Ezekiel 48:11-21

11 This shall be for the consecrated priests, the descendants of Zadok, who kept my charge, who did not go astray when the people of Israel went astray, as the Levites did.

12 It shall belong to them as a special portion from the holy portion of the land, a most holy place, adjoining the territory of the Levites.

13 Alongside the territory of the priests, the Levites shall have an allotment twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in width. The whole length shall be twenty-five thousand cubits and the width twenty thousand.

14 They shall not sell or exchange any of it; they shall not transfer this choice portion of the land, for it is holy to the Lord.

15 The remainder, five thousand cubits in width and twenty-five thousand in length, shall be for ordinary use for the city, for dwellings and for open country. In the middle of it shall be the city;

16 and these shall be its dimensions: the north side four thousand five hundred cubits, the south side four thousand five hundred, the east side four thousand five hundred, and the west side four thousand five hundred.

17 The city shall have open land: on the north two hundred fifty cubits, on the south two hundred fifty, on the east two hundred fifty, on the west two hundred fifty.

18 The remainder of the length alongside the holy portion shall be ten thousand cubits to the east, and ten thousand to the west, and it shall be alongside the holy portion. Its produce shall be food for the workers of the city.

19 The workers of the city, from all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate it.

20 The whole portion that you shall set apart shall be twenty-five thousand cubits square, that is, the holy portion together with the property of the city.

21 What remains on both sides of the holy portion and of the property of the city shall belong to the prince. Extending from the twenty-five thousand cubits of the holy portion to the east border, and westward from the twenty-five thousand cubits to the west border, parallel to the tribal portions, it shall belong to the prince. The holy portion with the sanctuary of the temple in the middle of it,

Ezekiel 48:11-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 48

In this chapter an account is given of the portions of the twelve tribes in the land of Israel; seven to the north of the sanctuary, Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, and Judah, Eze 48:1-7, between which and Benjamin lay the holy portion of the land, for the sanctuary and the priests of it, and for the Levites, and for the city and its suburbs, and for the prince, Eze 48:8-22 then the portions of the other five tribes to the south of the sanctuary, Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, and Gad, Eze 48:23-29, after which the city is described by its outlets, north, east, south, and west; by its twelve gates, three at each point; by its circumference and by its name, Eze 48:30-35.

Footnotes

• [a]. One Ms Gk: Heb [of the descendants]
• [b]. Gk: Heb [ten]