience, etc., are nothing but vain imaginations inherited from our ancestors.

Eze 48:18 sq. Behold here the great goodness of God, who thinks of even the labourers in the city and cares for them, Jam 5:4 (Starck).But every Christian ought to be an upright labourer, as every stone, wherever it is placed, belongs to the building and contributes to its erection.

Eze 48:21 sq. The prince protects the holy portion, the centre of the whole land, on the east and on the west; by which may be signified, that a state which has comprehended the nature and signification of the Church, both in her eastern and western course, shall stand alongside of her.

Eze 48:23 sq. Let every man be content with the portion of temporal goods which he possesses, for the Lord has apportioned it, Mat 20:14 (Tb. Bib.).

Eze 48:29. Thou rejoicest when thou obtainest an earthly inheritance, which thou often canst possess only a very short time: strive rather for the heavenly inheritance, for the inheritance that fadeth not away, which is reserved in heaven for the children of God, 1Pe 1:4 (Starke).

Eze 48:30 sq. The goings-out of the city of God are toward the four quarters of the world; its power, like its mission, extends to all places; yea, our faith is the victory which overcometh the world.The names of the gates are the names of the tribes; the names of the tribes are the names of the sons of Israel; thus the gates taken together are the whole of Israelthat is, however, Israel in spirit and in truth.In this holy city, which represents the Church of Christ, the Lord is always graciously present, who says: Where two or three, etc. (Mat 18:20), and: I am with you alway, etc. (Mat 28:20). Comp. also Joh 14:23. Happy are we when we receive such a name that it can be said of us, The Lord is there! When the Lord dwells in us, then our hope ascends to the New Jerusalem, which cometh down from heaven, etc., Revelation 21 (Heim-Hoff.)The dream of the patriarch Jacob has been fulfilled: God has a city upon earth, in which all nations are to share. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, etc. Bethel has by this obtained its fulfilment even to the name. Thus, then, God Himself has set the prophet free from Jerusalem, and the old temple, and the old ordinances, and shown him a higher form of the kingdom of God. Ezekiel proves that he was a true prophet of God by the fact that he withdrew his nation from the service of the flesh, and with plain words, and also in figures, prepared them for Christ, etc. (Diedrich.)The name of the prophet denotes one in relation to whom God is strong, who speaks not from his own heart, but is impelled and guided by a supra-mundane power. We have the verification of this name in the prophecies before us. That holds good of them throughout which the Lord said to Peter: Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. Not one of His words has fallen to the ground. The whole course of history has verified His saying in Eze 33:33 : They shall know that a prophet hath been among them (Hengst.).

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The Prophet, having been led by the hand through all the Apartments of this wonderful house, is now, in the close of the whole, instructed concerning the portions of the people. The several tribes of Israel are enumerated, with their several proportions, and the prophecy closeth with the most blessed title given to the city, intimating the perpetual presence of Jehovah.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Reader will observe, that the Prophet is here describing the several tribes on the north, according to their portions. I the rather wish to consider the subject spiritually, and therefore cannot but behold what is here said, as being in reference to the glorious state of the Church, in the latter-day dispensation; when temporal possessions will not be the only happiness of the Lord’s Israel, but spiritual and eternal. The portion of each will be the portion of all. And this will be not the precious things brought forth by the sun, nor the precious things put forth by the moon; but the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush. And who but Jesus is this; or who can be a portion to live upon, either here or hereafter, but the Lord Our Righteousness? Deu 33:13-16 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Ideal City

Eze 48:8

I. And the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it. This need not startle us unduly; we come here somewhat suddenly upon a great philosophy: this is how all things are moulded and ruled and blessed. It is so in the case of the individual heart It is a poor life that has not the sanctuary in the midst of it; it may be invisible: God is a Spirit, and not to be seen; to see Him is to annihilate Him. How poor a life it would be without the unseen, the invisible, the throbbing, trembling life just inside a palpitating veil. What is our life? Is the altar its main ornament and its principal force? Is the altar the centre of our life, a centre without which there would be no life? Do we take all our laws from God, now on stone, now on flowers, now on drops of April rain? Do we live and move and have our being in God? You have no life if you have not the altar or sanctuary in the midst of your very heart; without that your life is a kind of haphazard game; you will try this and plunge into that and adventure the other.

II. Think of a house without a sanctuary in the midst! Do not accept my definition of sanctuary, you are not bound to accept any man’s definition of that holy word, but you are bound as a man standing upright, with some touch of majesty about you, to have a secret sanctuary, a place of holy communion, from which you must for the moment banish your very dearest one that you may see One dearer still, and see that dearer One with the vision of the heart; then you are master of the day.

III. And so it is in life’s daily business; the sanctuary must be in the midst of it We mistake the values and proportions of things. And a man is in such great haste to get away to his business, which only means, unless there be a high spiritual tone about the man’s very soul, that the business will one day go away from him. A curious life, a singular life, a ghostly life! Oh that men were wise! And so the altar must be in the City. The sanctuary must be in the midst of it.

IV. Did Jesus Christ ever say anything about this matter? Yes; He spoke upon every subject under heaven and above heaven. He gives you exactly this idea of the sanctuary of God being in the midst of the heart, the home, the business, and the City. He said, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you’. What would He do? He would put the sanctuary in the midst, He would make the sanctuary and all that the word sanctuary implies the main thing in life. And I tell you that unless Christianity be the main thing it ought not to be in the life at all; it is the supreme truth, or is it an empty pretence and disappointing mockery. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God.’

Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. v. p. 146.

Eze 48:35

Ezekiel, taught to feel the Divine nearness on a foreign soil, applied the words with a new meaning, and found in them a new measure of what was implied by the Divine nearness. The betrothed who delight themselves with planning the house they are to share together would settle every detail with a less loving elaboration than the exile who thus in spirit revisited his native city, and trod the courts of a new temple. To measure its walls and plan out even the outhouses that surrounded it was the pastime of weary hours which the ebb of inspiration left empty and chill, and no civil duty or hope intervened to cheer and occupy.

Miss Wedgwood.

It is man’s consolation that the future is to be a sunrise instead of a sunset. Time present works for time to come. Work then, and hope! Such is Ezekiel’s cry…. As for the city built by him, he mutters above it this mysterious Name, Jehovah Shammah, which signifies ‘The Eternal is there’. Then, standing silent in the darkness, he shows men, on the far horizon, an ever-widening space of azure sky.

Victor Hugo.

References. XLVIII. 35. Silvester Whitehead, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxvi. 1904, p. 56. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvii. No. 2182.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

XIX

THE FINAL CONDITION OF THE REDEEMED

Ezekiel 40-48

The date of this prophecy as given in Eze 40:1 is about 572 B.C., thirteen years after his last prophecy before this one and fourteen years after the fall of the city of Jerusalem. Thus, there is an interval of thirteen years between the last writing of Ezekiel before this and this one.

As to what Ezekiel was doing during the thirteen years between his last prophecy and this one, we have no record whatever. Perhaps after he had prophesied the restoration of Israel and the glorious messianic age as found in Ezekiel 36-37, Ezekiel was thinking and pondering in his mind over the messianic kingdom. He was thinking of what it would be like, what would be its constitution, what would be its temple, what would be its temple service, what would be the relation between the king and the priesthood and what would be the condition of the people.

After those long years of thinking and pondering in his own mind, at last the vision broke upon him. A great many visions have come to God’s prophets and God’s servants along the line that they had been thinking and meditating. Thus the vision broke upon Ezekiel, and he saw in this vision the final condition of the restored and redeemed people of Israel. He does not picture any method of salvation in these chapters because he conceives of the people as enjoying salvation; they are in a condition of salvation, saved forever. It is the kingdom of God that he has in mind, the kingdom of God set up on earth with its center in Jerusalem and existing in all its glory, blessedness, and beauty. We call it the millennium, for to Ezekiel it was the millennial period of the world’s history.

This picture is cast in the Jewish mold. The best place to the Jew on this earth was in Palestine, his own land. There was death and burial and all the various incidents of life in this blessed age. There were families, there was a city of a certain size, a tabernacle of a certain size, and buildings, and chambers; there was a priesthood, there were sacrifices, there was to be a Prince of the line of David, the messianic Prince. All these things were to comprise the glorious messianic age, was all cast in the Jewish mold, and not to be taken as literal.

Now, in these chapters Ezekiel gives the religious side of the kingdom of Israel. He deals very little with anything but the religious phase. He touches on the geographical side of the country, a little on the civil side of affairs, but puts the emphasis almost entirely upon the religious and ecclesiastical. To Ezekiel religion was the foundation of a nation, for the foundations of national existence and the great informing principles in all national life from the beginning of history to the present time, have been the religious conceptions of the people.

Ezekiel, in vision, was brought by the hand of God into the land of Israel, and set down upon a very high mountain, whereon was, as it were, the frame of a city. Placed upon this high mountain Ezekiel opens his eyes in vision and sees a man, who appears to him as a man of brass. This is an angelic and supernatural being. He has a line of flax in his hand, also a measuring reed, and stands at the gate of this great structure.

Eze 40:1-4 gives the introductory remarks of Ezekiel showing how this vision occurred. He was standing facing the west and also facing the east gate of the great sanctuary. Before him lay an enclosure, a tabernacle, 500 cubits square, measuring probably 800 feet or about 250 yards square. This enclosure was surrounded by a wall six cubits high and six cubits broad, or thick. Right before him was a gate, the east gate, approached by seven steps. The gate itself was really a large building, twenty-five cubits broad altogether and fifty cubits long, reaching into the court of the temple. Inside that gate was the outer court. That outer court was 150 cubits from the outer wall to the inner wall, and one hundred cubits from the inside entrance of the gate to the next gate on the inner wall. This outer court ran around three sides of the enclosure and on these three sides were the pavements and chambers round about on the walls.

He then approached the inner court and that had a gate facing east just the same size as the gate on the outer court, approached by eight steps showing the gradations up into the holy place. Right in front of the gate which was the same size as the other gate, was a square place of 100 cubits and in the center of that was the altar for the burnt offerings. Right behind the gate approached by ten steps was the temple building itself. There was the porch, there the holy place behind it, and the most holy place behind that, and chambers around on three sides. There was a space of five cubits on either side of this temple building and chambers twenty cubits wide on the outside of that space. The raised pavement on which the temple stood was exactly 100 cubits square and reached back to the wall that surrounded the inner court. To the north of the outer court was a gate exactly the same as that of the east gate; to the south, a gate exactly the same as the one Ezekiel entered; on the west there was no gate at all. To the inner court there was a gate to the north and a gate to the south, exactly like the one to the east which Ezekiel entered.

