Ezekiel 45

In Ezekiel’s vision of the restored land, a sacred district is set apart for the sanctuary, the priests, the Levites, the city and the prince. The prince is warned to stop oppressing the people, to keep honest weights and measures, and to lead the offerings. The chapter closes with a calendar of cleansing and festival sacrifices that centers the nation on God’s presence and on atonement.

Ezekiel 45:1

When the land is shared out, the first share goes to God. A large rectangle is set apart as holy before any tribe receives its portion. The whole land is God’s gift, and the first part is returned to Him.

BSA: portion (“a holy allocation, a contribution”): This is a gift lifted out of the whole and offered up, not merely a plot of ground.

Hebrew: תְּרוּמָה (terumah, H8641) — “a contribution, something lifted up.” The Hebrew word is used for gifts lifted off a larger whole and given to God. The sacred district is that kind of offering.

See also: Ezekiel 48:8-10.

Ezekiel 45:2

At the center of the holy district stands the sanctuary, a perfect square. A strip of open land runs around it as a buffer. God’s house is guarded from ordinary use and set apart on every side.

BSA: open land (“pasture, a common or shared area”): The strip is unbuilt space that keeps everyday life from pressing against the holy place.

Ezekiel 45:3

A further strip within the holy portion is measured off, and the sanctuary stands within it. The Most Holy Place is the innermost heart of the whole design. Everything in the land is arranged around the place where God dwells.

See also: Ezekiel 41:4.

Ezekiel 45:4

This holy area is for the priests, who serve in the sanctuary. They live close to the place where they work. Their homes stand on holy ground, so their whole life is bound up with serving the LORD.

BSA: draw near (“approach, come close”): The priests’ calling is nearness to God, not only duty.

Hebrew: הַקְּרֵבִים (haqqerevim, H7131) — “those who come near.” The word comes from the root for bringing an offering near. The priests approach God in order to bring the people’s gifts to Him.

Ezekiel 45:5

A matching strip of the same length goes to the Levites who serve in the temple. It provides towns for them to live in. They have no tribal share like the others, so God provides for them near His house.

BSA: towns (“cities, dwelling places”): The Levites receive places to live and not farmland, because the LORD Himself is their inheritance.

See also: Numbers 35:1-8.

Ezekiel 45:6

Next to the holy district is a strip for the city. It belongs to the whole house of Israel, not to one tribe. Ordinary daily life has its place beside the holy place, and every tribe shares in it.

See also: Ezekiel 48:15-19.

Ezekiel 45:7

The prince receives land on both sides of the holy district and the city, stretching west and east to the borders. His land flanks the sacred center. He stands near God’s house but is not above it.

BSA: prince (“leader, high-ranking official”): He is a ruler with real authority, but his portion is fixed and limited.

Ezekiel 45:8

The prince has his own land so that he will have no reason to take the people’s land. Past rulers of Israel had seized property and crushed the weak. God promises that this will end. The rest of the land will go to the tribes as their own.

BSA: oppress (“treat violently, exploit”): The wrong is harsh, grasping treatment of those under a ruler’s care.

Hebrew: יוֹנוּ (yonu, H3238) — “will oppress, wrong, press down.” The root is used for crushing or mistreating the weak. God names it as the princes’ chief sin.

See also: Ezekiel 34:2-4.

Ezekiel 45:9

God’s word to the rulers is blunt: that is enough. They are to stop violence and theft, do what is just and right, and stop driving His people off their land. The people are His, and He holds their leaders accountable for how they treat them.

BSA: Enough (“let it suffice”): God says the time for this behavior has run out.

See also: Jeremiah 22:3.

Ezekiel 45:10

Justice reaches into the marketplace. Scales and measures must be honest. Cheating a buyer with a false weight is the same unfairness as seizing land, only smaller and quieter. God cares about fairness in everyday business.

BSA: scales (“balances, methods of measurement”): The scales stand for the whole system of weighing and trading, which must be straight.

See also: Leviticus 19:35-36; Proverbs 11:1.

Ezekiel 45:11

The dry measure (ephah) and the liquid measure (bath) are to be the same size, each a tenth of a homer. One fixed standard keeps buyer and seller from arguing and prevents trickery.

BSA: standard measure (“the basis for comparison, a common unit”): The homer is the fixed reference every other measure is checked against.

Ezekiel 45:12

The weights are also fixed. A shekel is twenty gerahs, and the mina is made up of 20, 25 and 15 shekels, which together make sixty. Money and weight are to be reliable, so that the poor are not cheated.

BSA: mina (“a fixed weight or measured amount, often equal to 60 shekels of silver or 100 shekels of gold”): Here the mina is set at a clear, known total of sixty shekels.

Ezekiel 45:13

Now the people’s gifts are set out. From wheat and barley they give a sixth of an ephah from each homer, about one part in sixty. It is a modest, fixed share, and these offerings support the worship in the sanctuary.

