the holy place into the utter court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy; and shall put on other garments, and shall approach to those things which are for the people. 15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about. 16 He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. 17 He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. 18 He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed. 19 He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 20 He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place. CHAP. XLIII. [divine glory. behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house. 6 And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. 7 And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more de file, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. 8 In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. 9 Now let them put away their AFTERWARD he brought me to whoredom, and the carcases of their the gate, even the gate that looketh kings, far from me, and I will dwell in toward the east: the midst of them for ever. 2 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. 3 And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the visions that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. 4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. 5 So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, 10 Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. 11 And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. 12 This is the law of the house; upon the top of the mountain the whole - NOTES. Ver. 16. Five hundred reeds Newcome and Boothroyd, following the LXX and Arabic, read, "Cubits," instead of reeds; the mountain itself, according to Josephus, not being large enough to admit the other measure. It may be recollected, however, that this temple was only seen in vision. Ver. 20. The profane place, i.e. the place for the common people. CHAP. XLIII. Ver. 3. When I came to destroy the city-Marg. "When I came to prophesy that the city should be destroyed." See Jer. i. 10 Ver. 7. By the carcases of their kings.-Michaelis supposed that some of their idolatrous kings might have been buried in the precincts of Solomon's teraple, and perhaps afterwards idolized. See 2 Kings xxi. 18-26. Ver. 8. Their thresholds, &c.--The thresholds of the idol temples are peculiarly sacred, and there they are wont to pay their humblest adorations. Onest Cust. No. 327. See also chap. xlvi. 2, 2.—And the wall between, &c.-Newcome," There was only a wall between me and them." Ver. 10. Measure the pattern.-The original term means image, or model, according to Gesenius limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. (U) [Omit, and pass to chap. xlvii.] 14 And 13 And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth; even the bottom shall be a cubit, aud the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge there of Tound about shall be a span: and this shall be the higher place of the altar. From the bottom upon the ground even to Le lower settle shall be two cubits, and he breadth one cubit; and from the lesser ettle even to the greater settle shall be four ubits, and the breadth one cubit. 15 So me alar shall be four cubits; and from the tar and upward shall be four horns. 5 And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, welve broad, square in the four squares ereof. 17 And the settle shall be urteen cubits long and fourteen broad in four squares thereof; and the border but it shall be half a cubit; and the tom thereof shall be a cubit about; d his stairs shall look toward the east. And he said unto me, Son of man, s saith the Lord GOD; These are the inances of the altar in the day when · shall make it, to offer burnt offerings eon, and to sprinkle blood thereon. And thou shalt give to the priests the tes that be of the seed of Zadok, which oach unto me, to minister unto me, the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a ffering. 20 And thou shalt take of lood thereof, and put it on the four s of it, and on the four corners of the , and upon the border round about : shalt thou cleanse and purge it. [of the altars. 21 Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, without the sanctuary. 22 And on the second day thou shalt offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bullock. 23 When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish. 24 And thou shalt offer them before the LORD, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the LORD. 25 Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering they shall also prepare a young bullock, and a ram out of the flock without blemish. 26 Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves. 27 And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD. CHAP. XLIV. THEN he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut. 2 Theu said the LORD uuto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no mau shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. 3 It is for the priuce; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. 4 Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD EXPOSITION. CHAP. XLIII. Ver.1-12. Another vision of the divine with reproof and admonitions. Part of apter evidently relates to the former s that had been grossly polluted by y, which, upon the return of the resence, they are warned against re. From what is said, (ver. 7 and 8,) s to be justly inferable that some of lolatrous kings had been buried the precincts of the temple-monuerhaps erected to them, (as in our s), and their effigies even idolized. Thus idolatry became practised under the same roof with the worship of Jehovah, with only an inner wall between the jealous God of Israel and the objects of his holy jealousy; and therefore was that glo rious temple with all its treasures utterly destroyed. They are now warned to con sider this, before they attempt to build another temple on the model here before them; and they are admonished to remember that holiness was the law of the house through all its departments and appurtenances. NOTES. Even the bottom- Heb. "Bosom," this g a rim (Heb. "lip") round it. So the altar.-This altar, or the hearth of d in the Heb. Ariel. See Notes on Isaiah hands;" i. e. with sacrifices. See Note on Exod. xxvii. 41. CHAP. XLIV. Ver. 1. The outward sanctuary— i.e. the court of the Priests. Houbigant. Ver. 2. This gate shall be shut-that is, to the Consecrate themselves-Heb. "Fill their public. Among other marks of respect paid to a Laws respecting] EZEKIEL. filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upou my face. 5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary. 6 And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, 7 In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. 8 And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves. 9 Thus saith the Lord GoD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel. 10 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. 