A more detailed description of the temple with its parts is found in Eze 40:5-16 . There he describes the outer gate by which he approaches, ascending seven steps. The outer gate has a threshold, and the entrance into the outer court has on either side three lodges or guard chambers, intended for sentinels who abode there and watched the multitudes that thronged the gates into the temple courts. This entire gate was twenty-five cubits wide by fifty cubits long, reaching fifty cubits into the outer court minus the breadth of the wall.

In Eze 40:17-19 he describes the outer court just inside that gate. That outer court is altogether 150 cubits wide minus the wall and reaches around three sides. It is covered with a pavement and around on these three sides next the wall are chambers, large rooms. What these were for he does not tell us; doubtless they were intended for service in connection with the temple worship.

In Eze 40:20-23 we have described the north gate which is exactly the same as the one on the east which he entered. In Eze 40:24-27 he describes the south gate which is exactly the same as the east and the north gate.

In Eze 40:28-37 he describes the inner court. He enters the gate of the inner court by an approach of eight steps, passes through that fifty cubits deep into the inner court. There is & south gate and a north gate exactly the same, all facing the great altar in the center of the court 100 cubits square in the temple area itself.

In Eze 40:38-43 he describes the tables that are on either side of the north gate that enters into the inner court. Outside in the outer court are four tables for killing the sacrifices and washing them; inside are four tables for the sacrifices, and there are other large stone tables upon which they would lay the instruments for slaying their sacrifices. It was the law of Leviticus that the sacrifices were to be slain north of the altar, so all these tables and instruments are at the north gate which approaches the inner court north of the great altar.

Now in the inner court we have on either side of that court which is about 250 cubits square counting the thickness of the walls on the north side and on the south side, large chambers. These chambers were for the use of the priests in their ministrations. Those on the north were for the use of those who helped the priests in their services; the south for the sons of Zadok who were the leaders among the priests. In Eze 40:38-49 , he approaches the temple itself and the porch facing the temple building; ten steps brings him up on to the raised platform which is exactly 100 cubits square and which contains all the great temple buildings.

In Eze 41:1-14 , he describes the porch, gives the measurements, then the dimensions of the tabernacle which is forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide; then the holy of holies which is exactly twenty cubits square. Ezekiel does not go into the holy of holies; only the messenger goes in and brings out the measurements and tells them to Ezekiel. The walls are six cubits thick; then there are little chambers on either side, and there are walls five cubits thick beyond them. The lower chambers are four Cubits wide, the next, five; the next, six, just the same as those of Solomon’s Temple. All around on either side of that Temple with its chambers, which was nearly forty cubits wide altogether, was an open space of five cubits, and outside of that, again on this pavement of ten cubits, along the two sides were buildings used as chambers for the priests.

In Eze 41:15-26 he describes the inside of the temple proper. It is made of wood, beautifully carved wood, cherubim carved as was Solomon’s Temple; palm trees carved and engraved upon the wood also, and only one altar, no table of shewbread, no golden candlestick, no ark of the covenant, no laws written on tables of stone; they were written on the tables of the heart now and there is no need for an ark of the covenant or for these other things, only an altar representing the prayers and worship of the people. There are doors into the holy place and folding doors into the most holy place. We do not read that Solomon made any doors between those apartments.

Now in Eze 42:1-14 , the other buildings that are inside this inner court are described. This inner court, as we have said, is about 250 cubits square; 100 cubits are taken up by the altar, 100 for the temple buildings and chambers, then there are fifty cubits on either side along the north and south sides. Now these are described in the section we have just mentioned. They are chambers, and one row is three stories high, extending along 100 cubits on the north side of the temple buildings, and south side also a row 100 cubits long. These are for the priests, in which they store their garments, and in which they dress that they may appear before the people in the outer court and perform the services in the inner court.

In Eze 42:15-20 , we have the measurements of the outer wall and the whole area of the buildings. Here he gives the general measurements. Now note that he says 500 reeds. A reed is six cubits. Thus he gives the general measurements such as I have described. Thus far he has been describing the temple and we readily see it is impossible to give all the details.

In Eze 43:1-12 we enter upon a new theme: the vision of the entrance of Jehovah into this house, this temple, to abide forever. Notice that Ezekiel says in the latter part of verse Eze 43:3 : “The visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar.” The same magnificent picture of the four cherubim appears here now right at the gate of the temple and Jehovah thus enters into the temple by the east gate, there to abide forever. Note what he says to Ezekiel as he enters, verses Eze 43:6-7 : “And I heard one speaking unto me out of the house; and a man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. And my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile.” Thus he goes on to describe the new and blessed condition of Israel and how they are purified from all their sins. Then in Eze 43:10-12 Ezekiel shows to the people this vision of the great temple that they are to have, and he says that they shall be ashamed of their iniquities when they see and learn the pattern. It is a perfect temple, perfect equipment, divinely measured and symbolizes the relation of Jehovah to his people.

Now in Eze 43:13-17 he describes the altar of burnt offerings in the center of that 100 cubits square in the court. Bight in front of the east, north, and south gates: that altar has a base eighteen cubits square and one cubit thick, resting upon the solid earth; then another place above that sixteen cubits square, and another one fourteen cubits square, and the uppermost one twelve cubits square with four projections, or horns, one at each corner. So the altar stands high and is twelve cubits, or about twenty feet, square.

In Eze 43:18-27 he describes the sacrifices and the ceremonies relating to the altar. The sacrifices and ceremonies are to be performed by the sons of Zadok and they are to cleanse the altar and purify it and make it ready for the sacrifices of God.

In Eze 44:1-3 , he says that the east gate was to be kept forever shut, because through that gate Jehovah had entered and he had entered to remain forever, and therefore the gate by which he had entered must be closed forever, and no being in heaven nor on earth should pass through it.

In Eze 44:4-14 , we have the subordinate position of the Levites. The Levites previous to the exile had become idolatrous, almost to a man; they had gone after the worship of idols (but many of the priestly families had remained faithful to Jehovah) and because of that Ezekiel says that the Levites should not serve in the temple, but should be degraded to a secondary position and only the sons of Zadok could minister in the inner court.

In Eze 44:15-30 , Ezekiel gives the precepts and the rules regarding the priests. These priests were of the sons of Zadok. Doubtless, Ezekiel himself belonged to that line. They alone were to go into the inner court; the people were allowed in the outer courts, but only the priests in the inner court. They were to have linen garments and everything was to be so pure and so clean that they were not allowed to wear any garments that would hold perspiration; not one drop of perspiration was allowed to remain in their clothing; they were to be scrupulously clean. Their beards were not to be shaved; they were not to drink any wine while performing the services; they were to marry only a certain class of women, the widow of a priest or a virgin of the house of Israel; they were to teach the people, and they were to be the judges in all cases of the law. The priests were to judge between the litigants. They were to have no possessions, verse Eze 44:28 : “I am their inheritance; and ye shall give them no possessions in Israel; I am their possession.” They were to have all the first-fruits of the land and certain other material resources.

In Eze 45:1-8 , we have the portion of land assigned to the priests. In almost the center of this land of Israel, a space 25,000 cubits wide extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the river Jordan was set apart for the prince and the priests and the city and the temple. In the center of that was a section 25,000 cubits long and 25,000 cubits wide divided thus: 10,000 cubits of the northern part was for the Levites, 10,000 cubits in the center, for the priests and in the center of that was this section we have just described; south of that, 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long was the city area and in the center of that was the city itself, about two miles square; lands on either side also about two miles square; the whole section was about eight miles square. The Levites had a section about two by eight miles; the priests had a section about two by eight miles, and the city, a little more than two by eight. At each end of this section reaching to the Mediterranean Sea on the west side, and to the Jordan on the east, was the portion of the prince, or royal family, the messianic king.

In Eze 45:9-17 we have the ordinances for the prince. He was strictly commanded to be just and square in his dealings, and strange to say, the prince received the tithes from all the people of Israel, and he supplied the priests with all their sacrifices, and sustained them out of what the people brought to him. The prince was a very important personage. He was really the Messiah, the messianic King.

In Eze 45:18-25 we have the ordinances for cleansing the temple, for the atonement, for the Passover, and the various offerings, for which see the text.

In Eze 46:1-15 , we have the ordinances for the feasts. They are going to have sacrifices, feasts, pilgrimages, in this blessed messianic age, according to Ezekiel, and he lays down rules for the feasts of the new moon, the sabbath, the Passover, and all other appointed feasts. It is to be the Levitical system carried out to perfection all through the ages. But remember that this is only the Jewish mold into which these blessed events are cast.

In Eze 46:16-18 , Ezekiel says that a prince cannot forfeit permanently his inheritance. If he does deed it to any member of another noble family, it reverts back to the royal family in time. Thus these two portions of land are reserved to the line of David forever.

In Eze 46:19-24 we have described the kitchens for the priests. They are to have kitchens in the temple, and in the far northwest corner of the inner court, and the far southwest corner of this inner court are great buildings that serve as kitchens where the priests are to boil their meat for these services in the temple; then in the same corners of the outer court are large buildings where they are going to boil the meat and sacrifices for the people. The Levites are to do this, as they are not allowed in the inner court.

In Eze 47:1-12 Ezekiel describes a stream which issues from the temple and flows down to the inner court and outer court and out by the east gate through which Ezekiel had entered and through which Jehovah had entered, and which is forever closed, down across the land toward the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. Many have preached from that chapter on “The River of Life.” It ran through that desert land, and coursed down to the awful wilderness surrounding the Dead Sea, making everything green and the trees bore their fruit every month, the analogue of John’s vision of the River of Life flowing through the great city of God. Then it flows through those deserts and into the Dead Sea healing the water which became alive with fishes and everything the river touches lives. It flows down into the barren deserts, the dead seas of life, the worthless places, and heals them. There are certain portions by that Dead Sea that Ezekiel says were given to salt, the marshes. These were not healed but were given to salt as they needed the salt in the east for their sacrifices and their food, that was a hot climate. Thus closes the vision of Ezekiel of the land of Israel. The land is rich and verdant, teeming with life and fruitage; it is the blessed messianic age. (See the author’s sermon on “The River of Life.”)

Eze 47:13-23 describe the boundaries of the Holy Land and the privilege of strangers attaching themselves to the tribes. The boundaries of the Holy Land we cannot exactly fix but they extend west to the Mediterranean Sea; to about the entering in of Hamath for the northern boundary; the eastern boundary is the valley of Jordan down through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea; the southern boundary is by way of Kadeshbarnea and to the brook of Egypt. That is Ezekiel’s Holy Land.

In Eze 48:1-7 , he tells what tribes are going to live north of the oblation. This tract of land, 25,000 cubits wide and reaching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, is the oblation; the tribes that are to live north of the oblation we find in verses 1-7. To the far north is Dan; south of him is Asher, reaching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan Valley; the same for Napthali, and a similar section for Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, and Judah, bordering on the oblation which was the center and contained the portion for the Levites, temple, city, and prince. Why he has them in that order we cannot tell.

