8 and by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side is the heave-offering that ye lift up, five and twenty thousand broad and long, as one of the parts, from the east side unto the west side: and the sanctuary hath been in its midst.
See Zion, the city of our meetings, Thine eyes see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, A tent not taken down, Not removed are its pins for ever, And none of its cords are broken. But there mighty `is' Jehovah for us, A place of rivers -- streams broad of sides, No ship with oars doth go into it, And a mighty ship doth not pass over it. For Jehovah our judge, Jehovah our lawgiver, Jehovah our king -- He doth save us.
And in your causing the land to fall in inheritance, ye lift up a heave-offering to Jehovah, a holy `portion' of the land: the length -- five and twenty thousand `is' the length, and the breadth ten thousand; it `is' holy in all its border round about. There is of this for the sanctuary five hundred by five hundred, square, round about; and fifty cubits of suburb `is' to it round about. And by this measure thou dost measure: the length `is' five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand: and in it is the sanctuary, the holy of holies. The holy `portion' of the land it `is'; for priests, ministrants of the sanctuary, it is, who are drawing near to serve Jehovah; and it hath been to them a place for houses, and a holy place for a sanctuary. `And of the five and twenty thousand of length, and of the ten thousand of breadth, there is to the Levites, ministrants of the house, for them -- for a possession -- twenty chambers. `And of the possession of the city ye give five thousand of breadth, and of length five and twenty thousand, over-against the heave-offering of the holy `portion': to all the house of Israel it is.
And joined have been many nations unto Jehovah in that day, And they have been to Me for a people, And I have dwelt in thy midst, And thou hast known that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent me unto thee. And Jehovah hath inherited Judah, His portion on the holy ground, And He hath fixed again on Jerusalem.
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being chief corner-`stone', in whom all the building fitly framed together doth increase to an holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom also ye are builded together, for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Ezekiel 48
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).