Ezekiel 45

Israel Fully Restored

1 “ ‘When you allot the land as an inheritance, you are to present to the LORD a portion of the land as a sacred district, 25,000 cubits^[a] long and 20,000^[b] cubits^[c] wide; the entire area will be holy.

2 Of this, a section 500 cubits^[d] square is to be for the sanctuary, with 50 cubits^[e] around it for open land.

3 In the sacred district, measure off a section 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits^[f] wide. In it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

4 It will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and who draw near to minister before the LORD. It will be a place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.

5 An area 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide will belong to the Levites, who serve in the temple, as their possession for towns to live in.^[g]

6 “ ‘You are to give the city as its property an area 5,000 cubits^[h] wide and 25,000 cubits long, adjoining the sacred portion; it will belong to all Israel.

7 “ ‘The prince will have the land bordering each side of the area formed by the sacred district and the property of the city. It will extend westward from the west side and eastward from the east side, running lengthwise from the western to the eastern border parallel to one of the tribal portions.

8 This land will be his possession in Israel. And my princes will no longer oppress my people but will allow the people of Israel to possess the land according to their tribes.

9 “ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have gone far enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign LORD.

10 You are to use accurate scales, an accurate ephah^[i] and an accurate bath.^[j]

11 The ephah and the bath are to be the same size, the bath containing a tenth of a homer and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer is to be the standard measure for both.

12 The shekel^[k] is to consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels equal one mina.^[l]

13 “ ‘This is the special gift you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah^[m] from each homer of wheat and a sixth of an ephah^[n] from each homer of barley.

14 The prescribed portion of olive oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath^[o] from each cor (which consists of ten baths or one homer, for ten baths are equivalent to a homer).

15 Also one sheep is to be taken from every flock of two hundred from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These will be used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the people, declares the Sovereign LORD.

16 All the people of the land will be required to give this special offering to the prince in Israel.

17 It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings at the festivals, the New Moons and the Sabbaths—at all the appointed festivals of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings,^[p] grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the Israelites.

18 “ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In the first month on the first day you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary.

19 The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court.

20 You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance; so you are to make atonement for the temple.

21 “ ‘In the first month on the fourteenth day you are to observe the Passover, a festival lasting seven days, during which you shall eat bread made without yeast.

22 On that day the prince is to provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land.

23 Every day during the seven days of the festival he is to provide seven bulls and seven rams without defect as a burnt offering to the LORD, and a male goat for a sin offering.

24 He is to provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, along with a hin^[q] of olive oil for each ephah.

25 “ ‘During the seven days of the festival, which begins in the seventh month on the fifteenth day, he is to make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings and oil.

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Ezekiel 45 Commentary

Chapter 45

- In the period here foretold, the worship and the ministers of God will be provided for; the princes will rule with justice, as holding their power under Christ; the people will live in peace, ease, and godliness. These things seem to be represented in language taken from the customs of the times in which the prophet wrote. Christ is our Passover that is sacrificed for us: we celebrate the memorial of that sacrifice, and feast upon it, triumphing in our deliverance out of the Egyptian slavery of sin, and our preservation from the destroying sword of Divine justice, in the Lord's supper, which is our passover feast; as the whole Christian life is, and must be, the feast of the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Cross References 34

1. S Numbers 34:13; Ezekiel 47:21-22
2. Eze 48:8-9,29
3. Ezekiel 42:20
4. S Ezekiel 40:46
5. Ezekiel 48:10-11
6. Ezekiel 48:13
7. Ezekiel 48:15-18
8. Ezekiel 48:21
9. S Numbers 26:53; Ezekiel 46:18
10. Psalms 12:5
11. S Jeremiah 22:3; Zechariah 7:9-10; Zechariah 8:16
12. Deuteronomy 25:15; S Proverbs 11:1; Amos 8:4-6; Micah 6:10-11
13. S Leviticus 19:36
14. Isaiah 5:10
15. Exodus 30:13; Leviticus 27:25; Numbers 3:47
16. S Leviticus 1:4
17. Leviticus 6:30
18. S Numbers 10:10
19. S Leviticus 23:38; Isaiah 66:23
20. S 1 Kings 8:62; S 2 Chronicles 31:3; Ezekiel 46:4-12
21. Exodus 12:2
22. S Leviticus 22:20; Hebrews 9:14
23. S Leviticus 16:16,33
24. S Ezekiel 43:17
25. Leviticus 16:18-19; Ezekiel 43:20
26. Leviticus 4:27
27. S Exodus 12:11; Leviticus 23:5-6
28. Leviticus 4:14
29. S Numbers 22:40; S Job 42:8
30. Numbers 28:16-25
31. Numbers 28:12-13
32. Ezekiel 46:5-7
33. Deuteronomy 16:13
34. Leviticus 23:34-43; Numbers 29:12-38

Footnotes 17

[a]. That is, about 8 miles or about 13 kilometers; also in verses 3, 5 and 6
[b]. Septuagint (see also verses 3 and 5 and 48:9); Hebrew "10,000"
[c]. That is, about 6 1/2 miles or about 11 kilometers
[d]. That is, about 875 feet or about 265 meters
[e]. That is, about 88 feet or about 27 meters
[f]. That is, about 3 1/3 miles or about 5.3 kilometers; also in verse 5
[g]. Septuagint; Hebrew "temple; they will have as their possession 20 rooms"
[h]. That is, about 1 2/3 miles or about 2.7 kilometers
[i]. An ephah was a dry measure having the capacity of about 3/5 bushel or about 22 liters.
[j]. A bath was a liquid measure equaling about 6 gallons or about 22 liters.
[k]. A shekel weighed about 2/5 ounce or about 12 grams.
[l]. That is, 60 shekels; the common mina was 50 shekels. Sixty shekels were about 1 1/2 pounds or about 690 grams.
[m]. That is, probably about 6 pounds or about 2.7 kilograms
[n]. That is, probably about 5 pounds or about 2.3 kilograms
[o]. That is, about 2 1/2 quarts or about 2.2 liters
[p]. Or "purification offerings" ; also in verses 19, 22, 23 and 25
[q]. That is, about 1 gallon or about 3.8 liters

Chapter Summary

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.