In Eze 48:8-22 we have the oblation itself and its divisions again described: 25,000 cubits wide, reaching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan and in the center of that square, 10,000 to the north for the Levites, 10,000 for the priests and in the center of that, the temple; then a section, 5,000 wide to the south for the city. We see by this that Ezekiel does not think that the temple should be in the city, and he separated them by a distance of about three miles. The city is about two miles square. It has land on either side of it which is to support the people. Ezekiel makes no provision for the growth of the city, nor for the increase of the Levites, nor for the priests; there they are and they are going to abide forever.

In Eze 48:23-29 , he gives the tribes south of the city, and the first one is Benjamin. Ezekiel puts Judah north and Benjamin south, while before, they had always been the reverse. Below that is Simeon, then Issachar, then Zebulun, and Gad; previously they had been closer together.

Then Eze 48:30-35 tell of the gates of the city. There are three on each of the four sides. This is the analogue of John’s magnificent vision of the holy city “on the east three gates, on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.” He goes on to show which tribes shall enter in by these several gates: three tribes on one side, etc., grouping Ephraim and Manasseh under the name of Joseph. He closes by saying, Eze 48:35 , “And the name of the city from that day shall be Jehovah-shammah,” Jehovah is there, that is, all this land is to be sanctified by the presence of Jehovah, from Dan in the far north to Gad in the far south. As one approaches the oblation, it is to be more holy; the domain of the priests and the sanctuary, still more holy. The outer court, the inner court, the temple platform, the holy place, then the most holy of all.

That is Ezekiel’s picture of the great messianic age. He believed that all the people that inhabited this land were people who had a new heart and a right spirit, who had the old stony heart taken out of them and a heart of flesh given them; that God’s laws were written in their hearts and on their minds; that they walked in his statutes and in his law; converted people, regenerated people, living in bliss upon the earth.

Will this ever be literally fulfilled? Can it be possible that when Jesus Christ comes this will be fulfilled as Ezekiel pictures it? Our pre-millennialist brethren believe that this will be literally fulfilled. They believe that Christianity must revert back to Judaism with Jerusalem as its center. To me it is unthinkable that our gospel with its worldwide vision and mission can become so cabbined, cribbed, coffined, and confined that it will be shut up to Palestine and to Judaism. That would be an unthinkable anticlimax.

QUESTIONS

1. What was the date of the writing of this prophecy?

2. What was Ezekiel doing during the thirteen years between his last prophecy before this and this one and what the bearing on this last prophecy?

3. Give a bird’s eye view of the temple as Been by Ezekiel.

4. Give a more detailed description of the temple with its parts.

5. Describe Jehovah’s entrance into this temple and give its significance.

6. Describe the altar of burnt offerings and the sacrifices to be offered thereon.

7. What is the ordinance regarding the east gate and why?

8. What the ordinance respecting the position of the Levites and why?

9. What ordinances regarding the priests?

10. What provisions were made for the priests?

11. What are the ordinances regarding the prince and what special provision for the people by the prince?

12. What are the ordinances for cleansing the temple, etc.?

13. What are the ordinances for the feasts?

14. What are the ordinances for the inheritance of the prince?

15. What is the special provision for the work of the priests and Levites?

16. Describe Ezekiel’s “River of Life” and give its significance.

17. Give the boundaries of Ezekiel’s holy land.

18. What are tribes are to be north of the oblation?

19. Describe the oblation itself.

20. What are the tribes south of the oblation?

21. Describe the gates of the city and give the position of the tribes.

22. What do you say of the fulfilment of this magnificent prophetic picture by Ezekiel?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Eze 48:1 Now these [are] the names of the tribes. From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east [and] west; a [portion for] Dan.

Ver. 1. Now these are the name, of the tribes. ] Who are in this chapter assigned their several seats, and the land divided among them; but this division is much different from that of old, which was a plain prediction of a perfect and total abrogation of the Mosaic polity and Levitical worship, together with a new state of the Church of God after the coming of Jesus Christ.

To the coast of the way of Hethlon. ] Eze 47:15-17 . Judea was not, say geographers, over two hundred miles long, and fifty miles broad; but R. Kimchi here noteth, that the Talmudists affirm that the possession of Israel shall extend unto the utmost coasts of the earth, id quod ex spiritu dictum existima, a This was well and truly spoken, though they understood not what they spake, as dreaming only of an earthly kingdom. But as elsewhere, so here, the land of Canaan is put for the whole world, Psa 89:11-12 whereof all true believers are heirs, together with faithful Abraham, Rom 4:11 whether they be Jews or Gentiles. Christ’s kingdom runs to the end of the earth. Psa 2:8 ; Psa 72:8

A Portion for Dan. ] This tribe, which was, for their shameful revolt from the true religion, Jdg 18:30 cut out of the roll, as it were, 1Ch 7:1 ; 1Ch 7:13-14 ; 1Ch 7:20 ; 1Ch 7:30 Rev 7:5-8 is here reckoned first of those who had partem et sortem, part and lot among God’s people. So true is that of our Saviour, “Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” Mat 19:30 ; Mat 20:16 “Judge not therefore according to the appearance,” &c. Repent, and God will re-accept. The fable of Antichrist to come of this tribe is long since exploded.

a Oecolamp.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Ezekiel Chapter 48

It must be evident to every dispassionate mind that the distribution of the tribes in the land, from Joshua to the ruin of the kingdom, wholly differs from what is here predicted, and that nothing answering to the prophecy can be alleged since. Thus Dan is in the extreme north, not Naphtali, as of old; next Asher, and, not till then, Naphtali. Again Manasseh, instead of being divided by the Jordan, is altogether like the other tribes, with Ephraim to the south, and Reuben no longer to the east of the Jordan but following, and Judah immediately before the holy oblation. South of the oblation is first of all Benjamin’s portion reversing their ancient order, in which the former was north and the latter south. Simeon comes next, and Issachar (instead of its old position, south-west of the sea of Galilee and north of Samaria) follows Simeon. Then succeeds Zebulun, which of old was north of Issachar; and Gad, instead of its ancient locality in the east, is found the most southern of all.

“Now these [are] the names of the tribes: from the north end to the coast of the way to Hethlon, to the entering in of Hamath, Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus northward to the coast of Hamath; and these are the sides thereof east [and] west; Dan, one. And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the west side; Asher, one. And by the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side; Naphtali, one. And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side; Manasseh, one. And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side; Ephraim, one. And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side; Reuben, one. And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side; Judah, one. And by the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the oblation which ye shall offer, five and twenty thousand in breadth, and in length as one of the parts, from the east side to the west side; and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it. The oblation that ye shall offer unto Jehovah [shall be] of five and twenty thousand in length, and of ten thousand in breadth. And for them, [even] for the priests, shall be [this] holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand [in length], and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of Jehovah shall be in the midst thereof. [It shall be] for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray. And [this] oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy by the border of the Levites. And over against the border of the priests the Levites [shall have] five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length [shall be] five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand. And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land; for [it is] holy unto Jehovah. And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane [place] for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof. And these [shall be] the measures thereof: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred. And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty. And the residue in length over against the oblation of the holy [portion shall be] ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward: and it shall be over against the oblation of the holy [portion]; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that serve the city. And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel. All the oblation [shall be] five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city. And the residue [shall be] for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions for the prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and the sanctuary of the house [shall be] in the midst thereof. Moreover, from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, [being] in the midst [of that] which is the prince’s, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince. As for the rest of the tribes, from the east side unto the west side; Benjamin, one. And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side; Simeon, one. And by the border of Simeon, from the east side unto the west side; Issachar, one. And by the border of Issachar, from the east side unto the west side; Zebulun, one. And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side; Gad, one. And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar [unto] the waters of strife [in] Kadesh, [and] to the river toward the great sea. This [is] the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these [are] their portions, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Vers. 1-29)

It will be observed that, as in the days of Joshua, the land was divided by lot; so it will be in the day when a greater than he takes the kingdom. The oblation is a wholly new feature of this redistribution of Israel, when He comes whose right is the crown, and whose prime care is the sanctuary of Jehovah. Prince, priests, and Levites shall be there, each in due place in relation to the city and the sanctuary. For it is no question here of heaven or the heavenly city, new Jerusalem, that comes down out of heaven from God, but of the earth and the land. The temple is as marked here as it is emphatically absent in Rev 21 . So there are not, nor could be, priests or Levites, feasts or sacrifices, in the heavenly city of the Apocalypse any more than in Christianity now. In Ezekiel there are essential and indelible traits, which are only intelligible to those who, believing the prophets look for the age to come before eternity, and the fulfilment of prophecy in the blessing of Israel and the Gentiles under the reign of the Lord Jesus, when He shall have come with all His saints in glory. Unbelief of the truth is natural, and reasoning against it is not difficult, but the word of God remains as plain and sure as ever; and blessed are they who, confessing the future joy and rest which await Israel on earth, converted in the grace and faithfulness of God, are the more free to await the Son of God from heaven. our Deliverer from the coming wrath. To see with distinctness the place of the earthly people, first under the old legal responsibility, next under the Messiah and the new covenant, helps greatly those who through grace now believe against the efforts of Satan, who would darken and destroy, if possible, their intelligence and enjoyment of their own proper blessedness and calling on high, as the body of Christ and bride of the Lamb. Mysticism is thus avoided, and scripture received in simple faith.

One more section leads us to the close of the prophecy. “And these [are] the goings forth of the city: on the north side four thousand and five hundred measures; and the gates of the city [shall be] according to the names of the tribes of Israel; three gates northward, one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi. And at the east side four thousand and five hundred: and three gates; and one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan. And at the south side four thousand and five hundred measures: and three gates; one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun. At the west side four thousand and five hundred, [with] their three gates; one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali. [It was] round about eighteen thousand [measures]; and the name of the city from [that] day [shall be], Jehovah [is] there.” (Vers. 30-35)

This then is the last and chief glory – the presence of Jehovah in the city of His choice. In this Israel shall boast above all their privileges; and justly, for it is the complement and crown of all. How bright an end of their long wanderings, and of their manifold sorrows! How worthy of His redeeming grace, who will cleanse away the guilt which shed it, when they turn to Him in faith, discerning and owning at length their self-destructive folly in the light of His love, who never wavered but died for them so many centuries before they broke down in shame and contrition before Him!

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 48:1-7

1Now these are the names of the tribes: from the northern extremity, beside the way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, toward the north beside Hamath, running from east to west, Dan, one portion. 2Beside the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one portion. 3Beside the border of Asher, from the east side to the west side, Naphtali, one portion. 4Beside the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one portion. 5Beside the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one portion. 6Beside the border of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side, Reuben, one portion. 7Beside the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one portion.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

these are the names. For the various orderings and groupings of the twelve tribes, see App-45. Compare Exo 1:1.

