Ezekiel 45 commentary

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.

CHAPTER 45

Eze 45:1-25. Allotment of the Land for the Sanctuary, the City, and the Prince.

1. offer an oblation--from a Hebrew root to "heave" or "raise"; when anything was offered to God, the offerer raised the hand. The special territorial division for the tribes is given in the forty-seventh and forty-eighth chapters. Only Jehovah's portion is here subdivided into its three parts: (1) that for the sanctuary (Eze 45:2, 3); (2) that for the priests (Eze 45:4); (3) that for the Levites (Eze 45:5). Compare Eze 48:8-13.

five and twenty thousand reeds, &c.--So English Version rightly fills the ellipsis (compare Note, see on Eze 42:16). Hence "cubits" are mentioned in Eze 45:2, not here, implying that there alone cubits are meant. Taking each reed at twelve feet, the area of the whole would be a square of sixty miles on each side. The whole forming a square betokens the settled stability of the community and the harmony of all classes. "An holy portion of the land" (Eze 45:1) comprised the whole length, and only two-fifths of the breadth. The outer territory in its distribution harmonizes with the inner and more sacred arrangements of the sanctuary. No room is to be given for oppression (see Eze 45:8), all having ample provision made for their wants and comforts. All will mutually co-operate without constraint or contention.

7. The prince's possession is to consist of two halves, one on the west, the other on the east, of the sacred territory. The prince, as head of the holy community, stands in closest connection with the sanctuary; his possession, therefore, on both sides must adjoin that which was peculiarly the Lord's [Fairbairn].

12. The standard weights were lost when the Chaldeans destroyed the temple. The threefold enumeration of shekels (twenty, twenty-five, fifteen) probably refers to coins of different value, representing respectively so many shekels, the three collectively making up a maneh. By weighing these together against the maneh, a test was afforded whether they severally had their proper weight: sixty shekels in all, containing one coin a fourth of the whole (fifteen shekels), another a third (twenty shekels), another a third and a twelfth (twenty-five shekels) [Menochius]. The Septuagint reads, "fifty shekels shall be your maneh."

13-15. In these oblations there is a progression as to the relation between the kind and the quantity: of the corn, the sixth of a tenth, that is, a sixtieth part of the quantity specified; of the oil, the tenth of a tenth, that is, an hundredth part; and of the flock, one from every two hundred.

18. The year is to begin with a consecration service, not mentioned under the Levitical law; but an earnest of it is given in the feast of dedication of the second temple, which celebrated its purification by Judas Maccabeus, after its defilement by Antiochus.

20. for him that is simple--for sins of ignorance (Le 4:2, 13, 27).

21. As a new solemnity, the feast of consecration is to prepare for the passover; so the passover itself is to have different sacrifices from those of the Mosaic law. Instead of one ram and seven lambs for the daily burnt offering, there are to be seven bullocks and seven rams. So also whereas the feast of tabernacles had its own offerings, which diminished as the days of the feast advanced, here the same are appointed as on the passover. Thus it is implied that the letter of the law is to give place to its spirit, those outward rites of Judaism having no intrinsic efficacy, but symbolizing the spiritual truths of Messiah's kingdom, as for instance the perfect holiness which is to characterize it. Compare 1Co 5:7, 8, as to our spiritual "passover," wherein, at the Lord's supper, we feed on Christ by faith, accompanied with "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Literal ordinances, though not slavishly bound to the letter of the law, will set forth the catholic and eternal verities of Messiah's kingdom.

When ye shall divide by lot - That is, when on your repossessing your land, every family settles according to the allotment which they formerly had; for it is certain that the land was not divided afresh by lot after the Babylonish captivity. The allotment mentioned and described here was merely for the service of the temple, the use of the priests, and the prince or governor of the people. A division of the whole land is not intended.

Of this there shall be for the sanctuary - See the plan, A.

And of this measure - See the plan, A, B, C, D, E.

The holy portion - See the plan, A.

And the five and twenty thousand - See the plan, B.

Ye shall appoint - See the plan, FF.

A portion shall be for the prince - נשיא nasi, he who had the authority of chief magistrate; for there was neither king nor prince among the Jews after the Babylonish captivity. For these allotments and divisions, see the plan, EE, FF, GG.

My princes shall no more oppress my people - By exorbitant taxes to maintain profligate courts, or subsidize other powers to help to keep up a system of tyranny in the earth. The former princes even robbed the temple of God to give subsidies to other states.

Take away your exactions from my people - This is the voice of God to all the rulers of the earth.

Take away your exactions; do not oppress the people; they are mine. Abolish all oppressive taxes.

Ye shall have just balances - This appreciation of weights, measures, and money was intended to show them that they must not introduce those to which they had been accustomed in the captivity, but those which God had prescribed to their forefathers. See the notes on the parallel places.

All - this oblation for the prince - A present or offering to the prince.

Thou shalt take a young bullock - and cleanse the sanctuary - There is nothing of this in the Mosaic law; it seems to have been a new ceremony. An annual purification of the sanctuary may be intended.

For him that is simple - That wants understanding to conduct himself properly.

In the seventh month - He shall do at the feast of tabernacles the same things that he was desired to do on the passover. The prince should offer the same number of victims, of the same quality, and with the same ceremonies, as during the above seven days. The offerings were, sin-offerings, burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings.

Of this - Whole portion of twenty five thousand cubits long, or twelve miles and half, and ten thousand broad, or five miles and a little more. For the sanctuary - For a platform for the sanctuary, both house and court.

And in it - In the center of this.

The possession - Land to be a possession to the citizens of Jerusalem, and to be the content of the city. Broad - About two miles and half broad, and twelve miles and half long. Long - This must run along parallel in length with the holy portion, though but half its breadth. For the whole house - As the capital city, to which the tribe's resort, it must be large enough to entertain them.

The prince - The king. Our side - One half of the prince's portion lay on the west side of those three already set out. The other side - The other half lay on the east - side thereof, so the portion of the city, Levites and priests, lay in the middle. The holy portion - Of priests, and Levites, and sanctuary. Before - It lay parallel as broad as these three were broad, and so run on both sides in its breadth from north to south, and had its length as the other, from east to west. Over against - What is called now over - against, or by the side, is called before three times together. So now you have an exact square of twenty - five thousand cubits laid out for God, the Levites and city, which appears thus in the breadth. 10000 For the priests. 10000 For the Levites. 5000 For the city.

1 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.

Ye returned Iewes restor'd to your own land.

It was not on the return divided by lot, as 'twas by Ioshua, but lot, and inheritance are the same many times in the Scripture, and the expression alludes to the usual way of assigning inheritances.

Land of Canaan.

As 'tis fit God have his Portion first set out.

By it's Relation to God, and because dedicated to his service.

The Heb. doth not express either Reeds or cubits, our Translators supply Reeds, but the French reads it cubits (coudees.) Rochel edit. 1616. The Gr. keeps to the Heb. and adds not reed or cubit: could it be demonstrated which is here intended, we might proceed with greater clearness and certainty. 'Tis true Reeds are first mention'd, as the measure, but Cubits are also very often mention'd, as a known measure in measuring the Temple and Courts, as appears to any one that will read over these four Chapters, 40.41.42.43. beside the second verse expresly saith Cubits, and I am apt to think, that it hath relation as well to the 25000, ver. 1. as to the 500, ver. 2. I rather favour the Cubit Measure than the Reed, that so the whole content may not seem overgrown, for at Reed Measure this Portion contains at least 77 miles, and a little more in length; but at the Cubit Measure it amounts but to 12 miles and a half. This easily, the other hardly imaginable.

Reeds is at least 30 miles and a half, but Cubits amount to five miles in breadth, and this seems to me both likeliest to be intended, and easiest to be understood, however, since the first ver. mentions not the particular measure, I may as well borrow it from the second ver. as others fetch it from the 40 Chap. and I think, the third expresly limits us to the measure by Cubits, which see with Notes, let. o.

Set apart for holy uses, the whole circuit thereof.

Marginal references: Heb. cause the land to fall.; chap. 48.8.; Heb. Holiness.

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.

Whole consecrate Portion of 25000 cubits long, or 12 miles and half, and 10000 broad, or 5 miles and little more.

For a platform for the Sanctuary, both House, and Courts.

Five hundred cubi[illegible: 1 letter]s square, which is about one fourth of a mile square.

Which amount to 29 yards, and half a foot. This bears some proportion to the content of that square, which is one quarter of a mile in each side, but 50 cubits Suburb to that square, that should be supposed to have sides each a mile, a half and half quarter long.

Place round about this the five hundred cubits square mountain of the house.

Marginal references: chap. 42.20.; Or, void spaces.

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.

Or by or from this cubit measure, verse 2. shalt thou measure. So express that indeed I wonder a dispute can arise, and this justifies the French Version, which from this verse no doubt tooke the Co[illegible: 1 letter]dee, which they use in verse 1.

In the center or navel of this 25000, and 10000 shall the whole Sanctuary, Courts, Temple and Holy of Holies, or the oracle be built.

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 , and an holy place for the sanctuary.

The whole content of 12 miles and half long, and five broad.

Sons of Zadok who minister to the Lord, and others with them, who though degraded from the Priestly honour, yet lived upon Priestly provision.

In which twenty three of twenty four Courses of Priests may dwell conveniently, while the 24 minister at the Temple, as by order they did.

And how much God did reserve to himself for his dwelling is expresly mentioned. Thus God makes himself and what is his, the inheritance and possession of the Priests his Servants, as he told them, chap. 44.28.

5 And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house have for themselves, for a possession, for twenty chambers.

As we render the words they are a little clouded, but as they are rendred in the French they are plainer, we read them, as if the verse spake of the same 25000 long, and 10000 broad, which the Priests have, but the French thus; there shall be other 25000 in length, and 10000 in breadth, which shall appertain to the Levites, who do the service of the house with twenty Chambers, so they have abroad in the Countrey equal share with the Priests, and in the outer Court or Courts about the house twenty chambers or rows of them in which to abide for their conveniencies, when in their Courses, they attend the Services they were to perform, as Porters, Singers, and Attendants on the Priests.

6 ¶ And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad , and five and twenty thousand long over against the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

Order and measure out.

Land to be a possession to the Citizens of Ierusalem, and to be the content of the City.

