Ezekiel45
New International Version
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 long and 20,000 cubits wide; the entire area will be holy.
2Of this, a section 500 cubits square is to be for the sanctuary, with 50 cubits around it for open land.
3In the sacred district, measure off a section 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide. In it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.
4It 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.
5An 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.
6“‘You are to give the city as its property an area 5,000 cubits 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.
8This 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.
10You are to use accurate scales, an accurate ephah and an accurate bath.
11The 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.
12The shekel is to consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels equal one mina.
13“‘This is the special gift you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.
14The prescribed portion of olive oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath from each cor (which consists of ten baths or one homer, for ten baths are equivalent to a homer).
15Also 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.
16All the people of the land will be required to give this special offering to the prince in Israel.
17It 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, 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.
19The 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.
20You 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.
22On that day the prince is to provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land.
23Every 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.
24He is to provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, along with a hin 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.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Ezekiel 45.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The Vision of the Temple. (1-25).
vv1-25
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.
Key Words
נָפַל: to fall, in a great variety of applications (intransitive or causative, literal or figurative)
אֶרֶץ: the earth (at large, or partitively a land)
נַחֲלָה: properly, something inherited, i.e. (abstractly) occupancy, or (concretely) an heirloom; generally an estate, patrimony or portion
רוּם: to be high actively, to rise or raise (in various applications, literally or figuratively)
תְּרוּמָה: a present (as offered up), especially in sacrifice or as tribute
מִן: properly, a part of; hence (prepositionally), from or out of in many senses
קֹדֶשׁ: a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity
אֹרֶךְ: length
רֹחַב: width (literally or figuratively)
סָבִיב: (as noun) a circle, neighbour, or environs; but chiefly (as adverb, with or without preposition) around
Cross References
Ezekiel 45Christ as our true Passover sacrifice, represented spiritually by the feast of unleavened bread.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
The fuller geographic layout and distribution of the sacred land allocation among the tribes.
Supported by JFB
Identifies the role and close relationship of the prince to the sanctuary and its offerings.
Supported by JFB
The original Mosaic law standard demanding honest weights and just balances in civil dealings.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Explicit commandment concerning the just ephah and just balances, mirroring Ezekiel's call.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Establishes the standard temple tax weight of the shekel defined as twenty gerahs.
Supported by JFB
Confirms God as the inheritance and possession of the ministering priests.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Regulations preventing the prince from abusing power or alienating land from the tribes.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Mosaic sacrificial provision for unintentional sins of ignorance or the simple.
Supported by JFB
The foundational Levitical institution of the Passover feast and seven days of unleavened bread.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month, which the prince must also celebrate.
Supported by JFB
Shows the exact dimensions of the holy oblation portion designated for the priests.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Shows the designated portion of land allocated specifically for the Levites.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Mosaic monetary definition of the shekel valued at twenty gerahs.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The Day of Atonement ritual for cleansing the holy sanctuary because of uncleanness.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallel ritual of putting blood on the horns and corners of the altar to cleanse it.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Wisdom literature condemning false balances and praising just scales as God's delight.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Prophetic condemnation of those who make the ephah small and falsify balances by deceit.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Specific details on how the prince is to offer sacrifices in the feasts.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Exhortation to keep the feast not with old leaven, but with sincerity and truth.
Supported by Matthew Henry