Ezekiel 43:7

7 "Mortal man, here is my throne. I will live here among the people of Israel and rule them forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again disgrace my holy name by worshiping other gods or by burying the corpses of their dead kings.

Ezekiel 43:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 43:7

And he said unto me, son of man
A kind, usual, and singular appellation, given to this prophet: these are the words either of the man that stood by him, so the Arabic version; or of Jehovah, speaking out of the house to him: the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet:
that is, this house, the church of God, is the place where the throne of the Lord is set; where he rules and reigns; where he sets his feet, and is his resting place; even his, whose throne is the heaven, and the earth his footstool; here Christ, as King of saints, dwells, and here he walks and shows the glory of his majesty: where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever;
not Carnal, but spiritual Israel; such as are Israelites indeed, or which the church will be full in the latter day, both Jews and Gentiles; and in the midst of these will Jehovah dwell, and grant his gracious presence, and never more depart from them: this shows that this house or building can not be understood of the second temple; since the Lord did not dwell in that for ever, but has left that house desolate hundreds of years ago: some Jewish writers F16 have owned that it belongs to the times of the Messiah: and my name shall the house of Israel no more defile,
or "profane"; or cause to be blasphemed by immoralities, or false doctrines, or superstition and will worship; denoting the holiness of life, purity of doctrine and worship, in the churches of Christ in the latter day; see ( Isaiah 4:3 ) ( Joel 3:17 ) ( Zechariah 14:20 Zechariah 14:21 ) : neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom:
that is, idolatry, which is spiritual fornication; such as the kings of Israel, and their subjects, were often guilty of, before their captivity in Babylon, though not after; nor will they ever return to it in the latter day, when converted; for they will never espouse the idolatries of Rome; and those kings and people that bear the name of Christians, and yet commit fornication with the whore of Babylon, shall do so no more after these times, ( Revelation 17:2 Revelation 17:16 ) : nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places;
or, and "their high places" F17; that is, by both; by the carcasses of their kings being buried in or near the house of God; so the Targum adds, at their death F18; or by human carcasses being sacrificed to Molech or Milcom, which signifies their king: or else the idols themselves are so called, because lifeless and abominable; see ( Jeremiah 16:18 ) , and the worship of which the kings of Israel encouraged by precept and practice, order and example, and therefore called theirs; and also by their high places, which they made for idolatrous worship, and which were made where the carcasses of their kings were laid, as Ben Melech observes; and all which were done, especially in the reigns of Manasseh and Ammon: but now nothing of this kind shall be hereafter, or any thing now similar to it, in the antichristian state.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 Vid. R. Isaac Chizzuk Emunah, par. 1. p. 51.
F17 (twmb) "et excelsis suis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F18 So Abendana takes this word to signify "in [their] death"; their carcasses being buried in their gardens, as Manasseh, 2 Kings xxi. 18.

Ezekiel 43:7 In-Context

5 The Lord's spirit lifted me up and took me into the inner courtyard, where I saw that the Temple was filled with the glory of the Lord.
6 The man stood beside me there, and I heard the Lord speak to me out of the Temple:
7 "Mortal man, here is my throne. I will live here among the people of Israel and rule them forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again disgrace my holy name by worshiping other gods or by burying the corpses of their dead kings.
8 The kings built the doorsills and doorposts of their palace right against the doorsills and doorposts of my Temple, so that there was only a wall between us. They disgraced my holy name by all the disgusting things they did, and so in my anger I destroyed them.
9 Now they must stop worshiping other gods and remove the corpses of their kings. If they do, I will live among them forever."

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. by burying the corpses of; [or] by putting up monuments to.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.