Ezekiel 44
PATThe chapter begins with a description of the glory of God returned into the temple; then follows a reproof of the people for suffering idolatrous priests to profane the temple by ministering there; and ordinances are set down relating to the deportment of God’s true priests, and the maintenance due to them. / Jews, such as were Zerubbabel and Nchcmiah after tho captivity. The prince shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord.] To cat part of the peace-offerings, which are to be provided at his charge. (Sec xlvi.2.) Bread stands for all sort of entertainments; (see Gen. xliii. 31.) and particularly for a religious feast made of the remainder of a sacrifice, (Gen. xxxi. 54.) He shall enter by the ivay of the porch of that gate, &c] Seexlvi. S.
Ezekiel 44:1
J. HEN he brought me back the way of the gate of the outivard sanctuary. From the altar to the gate belonging to the court of the priests that leadeth to the outward court of the temple. (Compare ver. 27. and xlvi. 1.) All the courts were reckoned holy ground, and called sometimes by the name of the temple. (See John viii. 20. Acts’ xxi. 28.) And it was shut] After that the glory of the Lord had entered that way; (xliii. 4.) to signify that the Divine presence would never forsake the temple any more.
Ezekiel 44:2
This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened. It shall not stand open continually, as it formerly did, but only at certain seasons: (see ver. 3. and xlvi. 1.) and that out of respect to the Divine glory, which made its entrance into the temple that way, where it had now took up its fixed residence, (see xliii. 7.) not to depart anymore by the east gate of the temple, as it formerly did. (See the note on xliii’. 4.) Because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered An by it:] That is, the glory of the Lord, as it is expressed xliii. 2. 4. The glory of God is himself, and is often called by * the name of the Lord, or the God of Israel. (See Exod. xxiv. 10. Isa. vi. 1. 5.)
Ezekiel 44:3
It is for the prince. Solomon placed his seat at the entrance into the inner court before’the altar of the Lord, (2 Chron. vi. 13.) and here the prince seems to have had his place in aftertimes, whenever he came to worship at the temple. (See 2 Chron. xxiii. 13. xxxiv. 31.) Not far from which place a seat was placed for the highpriest, as may be gathered from Eli’s seat, mentioned 1 Sam. ii. 9. and from whence the high-priest pronounced the blessing after the service was ended. (See Eeelus.l. 20. and Lightfoot’s Temple Service, chap. 36.) Some understand by the prince, the high-priest; which title does very properly belong to the Messias, who is both king and priest, and hath the style of Prince given him, xxxiv. 23. But in the parallel place to tins, (xlvi. 2, 3. 8, 9.) the word prince is opposed to the people: and other ordinances are there laid down, which cannot be fitly applied to the Messias. For which reason, I conceive the word must be taken here in its usual sense, to denote the chief governors of the
Ezekiel 44:4
Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house. The east gate being shut, ver. 1. And, behold, the glory of the Lordfdlcd the house of the Lord.] There was no door into the house on that side, but I could see tho brightness of the Divine glory shining through the windows. (See xliii. 3. 5.) And I fell upon my face.] See i. 28.
Ezekiel 44:5
Mark well, and behold with thine eyes, &c. See xl. 4. xliii. 2.. s Mark well the entering of the house with the going forth of the sanctuary.] The word laius is here to be repeated, to this sense, That the prophet should admonish the people of the laws relating to the admitting certain persons into the temple, or the courts of it, and suffer none that are unqualified to attend upon God’s service there. (Sec the following verses.)
Ezekiel 44:6
Andsay to the rebellious [house. , even to thehouse oflsi-ael.] See ii. 5. Let it suffice you of all your abominations.] Let the time past be sufficient for you to have provoked me with your abominations. (See xlv. 9. compare 1 Pet. iv. 3.) We find the same expression Numb. xvi. 3. where our translation reads, ye take too much upon you: but the phrase may more properly be translated, Let it suffice you [to have usurped an authority hitherto].:
Ezekiel 44:7
In that you have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, &c. In setting up idols within the precincts of mine own house, and appointing idolatrous priests to officiate there. (See xliii. 8.) When ye offer my bread, my fat, and my blood.] At the same time that ye offer my sacrifices upon the altar. Or the words may imply, that they suffered heathens to offer at God’s altar, expressly against the law, Lev. xxii. 27. By bread may be understood the meat-offerings made of flour, which accompanied the other sacrifices: although every thing offered upon the altar is properly called the bread of God. (See the note upon xxiii. 41.) The fat and blood of every sacrifice were peculiarly appropriated to God. (See Lev. iii. 1G. xvii. 11.). And they have broken my covenant.] Idolatry was a direct breach of that covenant God had entered into with the Jews, that he would be their God, and they his people, Lev. xxvii. 12.. Upon which account it is so often represented under the metaphor of adultery and fornication: being a breach of that covenant which is usually described under the notion of a marriage-contract, (See the note.upon xvi. 8.)
