Ezekiel 45:21 Kommentar

In this chapter is further represented to the prophet, in vision, I. The division of the holy land, so much for the temple, and the priests that attended the service of it (Eze 45:1-4), so much for the Levites (Eze 45:5), so much for the city (Eze 45:6), so much for the prince, and the residue to the people (Eze 45:7, Eze 45:8). II. The ordinances of justice that were given both to prince and people (Eze 45:9-12). III. The oblations they were to offer, and the prince's part in those oblations (Eze 45:13-17). Particularly in the beginning of the year (Eze 45:18-20) and in the passover, and the feast of tabernacles (Eze 45:21-25). And all this seems to point at the new church-state that should be set up under the gospel, which, both for extent and for purity, should far exceed that of the Old Testament.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 45 This chapter treats of the division of the land in future time, and the persons and uses for which it is to be made; one part being for the sanctuary, and the priests that serve in it, and for their houses for them to dwell in, Eze 45:1, another for the Levites and their chambers, Eze 45:5, and another for the city, for the Israelites in common, Eze 45:6, and the last for the prince; and of the situation and extent of it, Eze 45:7 and of the righteous administration of civil government in the time of the spiritual reign of Christ, in abstinence from violence and exactions, and doing justice, for which orders and directions are given, Eze 45:9, then of the oblations of the people of the land, Eze 45:13, and next of those that are to be prepared by the prince, Eze 45:17, and the times of the offering of them, at the beginning of the year, on the feasts of the passover and tabernacles, Eze 45:18, the rules for which are so different from the Mosaic law, as show the abrogation of that; and that all this is to be understood in a spiritual and evangelic sense.

In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month,.... Of the month Nisan, that day fortnight from the cleansing of the sanctuary; and that day week from the expiation of the house, and the recovery and reception of backsliders: ye shall have the passover; Christ the passover sacrificed for us; held forth in the ministry of the word, and in the ordinance of the Lord's supper; for the passover was a type of Christ: his purity and strength were signified by the lamb without blemish, a male of the first year; his separation to his office, his death, and the time of it, by the taking of this lamb from the flock some time before, and by slaying it between the two evenings; the manner of feeding on him, with fervent faith, and as a whole Saviour, attended with true repentance, and being willing also to suffer for him, by the lamb being eaten not raw, nor sodden, but roasted, and all of it, and with bitter herbs; and the security of his people by his blood from wrath and ruin, through the sprinkling it upon their consciences, by the sprinkling the blood of the passover on the lintel and door posts of the Israelites, which the Lord seeing passed by, and destroyed them not; and the new rules of keeping this passover, after observed, show that this respects not the type, but the antitype: a feast of seven days; kept a whole week; and indeed Christ the passover is by faith to be lived upon throughout the week, as well as on Lord's days, and indeed in every week: unleavened bread shall be eaten; and not leavened; with reference to which the Gospel feast is to be kept, not with old leaven, with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, Co1 5:7.