About two miles, and half broad, and 12 miles and half long measured by the cubit, as ver. 3. directs.

This must run along parallel in length with the holy portion, though but half its breadth.

As the chief, and capital City, to which the Tribes resort, it must be large enough to entertain them too; and was to be framed with twelve gates to twelve streets, for the twelve Tribes, as chap. 48. ver. 31.

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 east-ward, and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border.

Though not said how much, 'tis like 'twas near fourfold to that of the City, Sanctuary or the Priests and Levites.

The King or supream Ruler.

One half of the Princes portion lay on the west side of those three already set out.

The other half lay on the east-side thereof, so the portion of City, Levites and Priests lay in the middle of it,

Of Priests and Levites and Sanctuary.

It lay parallel, as broad as these three were broad, and so run on both sides in its breadth from North to South, and had its length as the other from East to West, as in this Diagramma.

What called now over-against, or parallel, or by the side all along is called before three times together. So now you have an exact square of 25000 cubits laid out for God, the Levites and City, which appears thus in the breadth. 10000 For the Priests. 10000 For the Levites. 5000 For the City. And the length of each 25000, that is some 12 miles and half square. And the Princes Portion embracing or bounding all at each end as a guard and defence both of Church and State, of Religion and the Civil Rights, which may fairly be intimated by this assigning him his Portion on each end of the other three.

8 In the land 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.

Either in that portion of Land set out for him, or as 'tis added, in Israel, i. e. in the Land of Israel.

Who own my favour in their advancement, and my Law in their Government. All Princes are in some sort Gods Princes, but all do not regard God, as Sovereign Lord of them, and their People, but God did raise up such at the return out of Babylon, who were and did recognize themselves, Gods Princes.

Both Ezekiel and other Prophets did reprove the injustices, cruelties, and oppressive methods of the Kings of Israel, and yet they took not off the yoke, but it shall be better after the days of Babylonish Captivity ended.

After God had his Portion, which was that the Priests and Levites had after the City and the Prince have theirs, the remainder is to be given to the Peeple.

The persons that are Officers appointed to divide the Land.

Two Tribes and Ten Tribes.

To the number of the Tribes, and their Right, we must be restored to them, or they compensated with an equal value.

Marginal references: chap. [illegible: 2 letters]

9 ¶ Thus saith the Lord GOD; let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence , and spoil , and execute judgment and justice , take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.

Princes are here in Gods name, and by advice from him, who made them Princes, counselled, exhorted, and commanded.

Be content, aim not at more, who gave no more can make this enough, and who will curse, and blast what you indirectly, and by sinful oppressive crafts wrest from others.

Put it far from your selves, do not you use it, and so discountenance in others, that neither common Subjects dare violate one another, nor your Officers violate any of them.

Either the same as violence, or effect of it violent courses, rob the oppressed and spoil them.

Judge righteously and then look the sentence be executed for terror to the unjust, and relief of the opprest.

This is added for emphasis, though the same thing.

Heavy Taxes and Impositions on Estates or Trade.

Whom I must, if you will not, Right.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 span].

10 Ye shall have just balances , and a just ephah and a just bathe.

Princes of Israel.

Though they were not Traders to use, yet they must have i. e. appoint, for to them as a priviledge, it appertains to appoint standards for measure among their subjects.

Or weights and scales, by which to measure what is to be sold by weight, one and the same to all, that none buy by a greater, and sell by a lesser. So Lev. 19.35▪ 36. Prov. 11.1. & 16.11. Mic 6.10, 11. so must the Prince remove oppressive cheating by divers weights.

To measure dry things, as Corn, Olives, Dates, &c.

This was a measure of liquid things, as Oyl, Wine or Water, and what each contained the next verse will acquaint us.

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.

One shall contain as much as the other, the Ephah shall contain as many gallons of dry, as the Bath doth contain of liquid things.

Which is commonly said to be 30 bushels or near it. So that the Ephah will be some 3 bushels in dry things, and the Bath 64 pints, or 8 gallons in liquid things.

12 And the shekel shall be twenty Gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels shall be your Maneh .

Having laid down the standard for weight, and measure in less valuable things, and that are sold for money, now the Standard is set down for the currant coin, which passed among them, and the valuation of which was part of the Prince his prerogative. The first mentioned in the text is the shekel, which saith the text contained twenty Gerahs, now every Gerah was one penny half penny English value, the shekel then was 2 s. 6 d. the twenty shekels was two pounds ten shillings, the 15 shekels was one pound 17 shillings and 6 pence, and twenty five was 3 l. 2 s. 6 d.

Some say 'tis one pound, and that the pound was either least, middle or greatest, according as there were more, or fewer shekels in it, the least or common pound was but 17 s. and 6 d. the next, which was the Royal was 50 s. and the greatest or pound of the Sanctuary, was sixty two shillings and six pence.

Marginal references: Exod. 30.13. [illegible: 1 letter]ev. 27.25. [illegible: 1 letter]um. 3.47.

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.

In the daily service the morning and evening Sacrifice, there must be Wheat and Barley flower.

Sixtieth part of an homer, about one half bushel and one peck, and one quarter of a peck, and three pints, or near it, so some. Others abate the odde measures, and say the Ephah was about our half bushel as indeed it can be no more, if the Homer were 30 bushels, the Ephah a tenth part of the Homer, that is three bushels the sixth part of the Ephah amounts to four gallons, or half a bushel.

14 Concerning the ordinance of oyl , the bath of oyl, 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.

Now forasmuch as Oyl was alwayes offered with the meat-offering, here is direction what quantity shall be used at each offering.

Which contained about 24 gallons or very near it.

So the quantity of Oyl by this account will be two gallons, three pints, and a little more.

Which is here said to be an Homer, these were two names of one, and the same measure, and described by the Baths it contained.

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.

This verse prescribes the proportion, that is to be observed in bringing the Lambs for daily Sacrifice, they were bound to choose out of the best Pastures of Israel the best, and fattest Lambs, one out of two hundred, so favourable was God to them in these Cattel, taking so few out of so many. And these Lambs were designed for to be offered with the Meat-offering, either in expiatory Sacrifices, or in Eucharistical Sacrifices, thus daily Sacrifices kept up their peace with God.

Marginal references: Or, kid.; Or, thank-of [illegible: 2 letters]rings.

16 All the people of the land shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel.

The plain and summary meaning of this verse is, that this daily Sacrifice should be, as for the people, and the Prince, so should it be provided by a common purse of Prince and People, all should contribute to this charge. Though some think the People were to give this, and the Prince to give a like share, and I know some think, that this Prince is the High-Priest, and that all the people, joyning, and contributing to this Sacrifice, are here bound to bring it to the High-Priest.

Marginal references: Heb. shall be [illegible: 1 word].; Or, with.

17 And it shall be the princes 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 .

Beside the share he gives to the daily Sacrifice in the common charge, ver. 16. the Prince is bound also on solemnities to give Sacrifices out of his own.

See Lev. 1. where these are described.

See Lev. 2.1. &c.

Exod. 30.9. and Numb. 15.24. the Drink-offering was ever joyned with the Meat-offering, Num. 29.11, 16.19.22.

Which he doth particularly recount, as new Moons, &c. of all particularly to treat would be too long.

Here lieth the main deciding circumstance, whether the secular, or ecclesiastical Prince be here intended, some say this preparing is a sacerdotal act in order to offering, if so it must be the High Priest, but I think they mistake. This preparing is nothing more then on the Princes charge, and by his care to see, that there be such Beasts ready at hand as are required at such solemnities, and so 'tis the secular Prince.

See ver. 15.

All the People.

Marginal references: Or, thank-offerings.

18 Thus saith the Lord GOD; in the first moneth , in the first day of the moneth, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary.

Of the year every New-years day, or the first New-years day after the Temple is built; a kind of Feast of Dedication, the former better agreeth with the following verses.

Proc[illegible: 3 letters]e, either bring out of his own flock, or buy with his Money, this the Prince must do.

Such the Law required bo[illegible: 1 letter]h for kind, and quality, in what Sacrifice, or on what occasion soever the sacrifice was offered

That by this offered according to the Law, the Temple might be cleansed.

Marginal references: Lev. 16.16.

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.

Had the 17th. and 18th. verse intended by Prince the High-Priest, there would have been no need of changing the phrase, or of mentioning the Priest, it would have been enough to have said and he shall, but in those verses, the bringing and preparing is not Priestly, but ascribed to the Prince as it would be to any other, who offers a Sacrifice to the Lord by the hand of the Priest.

Carry with him in some vessel or other, from the place where the bullock was slain.

Lev. 1.[illegible: 1 letter]. chap. 43.20. let. z.

Chap. 43.20. let. z. a.

The blood of the Sin-offering was to be put upon the posts of the Temple door, and on the posts of the gate of the Inner Court, or that next to the Temple.

20 And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the moneth for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple : so shall ye reconcile the house.

The Priest must offer the like Sacrifice for cleansing the errors of the people, and reconciling them.

About a week before the passeover.

For all the errors of all the house of Israel, in all that had erred through ignorance.

That is of weak intellectuals, half-witted, or a fool, as the word signifies, or for one that was seduced.

i. e. Cleanse, as ver. 18. which legally or ceremonially was defiled by those errors done in the City, or Courts of the house, whither these persons might come, for 'tis not the Temple it self, I suppose, that is here meant.

21 In the first moneth in the fourteenth day of the moneth, ye shall have the passeover , a feast of seven days , unleavened bread shall be eaten .

Nisan which is part of March and part of April with us.

As was appointed of old by Moses, Exod. 12. at large.

Have, and slay, for so Exod. 12.6.

The Lamb, which was to be eaten with thanksgiving for Gods sparing the Iewish Children, their first born, when he slew the chief of the strength of Egypt, and for bringing the whole house of Israel out of Egypt.

See the institution, Exod. 12.

Though here is an Ellipsis, yet the thing clearly speaks it self! through the whole Feast unleavened Bread was to be eaten under great penalty, Exod. 12.18, 19. These things no doubt concerned the returned Captives, though they have Mystical meaning also.

Marginal references: Lev. 23.5. Num. 9.3, & 28.16. Deut; 16.1.

22 And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land, a bullock for a sin-offering.

Upon the fourteenth day, on which the pass-over was slain.