11 Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. 12 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity. 13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. 14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein. 15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall [the Priests and Levites. stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD: 16 They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to winister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. 17 And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. 18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat. 19 And when they go forth into the utter court, esen into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments. 20 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to gros long; they shall ouly poll their beads. 21 Neither shall any priest drink wine when they enter into the inner court. 22 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the housÉ of Israel, or a widow that had a priest be fore. 23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths. 25 And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, of for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves. 26 And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him NOTES-Chap. XLIV. Con. sovereign in the East, this is one, that the gate whereby he enters is in future closed to all other persons. Harmer's Obs. vol. iii. p. 329. Ver. 7. Strangers-Hebrew, "The children of a stranger." See Levit. xxii. 25. Ver. 10. They shall bear their iniquity. — Many Levites survived the captivity, some of whom in arly life had probably served the altar of the idola ters; neither they nor their children should now be admitted to their full privileges, but be subservient to others; and thus "bear their iniquity." Ver. 12. Caused the house, &c. - Heb. "Were a stumbling block of iniquity unto," &c.—I lifted sp mine hand-that is, I have sworn, &e. Ver. 25. They shall come, &c.-The following re gulations are chiefly repetitions of the Mosaic law Division of] CHAP. XLV. the first of all the first fruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house. 31 The priest shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast. CHAP. XLV. MOREOVER, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the LORD, an holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about. 2 Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof. 3 And of this measure shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place. 14 The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the LORD: and it shall be a place for their houses, and an holy place for the sauctuary. 5 And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth, shall also the Levites, the minis ters of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers. 6 And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over agaiust the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel. 7 And a portion shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, aud of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border. 8 In the laud shall be his possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes. 9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove vio 10 Ye [the land. lence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD. shall have just balances, and a just epbah and a just bath. 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath' may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. 12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. 13 This is the oblation' that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley: 14 Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer: 15 And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord God. 16 All the people of the land shall give this oblation for the prince in Isracl. 17 And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel. 18 Thus saith the Lord Gop; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary: 19 And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court. 20 And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house. 21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread 22 And upon that day shall be eaten. shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering. 23 And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering NOTES. CHAP. XLV. Ver. 1. When ye shall divide, &c. -See Josh. xxiii. 4, &c.--Fire and twenty thou sand reeds.-The word reeds is not in the original; Michaelis, Newcome, Boothroyd, &c. therefore supply cubits, as far more probable than reeds: 25,000 of the latter would be 150,000 cubits, which would amount to more than 42 miles in length, and upwards of 16 in breadth; at the lowest calculation, and reckoning the larger cubit, ch. xl. 5., 52 miles by 20, much too large for the hills on which Jerusalem was built. Ver. 6. Five thousand, &c. Abp. Newcome reckons this full four times the size of Jerusalem, according to Josephus. Ver. 12. Twenty shekels--this appears to be much like the manner of reckoning in the East at the present time. See Orient. Cust. No. 329. Ver, 18. In the first month, &c.-Michaelis says the following regulations differ materially from the Mosaic. to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering. 24 And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oil for an ephah. 25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil. CHAP. XLVI. Tier court that looketh toward THUS saith the Lord GoD; The gate of the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened. 2 Aud the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening. 3 Like wise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons. 4 And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish. 5 And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah. 6 And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish. 7 And he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hiu of oil to an ephah. 8 And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof. [the offerings. 11 And and to when they go in, shall go in; and when 16 Thus saith the Lord GOD; If the 19 After he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests, which looked toward the north: and, be hold, there was a place on the two sides westward. 20 Then said he unto me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offer ing, where they shall bake the meat offer ing; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to saucify the people. 21 Then he bought me forth into the utter court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and, behold, in every corner of the court there was a court. 22 In the four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long and NOTES. 9 But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate; he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it. 10 And the prince in the midst of them, |