Dan. Note the different positions, by which the wives’ offspring are placed in thecentre, nearest to the oblation; while the slave offspring are placed at the extremities farthest from the oblation.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Eze 48:1

Eze 48:1-35

The apportionment of the Land of Canaan among the Twelve Tribes, following the setting apart of the land for Jerusalem is detailed here. The Twelve Tribes are named, with their allotments; but they are not named in the usual order. A land allotment is made for the king; the Twelve Tribes are honored by having the twelve gates of Jerusalem named for them, one gate for each tribe.

It is easy to see that very little of this section of Ezekiel can be seen as having very much importance to Christians. The kingdom of God reaches into all nations and kingdoms of the world; and that little acreage called Palestine is a tiny place indeed compared to the world-wide Empire of the Christ. It is true that countless millions do not serve or worship Christ; but countless millions do so in all of the most favored and blessed of earth’s nations, a fact that stands in evidence as Cause and Results upon the face of the whole earth. “The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15).

This eternal reign of Christ is not something for some faroff tomorrow. It is going on now. Christ has been reigning ever since Almighty God committed into his hands “All authority in heaven and upon earth”; and it will continue until the last enemy, death itself, has been destroyed (1Co 15:25).

Oh, but some do not allow Christ to reign over them. True indeed, but that makes no difference whatever. Jesus Christ is over all; and the people who refuse him have chosen for themselves eternal death.

Before leaving this section, we shall observe what some scholars have said about it:

“The water flowing out of the Temple teaches that all blessings material and spiritual emanate from the presence of the Lord and of his people.” Did not Paul himself say the same thing? “All spiritual blessings in the heavenly places are in Christ” (Eph 1:3).

When the Jews who returned from Babylon finally got around to restoring the Temple, “Cyrus’ decree authorizing the building of the Temple specified a height of 60 cubits, which was twice the height of Solomon’s Temple.” Since God controlled the actions of Cyrus, this indicates that, at first, God did really intend that the magnificent Temple such as Ezekiel saw in his vision should have actually been built. That it was not can be attributed only to the sins and hardening of the Chosen People.

“We cannot interpret these chapters as an allegory, because of the large number of directions and measurements.”

We have discovered ten different diagrams of Ezekiel’s Temple, and no two of them are exactly alike. We have decided to spare the reader any effort of our own to submit another diagram! What possible difference could minor distinctions make in a Temple that was never built?

Yet it must be admitted that, “Nothing that Ezekiel could have written would have stirred up as much interest and excitement as this description of the New Temple to be constructed in Jerusalem would have stirred up among the exiles.”

“To make these nine chapters a deliberately symbolical description of the worship of the Christian Church is out of the question, because Ezekiel expected this vision to be carried out to the letter; furthermore he envisioned it as taking place (in part miraculously) upon the coming of Messiah.”

Nevertheless, Canon Cook affirmed that, “The vision must be viewed as symbolical, the symbols employed being the Mosaic ordinances.” We believe Cook is correct, because the Temple itself was never intended as anything else except a symbol, as were the priests and their ordinances and the whole order of the Mosaic tabernacle. See our Commentary on Exodus for full elaboration of this. The Temple, from the first, symbolized God’s dwelling in the midst of his people; the priests were symbols of Christians; their sacrifices typefled the great atoning sacrifice of the blood of Christ and also, in a lesser sense, their ministrations typified the spiritual services which Christians offer up to God (1Pe 2:5). We do not believe for a moment that Ezekiel fully understood the symbolical nature of the vision which he saw, no doubt thinking of it as the ultimate reality itself.

“The picture of the river flowing from under the threshold of the Temple is a clear instance of symbolism, expressive of the blessings that flow from God’s presence in his sanctuary (his Church).”

“These closing chapters present vast difficulties. The Rabbis of the Talmud remarked that only Elijah, who will herald the ultimate redemption, will elucidate the discrepancies with the Pentateuchal laws and the terms which are found only here.” Many scholars have cited places in the text which they have designated as “hopelessly corrupt.” Cooke noted that, “Much of the detail in Ezekiel 40-42 is difficult and obscure.”

God at this time was drafting a new constitution, a New Covenant, for a New Israel of God, the first step being a return of Israel from Babylon and the reestablishing of them in Canaan; and this New Temple to come at the close of the Exile would never be able to meet the demands of that New Israel of God; and in this description of it, “There is a reaching out to something broader, larger, and more spiritual, even to that Israel of Messianic times, the Church of God in the Christian ages.”

Eichrodt marveled that nothing was said here about the foreign nations, but the application of the great symbols of this passage to the New Israel in the times of Messiah makes any mention of “foreign nations” absolutely unnecessary. In the New order, there will be no such thing as Jews and foreign nations. All will be upon exactly the same level. Jews will have no special privileges in the New Israel. We believe that all the foreign nations (Gentiles) are symbolized by the Ten Tribes of lost Israel.

The Millennial view that the distant future will see the actual building of some literal Temple in Jerusalem and the bringing together of the alleged Tribes of Israel together to offer sacrifices in it appears to be the ultimate impossibility. The Tribes of Israel have long been lost as regards their identity, there not being a Jew on earth today who can possibly know what tribe he came from. Furthermore, regarding animal sacrifices, what earthly good could come of such things? Could they be a substitute for the `Blood of Jesus Christ’? “A Temple with such sacrifices now would be a denial of the all-sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ. Under Moses, he who sacrificed animals confessed Christ; whosoever would do so now would most solemnly deny him.”

Alexander referred to Ezekiel’s Temple as “the Millennial Temple”; but it is our conviction that the Church of Jesus Christ is the only Millennial Temple known to God. The Church is the Temple which was indeed built, by the Son of God Himself; it is the Temple in which the Spirit of God and his indwelling presence may be found forever.

This literal thing that Ezekiel saw, what good could it possibly serve? Could one Temple in Jerusalem serve the millions of the servants of God? What earthly benefit could be won by animal sacrifices? Would the Jews still cheat the worshippers by overcharging for the sacrifices and then cheating on the Temple exchange like they did when they ran it of old? We are mystified indeed by the loyalty some seem to have in regard to theories of a literal Millennium.

Howie noted that the omission of the west gate in chapter 40 was due to the fact that, “It should be understood that there was no west gate; the Temple faced toward the East, and there was no rear entrance.” We have already noted that it is very unlikely that Ezekiel had any adequate conception whatever of the true spiritual import of certain elements in his vision. As Skinner said, “Although Ezekiel himself does not distinguish between symbol and reality, it is nevertheless possible for us to see, in the essential ideas of this vision, a prophecy of that eternal union between God and man which is brought to pass by the work of Christ.”

The literalists who think they can find the promise of fleshly Jews being glorified in a return to Canaan and the rebuilding of their Temple can find no support whatever for such views in the New Testament. As Keil said, “It is impossible to understand the Holy City of Revelation 11 as the literal Jerusalem, nor the woman clothed with the sun in Revelation 12 as the Jewish race converted to Christ. The Jerusalem of those passages is spiritually the same as Sodom and Egypt.”

Nevertheless, it must be remembered that a great deal of the imagery used by the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation strongly resembles the terminology here. The Twelve Gates of the eternal City coming down out of heaven from God (Rev 21:12), having the names of the Twelve Tribes engraved upon them, is an example of this.

“This whole section of Ezekiel forms an ideal picture which was never actually to be realized, but which strikingly embodies the conception of the abiding presence of God with his people, and of their perfect fellowship with him.”

“The last two chapters of Revelation refer to this section of Ezekiel, as the previous chapter refers to that of Gog and Magog. and therefore these chapters of Ezekiel are to be the more regarded.”

The Division of the Land Among the Tribes (Eze 48:1-35)

The land is divided among the twelve tribes in Chapter 48. Again, we are faced with a now familiar question — literal or figurative? If literal, remember that Eze 37:25 tells us that these people will live in this divided land forever. Eze 37:25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever.

After all we have seen, we must conclude that this division of the land is a symbolic division. God is showing us his wonderful plan for the church — it will include all of his people and none will be left out. He uses the symbol 144,000 in Revelation 7 to say the same thing.

Judah and Benjamin are located right next to the Levites and the Temple area. Judah had the position of honor immediately north of the temple area because the royal Davidic line was from the tribe of Judah. (Gen 49:8-12) Judah superseded Reuben (the oldest son), who received the next position on the north side. The other two northern places are held by the grandsons of Rachel, the children of Joseph.

The three tribes that are farthest north of the sanctuary (Dan, Asher, and Naphtali) were the sons of Jacob’s concubines. Dan and Naphtali were born to Rachel’s maid Bilhah, and Asher to Leah’s maid Zilpah. Only one Biblical character of note came from tribe of Asher — and it was a New Testament character! It was Anna the prophetess in Luk 2:36. The positions farthest from the temple were the least honorable positions. Dan is the farthest away to the north, and interestingly as we have seen Dan is excluded from the list of tribes in Revelation 7. The fourth son by a concubine (Gad) is the farthest away from the sanctuary in the southern group of tribes.

To the Jewish mind, this orderly division is a clear message that under the New Covenant everything will be as it should be. God will be in charge, and there will be no confusion.

The central portion is described in Eze 48:8-22.

Much of this description is an expansion of what we were told in Eze 45:1-8. The central portion includes the temple area, the priestly area, the city proper, land belonging to the city, and land along each side belonging to the Prince. (See Lesson 23 for a discussion of the Prince.) The total area is 25,000 by 25,000 cubits, which would be between 50 and 70 square miles.

To the south of the city are the five remaining tribes. Benjamin, as his father’s youngest son by Rahel, has the privileged position immediately next to the sanctuary. Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun come next, all born of Leah. Finally, we have Gad, a son of the concubine Zilpah.

The city that stands south of the temple area has twelve gates, each of which is named after one of the tribes. In this list, Levi has a gate, and so Joseph gets one gate in place of his two sons to keep the total number at 12. On the north side (the side facing the sanctuary) the gates are named after Reuben (the eldest son), Judah (the Davidic ancestor), and Levi (the founder of the priesthood).

These verses can also be compared with Rev 21-22.

As we have seen, that chapter describes the new Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven. It too had twelve gates, named after the twelve tribes of Israel, but it was also inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Recall that Matthias was added to the apostles in Act 1:26 to replace Judas, again to maintain the total number of 12. (But Paul was also an apostle, so yet again we seem to have 14 people for 12 positions.) The book closes with the name of that city: “Jehovah is there!”

1. McGuiggan: “A great ending for a great book.”

2. Ezekiel’s closing words give the city its new name — The Lord is There!

Jer 3:17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.

Jer 33:16 In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’

Again, compare Rev 21:3 — “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.”

God dwells with man now in the church! If you want to find God, then look in His church. The Lord is there! The church is where He placed the saved, as we see in Act 2:47.

Zec 2:10-11 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the LORD. 11 “Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.

Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

Eph 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

In his 25 years of exile and in the 48 chapters of his book: (1) Ezekiel had seen God withdraw from his temple because of the sin that was committed there. (2) He had seen God by the waters of Babylon in the vision of the chariot throne. (3) He had promised the exiles that that there would be a new covenant when God would be with his people forever. (4) Now at last, he saw the completion — the time when God would be with his people forever under that new covenant.

(Jer 33:14-18) Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah: 15 ‘In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David A Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ 17 “For thus says the LORD: ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; 18 ‘nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.’ “

The Temple and the Land – Eze 47:1 to Eze 48:35

Open It

1. What sorts of conflicts have you seen, or would expect to see, surrounding the division of an inheritance?

2. What particular recollections, positive or negative, do you have regarding rivers?

Explore It

3. At the end of his tour of the restored temple of God, what did Ezekiel see coming out of the temple? (Eze 47:1-2)

4. What happened to the stream of water as it got farther away from the temple? (Eze 47:3-6)

5. What good effects did the river in Ezekiels vision have along its route? (Eze 47:7-12)

6. What were Gods instructions for the division of the land among the tribes? (Eze 47:13-21)

7. How did God instruct His people to regard aliens who had settled among them for legal purposes? (Eze 47:22-23)

8. How specific were Gods instructions about which tribe was to receive which piece of land? (Eze 48:1-7; Eze 48:23-29)

9. For what purposes did God set aside the “special gift” of land at the center of the country? (Eze 48:8-22)

10. What different groups were specifically provided for within the special sector of land? (Eze 48:8-22)

11. How were the gates of the city of Jerusalem to be named? (Eze 48:30-34)

12. How did the name of the city reflect its reason for being? (Eze 48:35)

Get It

13. What do you think the river that flowed out of the temple in Ezekiels vision might represent?

14. How does this passage show us that Gods blessings are not for a single ethnic group only?

15. Why is it important for us to set aside portions of the blessings God gives to us?

16. What conclusions can we draw from the characterization of the new Israel about the fairness and holiness of God?

17. What do you think is the greatest privilege of any nation, city, or individual?

Apply It

18. How can you set aside something from the material blessings God has given you in order to honor and thank Him?

19. What source of help, inspiration, and power from God is available to prosper your daily life, and how can you take advantage of it?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The disposition of the tribes in relation to the sanctuary was then given. On the north of the sacred land Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, and Judah were to find their possessions, and in that order from north to south. In the sacred land itself, at the very center, stood the sanctuary, and the priests’ possession was immediately round about it. On the north of the land of the sanctuary and the priests, was the possession of the Levites, while on its south were the city and its adjacent lands. On the east and the west of all these was the princes’ portion. Then to the south of the sacred land lay the portions of Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Gad, and in that order from north to south.

The last vision granted to Ezekiel was of the city at the south of the sacred land, having three gates toward each of the points of the compass, on which were inscribed the names of the tribes of Israel.

The final words of this prophet of hope announced the name of the city, “Jehovah-Shammah,” signifying, “The Lord is there.” Thus the lonely witness to the glory of God, in exile in Babylon, rejoiced “in hope of the glory of God.”

It is a fit and exquisite termination to this most wonderful book. Ezekiel had been arrested and inspired by visions of the essential glory of God, which he was able to describe only in terms full of majestic suggestiveness, which even to this day we read with great reverence and wonder. He had observed the reprobation of his people, and had seen that at its deepest it consisted in the fact that Jehovah had withdrawn Himself from them. Through all the clouds and darkness in the midst of which he lived, he had looked on to the people’s restoration, and had seen that it consisted in the return of Jehovah to their midst, and all the burden of his message ended with the simple and sublime word, “Jehovah is there.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Chapter Forty-eight

Jehovah Shammah

Ere the wondrous vision faded away our prophet saw the land far extended, as Isa 33:17 tells us, Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land of far distances (A. V., margin).

Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end, beside the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath, Hazarenan at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath (and they shall have their sides east and west), Dan, one portion. And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the west side, Asher, one portion. And by the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side, Naphtali, one portion. And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, Manasseh, one portion. And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, Ephraim, one portion. And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side, Reuben, one portion. And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, Judah, one portion-vers. 1-7.

The inheritance of seven tribes is depicted in broad belts running from west to east across the entire land promised to the earthly seed of Abraham (Gen 15:7; Gen 15:18-21; Gen 17:8). That covenant has never been rescinded, so remains inviolate, for it was based not upon mans faithfulness but upon pure grace. The universal testimony of the prophets is that when Israel returns to God they will be re-established in their land, never to be rooted out again.

Seven tribes are listed here who will possess the northern part of Canaan and the land east of the Jordan.

And by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the oblation which ye shall offer, five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the portions, from the east side unto the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it. The oblation that ye shall offer unto Jehovah shall be five and twenty thousand reeds in length, and ten thousand in breadth. And for these, even for the priests, shall be the holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of Jehovah shall be in the midst thereof. It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, that have kept My charge, that went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray. And it shall be unto them an oblation from the oblation of the land, a thing most holy, by the border of the Levites-vers. 8-12.

Immediately south of the portion of Judah was the oblation set apart for the priests with the sanctuary in the midst. There the glory of God was seen. It is His delight to dwell amid the praises of His people. As a tender loving Father He would have all His children gathered about Him, enjoying happy fellowship and uninterrupted communion.

It is interesting to note how often this expression in the midst is used in connection with Jehovahs place among His chosen ones. Of old the tabernacle, Gods dwelling-place, was in the midst of the camp (Num 2:17; Num 5:3). God Himself walked in the midst of the camp (Deu 23:14). He dwelt in the midst of Jerusalem (Psa 46:5); the Holy One of Israel dwelt in the midst of the nations (Isa 12:6; Hos 11:9); Zephaniah who, like Ezekiel, looked forward to future blessing, saw the Lord again in the midst as of old (Zep 3:5; Zep 3:15). It is this that Ezekiel saw in vision: the tribes resting in peace after all their long centuries of distress and wandering among the nations, and Jehovah dwelling in His sanctuary in the midst of His redeemed ones.

And answerable unto the border of the priests, the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand. And they shall sell none of it, nor exchange it, nor shall the first-fruits of the land be alienated; for it is holy unto Jehovah-vers. 13, 14.

That which is dedicated to the Lord must not be alienated for any cause or used for any other purpose. As the first-fruits belonged to Him so with the oblation for His sanctuary. The holy must not be confounded with the secular, but the title of Jehovah is to be ever acknowledged.

And the five thousand that are left in the breadth, in front of the five and twenty thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for dwelling and for suburbs; and the city shall be in the midst thereof. And these shall be the measures thereof: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred. And the city shall have suburbs: toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty. And the residue in the length, answerable unto the holy oblation, shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and it shall be answerable unto the holy oblation; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that labor in the city. And they that labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall till it. All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city-vers. 15-20.

The city and its suburbs occupied a wide and a broad space surrounding the Lords portion. Here the people were to dwell comfortably housed and enjoying the fruit of their labor as they tilled the open land surrounding the city itself, thus enjoying the fruits that it would bring forth. When God gets His rightful place His people may be sure that their interests will be well looked after.

And the residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation and of the possession of the city; in front of the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward in front of the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, answerable unto the portions, it shall be for the prince: and the holy oblation and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof. Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the princes, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, it shall be for the prince-vers. 21, 22.

The inheritance of the prince was in close connection with that of the priests and the Levites, near to the sanctuary; thus everyone would have his allotted place according to the plan of God, with whom there is no disorder or confusion.

And as for the rest of the tribes: from the east side unto the west side, Benjamin, one portion. And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon, one portion. And by the border of Simeor, from the east side unto the west side, Issachar, one portion. And by the border of Issachar, from the east side unto the west side, Zebulun, one portion. And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side, Gad, one portion. And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, unto the great sea. This is the land which ye shall divide by lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their several portions, saith the Lord Jehovah-vers. 23-29.

Five tribes were seen as located on broad strips of land south of the city, even as seven had been depicted north of it. It is noticeable that the Levites, as of old, were not numbered among the tribes receiving an inheritance in the land because the Lord is their portion, but Joseph is divided into Ephraim and Manasseh, as when they took possession of Palestine of old. The Levites, as we have seen, had their place in the sacred oblation, in the vicinity of the temple.

And these are the egresses of the city: On the north side four thousand and five hundred reeds by measure; and the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one. And at the east side four thousand and five hundred reeds, and three gates: even the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one. And at the south side four thousand and five hundred reeds by measure, and three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one. At the west side four thousand and five hundred reeds, with their three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one. It shall be eighteen thousand reeds round about: and the name of the city from that day shall be, Jehovah is there-vers. 30-35.

Ezekiel saw twelve gates to the city of his vision, and on each gate the name of one of the tribes of Israel. In this case Levi was listed as one of the tribes, and Joseph as another, so that the distinction between Ephraim and Manasseh is not recognized here. The heavenly Jerusalem as seen by John also had twelve gates, and on these too the names of the twelve tribes were inscribed. But the one scene is earthly and the other heavenly. Abrahams literal seed will be partly in heaven and partly on earth. All Old Testament saints will be raised and have their place in Jerusalem which is above. Those living on the earth at the second advent will possess the land as promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is Israel.

The account of the vision closes with the declara- tion that the restored earthly city will bear the name of Jehovah Shammah-that is, The Lord is there, for He will, as we have seen, return in glory to His sanctuary and will dwell in the midst of His people throughout the kingdom age.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

CHAPTER 48

1. The portion of the seven tribes (Eze 48:1-7)

2. The oblation for the sanctuary, for the city, and for the prince (Eze 48:8-20)

3. The gates of the city and its new name (Eze 48:30-35)

Without entering into the measurements, the architecture, and other features of this great temple, we point out a few things which are important. First, as to the contents of the interior of this temple. The words silver and gold are not mentioned once in Eze 40:1-49; Eze 41:1-26; Eze 42:1-20; Eze 43:1-27; Eze 44:1-31; Eze 45:1-25; Eze 46:1-24; Eze 47:1-23; Eze 48:1-35. Silver typifies grace in redemption, being the ransom money. Gold typifies divine righteousness. Both are absent in the millennial temple, for what the silver and gold foreshadows is now realized in His redeemed earthly people. The heavenly Jerusalem has gold in it, but silver is not mentioned in the description of the city in Rev 21:1-27.

The chief ornaments in this temple are cherubim and palm trees; they were along the wall of the temple. So it was in the temple of Solomon. And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers within and without 1Ki 6:29.