As before ver. 17. let, x. and ver. 18. let. b.

To expiate his own sins.

See ver. 17. where the same is found.

23 And seven dayes of the feast he shall prepare a burnt-offering to the LORD, seven bullocks, and seven rams without blemish, daily the seven dayes: and a kid of the goates daily for a sin-offering.

After the first dayes offering ver. 22. or else after the 15th. day was over, though first more likely. The Prince at his own charge, is to get ready day by day seven Bullocks, seven Rams perfect without blemish, as the Law required, and one Kid each day of the seven in all 49 Bullocks, as many Rams and seven Kids of the Goats. These the Priests were to offer to make atonement for the Prince, and his People.

24 And he shall prepare a meat offering of an Ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oyl for an ephah .

The Prince.

For the Sacrifice was not entire without this, and the Text proportions this also.

For each Bullock one Ephah of fine flower, three Bushels, and one half with the seven Bullocks of the first day, and so for the Rams. That is seven Bushels every day for seven dayes together, according to the number of Rams, and Bullocks.

This was about one gallon and three quarters of a pint.

To each Ephah of Meal, so every of the seven there were 7 Bullocks, 7 Ephahs, and 7 Hins of Oyl. 7 Rams, 7 Ephahs, and 7 Hins of Oyl. 49 of each kind of the Beasts in the space of the seven days, and 98 Ephahs, and as many Hins with them; a great, and costly service.

25 In the seventh moneth , in the fifteenth day of the moneth, 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 oyl.

According to their Ecclesiastical account.

Tisri, which answers to part of our August and September.

On that day the Feast of Tabernacles began, and it continued seven dayes.

The Prince as before ver. 24.

In every respect for Sacrifices, and all that belonged to them.

As was required at the Passover, so at this Feast also, and therefore you are referred to the particulars of that Feast.

Marginal references: Lev. 23.34. Num. 29.12. Deut. 16.13.

The determination of the means of support for the priesthood is followed still further by an explanation of the manner in which Jehovah will be their inheritance and possession; in other words, assign to the priests and Levites that portion of the land which was requisite for their abode. This is to be done by His causing a definite tract of land to be set apart for Himself, for the sanctuary, and for His servants, and for the capital, when the country is distributed among the tribes of Israel (Eze 45:1-8). On both sides of this domain the prince is also to receive a possession in land, to guard against all exaction on the part of the princes in time to come. And everywhere unrighteousness is to cease, just weight and measure are to be observed (Eze 45:9-12), and the people are to pay certain heave-offerings to provide for the sacrifices binding upon the prince (Eze 45:13-17).

The Holy Heave from the Land. - Eze 45:1. And when ye divide the land by lot for an inheritance, ye shall lift a heave for Jehovah as a holy (portion) from the land; five and twenty thousand the length, and the breadth ten (? twenty) thousand. It shall be holy in all its circumference round about. Eze 45:2. Of this five hundred shall belong to the Holy by five hundred square round about, and fifty cubits open space thereto round about. Eze 45:3. And from this measured space thou shalt measure a length of five and twenty thousand, and a breadth of ten thousand, and in this shall be the sanctuary, a holy of holies. Eze 45:4. A holy (portion) of the land shall this be; to the priests, the servants of the sanctuary, shall it belong who draw near to serve Jehovah, and it shall be to them the place for houses and a sanctuary for the sanctuary. Eze 45:5. And five and twenty thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth shall belong to the Levites, the servants of the house, for a possession to them as gates to dwell in. Eze 45:6. And as a possession for the city, ye shall give five thousand in breadth and five and twenty thousand in length, parallel to the holy heave; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel. Eze 45:7. And to the prince (ye shall give) on both sides of the holy heave and of the possession of the city, along the holy heave and along the possession of the city, on the west side westwards and on the east side eastwards, and in length parallel to one of the tribe-portions, from the western border to the eastern border. Eze 45:8. It shall belong to him as land, as a possession in Israel; and my princes shall no more oppress my people, but shall leave the land to the house of Israel according to its tribes. - The domain to be first of all set apart from the land at the time of its distribution among the tribes is called תּרוּמה, heave, not in the general sense of the lifting or taking of a portion from the whole, but as a portion lifted or taken by a person from his property as an offering for God; for תּרוּמה comes from הרים, which signifies in the case of the minchah the lifting of a portion which was burned upon the altar as אזכּרה for Jehovah (see the comm. on Lev 2:9). Consequently everything that was offered by the Israelites, either voluntarily or in consequence of a precept from the Lord for the erection and maintenance of the sanctuary and its servants, was called תּרוּמה (see Exo 25:2., Eze 30:15; Lev 7:14; Num 15:19, etc.). Only the principal instructions concerning the heave from the land are given here, and these are repeated in Eze 48:8-22, in the section concerning the division of the land, and to some extent expanded there. The introductory words, “when ye divide the land by lot for an inheritance,” point to this. (See the map on Plate IV.) הפּיל, sc. גּירל (Pro 1:14), to cast the lot, to divide by lot, as in Jos 13:6. Then shall ye lift, set apart, a heave for Jehovah as a holy (portion) from the land. מן  is to be closely connected with קדשׁ, as shown by Eze 45:4. In the numbers mentioned the measure to be employed is not given. But it is obvious that cubits are not meant, as Böttcher, Hitzig, and others assume, but rods; partly from a comparison of Eze 45:2 with Eze 42:16, where the space of the sanctuary, which is given here as 500 by 500 square, is described as five hundred rods on every side; and partly also from the fact that the open space around the sanctuary is fixed at fifty cubits, and in this case אמּה is added, because rods are not to be understood there as in connection with the other numbers. The correctness of this view, which we meet with in Jerome and Raschi, cannot be overthrown by appealing to the excessive magnitude of a τέμενος of twenty-five thousand rods in length and ten thousand rods in breadth; for it will be seen in Ezekiel 48 that the measurements given answer to the circumstances in rods, but not in cubits. The ארך before and after the number is pleonastic: “as for the length, twenty-five thousand rods in length.” Length here is the measurement from east to west, and breadth from north to south, as we may clearly see from Eze 48:10. No regard, therefore, is paid to the natural length and breadth of the land; and the greater extent of the portions to be measured is designated as length, the smaller as breadth. The expression אשׂרה אלף is a remarkable one, as עשׂרת אלפים is constantly used, not only in Eze 45:3 and Eze 45:5, but also in Eze 48:9-10,Eze 48:13, Eze 48:18. The lxx have εἴκοσι χιλιάδας, twenty thousand breadth. This reading appears more correct than the Masoretic, as it is demanded by Eze 45:3 and Eze 45:5. For according to Eze 45:3, of the portion measured in Eze 45:1 twenty-five thousand rods in length and ten thousand in breadth were to be measured for the sanctuary and for the priests’ land; and according to Eze 45:5, the Levites were also to receive twenty-five thousand rods in length and ten thousand in breadth for a possession. The first clause of Eze 45:3 is unintelligible if the breadth of the holy terumah is given in Eze 45:1 as only ten thousand rods, inasmuch as one cannot measure off from an area of twenty-five thousand rods in length and ten thousand rods in breadth another space of the same length and breadth. Moreover, Eze 45:1 requires the reading עשׂרים אלף, as the “holy terumah” is not only the portion set apart for the sanctuary and the priests’ land, but also that which was set apart for the Levites.

According to Eze 48:14, this was also “holy to Jehovah;” whereas the portion measured off for the city was “common” (Eze 48:15). This is borne out by the fact that in the chapter before us the domain appointed for the city is distinguished from the land of the priests and Levites by the verb תּתּנוּ (Eze 45:6), whilst the description of the size of the Levites’ land in Eze 45:5 is closely connected with that of the land of the priests; and further, that in Eze 45:7, in the description of the land of the prince, reference is made only to the holy terumah and the possession of the city, from which it also follows that the land of the Levites is included in the holy terumah. Consequently Eze 45:1 treats of the whole of the תּרוּמת קדשׁ, i.e., the land of the priests and Levites, which was twenty-five thousand rods long and twenty thousand rods broad. This is designated in the last clause of the verse as a holy (portion) in its entire circumference, and then divided into two domains in Eze 45:2 and Eze 45:3. - Eze 45:2. Of this (מזּה, of the area measured in Eze 45:1) there shall come, or belong, to the holy, i.e., to the holy temple domain, five hundred rods square, namely, the domain measured in Eze 42:15-20 round about the temple, for a separation between holy and common; and round this domain there is to be a מגרשׁ, i.e., an open space of fifty cubits on every side, that the dwellings to the priests may not be built too near to the holy square of the temple building. - Eze 45:3. המּדּה, this measure (i.e., this measured piece of land), also points back to Eze 45:1, and מן cannot be taken in any other sense than in מזּה (Eze 45:2). From the whole tract of land measured in Eze 45:1 a portion is to be measured off twenty-five thousand rods in length and ten thousand rods in breadth, in which the sanctuary, i.e., the temple with its courts, is to stand as a holy of holies. This domain, in the midst of which is the temple, is to belong to the priests, as the sanctified portion of the land, as the place or space for their houses, and is to be a sanctuary for the sanctuary, i.e., for the temple. Eze 45:5. A portion equally large is to be measured off to the Levites, as the temple servants, for their possession. The Keri יהיה is formed after the והיה of Eze 45:4, and the Chetib יהיה is indisputably correct. There is great difficulty in the last words of this verse, עשׂרים לשׁכת, “for a possession to them twenty cells;” for which the lxx give αὐτοῖς εἰς κατάσχεσιν πόλεις τοῦ κατοικεῖν, and which they have therefore read, or for which they have substituted by conjecture, ערים לשׁבת. We cannot, in fact, obtain from the עשׂרים לשׁכת of the Masoretic text any meaning that will harmonize with the context, even if we render the words, as Rosenmüller does, in opposition to the grammar, cum viginti cubiculis, and understand by לשׁכת capacious cell-buildings. For we neither expect to find in this connection a description of the number and character of the buildings in which the Levites lived, nor can any reason be imagined why the Levites, with a domain of twenty-five thousand rods in length and ten thousand rods in breadth assigned to them, should live together in twenty cell-buildings. Still less can we think of the “twenty cells” as having any connection with the thirty cells in the outer court near to the gate-buildings (Eze 40:17-18), as these temple cells, even though they were appointed for the Levites during their service in the temple, were not connected in any way with the holy terumah spoken of here. Hävernick’s remark, that “the prophet has in his eye the priests’ cells in the sanctuary, - and the dwellings of the Levites during their service, which were only on the outside of the sanctuary, were to correspond to these,” is not indicated in the slightest degree by the words, but is a mere conjecture. There is no other course open, therefore, than to acknowledge a corruption of the text, and either to alter לשׁכת `srym עשׂרים into לערים לשׁבת, as Hitzig proposes (cf. Num 35:2-3; Jos 21:2), or to take עשׂרים as a mistake for שׁערים: “for a possession to them as gates to dwell in,” according to the frequent use of שׁערים, gates, for ערים, cities, e.g., in what was almost a standing phrase, “the Levites who is in thy gates” (= cities; Deu 12:18; Deu 14:27; Deu 16:11; cf. Exo 20:10; Deu 5:14, etc.). In that case the faulty reading would have arisen from the transposition of עש into שע, and the change of ב into כ.

