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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Ezekiel 45:1 - 45:8
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The Portion of the Land
v. 1. Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, the division of the land being thought of as in the time of Joshua, ye shall offer an oblation unto the Lord, as consecrated to His service, an holy portion of the land, literally, "holiness from the land," as of something separated for sacred purposes; the length, namely, of this strip of land set apart for the Lord, 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.
v. 2. Of this there shall be for the Sanctuary, as shown in 42:20, five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about, and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof, as its environs, a space to be kept free of buildings, lest they come too close to the sacred square of tile Temple compound.
v. 3. And of this measure, that is, according to 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, or, "therein shall the Sanctuary be the Most holy Place. "
v. 4. 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, so that they would have sufficient room for their dwellings on this sacred strip, and an holy place for the Sanctuary.
v. 5. And the five and twenty thousand of length and the ten thousand of breadth, that is, another strip of the same size, shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, as performing the minor services of the Temple, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers, an expression which may mean that the Levites occupied barrack-like cells with smaller portions of pasturage.
v. 6. And ye shall appoint the possession of the city, as the capital of the new nation, five thousand broad and five and twenty thousand long, this being the total area or region under its immediate control, over against the oblation of the holy portion, that is, running next to the strip reserved for the Sanctuary; it shall be for the whole house of Israel, all tile tribes having an equal interest in it.
v. 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 and 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, extending outside of the boundaries of these strips as far as the country extended toward the east and west; and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border, so that the Strips belonging to the prince run parallel to the strips assigned to the several tribes.
v. 8. In the land shall be his possession in Israel, or, "it shall be land to him for a possession in Israel"; and My princes shall no more oppress My people, as had been the case with many of the former rulers; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes, assigning the several parts as described in chapter 47. The context once more clearly indicates that an ideal country and nation is meant, which we cannot understand but of the spiritual Israel, of the Church of God.