A palm tree was between cherub and cherub. As stated in the previous chapter, palms are the emblems of victory and remind us of the feast of tabernacles. They were seen high above on the posts. Cherubim speak of the presence of the Lord, who enters this house and is worshipped here. But the cherubim here have only two faces and not four as in the opening vision of this book (Eze 1:10-12). As often stated, these celestial beings tell out the Lord Jesus Christ in His personal glory. The lion, His kingly glory; the face of a man, His true humanity; the face of an ox, His servant character; and the face of an eagle, His heavenly origin and destiny, Son of God. It is not without meaning that the face of a man and the face of a young lion are seen on these cherubim and each face looks upon a palm tree. Its symbolical meaning is obvious. The Lord Jesus Christ has come again and visited the earth and the temple and appeared as the Glorified Man and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. His is the victory and the glory. When at last this temple stands in Israels land, and its meaning and measurements, as well as other details, are fully known and understood, it will be known then that His blessed work, victory and person are symbolically seen throughout this house.

In the forty-third chapter we read of the returning glory. The glory will fill this house.

We must notice here especially, that the vision the prophet beheld was according to the appearance of the vision he saw before the destruction of the city; the visions were like the visions, which he saw by the river Chebar. This points back to the first chapter, when first by the river Chebar the heavens were opened to Ezekiel the priest, and he saw visions of God. At the close of that chapter, we read after the recorded vision, This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. The same vision of glory appeared again to him when Ezekiel had left the river Chebar and gone into the plain (Eze 3:22-23). Then he had witnessed the gradual and solemn departure of the glory of the Lord. Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight… They stood at the door of the east gate of the house of the LORD, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above (Eze 10:18-19). Then finally the Shekinah went up and disappeared. And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city (Eze 11:23).

The similarity of the departure of the glory of the Lord from the temple before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar and its future return to the temple of Ezekiels vision is most interesting. It is the same glory which departed, which returns; it is the same Lord, who resumes relationship with His earthly people. The withdrawal of the visible glory of the Lord meant the departure of His gracious presence from among His people, which was followed by judgment. The return of the visible glory means the return of His gracious presence among them, and that the judgment, which has lasted so long, is forever gone. The departure of glory was through the east gate and was finally seen upon the mountain at the east side of the city; the return is from the way of the east, and the glory of the Lord enters through the east gate. But it is not only a visible glory, but the Lord Himself is in the Shekinah, Ezekiel beheld above the firmament and the cherubim, when he saw the glory of the Lord at the river Chebar, he heard His voice. And here also His voice is mentioned like the sound of many waters. From Eze 48:6-7, we learn, that after the glory had entered the house, the Lord addressed the prophet out of the house.

The Lord Himself in all His glory is manifested and enters the temple, the place of His rest and glory. The cherubim will be seen in person, and from the New Testament we learn that angels will be with Him also. His glory will then cover Israels land and the earth. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had bright beams out of His side (marginal reading) and there was the hiding of His power. This is how Habakkuk describes the same manifestation of the glory of the Lord and the coming of the Lord of glory. (See Isa 40:5; Isa 58:8; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 66:18. Isaiahs great vision may be viewed as foreshadowing this manifestation of His glory. He saw the Lord sitting upon a throne and His train filled the temple. The seraphim cried one unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. And as the prophet was cleansed and his iniquity taken away, and as he became the messenger of the Lord Isa 6:1-13), so the nation Israel will be cleansed and forgiven and become the messenger of Jehovah. (Such an application seems warranted in view of the message Ezekiel received from the Lord to the people, Eze 48:6-12.)

When the Spirit had transported the prophet into the inner court of the temple, he discovered that the glory of the Lord filled the house. We repeat it, no such thing happened when the returned Jewish remnant had entered the temple. When the old men, who had seen the Solomonic temple and knew of its glory, beheld the foundation of the second temple, they wept Ezr 3:12. When the house was dedicated, no glory returned, no cloud was seen, no Shekinah filled the house. Nor is it a spiritual glory, the glory of the church, as so many seem to believe.

But Haggai, who with Zechariah prophesied during the rebuilding of the temple, uttered a significant prophecy while that second house was building–a prophecy which must be linked with Ezekiels vision of the returning glory: For thus saith the LORD of Hosts: yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory Hag 2:6-23). This was not the house they were building. It is a future house, a future temple. That house will be built when the heavens and the earth are being shaken, when all nations shake, and when the desire of all nations, the King of Glory, the Prince of Peace, our Lord comes. Then this house will be filled with glory.

It will be a visible glory. It will be a permanent glory. He will now dwell gloriously in the midst of the children of Israel (Eze 48:7). This visible glory will be seen over Jerusalem, like as it was of old, a cloud by day and a shining, flaming fire by night. And Jehovah will create over every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and over its convocations a cloud by day and a smoke and the brightness of a flame of fire by night, for over all the glory shall be a covering Isa 4:5.

Another acknowledged difficulty is the one concerning the restored sacrifices and ordinances.

But what do these ordinances mean? Here are priests again standing before an altar, bringing bloody sacrifices, burnt offerings, sin offerings and peace offerings. Is this to be taken literally also? Some expositors have stated that all this had a meaning in the past and could only be true in connection with the second temple. Others attempt to read into it a spiritual meaning. All, or nearly all commentators, think it inconceivable that such sacrifices could ever be brought again in a future temple. Those expositors who combat the premillennial coming of the Lord and the literal restoration of Israel, consider the supposed impossibility of a satisfactory explanation of this part of Ezekiels visions, the collapse of the premillennial argument.

Sacrifices of bulls and goats were brought by Israel in their past history; the Lord commanded His people to do this. Every Christian knows that these sacrifices foreshadowed the work of Christ, His great sacrifice on the cross. In themselves these sacrifices Israel brought could not take away sins, nor give rest to the conscience, nor could they make the worshipper perfect. The Epistle to the Hebrews demonstrates this fully.

All these sacrifices had a prospective character, looking forward to the work of the cross. And when the Lamb of God died, when His blessed lips uttered the never-to-be-forgotten words, It is finished, and Gods hand rent the veil from top to bottom, the prospective character of these sacrifices was forever ended. The new and living way into Gods presence, into the holiest, had been made by His blood. During this age Israel has no temple, and all their Levitical ordinances can no longer be practised by them. As Hosea declared, they are without a sacrifice Hos 3:4.

God, during this age, our present age, which began with the rejection of Christ by Israel and ends with His return, is gathering a heavenly people, the Church. The Church has for its worship no earthly place, no temple, but worships in spirit and in truth, in a heavenly sanctuary. There are no sacrifices, priests, altars, in connection with the true Church, the body of Christ. Christ is all. He is the sacrifice, the priest and the altar. That the enemy has produced upon Christian ground a ritualism which is aped after the Jewish system and which denies as such the gospel and Christianity, is well known. They have invented altars, and sacrifices, and priests. This is the Judaizing of the Church, the other gospel which is not another, upon which the Spirit of God has pronounced the curse of God Gal 1:1-24). The day is coming when the Lord will deal in judgment with the apostate church which denies His Son and His work, while His true church will be taken to the place which He has prepared.

After the prophecy of the division of the land, comes the majestic ending, the last message this man of God uttered: And the name of that city from that day shall be Jehovah Shammah, the LORD is there. It is a fitting finale to this great book. In its beginning, we see the glory of the Lord departing. Throughout the pages of the book we read of Israels rebellion, Jerusalems judgments, the nations disobedience and rejection. Then follow the messages of hope–Israels conversion, the regathering of the twelve tribes, the final conflict, the returning glory of the Lord; and from that day the name of the city will be Jehovah Shammah. Because He has manifested His gracious presence in the midst of His people and established His throne, blessed His people with all the spiritual and national blessings promised by His holy prophets, destroyed all their enemies, and covered all with His visible glory once more, therefore the city will have the name Jehovah is there. What a glory it will be for Him. The city through which He once walked with weary feet, the Son of God garbed in servants form, the city through which He was dragged, when the cross was laid upon His shoulders, the city which cast Him out, the city outside of which He endured the cross and despised the shame–that same city will be made in that day the glory spot of the earth.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

the names: Exo 1:1-5, Num 1:5-15, Num 13:4-15, Rev 7:4-8

From: Eze 47:15-17, Num 34:7-9

a portion: Heb. one portion

Dan: Gen 30:3-6, Jos 19:40-47, Jdg 18:26-29, 2Sa 24:2, 1Ki 12:28, 1Ki 12:29, Mat 20:15, Mat 20:16

Reciprocal: Gen 35:22 – Now the sons 1Ki 15:20 – Ijon Psa 87:3 – Glorious Eze 47:17 – Hazarenan Eze 48:23 – Benjamin Oba 1:19 – the fields of Ephraim

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Eze 48:1-7. I have grouped these verses into one paragraph because no special explanation for them separately would serve any necessary purpose. The comment that seems most appropriate is that by assigning the land specifically to the separate tribes, the Lord gives us a lesson on the subject of individual rights amidst a community of people all of whom had rights that should be respected.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Eze 48:1-2. These are the names of the tribes: from the north end, &c. As the description of the boundaries of the land began on the north, so the portion of that tribe to which the most northern lot fell is first named, which is Dan. For these are his sides east and west These are the boundaries belonging to that tribe, from the east point, near mount Libanus and Gilead, to the west point, bounded by the Mediterranean sea. And by the border of Dan a portion for Asher All along from thee south side of Dan, measuring from east to west, shall the share of Asher be.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

REFLECTIONS.In the forty fifth chapter, the prophet had begun to describe the division of the land, but being attracted by the astonishing waters of the river of life, he digressed to describe their healing virtues, and the course they took towards the east. In the two verses preseding this chapter he resumes the subject.

We may here remark, that the mode of dividing the country is very dissimilar from that made by Joshua, for here we find that strangers are allowed an inheritance with the jews; a clear intimation that the wall of partition, which once divided the court of the gentiles from the court of Israel, is done away in Christ.

The twelve tribes received a portion each; nor is there any thing said, as Moses enjoined, that the more populous tribes should receive a larger proportion. The land seems to be divided into equal lots, as St. John has represented twelve thousand sealed from each tribe. Revelation 7. But it may be said, are not many of the tribes nearly extinct? True, yet the division of the land, and the sealing of twelve thousand in each tribe, are no doubt designed to exhibit the church of Christ as a perfect body: for if the jews be broken off by unbelief, God can ingraft the gentiles on the stock. Let us therefore fear, a promise being left us, lest any of us should seem to come short of it. Let us so run that we may obtain; and in the hour of temptation hearken to that voice, saying Let no man take thy crown. If the haughty refuse that supper, which the Lord hath provided, he will fill his palace with the halt and the blind.

The priests had their lot near the sanctuary, and the levites had theirs in the centre of the tribes, that they might be ready for the service of God, and for the instruction of the people. Hence, the Lord hawing made the priests his first care, expects that they should make the souls of the people their sole concern, and he will require it of them in the day of account.

The tribes were arranged in an order rather different from the old arrangement. Dan had his lot in a corner; his former lot was in the southwest. Judah and Benjamin as usual, surrounded the city of the Lord.