Beside the holy terumah for sanctuary, priests, and Levites, they are also (Eze 45:6) to give a tract of twenty-five thousand rods in length and five thousand rods in breadth as the property of the city (i.e., of the capital). לעמּת: parallel to the holy heave, i.e., running by the longer side of it. This portion of land, which was set apart for the city, was to belong to all Israel, and not to any single tribe. The more precise directions concerning this, and concerning the situation of the whole terumah in the land, are not given till Eze 48:8-22. Here, in the present chapter, this heave is simply mentioned in connection with the privileges which the servants of the Lord and of His sanctuary were to enjoy. These included, in a certain sense, also the property assigned to the prince in Eze 45:7 as the head of the nation, on whom the provision of the sacrifices for the nation devolved, and who, apart from this, also needed for his subsistence a portion of the land, which should be peculiarly his own, in accordance with his rank. They were to give him as his property (the verb תּתּנוּ is to be supplied to לנּשׂיא from Eze 45:6) the land on this side and that side of the holy terumah and of the city-possession, and that in front (אל־פּני) of these two tracts of land, that is to say, adjoining them, extending to their boundaries, 'מפּאת ים , “from” (i.e., according to our view, “upon”) the west side westward, and from (upon) the east side eastward; in other words, the land which remained on the eastern and western boundary of the holy terumah and of the city domain, both toward the west as far as the Mediterranean Sea, and toward the east as far as the Jordan, the two boundaries of the future Canaan. The further definition 'וארך לעמּות וגו is not quite clear; but the meaning of the words is, that “the length of the portions of land to be given to the prince on the east and west side of the terumah shall be equal to the length of one of the tribe-portions,” and not that the portions of land belonging to the prince are to be just as long from north to south as the length of one of the twelve tribe-possessions. “Length” throughout this section is the extent from east to west. It is so in the case of all the tribe-territories (cf. Eze 48:8), and must be taken in this sense in connection with the portion of land belonging to the prince also. The meaning is therefore this: in length (from east to west) these portions shall be parallel to the inheritance of one of the twelve tribes from the western boundary to the eastern. Two things are stated here: first, that the prince’s portion is to extend on the eastern and western sides of the terumah as far as the boundary of the land allotted to the tribes, i.e., on the east to the Jordan, and on the west to the Mediterranean (cf. Eze 48:8); and secondly, that on the east and west it is to run parallel (לעמּות) to the length of the separate tribe-territories, i.e., not to reach farther toward either north or south than the terumah lying between, but to be bounded by the long sides of the tribe-territories which bound the terumah on the north and south. ארך is the accusative of direction; אחד, some one (cf. Jdg 16:7; Psa 82:7). - In Eze 45:8, לארץ with the article is to be retained, contrary to Hitzig’s conjecture לארץ: “to the land belonging to him as a possession shall it (the portion marked off in Eze 45:7) be to him.” ארץ, as in 1Ki 11:18, of property in land. In Eze 45:8, the motive for these instructions is given. The former kings of Israel had no land of their own, no domain; and this had driven them to acquire private property by violence and extortion. That this may not occur any more in the future, and all inducement to such oppression of the people may be taken from the princes, in the new kingdom of God the portion of land more precisely defined in Eze 45:7 is to be given to the prince as his own property. The plural, “my princes,” does not refer to several contemporaneous princes, nor can it be understood of the king and his sons, i.e., of the royal family, on account of Eze 46:16; but it is to be traced to the simple fact “that Ezekiel was also thinking of the past kings, and that the whole series of princes, who had ruled over Israel, and still would rule, was passing before his mind” (Kliefoth), without our being able to conclude from this that there would be a plurality of princes succeeding one another in time to come, in contradiction to Eze 37:25. -  “And the land shall they (the princes) leave to the people of Israel” (נתן in the sense of concedere; and הארץ, the land, with the exception of the portion set apart from it in Eze 45:1-7). - The warning against oppression and extortion, implied in the reason thus assigned, is expanded into a general exhortation in the following verses.

Eze 45:9-12

General Exhortation to Observe Justice and Righteousness in their Dealings. - Eze 45:9. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Let it suffice you, ye princes of Israel: desist from violence and oppression, and observe justice and righteousness, and cease to thrust my people out of their possession, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Eze 45:10. Just scales, and a just ephah, and a just bath, shall ye have. Eze 45:11. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, so that the bath holds the tenth part of the homer, and the ephah the tenth part of the homer: after the homer shall its standard be. Eze 45:12. And the shekel shall have twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall the mina be with you. - The exhortation in Eze 45:9 is similar to that in Eze 44:6, both in form and substance. As the Levites and priests are to renounce the idolatry to which they have been previously addicted, and to serve before the Lord in purity and holiness of life, so are the princes to abstain from the acts of oppression which they have formerly practised, and to do justice and righteousness; for example, to liberate the people of the Lord from the גּרשׁות. גּרוּשׁה is unjust expulsion from one’s possession, of which Ahab’s conduct toward Naboth furnished a glaring example (1 Kings 21). These acts of violence pressed heavily upon the people, and this burden is to be removed (הרים מעל). In Eze 45:10-12 the command to practise justice and righteousness is expanded; and it is laid as a duty upon the whole nation to have just weights and measures. This forms the transition to the regulation, which follows from Eze 45:13 onwards, of the taxes to be paid by the people to the prince to defray the expenses attendant upon the sacrificial worship. - For Eze 45:10, see Lev 19:36 and Deu 25:13. Instead of the hin (Lev 19:36), the bath, which contained six hins, is mentioned here as the measure for liquids. The בּת is met with for the first time in Isa 5:10, and appears to have been introduced as a measure for liquids after the time of Moses, having the same capacity as the ephah for dry goods (see my Bibl. Archäol. II pp. 139ff.). This similarity is expressly stated in Eze 45:11. Both of them, the ephah as well as the bath, are to contain the tenth of a homer (לשׂאת, to carry, for להכיל, to contain, to hold; compare Gen 36:7 with Amo 7:10), and to be regulated by the homer. Eze 45:12 treats of the weights used for money. The first clause repeats the old legal provision (Exo 30:13; Lev 27:25; Num 3:47), that the shekel, as the standard weight for money, which was afterwards stamped as a coin, is to contain twenty gerahs. The regulations which follow are very obscure: “twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels, shall the mina be to you.” The mina, המּנה, occurs only here and in 1Ki 10:17; Ezr 2:69; and Neh 7:71-72, - that is to say, only in books written during the captivity of subsequent to it. If we compare 1Ki 10:17, according to which three minas of gold were used for a shield, with 2Ch 9:16, where three hundred (shekels) of gold are said to have been used for a similar shield, it is evident that a mina was equal to a hundred shekels. Now as the talent (כּכּר) contained three thousand (sacred or Mosaic) shekels (see the comm. on Exo 38:25-26), the talent would only have contained thirty minas, which does not seem to answer to the Grecian system of weights. For the Attic talent contained sixty minas, and the mina a hundred drachms; so that the talent contained six thousand drachms, or three thousand didrachms. But as the Hebrew shekel was equal to a δίδραχμον, the Attic talent with three thousand didrachms corresponded to the Hebrew talent with three thousand shekels; and the mina, as the sixtieth part of the talent, with a hundred drachms or fifty didrachms, ought to correspond to the Hebrew mina with fifty shekels, as the Greek name μνᾶ  is unquestionably derived from the Semitic מנה. The relation between the mina and the shekel, resulting from a comparison of 1Ki 10:17 with 2Ch 9:16, can hardly be made to square with this, by the assumption that the shekels referred to in 2Ch 9:16 are not Mosaic shekels, but so-called civil shekels, the Mosaic half-shekel, the beka, בּקע, having acquired the name of shekel in the course of time, as the most widely-spread silver coin of the larger size. A hundred such shekels or bekas made only fifty Mosaic shekels, which amounted to one mina; while sixty minas also formed one talent (see my Bibl. Archäol. II pp. 135, 136).

