19 even `to' him who is serving the city, they serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.
And Solomon hath twelve officers over all Israel, and they have sustained the king and his household -- a month in the year is on each one for sustenance; and these `are' their names: Ben-Hur in the hill-country of Ephraim; Ben-Dekar in Makaz, and Shaalbim, and Beth-Shemesh, and Elon-Beth-Hanan. Ben-Hesed `is' in Aruboth, hath Sochoh and all the land of Hepher; Ben-Abinadab `hath' all the elevation of Dor, Taphath daughter of Solomon became his wife. Baana Ben-Ahilud `hath' Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-Shean, which `is' by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Beth-Shean unto Abel-Meholah, unto beyond Jokneam. Ben-Geber, in Ramoth-Gilead, hath the small towns of Jair son of Manasseh, which `are' in Gilead; he hath a portion of Argob that `is' in Bashan, sixty great cities `with' wall and brazen bar. Ahinadab son of Iddo `hath' Mahanaim. Ahimaaz `is' in Naphtali; he also hath taken Basemath daughter of Solomon for a wife. Baanah Ben-Hushai `is' in Asher, and in Aloth. Jehoshaphat Ben-Paruah `is' in Issachar. Shimei Ben-Elah `is' in Benjamin. Geber Ben-Uri `is' in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon king of the Amorite, and of Og king of Bashan: and one officer who `is' in the land. Judah and Israel `are' many, as the sand that `is' by the sea for multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. And Solomon hath been ruling over all the kingdoms, from the River `to' the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt: they are bringing nigh a present, and serving Solomon, all days of his life. And the provision of Solomon for one day is thirty cors of flour, and sixty cors of meal; ten fat oxen, and twenty feeding oxen, and a hundred sheep, apart from hart, and roe, and fallow-deer, and fatted beasts of the stalls,
And the heads of the people dwell in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people have caused to fall lots to bring in one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts in the cities, and the people give a blessing to all the men who are offering themselves willingly to dwell in Jerusalem. And these `are' heads of the province who have dwelt in Jerusalem, and in cities of Judah, they have dwelt each in his possession in their cities; Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Nethinim, and the sons of the servants of Solomon. And in Jerusalem have dwelt of the sons of Judah, and of the sons of Benjamin. Of the sons of Judah: Athaiah son of Uzziah, son of Zechariah, son of Amariah, son of Shephatiah, son of Mahalaleel, of the sons of Perez; and Masseiah son of Baruch, son of Col-Hozeh, son of Hazaiah, son of Adaiah, son of Joiarib, son of Zechariah, son of Shiloni; all the sons of Perez who are dwelling in Jerusalem `are' four hundred sixty and eight, men of valour. And these `are' sons of Benjamin: Sallu son of Meshullam, son of Joed, son of Pedaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ithiel, son of Jesaiah; and after him Gabbai, Sallai, nine hundred twenty and eight. And Joel son of Zichri `is' inspector over them, and Judah son of Senuah `is' over the city -- second. Of the priests: Jedaiah son of Joiarib, Jachin, Seraiah son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, leader of the house of God, and their brethren doing the work of the house `are' eight hundred twenty and two; and Adaiah son of Jeroham, son of Pelaliah, son of Amzi, son of Zechariah, son of Pashhur, son of Malchiah, and his brethren, heads of fathers, two hundred forty and two; and Amashsai son of Azareel, son of Ahazai, son of Meshillemoth, son of Immer, and their brethren, mighty of valour, a hundred twenty and eight; and an inspector over them `is' Zabdiel, son of `one of' the great men. And of the Levites: Shemaiah son of Hashub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah, son of Bunni, and Shabbethai, and Jozabad, `are' over the outward work of the house of God, of the heads of the Levites, and Mattaniah son of Micha, son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, `is' head -- at the commencement he giveth thanks in prayer; and Bakbukiah `is' second among his brethren, and Abda son of Shammua, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun. All the Levites, in the holy city, `are' two hundred eighty and four. And the gatekeepers, Akkub, Talmon, and their brethren, those watching at the gates, `are' a hundred seventy and two. And the rest of Israel, of the priests, of the Levites, `are' in all cities of Judah, each in his inheritance; and the Nethinim are dwelling in Ophel, and Ziha and Gishpa `are' over the Nethinim. And the overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem `is' Uzzi son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micha: of the sons of Asaph, the singers `are' over-against the work of the house of God, for the command of the king `is' upon them, and support `is' for the singers, a matter of a day in its day. And Pethahiah son of Meshezabeel, of the sons of Zerah, son of Judah, `is' by the hand of the king, for every matter of the people. And at the villages with their fields, of the sons of Judah there have dwelt, in Kirjath-Arba and its small towns, and in Dibon and its small towns, and in Jekabzeel and its villages, and in Jeshua, and in Moladah, and in Beth-Phelet, and in Hazar-Shaul, and in Beer-Sheba and its small towns, and in Ziklag, and in Mekonah and in its small towns, and En-Rimmon, and in Zareah, and in Jarmuth, Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages, Lachish and its fields, Azekah and its small towns; and they encamp from Beer-Sheba unto the valley of Hinnom. And sons of Benjamin `are' at Geba, Michmash, and Aija, and Beth-El, and its small towns, Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah, Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim, Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat, Lod, and Ono, the valley of the artificers. And of the Levites, the courses of Judah `are' for Benjamin.
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Commentary on Ezekiel 48 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 48
Eze 48:1-35. Allotment of the Land to the Several Tribes.
1. Dan—The lands are divided into portions of ideal exactness, running alongside of each other, the whole breadth from west to east, standing in a common relation to the temple in the center: seven tribes' portions on the north, five in the smaller division in the south. The portions of the city, the temple, the prince, and the priesthood, are in the middle, not within the boundaries of any tribe, all alike having a common interest in them. Judah has the place of honor next the center on the north, Benjamin the corresponding place of honor next the center on the south; because of the adherence of these two to the temple ordinances and to the house of David for so long, when the others deserted them. Dan, on the contrary, so long locally and morally semi-heathen (Jud 18:1-31), is to have the least honorable place, at the extreme north. For the same reason, St. John (Re 7:5-8) omits Dan altogether.
3. Asher—a tribe of which no one of note is mentioned in the Old Testament. In the New Testament one is singled out of it, the prophetess Anna.
4. Manasseh—The intercourse and unity between the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan, and the nine and a half west of it, had been much kept up by the splitting of Manasseh, causing the visits of kinsmen one to the other from both sides of the Jordan. There shall be no need for this in the new order of things.
5. Ephraim—This tribe, within its two dependent tribes, Manasseh and Benjamin, for upwards of four hundred years under the judges held the pre-eminence.
6. Reuben—doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel" (Ge 49:4). So no distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from it. Of it were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the mutineers. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked it and Gad (Jud 5:16).
15-17. The five thousand rods, apportioned to the city out of the twenty-five thousand square, are to be laid off in a square of four thousand five hundred, with the two hundred fifty all around for suburbs.
profane—that is, not strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular uses.
24. Benjamin—Compare Jacob's prophecy (Ge 49:27; De 33:12). It alone with Judah had been throughout loyal to the house of David, so its prowess at the "night" of the national history was celebrated as well as in the "morning."
25. Simeon—omitted in the blessing of Moses in De 33:1-29, perhaps because of the Simeonite "prince," who at Baal-peor led the Israelites in their idolatrous whoredoms with Midian (Nu 25:14).
26. Issachar—Its ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon. Compared (Ge 49:14) to "a strong ass crouching between two burdens," that is, tribute and tillage; never meddling with wars except in self-defense.
31. gates—(Re 21:12, &c.). The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes to imply that all are regarded as having an interest in it.
35. Lord is there—Jehovah-Shammah. Not that the city will be called so in mere name, but that the reality will be best expressed by this descriptive title (Jer 3:17; 33:16; Zec 2:10; Re 21:3; 22:3).