The city itself was ample and glorious. Each side was four thousand five hundred measures or reeds, making a square circumference of eighteen thousand measures, or about nine of our miles from gate to gate, and thirty six thousand miles in circumference, larger than the whole land of Canaan, a presumptive proof that a material city is not intended, but a spiritual one, even the city of the living God. The unbelief of the jews in our Lords time was fostered by a literal interpretation of the prophecies, which under splendid figures taken from earthly scenes shadowed forth that superior and spiritual empire which he came to establish; and their carnal hopes and prospects of temporal dominion and glory led to the rejection of the true Messiah, the nature of whose kingdom they were unable to comprehend. Nor is it much less delusive to expect a literal fulfilment of the predictions we have been contemplating, which would in effect be going back to that shadowy dispensation which the gospel is intended to supersede, instead of advancing to that brighter and more spiritual glory to be revealed in the latter day, and would, instead of converting jews to christianity, bring back the christian church to a state of judaism.

The name of the city, JEHOVAH Shammah, the Lord is there, was honourable above all the cities of the earth. When that is the case we may sing with angels, the tabernacles of God are with men, and he will dwell with them for ever. This Zion, which, however inapplicable to an earthly city, is Gods habitation; and she shall not be forgotten nor confounded, world without end.May the Lord pardon all my errors, and excuse all my ignorance in reviewing these prophecies; and may he in due time give us clearer light concerning the mystery of his counsel and love. Amen.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ezekiel 48. The Tribal Allotments.The holy city, Jerusalem, with its environments is significantly regarded as the true centre, geographical no less than religious, of the country; but, as in point of fact it really lay in the southern half, the prophet, in his ideal allotment of the land, makes a concession to geographical fact by putting seven tribes to the north, arranged in parallel strips, viz. Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, and Judah (Eze 48:1-7), and five to the south, Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulon, and Gad (Eze 48:23-29).

Eze 48:9-22. The Sacred Reservation.Between Judah and Benjamin lay the sacred reservation, a piece of land about eight miles square. The northern partroughly eight miles by threewas reserved for the Levites; the middle part, of the same size, in the centre of which was the Temple, was reserved for the priests In the middle of the southern partroughly eight miles by twolay the city, about a mile and a halt square, with a strip of land (suburbs) round it, devoted to general city purposes: while east and west of the city up to the bounds of the sacred square reserve, were the communal lands devoted to agricultural purposes. The population of the city was to be made up out of all the tribes, and therefore symbolic of Israels unity (Eze 48:8-20). The territory between Judah and Benjamin east and west of the sacred reserve, i.e. as far as the Mediterranean on the one side, and the Jordan and the Dead Sea on the other, was to be reserved for the prince. This position would give him a certain association with the sacred reserve, and provide him with materials for the Temple offerings. (This paragraph amplifies Eze 45:1-8.)

Eze 48:30-34. The Gates of the City.On each of the four sides of the city, which was about six miles in circumference, were three gates, named after the twelve tribes of Israel.

Eze 48:35. The Name of the City.The name of the city, Yahweh is there, finely suggests the great protecting Presence which inspires all her activity and worship, and brings the prophets intricate description to a most stately and impressive close.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

48:1 Now these [are] the names of the {a} tribes. From the north end to the border of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the border of Hamath; for these are his sides east [and] west; a [portion for] Dan.

(a) The tribes after they entered into the land under Joshua divided the land somewhat otherwise then is here set forth by this vision.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Tribal allotments in the north 48:1-7

The tribe of Dan was to receive the northernmost section of the Promised Land. The order of tribes from north to south, north of the sacred district, was Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben and Judah-seven tribal allotments of equal size (Eze 47:14). Since they will be of equal size, and since the east-west width of the Promised Land would vary depending on the latitude of each allotment, it seems that the north-south distance would also vary somewhat.

The order of these tribes does not conform to any other in Scripture. These tribal allotments are not like those that Joshua assigned nor are they as large (cf. Joshua 14-22). There is a general progression from the most unfaithful tribe, Dan, to the most faithful, Judah. Judah, from which Messiah came, receives the blessing of being adjacent to the holy allotment. The tribes that descended from Jacob’s concubines (Dan, Asher, Naphtali, and Gad) receive land to the far north and far south. Those that descended from Jacob’s wives receive land toward the center of the land (cf. Gen 35:23-26).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

RENEWAL AND ALLOTMENT OF THE LAND

Eze 47:1-23; Eze 48:1-35

IN the first part of the forty-seventh chapter the visionary form of the revelation, which had been interrupted by the important series of communications on which we have been so long engaged, is again resumed. The prophet, once more under the direction of his angelic guide, sees a stream of water issuing from the Temple buildings and flowing eastward into the Dead Sea. Afterwards he receives another series of directions relating to the boundaries of the land and its division among the twelve tribes. With this the vision and the book find their appropriate close.

I.

The Temple stream, to which Ezekiels attention is now for the first time directed, is a symbol of the miraculous transformation which the land of Canaan is to undergo in order to fit it for the habitation of Jehovahs ransomed people. Anticipations of a renewal of the face of nature are a common feature of Messianic prophecy. They have their roots in the religious interpretation of the possession of the land as the chief token of the Divine blessing on the nation. In the vicissitudes of agricultural or pastoral life the Israelite read the reflection of Jehovahs attitude towards Himself and His people: fertile seasons and luxuriant harvests were the sign of His favour; drought and famine were the proof that He was offended. Even at the best of times, however, the condition of Palestine left much to be desired from the husbandmans point of view, especially in the kingdom of Judah. Nature was often stern and unpropitious, the cultivation of the soil was always attended with hardship and uncertainty, large tracts of the country were given over to irreclaimable barrenness. There was always a vision of better things possible, and in the last days the prophets cherished the expectation that that vision would be realised. When all causes of offence are removed from Israel and Jehovah smiles on His people, the land will blossom into supernatural fertility, the ploughman overtaking the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, the mountains dropping new wine and the hills melting. {Amo 9:13} Such idyllic pictures of universal plenty and comfort abound in the writings of the prophets, and are not wanting in the pages of Ezekiel. We have already had one in the description of the blessings of the Messianic kingdom; and we shall see that in this closing vision a complete remodelling of the land is presupposed, rendering it all alike suitable for the habitation of the tribes of Israel.

The river of life is the most striking presentation of this general conception of Messianic felicity. It is one of those vivid images from Eastern life which, through the Apocalypse, have passed into the symbolism of Christian eschatology. “And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruits every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” {Rev 22:1-2} So writes the seer of Patmos, in words whose music charms the ear even of those to whom running water means much less than it did to a native of thirsty Palestine. But John had read of the mystic river in the pages of his favourite prophet before he saw it in vision. The close resemblance between the two pictures leaves no doubt that the origin of the conception is to be sought in Ezekiels vision. The underlying religious truth is the same in both representations, that the presence of God is the source from which the influences flow forth that renew and purify human existence. The tree of life on each bank of the river, which yields its fruit every month and whose leaves are for healing, is a detail transferred directly from Ezekiels imagery to fill out the description of the glorious city of God into which the nations of them that are saved are gathered.

But with all its idealism, Ezekiels conception presents many points of contact with the actual physiography of Palestine; it is less universal and abstract in its significance than that of the Apocalypse. The first thing that might have suggested the idea to the prophet is that the Temple mount had at least one small stream, whose “soft-flowing” waters were already regarded as a symbol of the silent and unobtrusive influence of the Divine presence in Israel. {Isa 8:6} The waters of this stream flowed eastward, but they were too scanty to have any appreciable effect on the fertility of the region through which they passed. Further, to the southeast of Jerusalem, between it and the Dead Sea, stretched the great wilderness of Judah, the most desolate and inhospitable tract in the whole country. There the steep declivity of the limestone range refuses to detain sufficient moisture to nourish the most meagre vegetation, although the few spots where wells are found, as at Engedi, are clothed with almost tropical luxuriance. To reclaim these barren slopes and render them fit for human industry, the Temple waters are sent eastward, making the desert to blossom as the rose. Lastly, there was the Dead Sea itself, in whose bitter waters no living thing can exist, the natural emblem of resistance to the purposes of Him who is the God of life. These different elements of the physical reality were familiar to Ezekiel, and come back to mind as he follows the course of the new Temple river, and observes the wonderful transformation which it is destined to effect. He first sees it breaking forth from the wall of the Temple at the right-hand side of the entrance, and flowing eastward through the courts by the south side of the altar. Then at the outer wall he meets it rushing from the south side of the eastern gate, and still pursuing its easterly course. At a thousand cubits from the sanctuary it is only ankle-deep, but at successive distances of a thousand cubits it reaches to the knees, to the loins, and becomes finally an impassable river. The stream is of course miraculous from source to mouth. Earthly rivers do not thus broaden and deepen as they flow, except by the accession of tributaries, and tributaries are out of the question here. Thus it flows on, with its swelling volume of water, through “the eastern circuit,” “down to the Arabah” (the trough of the Jordan and the Dead Sea), and reaching the sea it sweetens its waters so that they teem with fishes of all kinds like those of the Mediterranean. Its uninviting shores become the scene of a busy and thriving industry; fishermen ply their craft from Engedi to Eneglaim, and the food supply of the country is materially increased. The prophet may not have been greatly concerned about this, but one characteristic detail illustrates his careful forethought in matters of practical utility. It is from the Dead Sea that Jerusalem has always obtained its supply of salt. The purification of this lake might have its drawbacks if the production of this indispensable commodity should be interfered with. Salt, besides its culinary uses, played an important part in the Temple ritual, and Ezekiel was not likely to forget it. Hence the strange but eminently practical provision that the shallows and marshes at the south end of the lake shall be exempted from the influence of the healing waters. “They are given for salt.” (Eze 47:11).

We may venture to draw one lesson for our own instruction from this beautiful prophetic image of the blessings that flow from a pure religion. The river of God has its source high up in the mount where Jehovah dwells in inaccessible holiness, and where the white-robed priests minister ceaselessly before Him; but in its descent it seeks out the most desolate and unpromising region in the country and turns it into a garden of the Lord. While the whole land of Israel is to be renewed and made to minister to the good of man in fellowship with God, the main stream of fertility is expended in the apparently hopeless task of reclaiming the Judean desert and purifying the Dead Sea. It is an emblem of the earthly ministry of Him who made Himself the friend of publicans and sinners, and lavished the resources of His grace and the wealth of His affection on those who were deemed beyond ordinary possibility of salvation. It is to be feared, however, that the practice of most Churches has been too much the reverse of this. They have been tempted to confine the water of life within fairly respectable channels, amongst the prosperous and contented, the occupants of happy homes, where the advantages of religion are most likely to be appreciated. That seems to have been found the line of least resistance, and in times when spiritual life has run low it has been counted enough to keep the old ruts filled and leave the waste places and stagnant waters of our civilisation ill provided with the means of grace. Nowadays we are sometimes reminded that the Dead Sea must be drained before the gospel can have a fair chance of influencing human lives, and there may be much wisdom in the suggestion. A vast deal of social drainage may have to be accomplished before the word of God has free course. Unhealthy and impure conditions of life may be mitigated by wise legislation, temptations to vice may be removed, and vested interests that thrive on the degradation of human lives may be crushed by the strong arm of the community. But the true spirit of Christianity can neither be confined to the watercourses of religious habit, nor wait for the schemes of the social reformer. Nor will it display its powers of social salvation until it carries the energies of the Church into the lowest haunts of vice and misery with an earnest desire to seek and to save that which is lost. Ezekiel had his vision, and he believed in it. He believed in the reality of Gods presence in the sanctuary and in the stream of blessings that flowed from His throne, and he believed in the possibility of reclaiming the waste places of his country for the kingdom of God. When Christians are united in like faith in the power of Christ and the abiding presence of His Spirit, we may expect to see times of refreshing from the presence of God and the whole earth filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

II.