But the words of the second half of the verse before us cannot be brought into harmony with this proportion, take them how we will. If, for example, we add the three numbers together, 20 + 25 + 15 shekels shall the mina be to you, Ezekiel would fix the mina at sixty shekels. But no reason whatever can be found for such an alteration of the proportion between the mina and the talent on the one hand, or the shekel on the other, if the shekel and talent were to remain unchanged. And even apart from this, the division of the sixty into twenty, twenty-five, and fifteen still remains inexplicable, and can hardly be satisfactorily accounted for in the manner proposed by the Rabbins, namely, that there were pieces of money in circulation of the respective weights of twenty, twenty-five, and fifteen shekels, for the simple reason that no historical trace of the existence of any such pieces can be found, apart from the passage before us.It is true that Const. l'Empereur has observed, in the Discursus ad Lectorem prefixed to the Paraphrasis Joseph. Jachiadae in Danielem, that “as God desired that justice should be preserved in all things, He noticed the various coins, and commanded that they should have their just weight. One coin, according to Jewish testimony, was of twenty shekels, a second of twenty-five, and a third of fifteen shekels; and as these together made one mina, according to the command of God, in order that it might be manifest that each had its proper quantity, He directed that they should be weighed against the mina, so that it might be known whether each had its own weight by means of the mina, to which they ought to be equal.” But the Jewish witnesses (Judaei testes) are no other than the Rabbins of the Middle Ages, Sal. Jarchi (Raschi), Dav. Kimchi, and Abrabanel, who attest the existence of these pieces of money, not on the ground of historical tradition, but from an inference drawn from this verse.  The much earlier Targumist knows nothing whatever of them, but paraphrases the words thus: “the third part of a mina has twenty shekels; a silver mina, five and twenty shekels; the fourth part of a mina, fifteen shekels; all sixty are a mina; and a great mina (i.e., probably one larger than the ordinary, or civil mina) shall be holy to you;” from which all that can be clearly learned is, that he found in the words of the prophet a mina of sixty shekels. A different explanation is given by the lxx, whose rendering, according to the Cod. Vatic. (Tischendorf), runs as follows: πέντε σίκλοι, πέντε καὶ σίκλοι, δέκα καὶ πεντήκοντα σίκλοι ἡ μνᾶ ἔσται ὑμῖν; and according to the Cod. Al.: οἱ πεντε σικλοι πεντε και ὁι δεκα σικλοι δεκα και πεντηκοντα κ.τ.λ. Boeckh (Metrol. Untersuch. pp. 54ff.) and Bertheau (Zur Gesch. der Isr. pp. 9ff.) regard the latter as the original text, and punctuate it thus: οἱ πέντε σίκλοι πέντε, καὶ οἱ δέκα σίκλοι δέκα, καὶ πεντήκοντα σίκλοι ἡ μνᾶ ἔσται ὑμῖν, - interpreting the whole verse as follows: “the weight once fixed shall remain unaltered, and unadulterated in its original value: namely, a shekel shall contain ten gerahs; five shekels, or a five-shekel piece, shall contain exactly five; and so also a ten-shekel piece, exactly ten shekels; and the mina shall contain fifty shekels.”  But however this explanation may appear to commend itself, and although for this reason it has been adopted by Hävernick and by the author of this commentary in his Bibl. Archäol., after a repeated examination of the matter I cannot any longer regard it as well-founded, but am obliged to subscribe to the view held by Hitzig and Kliefoth, “that this rendering of the lxx carries on the face of it the probability of its resting upon nothing more than an attempt to bring the text into harmony with the ordinary value of the mina.” For apart from the fact that nothing is known of the existence of five and ten shekel pieces, it is impossible to get any intelligible meaning from the words, that five shekels are to be worth five shekels, and ten shekels worth ten shekels, as it was self-evident that five shekels could not be worth either four shekels or six.

And the other attempts that have been made to explain the difficult words are no satisfactory. The explanation given by Cocceius and J. D. Michaelis (Supplem. ad lex. p. 1521), that three different minas are mentioned, - a smaller one of fifteen Mosaic shekels, a medium size of twenty shekels, and a large one of twenty-five-is open to the objection justly pointed out by Bertheau, that in an exact definition of the true weight of anything we do not expect three magnitudes, and the purely arbitrary assumption of three different minas is an obvious subterfuge. The same thing applies to Hitzig’s explanation, that the triple division, twenty, twenty-five, and fifteen shekels, has reference to the three kinds of metal used for coinage, viz., gold, silver, and copper, so that the gold mina was worth, or weighed, twenty shekels; the silver mina, twenty-five; and the copper mina, fifteen, - which has no tenable support in the statement of Josephus, that the shekel coined by Simon was worth four drachms; and is overthrown by the incongruity in the relation in which it places the gold to the silver, and both these metals to the copper. - There is evidently a corruption of very old standing in the words of the text, and we are not in possession of the requisite materials for removing it by emendation.

Eze 45:13-17

The Heave-offerings of the People. - Eze 45:13.This is the heave-offering which ye shall heave: The sixth part of the ephah from the homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of the ephah from the homer of barley; Eze 45:14. And the proper measure of oil, from the bath of oil a tenth of the bath from the cor, which contains ten baths or a homer; for ten baths are a homer; Eze 45:15. And one head from the flock from two hundred from the watered land of Israel, for the meat-offering, and for the burnt-offering, and for the peace-offerings, to make atonement for them, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Eze 45:16. All the people of the land shall be held to this heave-offering for the prince in Israel. Eze 45:17. And upon the prince shall devolve the burnt-offerings, and the meat-offering, and the drink-offering at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, at all the festivals of the house of Israel; he shall provide the sin-offering, and the meat-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel. - The introductory precepts to employ just measures and weights are now followed by the regulations concerning the productions of nature to be paid by the Israelites to the prince for the sacrificial worship, the provision for which was to devolve on him. Fixed contributions are to be levied for this purpose, of wheat, barley, oil, and animals of the flock - namely, according to Eze 45:13-15, of corn the sixtieth part, of oil the hundredth part, and of the flock the two hundredth head. There is no express mention made of wine for the drink-offering, or of cattle, which were also requisite for the burnt-offering and peace-offering, in addition to animals from the flock. The enumeration therefore is not complete, but simply contains the rule according to which they were to act in levying what was required for the sacrifices. The word שׁשּׁיתם in Eze 45:13 must not be altered, as Hitzig proposes; for although this is the only passage in which שׁשּׁה occurs, it is analogous to חמּשׁ in Gen 41:34, both in its formation and its meaning, “to raise the sixth part.” A sixth of an ephah is the sixtieth part of a homer. חק, that which is fixed or established, i.e., the proper quantity. הבּת השּׁמן is in apposition to השּׁמן (for the article, see the comm. on Eze 43:21), the fixed quantity of oil, namely of the bath of oil-i.e., the measure of that which is to be contributed from the oil, and that from the bath of oil-shall be the tenth part of the bath from the cor, i.e., the hundredth part of the year’s crop, as the cor contained ten baths. The cor is not mentioned in the preceding words (Eze 45:11), nor does it occur in the Mosaic law. It is another name for the homer, which is met with for the first time in the writings of the captivity (1Ki 5:2, 25; 2Ch 2:9; 2Ch 27:5). For this reason its capacity is explained by the words which are appended to מכּור: 'עשׂרת הבּתּים וגו, from the cor (namely) of ten baths, one homer; and the latter definition is still further explained by the clause, “for ten baths are one homer.” - Eze 45:15. ממּשׁקה, from the watered soil (cf. Gen 13:10), that is to say, not a lean beast, but a fat one, which has been fed upon good pasture. לכפּר עליהם indicates the general purpose of the sacrifices (vid., Lev 1:4). - Eze 45:16. The article in העם, as in הבּת ni sa ,העם ni  in Eze 45:14. היה אל, to be, i.e., to belong, to anything - in other words, to be held to it, under obligation to do it; היה על  (Eze 45:17), on the other hand, to be upon a person, i.e., to devolve upon him. In בּכל־מועדי the feast and days of festival, which have been previously mentioned separately, are all grouped together. 'עשׂה את החטּאת וגו' .rehtegot, to furnish the sin-offering, etc., i.e., to supply the materials for them.

So far as the fact is concerned, the Mosaic law makes no mention of any contributions to the sanctuary, with the exception of the first-born, the first-fruits and the tithes, which could be redeemed with money, however. Besides these, it was only on extraordinary occasions - e.g., the building of the tabernacle - that the people were called upon for freewill heave-offerings. But the Mosaic law contains no regulation as to the sources from which the priests were to meet the demands for the festal sacrifices. So far, the instructions in the verses before us are new. What had formerly been given for this object as a gift of spontaneous love, is to become in the future a regular and established duty, to guard against that arbitrary and fitful feeling from which the worship of God might suffer injury. - To these instructions there are appended, from Eze 45:18 onwards, the regulations concerning the sacrifices to be offered at the different festivals.

Eze 45:18-20

The Sin-Offerings in the First Month

Eze 45:18. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the first (month), on the first of the month, thou shalt take a bullock, a young ox without blemish, and absolve the sanctuary. Eze 45:19. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering, and put it upon the door-posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the enclosure of the altar, and upon the door-posts at the gate of the inner court. Eze 45:20. And so shalt thou do on the seventh of the month, for the sake of erring men and of folly, that so ye may make atonement for the house. - The Mosaic law had prescribed for the new moons generally the sin-offering of a he-goat, in addition to the burnt-offerings and meat-offerings (Num 28:15); and, besides, this, had also distinguished the new-moon’s day of the seventh month by a special feast-offering to be added to the regular new-moon’s sacrifices, and consisting of a sin-offering of a he-goat, and burnt-offerings and meat-offerings (Num 29:2-6). This distinguishing of the seventh month by a special new-moon’s sacrifice is omitted in Ezekiel; but in the place of it the first month is distinguished by a sin-offering to be presented on the first and seventh days. Nothing is said in Eze 45:18-20 about burnt-offerings for these days; but as the burnt-offering is appointed in Eze 46:6-7 for the new-moon’s day without any limitation, and the regulations as to the connection between the meat-offering and the burnt-offerings are repeated in Eze 46:11 for the holy days and feast days (הגּים וּמועדים) generally, and the new-moon’s day is also reckoned among the מועדים, there is evidently good ground for the assumption that the burnt-offering and meat-offering prescribed for the new moon in Eze 46:6-7 were also to be offered at the new moon of the first month. On the other hand, no special burnt-offering or meat-offering is mentioned for the seventh day of the first month; so that in all probability only the daily burnt-offering and meat-offering were added upon that day (Eze 46:13.) to the sin-offering appointed for it. Moreover, the sin-offerings prescribed for the first and seventh days of the first month are distinguished from the sin-offerings of the Mosaic law, partly by the animal selected (a young bullock), and partly by the disposal of the blood. According to the Mosaic law, the sin-offering for the new moons, as well as for all the feast days of the year, the Passover, Pentecost, day of trumpets, day of atonement, and feast of tabernacles (all eight days), was to be a he-goat (Num 28:15; Num 22:30; Num 29:5, Num 29:11, Num 29:16, Num 29:19, Num 29:22, Num 29:25, Num 29:28, Num 29:31, Num 29:34, Num 29:38). Even the sin-offering for the congregation of Israel on the great day of atonement simply consisted in a he-goat (or two he-goats, Lev 16:5); and it was only for the sin-offering for the high priest, whether on that day (Lev 16:3), or when he had sinned so as to bring guilt upon the nation (Lev 4:3), or when the whole congregation had sinned (Lev 4:14), that a bullock was required. On the other hand, according to Ezekiel, the sin-offering both on the first and seventh days of the first month, and also the one to be brought by the prince on the fourteenth day of that month, i.e., on the day of the feast of Passover (Eze 45:22), for himself and for all the people, were to consist of a bullock and only the sin-offering on the seven days of the feast of Passover and tabernacles of a he-goat (Eze 45:23, Eze 45:25). The Mosaic law contains no express instructions concerning the sprinkling of the blood of the sin-offering at the new moons and feasts (with the exception of the great atoning sacrifice on the day of atonement), because it was probably the same as in the case of the sin-offerings for the high priest and the whole congregation, when the blood was first of all to be sprinkled seven times against the curtain in front of the capporeth, and then to be applied to the horns of the altar of incense, and the remainder to be poured out at the foot of the altar of burnt-offering (Lev 4:6-7, Lev 4:17-18); whereas, in the case of the great atoning sacrifice on the day of atonement, some of the blood was first of all to be sprinkled at or upon the front side of the capporeth and seven times upon the ground, and after that it was to be applied to the horns of the altar of incense and of the altar of burnt-offering (Lev 16:15-17). But according to Ezekiel, some of the blood of the sin-offerings on the first and seventh days of the first month, and certainly also on the same days of the feasts of Passover and tabernacles, was to be smeared upon the posts of the house - that is to say, the posts mentioned in Eze 41:21, not merely those of the היכל, the door into the holy place, but also those of the קדשׁ, the door leading into the most holy place, upon the horns and the four corners of the enclosure of the altar of burnt-offering (Eze 43:20), and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court. It is a point in dispute here whether שׁער החצר is only one door, and in that case whether the east gate of the inner court is to be understood as in Eze 46:2 (מזוּזת השּׁער), as Hitzig and others suppose, or whether שׁער rehtehw  is to be taken in a collective sense as signifying the three gates of the inner court (Kliefoth and others). The latter view is favoured by the collective use of the word מזוּזה by itself, and also by the circumstance that if only one of the three gates were intended, the statement which of the three would hardly have been omitted (cf. Eze 46:1; Eze 44:1, etc.).

According to Eze 45:18, these sin-offerings were to serve for the absolving of the sanctuary; and according to Eze 45:20, to make atonement for the temple on account of error or folly. Both directions mean the same thing. The reconciliation of the temple was effected by its absolution or purification from the sins that had come upon it through the error and folly of the people. Sins בּשׁגגה are sins occasioned by the weakness of flesh and blood, for which expiation could be made by sin-offerings (see the comm. on Lev 4:2 and Num 15:22.). מאישׁ שׁגה, lit., away from the erring man, i.e., to release him from his sin. This expression is strengthened by מפּתי, away from simplicity or folly; here, as in Pro 7:7, as abstractum pro concreto, the simple man. - The great expiatory sacrifice on the day of atonement answered the same purpose, the absolution of the sanctuary from the sins of the people committed בּשׁגגה (Lev 16:16.).

Eze 45:21-25

Sacrifices at the Passover and Feast of Tabernacles

Eze 45:21. In the first (month), on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall keep the Passover, a feast of a full week; unleavened shall be eaten. Eze 45:22. And the prince shall prepare on that day for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock as a sin-offering. Eze 45:23. And for the seven days of the feast he shall prepare as a burnt-offering for Jehovah seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily, the seven days, and as a sin-offering a he-goat daily. Eze 45:24. And as a meat-offering, he shall prepare an ephah for the bullock, and an ephah for the ram, and a hin of oil for the ephah. Eze 45:25. In the seventh (month), on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast he shall do the same for seven days with regard to the sin-offering, as also the burnt-offering, and the meat-offering, as also the oil. - In the words, “shall the Passover be to you,” there lies the thought that the Passover is to be celebrated in the manner appointed in Ex 12, with the paschal meal in the evening of the 14th Abib. - There is considerable difficulty connected with the following words, חג שׁבעות ימים, which all the older translators have rendered “a feast of seven days.” שׁבעות ”.syad neves fo signifies periods of seven days or weeks. A feast of heptads of days, or weeks of days, cannot possibly mean a feast which lasted only seven days, or a week. חג שׁבעות is used elsewhere for the feast of weeks (Exo 34:22; Deu 16:10), because they were to reckon seven weeks from the second day of the Passover, the day of the sheaf of first-fruits, and then to keep the feast of the loaves of first-fruits, or the feast of harvest (Deu 16:9). Kliefoth retains this well-established meaning of the words in this passage also, and give the following explanation: If the words חג  stood alone without ימים, it would mean that in future the Passover was to be kept like the feast of seven weeks, as the feast of the loaves of first-fruits. But the addition of ימים, which is to be taken in the same sense as in Dan 10:2-3; Gen 29:14, etc., gives this turn to the thought, that in future the Passover is to be kept as a feast of seven weeks long, “a feast lasting seven weeks.” According to this explanation, the meaning of the regulation is, “that in future not only the seven days of sweet loaves, but the whole of the seven weeks intervening between the feast of the wave-sheaf and the feast of the wave-loaves, was to be kept as a Passover, that the whole of the quinquagesima should be one Easter חג, and the feast of weeks be one with the Passover.” To this there is appended the further regulation, that unleavened bread is to be eaten, not merely for the seven days therefore, but for the whole of the seven weeks, till the feast of the loaves of first-fruits. This explanation is a very sagacious one, and answers to the Christian view of the Easter-tide. But it is open to objections which render it untenable. In the first place, that ימים, when used in the sense of lasting for days, is not usually connected with the preceding noun in the construct state, but is attached as an adverbial accusative; compare שׁלשׁה  in Dan 10:2-3, and שׁנתים ימים in Gen 41:1; Jer 28:3, Jer 28:11, etc. But a still more important objection is the circumstance that the words שׁבעת ימי החג in Eze 45:23 unquestionably point back to חג שׁבעות ימים, as there is no other way in which the article in החג ni elcitra eht h can be explained, just as בּיּום ההוּא in Eze 45:22 points back to the fourteenth day mentioned in Eze 45:21 as the time of the pesach feast. It follows from this, however, that שׁבעות ימים can only signify a seven days’ feast. It is true that the plural שׁבעות appears irreconcilable with this; for Kimchi’s opinion, that שׁבעות is a singular, written with Cholem instead of Patach, is purely a result of perplexity, and the explanation given by Gussetius, that Ezekiel speaks in the plural of weeks, because the reference is “to the institution of the Passover as an annual festival to be celebrated many times in the series of times and ages,” is no better. The plural שׁבעות must rather be taken as a plural of genus, as in ערי, Gen 13:12 and Jdg 12:7; בּהן, Gen 19:29; or בּנים, Gen 21:7; Isa 37:3; so that Ezekiel speaks indefinitely of heptads of days, because he assumes that the fact is well known that the feast only lasted one heptad of days, as he expressly states in Eze 45:23. If this explanation of the plural does not commend itself, we must take שׁבעות as a copyist’s error for שׁבעת, feast of a heptad of days, i.e., a feast lasting a full week, and attribute the origin of this copyist’s error to the fact that חג שׁבעת naturally suggested the thought of חג שׁבעות, feast of weeks, or Pentecost, not merely because the feast of Pentecost is always mentioned in the Pentateuch along with the feasts of Passover and tabernacles, but also because the only singular form of שׁבעות that we meet with elsewhere is שׁבוּע (Dan 9:27), or in the construct state שׁבע (Gen 29:27), not שׁבעה and שׁבעת.

The word הפּסח is used here as in Deu 16:1-2, so that it includes the seven days’ feast of unleavened bread. The Niphal יאכל is construed with the accusative in the olden style: mazzoth shall men eat. - In Eze 45:22 and Eze 45:23 there follow the regulations concerning the sacrifices of this festival, and first of all concerning the sin-offering to be presented on the fourteenth day, on the evening of which the paschal lamb was slaughtered and the paschal meal was held (Eze 45:22). The Mosaic legislation makes no allusion to this, but simply speaks of festal sacrifices for the seven days of mazzoth, the 15th to the 21st Abib (Lev 23:5-8; Num 28:16-25), with regard to which fresh regulations are also given here. The Mosaic law prescribes for each of these seven days as burnt-offerings two bullocks, a ram, and seven yearling lambs, as a meat-offering; three-tenths of an ephah of meal mixed with oil for each bullock, two-tenths for the ram, and one-tenth for each lamb, and a he-goat for the sin-offering (Num 28:19-22). The new law for the feasts, on the other hand, also requires, it is true, only one he-goat daily for a sin-offering on the seven feast days, but for the daily burnt-offerings seven bullocks and seven rams reach; and for the meat-offering, an ephah of meal and a hin of oil for every bullock, and for every ram. In the new thorah, therefore, the burnt-offerings and meat-offerings are much richer and more copious, and the latter in far greater measure than the former. - Eze 45:25. The same number of sacrifices is to be offered throughout the feast of seven days falling upon the fifteenth day of the seventh month. This feast is the feast of tabernacles, but the name is not mentioned, doubtless because the practice of living in tabernacles (booths) would be dropped in the time to come. And even with regard to the sacrifices of this feast, the new thorah differs greatly from the old. According to the Mosaic law, there were to be offered, in addition to the daily sin-offering of a he-goat, seventy bullocks in all as burnt-offerings for the seven days; and these were to be so distributed that on the first day thirteen were to be offered, and the number was to be reduced by one on each of the following days, so that there would be only seven bullocks upon the seventh day; moreover, every day two rams and fourteen yearling lambs were to be offered, together with the requisite quantity of meal and oil for a meat-offering according to the number of the animals (Num 29:12-34). According to Ezekiel, on the other hand, the quantity of provision made for the sacrifices remained the same as that appointed for the feast of Passover; so that the whole cost of the burnt-offerings and meat-offerings did not reach the amount required by the Mosaic law. In addition to all this, there was an eighth day observed as a closing festival in the Mosaic feast of tabernacles, with special sacrifices; and this also is wanting in Ezekiel. - But the following is still more important than the points of difference just mentioned: Ezekiel only mentions the two yearly feats of seven days in the first and seventh months, and omits not only the Pentecost, or feast of weeks, but also the day of trumpets, on the first of the seventh month, and the day of atonement on the tenth; from which we must infer that the Israeli of the future would keep only the two first named of all the yearly feasts. The correctness of this conclusion is placed beyond the reach of doubt by the fact that he practically transfers the feasts of the day of trumpets and of the day of atonement, which were preparatory to the feast of tabernacles, to the first month, by the appointment of special sin-offerings for the first and seventh days of that month (Eze 45:18-20), and of a sin-offering on the day of the paschal meal (Eze 45:22). This essentially transforms the idea which lies at the foundation of the cycle of Mosaic feasts, as we intend subsequently to show, when discussing the meaning and significance of the whole picture of the new kingdom of God, as shown in Ezekiel 40-48.