Ezekiel 44:8
And ye have not kept the charge of my holy things, See. You have not observed the laws I gave you, for taking caro of the things relating to my house and worship; but have appointed such persons to officiate there, as.best suited with your own inclinations. (See the note upon xl.45.)
Ezekiel 44:9
No stranger shall enter into my sanctuary. To offer any sacrifice or oblation there; (see ver. 7.) nor be suffered to go beyond tho precincts appointed for proselytes.
Ezekiel 44:10
And the Levites that are gone far from me, &c. The same who are called the priests, the Levites, “ver. 15. i. e. the sons of Levi, who are priests. Many of these departed from attending upon God’s service, and fell into • idolatry; first, in the general apostacy of the ten tribes, afterward under Ahaz, and other wicked kings of Judah: (see 2 Kings xxiii. 9.) these shall bear the punishment due to their iniquity, and shall be degraded from attending upon the higher offices belonging to the priesthood, and thrust down to meaner services. (See ver. 13.) It is not likely that any of those priests who had been defiled with idolatry in former times, lived to see the restoration of God’s worship in the temple after the captivity: so the punishment here allotted to them, either relates to their. posterity; God having particularly threatened to punish the sin of idolatry to the third and fourth generation, Exod. xx. 5. or else the ordinances here prescribed are standing rules, that were to be perpetually observed, whensoever this case should happen. The discipline of the Christian church was still more severe: for whoever of the clergy had committed idolatry in the times of persecution, was for ever deprived of his function; and even for lesser crimes they were degraded from a higher to a lower station; as the learned Mr. Bingham, in his Eccl. Antiq. book xvii. chap. 3. hath shewed in several instances.
Ezekiel 44:11
Having charge of the gates of the house. Performing the office of porters, an inferior station belonging to the Levites. (See 1 Chron. xxvi. 1.) P. TJiey shall slay the burnt-offering. ] Kill the beasts appointed for the daily burnt-offering and other sacrifices, and flay their skins, which was an office usually performed by the Levites. (See 2 Chron. xxxv. 11.) And they shall stand before them.] They shall be servants to the people, in undergoing the most senile offices belonging to the temple; whereas it is the proper office of a priest to be God’s immediate minister. (See Deut. x. S. xvii. 12.)
Ezekiel 44:12
Because they ministered to them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel tofallinto their iniquity. They led the people into idolatry, by giving them an ill example. Therefore have I lifted up my Iiand against them.] I have solemnly sworn that I will punish them for this their sin, (See the note on xx. 6.)
Ezekiel 44:13
And they shall not come 7iear to me, to do the office ofapriest unto me, &c. They shall not offer sacrifice at my altar, or come into the temple, to perform any part of the priestly office there. So Josiah discharged the priests that had been guilty of idolatry, from attending upon the service of the altar, (2 Kings xxiii. 9.)
Ezekiel 44:14
But I tvill make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, &c. They shall perform the servile offices belonging to my temple and worship. (See 1 Chron. xxiii. 28. 32.)
Ezekiel 44:15
Bid the priests, the Levites. The sons of Levi, who are priests. (Compare Deut. xvii. 9. xviii.l. xxiv. 8.) Tlie sons of Zadok.] See -xl. 46. xliii. 19. 7b offer to vie the fat and the blood.] See ver. 7. uigiiiz&u uy iviicrosoTi vty CHAP. XLIV.] UPON EZEKIEL.
Ezekiel 44:16
They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table. The foregoing verse expresses their ministering at the altar, and offering sacrifice there: this denotes attendance upon God’s service within the temple: the principal part of which was burning incense there upon the altar placed in the temple for that purpose: which mystically implied the offering up the prayers of the people to God. This altar of incense is called here the table of the Lord, as it is xli. 22. (See the note there.)
Ezekiel 44:17
When they shall enter in at the gates of the inner court,. The court just before the temple, where the altar of burnt-offering stood, ver. 27. of this chapter. They shall be clothed tvith linen garments.] The ephod, breeches, mitre, and girdle, which was the habit of the ordinary priests, were all of fine linen, contrived for glory and beauty: (Exod. xxix. 40.) fine linen being the habit of persons of the greatest quality. (See the note upon xxvii. 7.) While they minister in the gates of the inner court, and tuithin.] Or, in the house, or temple itself, as Noldius translates the word bayetha, n. 829.