Ezekiels map of Palestine is marked by something of the same mathematical regularity which was exhibited in his plan of the Temple. His boundaries are like those we sometimes see on the map of a newly settled country like America or Australia-that is to say, they largely follow the meridian lines and parallels of latitude, but take advantage here and there of natural frontiers supplied by rivers and mountain ranges. This is absolutely true of the internal divisions of the land between the tribes. Here the northern and southern boundaries are straight lines running east and west over hill and dale, and terminating at the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Valley, which form of course the western and eastern limits. As to the external delimitation of the country it is unfortunately not possible to speak with certainty. The eastern frontier is fixed by the Jordan and the Dead Sea so far as they go, and the western is the sea. But on the north and south the lines of demarcation cannot be traced, the places mentioned being nearly all unknown. The north frontier extends from the sea to a place called Hazar-enon, said to lie on the border of Hauran. It passes the “entrance to Hamath,” and has to the north not only Hamath, but also the territory of Damascus. But none of the towns through which it passes-Hethlon, Berotha, Sibraim-can be identified, and even its general direction is altogether uncertain.

From Hazar-enon the eastern border stretches southward till it reaches the Jordan, and is prolonged south of the Dead Sea to a place called Tamar, also unknown. From this we proceed westwards by Kadesh till we strike the river of Egypt, the Wady el-Arish, which carries the boundary to the sea. It will be seen that Ezekiel, for reasons on which it is idle to speculate, excludes the transjordanic territory from the Holy Land. Speaking broadly, we may say that he treats Palestine as a rectangular strip of country, which he divides into transverse sections of indeterminate breadth, and then proceeds to parcel out these amongst the twelve tribes.

A similar obscurity rests on the motives which determined the disposition of the different tribes within the sacred territory. We can understand, indeed, why seven tribes are placed to the north and only five to the south of the capital and the sanctuary. Jerusalem lay much nearer the south of the land, and in the original distribution all the tribes had their settlements to the north of it except Judah and Simeon. Ezekiels arrangement seems thus to combine a desire for symmetry with a recognition of the claims of historical and geographic reality. We can also see that to a certain extent the relative positions of the tribes correspond with those they held before the Exile, although of course the system requires that they shall lie in a regular series from north to south. Dan, Asher, and Naphtali are left in the extreme north, Manasseh and Ephraim to the south of them, while Simeon lies as of old in the south with one tribe between it and the capital. But we cannot tell why Benjamin should be placed to the south and Judah to the north of Jerusalem, why Issachar and Zebulun are transferred from the far north to the south, or why Reuben and Gad are taken from the east of the Jordan to be settled one to the north and the other to the south of the city. Some principle of arrangement there must have been in the mind of the prophet, and several have been suggested; but it is perhaps better to confess that we have lost the key to his meaning.

The prophets interest is centred on the strip of land reserved for the sanctuary and public purposes, which is subdivided and measured out with the utmost precision. It is twenty-five thousand cubits (about eight and one-third miles) broad, and extends right across the country. The two extremities east and west are the crown lands assigned to the prince for the purposes we have already seen.

In the middle a square of twenty-five thousand cubits is marked off; this is the “oblation” or sacred offering of land, in the middle of which the Temple stands. This again is subdivided into three parallel sections, as shown in the accompanying diagram. The most northerly, ten thousand cubits in breadth, is assigned to the Levites; the central portion, including the sanctuary, to the priests; and the remaining five thousand cubits is a “profane place” for the city and its common lands. The city itself is a square of four thousand five hundred cubits, situated in the middle of this southmost section of the oblation. With its free space of two hundred and fifty cubits in width belting the wall it fills the entire breadth of the section: the communal possessions flanking it on either hand, just as the princes domain does the “oblation” as a whole. The produce of these lands is “for food to them that serve (i.e., inhabit) the city.” (Eze 48:18) Residence in the capital, it appears, is to be regarded as a public service. The maintenance of the civic life of Jerusalem was an object in which the whole nation was interested, a truth symbolised by naming its twelve gates after the twelve sons of Jacob. Hence, also, its population is to be representative of all the tribes of Israel, and whoever comes to dwell there is to have a share in the land belonging to the city. (Eze 48:19) But evidently the legislation on this point is incomplete. How were the inhabitants of the capital to be chosen out of all the tribes? Would its citizenship be regarded as a privilege or as a onerous responsibility? Would it be necessary to make a selection out of a host of applications, or would special inducements have to be offered to procure a sufficient population? To these questions the vision furnishes no answer, and there is nothing to show whether Ezekiel contemplated the possibility that residence in the new city might present few attractions and many disadvantages to an agricultural community such as he had in view. It is a curious incident of the return from the Exile that the problem of peopling Jerusalem emerged in a more serious form than Ezekiel from his ideal point of view could have foreseen. We read that “the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine parts in [other] cities. And the people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem.” {Neh 11:1-2} There may have been causes for this general reluctance which are unknown to us, but the principal reason was doubtless the one which has been hinted at, that the new colony lived mainly by agriculture, and the district in the immediate vicinity of the capital was not sufficiently fertile to support a large agricultural population. The new Jerusalem was at first a somewhat artificial foundation, and a city too largely developed for the resources of the community of which it was the centre. Its existence was necessary more for the protection and support of the Temple than for the ordinary ends of civilisation; and hence to dwell in it was for the majority an act of self-sacrifice by which a man was felt to deserve well of his country. And the only important difference between the actual reality and Ezekiels ideal is that in the latter the supernatural fertility of the land and the reign of universal peace obviate the difficulties which the founders of the post-exilic theocracy had to encounter.

This seeming indifference of the prophet to the secular interests represented by the metropolis strikes us as a singular feature in his programme. It is strange that the man who was so thoughtful about the salt-pans of the Dead Sea should pass so lightly over the details of the reconstruction of a city. But we have had several intimations that this is not the department of things in which Ezekiels hold on reality is most conspicuous. We have already remarked on the boldness of the conception which changes the site of the capital in order to guard the sanctity of the Temple. And now, when its situation and form are accurately defined, we have no sketch of municipal institutions, no hint of the purposes for which the city exists, and no glimpse of the busy and varied activities which we naturally connect with the name. If Ezekiel thought of it at all, except as existing on paper, he was probably interested in it as furnishing the representative congregation on minor occasions of public worship, such as the Sabbaths and new moons, When the whole people could not be expected to assemble. The truth is that the idea of the city in the vision is simply an abstract religious symbol, a sort of epitome and concentration of theocratic life. Like the figure of the prince in earlier chapters, it is taken from the national institutions which perished at the Exile; the outline is retained, the typical significance is enhanced, but the form is shadowy and indistinct, the colour and variety of concrete reality are absent. It was perhaps a stage through which political conceptions had to pass before their religious meaning could be apprehended. And yet the fact that the symbol of the Holy City is preserved is deeply suggestive and indeed scarcely less important in its own way than the retention of the type of the king. Ezekiel can no more think of the land without a capital than of the state without a prince. The word “city”-synonym of the fullest and most intense form of life, of life regulated by law and elevated by devotion to a common ideal, in which every worthy faculty of human nature is quickened by the close and varied intercourse of men with each other-has definitely taken its place in the vocabulary of religion. It is there, not to be superseded, but to be refined and spiritualised, until the city of God, glorified in the praises of Israel, becomes the inspiration of the loftiest thought and the most ardent longing of Christendom. And even for the perplexing problems that the Church has to face at this day there is hardly a more profitable exercise of the Christian imagination than to dream with practical intent of the consecration of civic life through the subjection of all its influences to the ends of the Redeemers kingdom.

On the other hand we must surely recognise that this vision of a Temple and a city separated from each other-where religious and secular interests are as it were concentrated at different points, so that the one may be more effectually subordinated to the other-is not the final and perfect vision of the kingdom of God. That ideal has played a leading and influential part in the history of Christianity. It is essentially the ideal formulated in Augustines great work on the city of God, which ruled the ecclesiastical polity of the mediaeval Church. The State is an unholy institution; it is an embodiment of the power of this present evil world: the true city of God is the visible Catholic Church, and only by subjection to the Church can the State be redeemed from itself and be made a means of blessing. That theory served a providential purpose in preserving the traditions of Christianity through dark and troubled ages, and training the rude nations of Europe in purity and righteousness and reverence for that by which God makes Himself known. But the Reformation was, amongst other things, a protest against this conception of the relation of Church to State, of the sacred to the secular. By asserting the right of each believer to deal with Christ directly, without the mediation of Church or priest it broke down the middle wall of partition between religion and everyday duty; it sanctified common life by showing how a man may serve God as a citizen in the family or the workshop better than in the cloister or at the altar. It made the kingdom of God to be a present power wherever there are lives transformed by love to Christ and serving their fellow men for His sake. And if Catholicism may find some plausible support for its theory in Ezekiel and the Old Testament theocracy in general, Protestants may perhaps with better right appeal to the grander ideal represented by the new Jerusalem of the Apocalypse-the city that needs no Temple, because the Lord Himself is in her midst.

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” {Rev 21:2-3; Rev 21:22-23}

It may be difficult for us amid the entanglements of the present to read that vision aright-difficult to say whether it is on earth or in heaven that we are to look for the city in which there is no Temple. Worship is an essential function of the Church of Christ; and so long as we are in our earthly abode worship will require external symbols and a visible organisation. But this at least we know, that the will of God must be done on earth as it is in heaven. The true kingdom of God is within us; and His presence with men is realised, not in special religious services which stand apart from our common life, but in the constant influence of His Spirit, forming our characters after the image of Christ, and permeating all the channels of social intercourse and public action, until everything done on earth is to the glory of our Father which is in heaven. That is the ideal set forth by the coming of the holy city of God, and only in this way. can we look for the fulfilment of the promise embodied in the new name of Ezekiels city, Jehovah-shammah, –

THE LORD IS THERE.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary