Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people.

“My tabernacle . . . with them--as foretold (Ge 9:27); Joh 1:14, "The Word . . . dwelt among us" (literally, "tabernacled"); first, in humiliation; hereafter, in manifested glory (Re 21:3).”

“Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him

“HENGSTENBERG supports English Version, as "Rosh" is not found in the Bible. "Magog was Gog's original kingdom, though he acquired also Meshech and Tubal, so as to be called their chief prince."”

After a long time you will be summoned. In the latter years you will enter a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to…

“English Version means, "Against Israel, which has been waste, but which (that is, whose people) is now (at the time of the invasion) brought forth out of the nations where they were dispersed, and shall be found by the invader dwelling securely, so as to…”

Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will ask, ‘Have you come to capture the plunder?

“Sheba, &c.--These mercantile peoples, though not taking an active part against the cause of God, are well pleased to see others do it. Worldliness makes them ready to deal in the ill-gotten spoil of the invaders of God's people.”

This is what the Lord GOD says: Are you the one of whom I have spoken in former days through My servants, the prophets of Israel, who in those times…

“Isa 27:1; compare Isa 26:20, 21; God is represented as addressing Gog at the time of his assault; therefore, the "old time" is the time long prior, when Ezekiel uttered these prophecies; so, he also, as well as Daniel (Da 11:1-45) and Zechariah (Zec 14:1-21)…”

I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the…

“Jer 25:31). blood . . . hailstones, fire-- (Re 8:7; The imagery is taken from the destruction of Sodom and the plagues of Egypt (compare Ps 11:6). Antiochus died by "pestilence" (2 Maccabees 9:5).”

And on that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Sea.

“The publicity of the road would cause many to observe God's judgments, as the stench (as English Version translates) or the multitude of graves (as HENDERSON translates, "it shall stop the passengers") would arrest the attention of passers-by.”

(Even the city will be named Hamonah.) And so they will cleanse the land.

“A city in the neighborhood was to receive the name Hamonah, "multitude," to commemorate the overthrow of the multitudes of the foe [HENDERSON]. The multitude of the slain shall give a name to the city of Jerusalem after the land shall have been cleansed [GROTIUS].”

which flanked the gateways and corresponded to the length of the gates; this was the lower pavement.

“The higher pavement was level with the entrance of the gates, the lower was on either side of the raised pavement thus formed.”

He also measured the length and width of the gateway of the outer court facing north.

“The different approaches corresponded in plan. In the case of these two other gates, however, no mention is made of a building with thirty chambers such as was found on the east side.”

(The porticoes around the inner court were twenty-five cubits long and five cubits deep.)

“This verse is omitted in the Septuagint, the Vatican manuscript, and others. The dimensions here of the inner gate do not correspond to the outer, though Eze 40:28 asserts that they do.”

There was a chamber with a doorway by the portico in each of the inner gateways. There the burnt offering was to be washed.

“For Le 1:11 directs the sacrifices to be killed north of the altar; and Eze 8:5 calls the north gate, "the gate of the altar." And Eze 40:40 particularly mentions the north gate.”

The portico was twenty cubits wide and twelve cubits deep, and ten steps led up to it. There were columns by the side pillars, one on each side.

“1Ki 6:3 designates the number by the lesser next round number, "ten"; Ezekiel here, by the larger number, "eleven" [MENOCHIUS]. The Septuagint reads "twelve." he brought me by the steps--They were ten in number [Septuagint].”

The side rooms were arranged one above another in three levels of thirty rooms each.

“"They entered," namely, the beams of the chambers, which were three-storied and thirty in consecutive order, entered into the wall, that is, were made to lean on rests projecting from the wall.”

There was an altar of wood three cubits high and two cubits square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood.

“At it, not at the table of showbread, the priests daily ministered. It stood in front of the veil, and is therefore said to be "before the Lord."”

So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall all around, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the…

“The lowness of it renders it unfit for the purpose of defense (the object of the wall, Re 21:12).”

Now let them remove far from Me their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings, and I will dwell among them forever.

“Rather, "the carcasses of their idols," here called "kings," as having had lordship over them in past times (Isa 26:13); but henceforth Jehovah, alone their rightful lord, shall be their king, and the idols that had been their "king" would appear but as "carcasses."”

Then He said to me: “Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is constructed, so that…

“The expressions, "blood" (Eze 43:18), and "for a sin offering" (Eze 43:19, 21, 22), prove this. In the literal sense they can only apply to the second temple.”

For seven days the priests are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; so they shall consecrate it.

“Seven days--referring to the original directions of Moses for seven days' purification services of the altar (Ex 29:37). consecrate themselves--literally, "fill their hands," namely, with offerings; referring to the mode of consecrating a priest (Ex 29:24, 35).”

But the Levitical priests, who are descended from Zadok and who kept charge of My sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from Me, are to approach Me to minister before…

“Zadok, according to his name (which means "righteous") and his line, were to succeed (1Ki 2:35; 1Ch 24:3), as they did not take part in the general apostasy to the same degree, and perhaps [FAIRBAIRN] the prophet, referring to their original state, speaks of them…”

They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair.

“Neither . . . shave . . . heads--as mourners do (Le 21:1-5). The worshippers of the Egyptian idols Serapis and Isis shaved their heads; another reason why Jehovah's priests are not to do so. nor suffer . . .”

Now the prince will have the area bordering each side of the area formed by the holy district and the property of the city, extending westward from the western side…

“The prince's possession is to consist of two halves, one on the west, the other on the east, of the sacred territory.”

The shekel will consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels will equal one mina.

“By weighing these together against the maneh, a test was afforded whether they severally had their proper weight: sixty shekels in all, containing one coin a fourth of the whole (fifteen shekels), another a third (twenty shekels), another a third and a twelfth (twenty-five shekels)…”

This is the contribution you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.

“In these oblations there is a progression as to the relation between the kind and the quantity: of the corn, the sixth of a tenth, that is, a sixtieth part of the quantity specified; of the oil, the tenth of a tenth, that is, an…”

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘On the first day of the first month you are to take a young bull without blemish and purify the sanctuary.

“The year is to begin with a consecration service, not mentioned under the Levitical law; but an earnest of it is given in the feast of dedication of the second temple, which celebrated its purification by Judas Maccabeus, after its defilement by Antiochus.”