BSA: contribution (“oblation, offering”): It is a gift presented to God, not a tax taken from the people.

Ezekiel 45:14

Oil is given by the same method. It is a tenth of a bath from each cor, which is one part in a hundred. Oil was needed for grain offerings and for the lamps. The share is small and precisely stated so that everyone knows what is expected.

BSA: prescribed portion (“fixed measure, set amount”): The amount is exact and settled, so nobody is pressed for more.

Ezekiel 45:15

From the flocks, one sheep in every two hundred is given. These animals supply the grain, burnt and peace offerings. Their purpose is atonement, a covering for sin, so the people’s gifts serve their forgiveness.

BSA: well-watered (“fat, fertile”): The animals come from good pasture, so the gift is of good quality. atonement (“to cover, reconcile, forgive sins”): Atonement covers guilt and restores a right relationship with God.

Hebrew: לְכַפֵּר (lekhapper, H3722) — “to make atonement, to cover over.” The root pictures sin being covered or wiped away by a sacrifice that God accepts.

See also: Leviticus 17:11.

Ezekiel 45:16

Every person in the land takes part in this gift for the prince. Worship is not left to a few. The prince is supplied by the whole people so that he can lead the nation’s offerings on their behalf.

BSA: participate (“give, contribute willingly”): The whole community shares in the giving.

Ezekiel 45:17

The prince’s duty is to provide the offerings for the festivals, the New Moons and the Sabbaths. He also provides the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel. His role is to lead the people in worship, not to rule for himself.

BSA: appointed feasts (“scheduled gatherings, sacred meetings”): These are meetings that God Himself has set on the calendar.

See also: Numbers 28:9-15.

Ezekiel 45:18

The year begins with cleansing. On the first day of the first month a young bull without blemish is offered to purify the sanctuary. Before the people worship, the place of worship is cleansed, because God’s house must be kept holy.

Hebrew: וְחִטֵּאתָ (vechitte’ta, H2398) — “and you shall purify, de-sin.” The verb is built on the word for sin and means to remove sin’s defilement. The sanctuary is cleared of it.

Ezekiel 45:19

The priest puts blood from the sin offering on the temple doorposts, the corners of the altar ledge and the gateposts of the inner court. Blood marks the entrances and the altar, the places where people approach God. Access to Him comes through cleansing.

BSA: doorposts (“the vertical posts on either side of a door”): The blood is placed at the entrance, where people pass from outside to in.

See also: Leviticus 4:6-7.

Ezekiel 45:20

The same cleansing is repeated on the seventh day for sins done in error or through ignorance. Even sins a person did not know about leave a stain. God provides a way to cover them and keep His house clean.

BSA: strays (“to wander, goes astray”): It pictures a sheep drifting off course, not a defiant act.

Hebrew: שֹׁגֶה (shogeh, H7686) — “one who errs, goes astray.” The word describes a wrong made through mistake or lack of knowledge. God still takes it seriously and provides a remedy.

See also: Leviticus 4:13-14.

Ezekiel 45:21

On the fourteenth day of the first month Israel keeps the Passover, followed by seven days of unleavened bread. It recalls the night God rescued His people from Egypt. They remember that they were redeemed before they were ever a nation.

BSA: Passover (“a feast of redemption, a festival of freedom”): The feast celebrates deliverance from slavery.

Hebrew: פֶּסַח (pesach, H6453) — “Passover, a passing over.” The name recalls the night the LORD passed over the houses marked with blood. It ties rescue to the blood of the lamb.

See also: Exodus 12:1-14.

Ezekiel 45:22

On Passover day the prince provides a bull as a sin offering, for himself and for all the people. The ruler needs atonement just as they do. He stands among the people as a sinner who depends on God’s mercy.

See also: Leviticus 4:3.

Ezekiel 45:23

For each of the seven days of the feast the prince provides seven bulls and seven rams as burnt offerings, with a male goat for sin. The burnt offering is given wholly to God. The goat deals with sin, so devotion and forgiveness go together.

BSA: burnt offering (“a sacrifice completely consumed by fire”): The whole animal goes up to God, a picture of total surrender.

Ezekiel 45:24

Each bull and each ram comes with a grain offering of an ephah, and a hin of olive oil goes with each ephah. Grain and oil offered with the animals show thanks for daily bread and the gladness of the feast.

BSA: olive oil (“ointment”): Oil was a sign of richness and of being set apart for God.

Ezekiel 45:25

The same provision is made for the seven-day feast that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. This is the autumn feast of Tabernacles, though it is not named here. The year thus has two great seasons of worship, spring and autumn.

BSA: seventh (“complete”): Seven suggests fullness, and this feast comes in the completing month of the year.

See also: Leviticus 23:33-36.