40:1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the a
beginning of the year, in the tenth [day] of the month, in
the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, in the same
day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me there.
(a) The Jews counted the beginning of the year after two
sorts: for their feasts they began to count in March
and for their other affairs in September: so that this
is to be understood of September.
40:3 And he brought me there, and, behold, [there was] a b
man, whose appearance [was] like the appearance of brass,
with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and
he stood in the gate.
(b) Which was an angel in the form of a man, that came to
measure out this building.
43:3 And [it was] according to the appearance of the vision
which I saw, [even] according to the vision that I saw a
when I came to destroy the city: and the visions [were]
like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell
upon my face.
(a) When I prophesied the destruction of the city of the
Chaldeans.
43:4 And the b glory of the LORD came into the house by the
way of the gate whose prospect [is] toward the east.
43:7 And he said to me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and
the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in
the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy
name, shall the house of Israel no more c defile,
[neither] they, nor their kings, by their harlotry, nor by
the carcases of d their kings in their high places.
(c) By their idolatries.
(d) He alludes to Amon and Manasseh, who were buried in
their gardens near the Temple and there had erected
monuments to their idols.
44:2 Then said the LORD to me; This gate shall be a shut, it
shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it;
because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it,
therefore it shall be shut.
(a) Meaning, from the common people, but not from the
priests nor the prince, read (Eze 46:8,9).
44:7 In that ye have brought [into my sanctuary] b strangers,
uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be
in my sanctuary, to pollute it, [even] my house, when ye
offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken
my covenant because of all your abominations.
(b) For they had brought idolaters who were from other
countries, to teach them their idolatry,
(Eze 23:40).
44:8 And ye have not kept the c charge of my holy things: but
ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for
yourselves.
(c) You have not offered to me according to my Law.
44:10 And the d Levites that have gone away far from me, when
Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their
idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.
(d) The Levites who had committed idolatry were put from
their dignity and could not be received into the
priests office although they had been of the house of
Aaron, but must serve in the inferior offices as to
watch and to keep the doors, read (2Ki 23:9).
44:15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that e
kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of
Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to
minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer to
me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:
(e) Who observed the law of God and did not fall to
idolatry.
44:20 Neither shall they f shave their heads, nor allow their
locks to grow long; they shall only cut [the hair of]
their heads.
(f) As did the infidels and heathen.
44:25 And they shall come near no dead person to defile
themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or
for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no
husband, they may g defile themselves.
(g) They may be at their burial which was a defiling.
45:1 Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for
inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation to the LORD, an a
holy portion of the land: the length [shall be] the length
of five and twenty thousand [reeds], and the breadth [shall
be] ten thousand. This [shall be] holy in all its borders
on every side.
(a) Of all the land of Israel the Lord only requires this
portion for the temple and for the priests for the city
and for the prince.
45:9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it b suffice you, O princes
of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment
and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith
the Lord GOD.
(b) The prophet shows that the heads must be first reformed
before any good order can be established among the
people.
45:10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just c ephah, and a
just bath.
(c) Ephah and Bath are the same quantity save that
an Ephah is a dry measure and a Bath liquid,
(Le 5:11, 1Ki 5:11).
45:12 And the shekel [shall be] twenty gerahs: twenty shekels,
d five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be
your maneh.
(d) That is, sixty shekels make a weight called Mina, for
he joins these three parts to a Mina.
45:18 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first [month], in the
first [day] of the e month, thou shalt take a young bull
without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:
(e) Which was Nisan containing part of March and part of
April.
45:24 And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a
bull, and an ephah for a ram, and an f hin of oil for an
ephah.
46:5 And the meat offering [shall be] an ephah for a ram, and
the meat offering for the lambs a as he shall be able to
give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
(a) That is, as much as he will.
46:7 And he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bull,
and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs b according as
his hand shall be able, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
(b) Meaning, as he will think good.
46:17 But if he shall give a gift of his inheritance to one of
his servants, then it shall be his to the c year of
liberty; afterward it shall return to the prince: but his
inheritance shall be to his sons for them.
46:18 Moreover the prince shall not d take of the people's
inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their
possession; [but] he shall give his sons inheritance out
of his own possession: that my people be not dispossessed
every man from his possession.