The Division of the Holy Land. (b. c. 574.)

1 Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the Lord , a 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. 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, and an holy place for the sanctuary. 5 And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth, shall also the Levites, the ministers 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 against 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, 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: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border. 8 In the land 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.

Directions are here given for the dividing of the land after their return to it; and, God having warranted them to do it, would be an act of faith, and not of folly, thus to divide it before they had it. And it would be welcome news to the captives to hear that they should not only return to their own land, but that, whereas they were now but few in number, they should increase and multiply, so as to replenish it. But this never had its accomplishment in the Jewish state after the return out of captivity, but was to be fulfilled in the model of the Christian church, which was perfectly new (as this division of the land was quite different from that in Joshua's time) and much enlarged by the accession of the Gentiles to it; and it will be perfected in the heavenly kingdom, of which the land of Canaan had always been a type. Now, 1. Here is the portion of land assigned to the sanctuary, in the midst of which the temple was to be built, with all its courts and purlieus; the rest round about it was for the priests. This is called (v. 1) an oblation to the Lord; for what is given in works of piety, for the maintenance and support of the worship of God and the advancement of religion, God accepts as given to him, if it be done with a single eye. It is a holy portion of the land, which is to be set out first, as the first-fruits that sanctify the lump. The appropriating of lands for the support of religion and the ministry is an act of piety that bids as fair for perpetuity, and the benefit of posterity, as any. This holy portion of the land was to be measured, and the borders of it fixed, that the sanctuary itself might not have more than its share and in time engross the whole land. So far the lands of the church shall extend and no further; as in our own kingdom donations to the church were of old limited by the statute of mortmain. The lands here allotted to the sanctuary were 25,000 reeds (so our translation makes it, though some make them only cubits) in length, and 10,000 in breadth-about eighty miles one way and thirty miles another way (say some); twenty-five miles one way and ten miles the other way, so others. The priests and Levites that were to come near to minister were to have their dwellings in this portion of the land that was round about the sanctuary, that they might be near their work; whereas by the distribution of land in Joshua's time the cities of the priests and Levites were dispersed all the nation over. This intimates that gospel ministers should reside upon their charge; where their service lies there must they live. 2. Next to the lands of the sanctuary the city-lands are assigned, in which the holy city was to be built, and with the issues and profits of which the citizens were to be maintained (v. 6): It shall be for the whole house of Israel, not appropriated, as before, to one tribe or two, but some of all the tribes shall dwell in the city, as we find they did, Neh. xi. 1, 2. The portion for the city was fully as long, but only half as broad, as that for the sanctuary; for the city was enriched by trade and therefore had the less need of lands. 3. The next allotment after the church-lands and the city-lands is of the crown-lands, v. 7, 8. Here is no admeasurement of these, but they are said to lie on the one side and on the other side of the church-lands and city-lands, to intimate that the prince with his wealth and power was to be a protection to both. Some make the prince's share equal to the church's and city's share both together; others make it to be a thirteenth part of the rest of the land, the other twelve parts being for the twelve tribes. The prince that attends continually to the administration of public affairs must have wherewithal to support his dignity, and have abundance, that he may not be in temptation to oppress the people, which yet with many does not prevent that; but the grace of God shall prevent it, for it is promised here, My princes shall no more oppress my people; for God will make the officers peace and the exactors righteousness. Notwithstanding this, we find that after the return of the Jews to their own land the princes were complained of for their exactions. But Nehemiah was one that did not do as the former governors, and yet kept a handsome court, Neh. v. 15, 18. But so much is said of the prince in this mystical holy state, to intimate that in the gospel-church magistrates should be as nursing fathers to it and Christian princes its patrons and protectors; and the holy religion they profess, as far as they are subject to the power of it, will restrain them from oppressing God's people, because they are more his people than theirs. 4. The rest of the lands were to be distributed to the people according to their tribes, who had reason to think themselves well settled, when they had both the testimony of Israel and the throne of judgment so near them.

Rules of Justice. (b. c. 574.)

9 Thus saith the Lord God ; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord God . 10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a 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.

We have here some general rules of justice laid down both for prince and people, the rules of distributive and commutative justice; for godliness without honesty is but a form of godliness, will neither please God nor avail to the benefit of any people. Be it therefore enacted, by the authority of the church's King and God, 1. That princes do not oppress their subjects, but duly and faithfully administer justice among them (v. 9): "Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel! that you have been oppressive to the people and have enriched yourselves by spoil and violence, that you have so long fleeced the flock instead of feeding them, and henceforward do so no more." Note, Even princes and great men that have long done amiss must at length think it time, high time, to reform and amend; for no prescription will justify a wrong. Instead of saying that they have been long accustomed to oppress, and therefore may persist in it, for the custom will bear them out, they should say that they have been long accustomed to it and therefore, as here, Let the time pass suffice, and let them now remove violence and spoil; let them drop wrongful demands, cancel wrongful usages, and turn out those from employments under them that do violence. Let them take away their exactions, ease their subjects of those taxes which they find lie heavily upon them, and let them execute judgment and justice according to the law, as the duty of their place requires. Note, All princes, but especially the princes of Israel, are concerned to do justice; for of their people God says, They are my people, and they in a special manner rule for God. 2. That one neighbour do not cheat another in commerce (v. 10): You shall have just balances, in which to weigh both money and goods, a just ephah for dry measure of corn and flour, a just bath for the measure of liquids, wine, and oil; and the ephah and bath shall be one measure, the tenth part of a chomer, or cor, v. 11. So that the ephah and bath contained (as the learned Dr. Cumberland has computed) seven wine gallons and four pints, and something more. An omer was but the tenth part of an ephah (Exod. xvi. 36) and the one hundredth part of a chomer, or homer, and contained about six pints. The shekel is here settled (v. 13); it is twenty jerahs, just half a Roman ounce, in our money 2s. 4 1/4d. and almost the eighth part of a farthing, as the aforesaid learned man exactly computes it. By the shekels the maneh, or pound, was reckoned, which, when it was set for a mere weight (says bishop Cumberland), without respect to coinage, contained just 100 shekels, as appears by comparing 1 Kings x. 17, where it is said three manehs, or pounds, of gold, went to one shield, with the parallel place, 2 Chron. ix. 16, where it is said 300 shekels of gold went to one shield. But when the maneh is set for a sum of money or coin it contains but sixty shekels, as appears here, where twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels, which in all make sixty, shall be the maneh. But it is thus reckoned because they had one piece of money that weighed twenty shekels, another twenty-five, another fifteen, all of which made up one pound, as a learned writer here observes. Note, It concerns God's Israel to be very honest and just in all their dealings, very punctual and exact in rendering to all their due, and very cautious to do wrong to none, because otherwise they spoil the acceptableness of their profession with God and the reputation of it before men.

Oblations Enjoined. (b. c. 574.)

13 This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of a homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of a 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 a 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 Israel. 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 God ; 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 shall be eaten. 22 And upon that day 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 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 a 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.

Having laid down the rules of the righteousness toward men, which is really a branch off true religion, he comes next to give some directions for their religion towards God, which is a branch of universal righteousness.

I. It is required that they offer an oblation to the Lord out of what they have (v. 13): All the people of the land must give an oblation, v. 16. As God's tenants, they must pay a quitrent to their great landlord. They had offered an oblation out of their real estates (v. 1), a holy portion of their land; now they are directed to offer an oblation out of their personal estates, their goods and chattels, as an acknowledgement of their receivings from him, their dependence on him, and their obligations to him. Note, Whatever our substance is we must honour God with it, by giving him his dues out of it. Not that God has need of or may be benefited by any thing that we can give him, Ps. l. 9. No; it is but an oblation; we only offer it to him; the benefit of it returns back to ourselves, to his poor, who, as our neighbours, are ourselves, or to his ministers who serve continually for our good.

II. The proportion of this oblation is here determined, which was not done by the law of Moses. No mention is made of the title, but only of this oblation. And the quantum of this is thus settled:—1. Out of their corn they were to offer a sixtieth part; out of every homer of wheat and barley, which contained ten ephahs, they were to offer the sixth part of one ephah, which was a sixtieth part of the whole, v. 13. 2. Out of their oil (and probably their wine too) they were to offer a hundredth part, for this oblation; out of every cor, or homer, which contained ten baths they were to offer the tenth part of one bath, v. 14. This was given to the altar; for in every meat-offering there was flour mingled with oil. 3. Out of their flocks they were to give one lamb out of 200; that was the smallest proportion of all, v. 15. But it must be out of the fat pastures of Israel. They must not offer to God that which was taken up from the common, but the fattest and best they had, for burnt-offerings and peace-offerings: the former were offered for the giving of glory to God, the latter for the fetching in of mercy, grace, and peace, from God, and in our spiritual sacrifices these are our two great errands at the throne of grace; but, in order to the acceptance of both, these sacrifices were to make reconciliation for them. Christ is our sacrifice of atonement, by whom reconciliation is made, and to him we must have an eye in our sacrifices of acknowledgment.

III. This oblation must be given for the prince in Israel, v. 16. Some read it to the prince, and understand it of Christ, who is indeed the prince in Israel, to whom we must offer our oblations, and into whose hands we must put them, to be presented to the Father. Or, They shall give it with the prince; every private person shall bring his oblation, to be offered with that of the prince; for it follows (v. 17). It shall be the prince's part to provide all the offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel. The people were to bring their oblations to him according to the foregoing rules, and he was to bring them to the sanctuary, and to make up what fell short out of his own. Note, It is the duty of rulers to take care of religion, and to see that the duties of it be regularly and carefully performed by those under their charge, and that nothing be wanting that is requisite thereto: the magistrate is the keeper of both tables; and it is a happy thing when those that are above others in power and dignity go before them in the service of God.

