Ezekiel 45:1-9

1 "'When you divide the land by lot for inheritance, you are to set aside an offering for ADONAI, a holy portion of the land. Its length is to be 25,000 [cubits, that is, eight miles] and its width 10,000 [three miles]; this entire region is to be holy.

2 Of this there is to be reserved for the holy place an area 875 [feet] square, with eighty-seven-and-a-half feet for open land around it.

3 Alongside this region you are to measure a length of eight [miles] and a width of three [miles]; in it is to be the sanctuary, which will be especially holy.

4 It is a holy portion of the land; it is for the cohanim who serve in the sanctuary, who approach to minister to ADONAI; there will be a place for their houses and a place set aside for the sanctuary.

5 A portion eight by three [miles] will be owned by the L'vi'im who serve in the house; it will also have twenty [gatekeepers'] rooms.

6 You are to give the city possession of an area, alongside the offering of the holy portion, one-and-a-half by eight [miles]; it will be for the whole house of Isra'el.

7 "'The prince is to have the territory on both sides of the holy offering and the city's holding; it will extend westward to the western border of the land and eastward to its eastern border; and the length [from the far side of one] of its two parts [to the far side of the other] will be the same as the length of one of the [tribal] portions.

8 His possession in Isra'el will be limited to this, and henceforth my princes will not wrong my people but will give the land to the house of Isra'el according to their tribes.'

9 Adonai ELOHIM says this: 'Princes of Isra'el, that should be enough for you! Get rid of violence and looting, do what is right and just, and stop evicting my people from their land!' says Adonai ELOHIM.

Ezekiel 45:1-9 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.