Ezekiel 44:18
They shall not gird themselves tvith any thing that causeth sweat. With a woollen girdle, which may make them sweat, during their laborious services about the altar, and make their garments smell offensively. But the Chaldee paraphrase renders it thus: They shall not be girt about their loins, but be girt upon (or about) their heart; i. e. they shall not wear girdles about their middle, or.under their arm-pits, either of which may cause them to sweat, but shall wear them about their breasts. So St. John describes our Lord appearing in the habit of a high-priest, and girt about the paps tvith a golden girdle, Rev. i. 13.
Ezekiel 44:19
And when they go forth into the outer court, they. shall put off their garments wherein they ministered. See the note on xlii. 14. And they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.] By the rules of the law, things immediately dedicated to God’s service did convey some degree of holiness to common things that touched them: so the altar sanctified the gift that was laid upon it. (See Lev. vi. 27. Matt, xxiii. 13.) Thus some sort of holiness might be derived to the garments of the people by touching those of a priest: which God would have prevented, to keep up an exact difference between the holy and profane, (ver. 23.)
Ezekiel 44:20
Neither shall they shave their heads. This prescription is implied in those words of the law, Lev. xxi. 5. especially according to the translation of the Septuagint, who render the sentence, Thou shalt not shave thyself with baldness [to make baldness] upon thy head for the dead. They, indeed, understand it as an expression of mourning for the dead, which agrees with the sense of the parallel texts, Lev. xix. 27, 28. Dcut. xiv. 1. But the words in the original contain a general prohibition, and. consequently include the times of mourning as well as other seasons. St. Jerome upon the place does with great probability suppose, that the Jewish priests were forbid to shave their heads, thereby to distinguish them from several of the heathen priests, particularly the Egyptian priests of Isis and Serapis, who had their heads shaved and uncovered;* which were funeral rites, and therefore proper to be used in the worship of the heathen gods, who were no better than dead men. (Soc Baruch vi. 31.) Learned men have ob- VOLu iv. served, that many other Jewish laws were made, in opposition to the funeral rites observed in the heathen worship. Nor suffer their locks to grow long.] It is the opinion of Dr. Spencer (Leg. Hebr. lib. ii. cap. 25.) and Schindler, that this law is likewise taken out of the same chapter of Leviticus, at the tenth verse; where our translation renders the original, He shall not uncover his head. But the Chaldee paraphrase translates the words, He shall not nourish the hair of his head; which sense several interpreters follow^, letting the hair grow long and neglected, being a sign of mourning, as well as shaving it close to the head.
Ezekiel 44:21
Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court. During the time of their ministration. (See ver. 17.) This law is likewise taken from Lev. x. 9, 10. And the reason of the prohibition is there given, that they might put a difference between holy and unholy, between clean and unclean; i.e. that they might be able exactly to determine the cases relating to legal uncleanness: many of which had a great deal of niceness in them, by reason of the variety of circumstances. (Compare ver. 23. of this chapter.)
Ezekiel 44:22
Neither shall they take for their wives a widow,’ or her that is put away, &c. This law we find in Lev. xxi. 13, 14. But it is there spoken of the high-priest only, here it is applied to all the priests in general.
Ezekiel 44:23
And in controversy they shall stand in judgment, &c. The priests were to determine all controversies relating to the law, as well the judicial as the ceremonial part of it, which were brought before them; (see Deut. xvii. 8, 9.) and the people were to seek the law at their mouths, (Mai. ii. 7.) i. e. to inquire of them what was the purport and meaning of it, and to stand to their determination. And when the supreme judicial power was placed in the Sanhedrin, the majority of that court consisted chiefly of such as had the chief stations among the priests. (See Acts iv. And they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies, &c] As well upon the solemn festivals, and the assemblies proper to them, (see Exod. xii. 16.) as on the ordinary sabbaths. And they shall hallow my sabbaths.] Whereas the priests before the captivity profaned them, and neglected to perform the Divine worship prescribed upon them; (See xxii. 26.)
Ezekiel 44:25
They shall come at no dead person to defile themselves. Whosoever touched a dead body became legally unclean, (Numb. xix. 11.) and thereby was unqualified to attend upon God’s worship in the temple: (see Lev. xxii. 3.) upon which account the priests were forbidden to contract such a defilement, unless for their nearest relations, (Lev. xxi. 1 — 3.) which prohibition is here renewed.
Ezekiel 44:26
And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days. His unclcanness continued for seven days by the forecitcd law, (Numb. xix. 11.) and the priests were to reckon to him seven days more, before he was to be admitted into the sanctuary.
Ezekiel 44:27
And in the day that lie goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court. See ver. 17. He shall offer his sin-offering.] He shall offer a young bullock for a sin-offering. (See Lev. iv. 13.)
Ezekiel 44:28
And it shall be unto them for an inheritance, &c J Their ministry in my sanctuary, mentioned in the foregoing