(Verse 18 and following) Thus says the Lord God: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish, and you shall purify the sanctuary. The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the house, and on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorposts of the gate of the inner court. So you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who has sinned inadvertently and been deceived by error, and you shall make atonement for the house. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, there shall be a solemn feast for you: for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. And on that day the prince shall make a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land, a young bull. And during the seven-day feast he shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord: seven young bulls and seven spotless rams each day for seven days, and a male goat for a sin offering each day. And for each young bull he shall offer a hin of oil, and for each ram he shall offer a hin of oil, and for each male goat he shall offer a measurement of oil. In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, during the feast, he shall perform as mentioned above for seven days: both for sin and for burnt offering, and in sacrifice and in oil. I have included the entire passage so as not to disturb the reader's mind by dividing it into individual parts. And first, we must speak of the variety of interpretations. Where we have interpreted, at the four corners of the altar's base. The Septuagint translated it as on the four corners of the temple and on the altar. And where we said 'for each and every one who is ignorant and deceived by error,' they put 'for the ignorant and for the little one.' In that same place where we said 'the offering of an ephah for a calf and an ephah for a ram,' and 'a hin of oil for each ephah,' their edition holds 'the offering and cooking of a calf and the cooking of a ram you shall give, and the cooking of oil.' And in the final verse where we said 'in the sacrifice and in the oil,' they said 'as in the manna, as in the oil.' In the first month and on the first day of the month (no doubt, Nisan signifies) you shall take a calf from the cattle: not one that is raised in the house, but one that is from the cattle, that is, from the flock and a larger number. On the seventh day of the same month: these two solemnities, that is, the first day of the first month, and the seventh of the same, are not found in the Mosaic law. But the fourteenth day of the month, on which the Passover is celebrated, and Moses commanded to be observed, when we eat unleavened bread for seven days. But the fourth solemnity, of which he says: On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, in the solemnity (Exod. XII), and the rest, seems to me to signify the scenopegia, which he has placed here without a name. So let us run through each [topic] and briefly discuss what seems to us [to be relevant]. There are spiritual celebrations, and the Apostle teaches: Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come (Colossians 2:16). And thus God speaks through Isaiah: I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates (Isaiah 1:13). It is clear that whoever despises the Jewish feasts loves his own, namely the Sabbath that was left to the people of God. Let us see what has been given to us by God, and let us speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the teaching of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. In the present age, which is under the power of the evil one, we cannot see good days, but in the new age: of which days the Holy Spirit sings in the Mosaic song: Remember the days of old: understand the years of generations upon generations (Deut. XXXII, 7). Of which (things) even the Holy One spoke in the psalm: In the night my heart meditated (Ps. LXXVI, 7). And again: And I have kept eternal years in my mind, and have meditated (Ibid., 6). Whoever does not understand this, let him answer how he can explain what Isaiah prophesies about the future and the new age: There shall be a month from month to month, and a Sabbath from Sabbath, and all flesh shall come to worship the Lord (Isa. LXVI, 23): when true worshippers shall not worship on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem, but in spirit and truth (John. IV); when there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and all creation shall be freed from the bondage of corruption, unto the liberty of the sons of God, and the sun shall receive light seven times brighter, and the moon shall be compared to the sun (Rom. VIII, Isa. LXV). For we have come to Mount Zion, which is interpreted as the lookout, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the thousands of angels in festive gathering. Concerning this feast, another prophet speaks: What will you do on the days of the assembly and on the days of the Lord's solemnity? (Hosea 9:5). This is what is also said elsewhere: Celebrate, O Judah, your festivities; fulfill your vows (Numbers 1:15). Therefore, if we have learned spiritual solemnities, we will subsequently be taught spiritual sacrifices. A calf is taken from the herd, or a bull, as Symmachus interpreted, free and not burdened by any yoke, that is, the burden of sins, and spotless: who did not commit sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, a young calf, carrying horns and hooves: so that in him the sanctuary may be cleansed and atoned. And the priest will take, he says, from his blood which will be for the sin of all: who is called in other words the lamb in Exodus, and in the Gospel, John the Baptist saying: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). But the blood itself is precious, in which we are redeemed in the passion of the Lord and Savior; in whose flesh we are nourished, and in whose blood we are made to drink; by which the four corners of the altar of the Temple, which Theodotius placed, the Hebrew word itself, Azara (), or the Temple, as the LXX translated it, are touched, so that the house and the altar may be sanctified. For all the elements of the world are sanctified by this blood, so that when someone has been purified and cleansed, they may enter the gate of the inner court and be able to know the secrets of the Lord and subsequently come to the seventh day of the first month, and attain rest, and offer a sacrifice to the Lord for both ignorance, of which David speaks: The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember (Ps. 24:7), and for the child who, when he reaches the measure of a perfect man, will destroy those things which are childish and speak with confidence: When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child (2 Cor. 13:11). Whether it is for the one who has been deceived by error, and not so much by will, as by the opinion of good, he has sinned. But when the two solemnities of the first month are completed, that is, the first day and its seventh, he comes to the fourteenth day of the month, in which the solemnity of Easter is: of which it is written: For Christ our Pasch is sacrificed (I Cor. V, 7). Then we eat unleavened bread for seven days in rest and security of all things, when we eat the bread of sincerity and truth, destroying the leaven of malice and wickedness, our prince offering all these things for us, and first for himself. For he assumed the human body and, through sin, destroyed sin; he who suffers for us and bears our weaknesses. Then, for his own house, as is written in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew, that is, for the Church, and for all the people of the earth, that is, for the entire human race. For the Savior is the Savior of all men, especially of the faithful, and he is the one who offers forgiveness for our sins; and not only for ours but for the whole world. But a calf is offered for the whole people of the earth, and for the seven remaining days of the Lord's Passion, seven calves and seven unblemished rams are offered daily, so that they may be consumed as a burnt offering and in the Lord's fire. And there are seven calves and seven rams, which symbolize the Lord's Passion, so that they may imitate the true calf and the true ram, and the blood of the martyrs may purify the sins of the whole world for seven days. And a goat of the goats is also offered for sin daily, specifically for seven days. And it must be observed more diligently that in the sacrifice of the calf, and the ram, and the hin of oil, the offerings which are commanded by the Law are made. But in the offering of the goat, neither the hin nor the preparation (as the Septuagint has rendered it) is mentioned, which they have interpreted as referring to the hin, that is, to the preparation. But the hin of oil, which is a fixed measure, as we have already said, is used in the sacrifice of the calf and the ram, so that we may be able to receive the nourishment of eternal light, and the rest from labor, and the health from weariness, after the propitiation of sins. In the seventh month also, on the fifteenth day of the month, that is, the Feast of Tabernacles, the same order of offerings and sacrifices is to be observed, both for sin and burnt offerings, and in the sacrifice, and in the oil, so that we may obtain the Lord's festival, the darkness being banished and the light of the oil rising: and that we may have brighter solemnities, in which all sins are forgiven.

The several portions of land appointed for the sanctuary, Eze 45:1-5, the city, 6, and the prince, Eze 45:7, Eze 45:8. Regulations concerning the weights and measures, Eze 45:9-12; with ordinances respecting the provisions for the ordinary and extraordinary sacrifices, Eze 45:13-25.

ALLOTMENT OF THE LAND FOR THE SANCTUARY, THE CITY, AND THE PRINCE. (Eze. 45:1-25) 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.

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 Co1 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. Next: Ezekiel Chapter 46

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.