(d) But be content with that portion that God has assigned
him, as in (Eze 45:8).
46:20 Then said he to me, This [is] the place where the priests
shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering,
where they shall bake the meat offering; that they bear
[them] not out into the outer court, e to sanctify the
people.
(e) That the people should not have to do with those
things which belong to the Lord, and think it lawful
for them to eat them.
47:1 Afterward he brought me again to the door of the house;
and, behold, a waters issued out from under the threshold
of the house eastward: for the front of the house [stood
toward] the east, and the waters came down from under from
the right side of the house, at the south [side] of the
altar.
(a) By which are meant the spiritual graces that would be
given to the Church under the kingdom of Christ.
47:5 Afterward he measured a thousand; [and it was] a river that
I could not pass over: for the waters had risen, waters to
swim in, a b river that could not be passed over.
(b) Signifying that the graces of God would never decrease,
but ever abound in his Church.
47:7 Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river
[were] very many c trees on the one side and on the
other.
(c) Meaning, the multitude of them that would be refreshed
by the spiritual waters.
47:8 Then said he to me, These waters issue out toward the east
country, and go down into the desert, and go into the d
sea: [which being] brought forth into the sea, the waters
shall be healed.
(d) Showing that the abundance of these graces would be so
great, that all the world would be full of it, which is
here meant by the Persian sea, or Genezareth, and the
sea called Mediterranean, (Zec 14:8).
47:9 And it shall come to pass, [that] every thing that liveth,
which moveth, wherever the rivers shall come, shall live:
and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because
these waters shall come there: for they shall be e
healed; and every thing shall live where the river cometh.
(e) The waters which by nature are salt and unwholesome will
be made sweet and comfortable.
47:10 And it shall come to pass, [that] the f fishermen shall
stand upon it from Engedi even to g Eneglaim; they shall
be a [place] to spread forth nets; their fish shall be
according to their kinds, as the fish of h the great
sea, very many.
(f) Signifying that when God bestows his mercies in such
abundance the ministers will by their preaching win
many.
(g) Which were cities at the corners of the salt or dead
sea.
(h) They will be here of all sorts and in as great
abundance as in the great ocean where they are bred.
47:11 But i its miry places and its marshes shall not be
healed; they shall be given to salt.
(i) That is, the wicked and reprobate.
47:15 And this [shall be] the border k of the land toward the
north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men
go to Zedad;
(k) By the land of promise he signifies the spiritual land
of which this was a figure.
47:22 And it shall come to pass, [that] ye shall divide it by
lot for an inheritance to you, and to the strangers that
sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you:
and they shall be to you as born in the country among the
children of Israel; l they shall have inheritance with
you among the tribes of Israel.
(l) Meaning that in this spiritual kingdom there would be
no difference between Jew nor Gentile but that all
would be partakers of this inheritance in their head
Christ.
48:1 Now these [are] the names of the a tribes. From the
north end to the border of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth
to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to
the border of Hamath; for these are his sides east [and]
west; a [portion for] Dan.
(a) The tribes after they entered into the land under
Joshua divided the land somewhat otherwise then is here
set forth by this vision.
48:8 And by the border of Judah, from the east side to the west
side, b shall be the offering which ye shall offer of
five and twenty thousand [reeds in] breadth, and [in]
length as one of the [other] parts, from the east side to
the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of
it.
(b) That is, the portion of the ground which they will
separate and appoint to the Lord which will be divided
into three parts for the priests for the prince and for
the city.
48:16 And these [shall be] the measures of it; the north side
(c) four thousand and five hundred, and the south side
four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four
thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand
and five hundred.
(c) Meaning that it would be square.
48:20 All the oblation [shall be] five and twenty thousand by
d five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy
oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city.
(d) Every way it will be five and twenty thousand.
48:22 Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the
possession of the city, [being] in the midst [of that]
which is the prince's, between the border e of Judah and
the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince.
(e) So that Judah was on the north side of the princes and
Levites portions and Benjamin on the south side.
48:28 And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the
f border shall be even from g Tamar [to] the waters of
strife [in] Kadesh, [and] to the h river toward the
great sea.
(f) Which is here taken for Idumea.
(g) Which was Jericho the city of palm trees.
(h) Meaning, the Nile that runs into the sea called the
Mediterranean.
