Ezekiel 45:1-12

Dividing Up the Land

1 "People of Israel, you will divide up the land you will receive. When you do, give me my share of it. It will be a sacred area. It will be eight and a fourth miles long and six and a half miles wide. The entire area will be holy.

2 The temple area in it will be 875 feet long and 875 feet wide. An 87-and-a-half-foot strip around it will be open land.

3 "In the sacred area, measure off a large strip of land. It will be eight and a fourth miles long and three and a third miles wide. The temple will be in it. It will be the most holy place of all.

4 The large strip will be the sacred share of land for the priests. There they will serve in the temple. And they will approach me to serve me there. Their houses will be built on that land. The holy temple will also be located there.

5 "So the Levites will serve in the temple. They will have an area eight and a fourth miles long and three and a third miles wide. The towns they live in will be located there.

6 "Give the city an area one and two thirds miles wide and eight and a fourth miles long. It will be right next to the sacred area. It will belong to all of the people of Israel.

7 "The prince will have land on both sides of the sacred area and the city. Its border will run east and west along the land of one of the tribes.

8 The prince will own that land in Israel. And my princes will not crush my people anymore. Instead, they will allow the people of Israel to receive their own share of land. It will be divided up based on their tribes."

9 The LORD and King says, "Princes of Israel, you have gone far enough! Stop hurting others. Do not crush them. Do what is fair and right. Stop taking my people's land away from them," announces the LORD and King.

10 "Use weights and measures that are honest and exact.

11 Use the same standard to measure dry and liquid products. Use a 6-bushel measure for dry products. And use a 60-gallon measure for liquids.

12 Every amount of money must be weighed out in keeping with the standard weights.

Ezekiel 45:1-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 45

This chapter treats of the division of the land in future time, and the persons and uses for which it is to be made; one part being for the sanctuary, and the priests that serve in it, and for their houses for them to dwell in, Eze 45:1-4, another for the Levites and their chambers, Eze 45:5, and another for the city, for the Israelites in common, Eze 45:6, and the last for the prince; and of the situation and extent of it, Eze 45:7,8 and of the righteous administration of civil government in the time of the spiritual reign of Christ, in abstinence from violence and exactions, and doing justice, for which orders and directions are given, Eze 45:9-12, then of the oblations of the people of the land, Eze 45:13-16, and next of those that are to be prepared by the prince, Eze 45:17, and the times of the offering of them, at the beginning of the year, on the feasts of the passover and tabernacles, Eze 45:18-25, the rules for which are so different from the Mosaic law, as show the abrogation of that; and that all this is to be understood in a spiritual and evangelic sense.