IV. Some particular solemnities are here appointed.

1. Here is one in the beginning of the year, which seems to be altogether new, and not instituted by the law of Moses; it is the annual solemnity of cleansing the sanctuary. (1.) On the first day of the first month (upon new-year's day) they were to offer a sacrifice for the cleansing of the sanctuary (v. 18), that is, to make atonement for the iniquity of the holy things the year past, that they might bring none of the guilt of them into the services of the new year, and to implore grace for the preventing of that iniquity, and for the better performance of the service of the sanctuary the ensuing year. And, in token of this, the blood of this sin-offering was to be put upon the posts of the gate of the inner court (v. 19), to signify that by it atonement was intended to be made for the sins of all the servants that attended that house, priests, Levites, and people, even the sins that were found in all their services. Note, Even sanctuaries on earth need cleansing, frequent cleansing; that above needs none. Those what worship God together should often join in renewing their repentance for their manifold defects, and applying the blood of Christ for the pardon of them, and in renewing their covenants to be more careful for the future; and it is very seasonable to begin the year with this work, as Hezekiah did when it had been long neglected, 2 Chron. xxix. 17. They were here appointed to cleanse the sanctuary upon the first day of the month, because on the fourteenth day of the month they were to eat the passover, an ordinance which, of all Old-Testament institutions, had most in it of Christ and gospel grace, and therefore it was very fit that they should begin to prepare for it a fortnight before by cleansing the sanctuary. (2.) This sacrifice was to be repeated on the seventh day of the first month, v. 20. And then it was intended to make atonement for every one that errs, and for him that is simple. Note, He that sins errs and is simple; he mistakes, he goes out of the way, and shows himself to be foolish and unwise. But here it is spoken of those sins which are committed through ignorance, mistake, or inadvertency, whether by any of the priests, or of the Levites, or of the people. Sacrifices were appointed to atone for such sins as men were surprised into, or did before they were aware, which they would not have done if they had known and remembered aright, which they were overtaken in, and for which, afterwards, they condemn themselves. But for presumptuous sins, committed with a high hand, there was no sacrifice appointed, Num. xv. 30. By these repeated sacrifices you shall reconcile the house, that is, God will be reconciled to it, and continue the tokens of his presence in it, and will let it alone this year also.

2. The passover was to be religiously observed at the time appointed, v. 21. 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 sword of the destroying angel, the 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 unleavened bread. It is here appointed that the prince shall prepare a sin-offering, to be offered for himself and the people, a bullock on the first day (v. 22) and a kid of the goats every other day (v. 23), to teach us, in all our attendance upon God for communion with him, to have an eye to the great sin-offering, by which transgression was finished and an everlasting righteousness brought in. On every day of the feast there was to be a burnt-offering, purely for the honour of God, of no less than seven bullocks and seven rams, with their meat-offering, which were wholly consumed upon the altar, and yet no waste, v. 23, 24.

3. The feast of tabernacles; that is spoken of next (v. 25), and there is no mention of the feast of pentecost, which came between that of the passover and that of tabernacles. Orders are here given (above what were given by the law of Moses) for the same sacrifices to be offered during the seven days of the passover. See the deficiency of the legal sacrifices for sin; they were therefore often repeated, not only every year, but every feast, every day of the feast, because they could not make the comers thereunto perfect, Heb. x. 1, 3. See the necessity of our frequently repeating the same religious exercises. Though the sacrifice of atonement is offered once for all, yet the sacrifices of acknowledgement, that of a broken heart, that of a thankful heart, those spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through Christ Jesus, must be every day offered. We should, as here, fall into a method of holy duties, and keep to it.

CHAP. XLV.

Ver. 1. MOreover when ye ſhall divide by lot] As chap. 48. where we have the diviſion of the land, and the ſeveral ſeats aſſigned to each Tribe. Here we have firſt proviſion made for the Church-ſervice, which Chriſts people are moſt zealous of, and do therefore allot, before any divident, a portion for the Lords houſe and ſervants; and that very large, to prefigure the largeneſs of the Church of the New Teſtament. See Rev. 7.9, 10, &c. Here Hierom acknowledgeth himſelf to be in a Labyrinth: the Jews call again for their Elias: Oecolampadius comes in with his Hujus loci myſteria tacitus veneror, and thinks this part of the Prophecy ſuch as no humane underſtanding can fathom. Howbeit Nil desperandum Chriſto duce, & auſpice Chriſto.

The length ſhall be] See the Note on chap. 40.1.

Ver. 2. For the ſuburbs] Which hath its name in Hebrew from its being ſevered from the City, and as it were caſt out of it. It is better rendred, as in the margin, void places.

Ver. 3. The length of five and twenty thouſand] Here the ſame again is repeated, as ver. 1. and further is ſhewed how this holy portion of ground was to be employed to the uſe of the Prieſts.

Ver. 4. And it ſhall be a place for their houſes] Miniſters ſhould be reſident upon their charges, and as incumbent, dwell near, and as it were lean over their work.

Ver. 5. For twenty chambers] i. e. For twenty rows of chambers.

Ver. 6. And ye ſhall appoint the poſſeſſion of the City] After the Church-ſervice ſettled, and the Miniſtry provided for.Polit. l. 7. c. 8. Ariſtotle his advice is [non-Latin text not transcribed] firſt take care of divine things; that's the beſt policy.

It ſhall be for the whole houſe of Iſrael] A Rendezvous for them at feſtival-times.

Ver. 7. And a portion ſhall be for the Prince] See on chap. 44.3. Underſtand it of the civil Magiſtrate, who is Lord-Keeper of both Tables of the Law, and ought to have a ſpecial care of the Churches welfare. Here his portion is ſaid to lye on both ſides of the oblation of the holy portion: and Cant. 8.9. Magiſtrates are required to hem Miniſters in with boards of Cedar, i. e. to provide for their ſecurity, that they may be without fear among them, as Timothy, 1 Cor. 16.10.

Ver. 8. And my Princes ſhall no more oppreſſe my people] As Samuel foretold they would do, 1 Sam. 9. and accordingly they did. But in the Chriſtian-Commonwealth it ſhould be better, as indeed it was in the dayes of Conſtantine the Great, Valentinian and Theodoſius (which three godly Emperours called themſelves the Vaſſals of Chriſt) and is now (bleſſed be God) amongſt us at this day.

Ver. 9. Let it ſuffice you] Be content with your double portion, your ſo large a lot: and that ye may be ſo, hear the laws that I lay upon you: remove violence and ſpoil, execute judgment and juſtice. Take away your exactions, &c. See that ye have juſt balances and a juſt Ephah. Let theſe things be done, or you will be quickly undone. Is it not enough to be above men, but you muſt needs be above mankind, as thoſe Princes would be that would not be under the Law!

Ver. 10. Ye ſhall have just balances] Levit. 19 35, 36. Prov. 11.1. & 16 11. & 20.10, 23. Mic. 6.10, 11. See the Notes on thoſe places. The Goſpel-rule is, whatſoever ye would that men ſhould do to you, do ye even ſo to them, Mat. 7.12. And, Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: becauſe that the Lord is the avenger of all ſuch; and the civil Magiſtrate is his Miniſter, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil either by force or fraud, Rom. 13.4.

Ver. 11. The Ephah and the Bath ſhall be of one meaſure] Of the ſame capacity; only the Ephah is the meaſure of dry things, and the Bath of moiſt.

Ver. 12. And the Shekel ſhall be twenty Gerah's] Exod. 30.13. Lev. 27.25. Num. 3.47.

Fifteen Shekels ſhall be your Maneh] Or [non-Latin text not transcribed] Mina, pound-weight.

Ver. 13. This is the oblation] After order taken that both Prince and people might have whereof to make oblations, ver. 9, 10, 11, 12. here follow laws concerning theſe matters alſo.

Ver. 14. Out of the Cor, which is an Homer] Only Cor is the Chaldee word, Homer the Hebrew.

Ver. 15. Out of the fat paſtures] Thoſe that are well watered and moſt fruitful. God muſt have the very best of the beſt, and that on pain of an heavy curſe, Mal. 1.14.

Ver. 16. For the Prince] i. e. Upon a levy made by the Prince for that purpoſe. Of theſe oblations (prefiguring Evangelical ſacrifices) the uſe followeth, chap. 46.4. it being firſt premiſed what the Prince ſhould do over and above theſe offerings of wheat, barley, oyl, and lambes.

Ver. 17. He ſhall prepare the ſin-offering] Or he ſhall offer, ſo ſome render it; and apply it to Chriſt, ſo ver. 22. This Prince then is withal a Prieſt of the tribe of Judah. Oecol. See Pſal. 110 4. & Heb. 7.11, 12, &c. to the end. Heb. 8.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Non mirum quod hic haereant Judaei, here the Jews are puzzled.

Ver. 18. Thou ſhalt take] Thou O Prince ſhalt.

A young bullock] One and no more: ut unitas ſingularis ſacrificii Chriſti intimaretur.

Ver. 19. And put it upon the poſtes] This and other ceremonies were not enjoyned by the Law of Moſes. The Jews cannot tell what to ſay to it: they will not ſee that old things are paſt, and all things become new.

Ver. 20. And ſo thou ſhalt] This alſo is a new injunction, ſee ver. 19. and very comfortable to thoſe that ſin of paſſion, or precipitancy. See 1 Joh. 2.1, 2.

Ver. 21. In the fourteenth day] Upon that very day (not only obſerved then by the Jews) was Chriſt our Paſſeover ſacrificed for us, 1 Cor. 5.7.

Ver. 22. Shall the Prince prepare] See ver. 17.

Ver. 23. A burnt-offering] In token of ſelf-denial.

Ver. 24. A meat-offering] Made of meale in token of mortification, and ſubmiſſion to God in all things.

Ver. 25. In the feaſt of the ſeven dayes] i. e. Of Tabernacles, wont to be of eight dayes, Lev. 23.34, 35. Quam ſunt nova omnia! Of Pentecoſt here is no mention at all.