Ezekielchapter 43
27 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
Then the man brought me back to the gate that faces east,
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel had watched the glory of God leave the temple nearly twenty years before this vision, and his hearers had heard him describe it. That departure, told in chapters 10 and 11, meant that God had given up His house to its enemies. This chapter answers it at the same gate. Listen for the direction the glory comes from and the sound that comes with it. Listen also for the reason God gives for showing the plan to the people, and for the altar and its week of dedication. The chapter holds the turn toward which the whole book has been moving.
Context
- Who
- Exiles who had heard him describe the glory leaving by that same gate eighteen years earlier
- What
- The return of God's glory to the temple, the law of the house, and the measurements and dedication of the altar.
- Where
- In vision, at the east gate and in the inner court of the temple on the mountain in the land of Israel.
- When
- The twenty-fifth year of the exile, about 573 BC, within the vision dated in Ezekiel 40:1.
- Why
- To show that God would again dwell among His people forever, and to move them to shame for the sins that had driven Him out.
Historical context
The direction is the point. In chapters ten and eleven the glory rose from the sanctuary, paused at the threshold, moved to the east gate and went up from the city to the mountain on its east side. Here it comes from the east, the sound of it like the roar of many waters, and enters the house by the gate facing east. The route is retraced in reverse, step for step.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The altar described is a stepped structure and the terms used for it are unusual. Its lowest part is called the bosom of the earth, the top hearth is given a name meaning the mountain of God, and it has four horns at the corners and steps on the east side for the priests to climb. Horned altars of stone from this era have been excavated in Israel, and the stepped shape resembles the tiered platforms of Mesopotamian sacred architecture. An older law forbade steps at an altar so that a priest's nakedness would not be exposed, and the answer to that here is the linen breeches the priests are required to wear.
The consecration procedure is a familiar one: seven days of offerings, a bull for a sin offering, then a male goat, then a bull and a ram, with blood put on the horns, the corners of the ledge and the rim, and salt thrown on the offerings. This is close to the ordination ritual in Exodus and Leviticus. On the eighth day the regular offerings begin.
The sacrifices in this future house are the most argued-over feature of the vision. The reading followed here is that they function as memorials, looking back to the cross the way the older sacrifices looked forward to it, since the New Testament is explicit that Christ's offering was once for all; others hold that the passage is symbolic language for worship, or that it was a conditional plan for the returning exiles. The alternatives are named rather than settled here.
Significance
For hearers who had lived through chapter ten, this is the sentence the whole book was waiting for: the glory of the LORD filled the house. Twenty years of judgment resolve into a doorway.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And God attaches a condition and a promise in the same breath. He will dwell among the people of Israel forever, and they will no longer defile His holy name with their whoring or with the corpses of their kings at their death. Then He tells Ezekiel to describe the house to them so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities, the plan itself is given as a means of repentance.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, gives this chapter a public reading. Ezekiel 43:10 to 43:27 is the Haftarah read with the weekly portion Tetzaveh, which is Exodus 27:20 to 30:10, and the table marks it as the same in the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi rites. The table carries no festival reading from the book.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Tzav 14:1. Under the fourteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Teitzei 10:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 9:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern.
Rashi reads the return of the Glory as the prophet led back to the eastern gate: "and I saw the Glory descending to the Court" (Rashi on Ezekiel 43:1:1). At the third verse he counts the words for vision and draws a teaching from the count. "Nine visions [or “mirrors”] (מַרְאוֹת) are written here through which the prophets perceived. Moses, however, was an exception, for he saw through one vision" (Rashi on Ezekiel 43:3:1). He adds that the liturgical poet built a line on the same reading. The voice from the House speaks "between Himself and His glory, and the voice came to me" (Rashi on Ezekiel 43:6:1).
The defilement by the corpses of kings he reads as burial near the Temple, "as we find with Solomon and with Athaliah" (Rashi on Ezekiel 43:7:1). Some were buried in the gardens of houses that stood against its walls. The plan of the House is shown "that they may be ashamed of their iniquities when I show them My loving-kindness" (Rashi on Ezekiel 43:10:1).
The altar he measures against the Second Temple, where the hearth "was only three [cubits]" (Rashi on Ezekiel 43:15:1). The bull of the dedication he calls "the bull of investiture", used as in the Tabernacle. He reports Menahoth 45a, "They sacrificed investiture offerings in Ezra’s days just as they sacrificed in Moses’ days" (Rashi on Ezekiel 43:21:1). The he-goat that follows has no precedent in the Tabernacle, "but the investiture of the future will be [done] so by Divine ordinance" (Rashi on Ezekiel 43:22:1).
The corpus carries six further notes on this chapter without an English text, each of them marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Ezekiel 43:2:1, 43:4:1, 43:5:1, 43:12:1, 43:18:1 and 43:24:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 2:6, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 3:3 and Bereshit Rabbah 3:4. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:18 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 4:4 there. On the third verse it holds Vayikra Rabbah 1:14 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 432:1. On the seventh verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:17. On the eighth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 4:4:11, Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 9:5:2 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:2:10. It also holds Kohelet Rabbah 5:6:1 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 12:22 there.
On the tenth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Tzav 14:1, Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Midrash Ketiv V'lo Keri 8 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 6:1. On the eleventh verse it holds Pesikta DeRav Kahana 6:3, Pesikta Rabbati 16:1 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 3:2. It also holds Vayikra Rabbah 2:8 and Vayikra Rabbah 7:3 there. On the thirteenth verse it holds Eruvin 4a:9, Menachot 97a:13 and Menachot 97b:1. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 25:29:3 there. On the fourteenth verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah 3:22, Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 8 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Teitzei 10:1. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 9:1 there.
On the fifteenth verse it holds Zevachim 53a:8. On the sixteenth verse it holds Menachot 97b:16, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 373:2 and Zevachim 59b:5. It also holds Zevachim 59b:6 there. On the seventeenth verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 1:11:1, Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura DeNedavah, Section 5 8 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 446:2. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 446:3 there. On the twenty-fourth verse it holds Menachot 21b:1.
On the twenty-sixth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 1:1:15. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 43:1:1 to 43:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 43:2:1, 43:4:1, 43:5:1, 43:12:1, 43:18:1 and 43:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/43.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this chapter and printing the Haftarah Ezekiel 43:10 to 43:27 with the weekly portion Tetzaveh.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The glory returns by way of the east gate
Ezekiel 43:1-4
the gate that faces east: The glory returns “coming from the east,” by the road it took when it left the city at 11:23. His voice is “like the roar of many waters,” the figure chapter 1 used of the throne. Keil reads the return as the whole argument of the vision in one scene.
Ezekiel 43:1
“Afterward he brought me to the gate,.... The dimensions of this wonderful building being finished, the prophet's divine guide brought him from the wall about it, he had last measured, to the gate he first had him to, after he had observed to him the same wall, Eze 40:5, even the gate that looketh toward the east; or, as the Targum, which was open to the way of the east. The reason of his being brought hither follows.”
coming from the east: John Wesley observes that the glory left eastward and now returns from the east. He takes the voice to be speech. Here the glory speaks words, as verse 6 shows, and Adam Clarke identifies it with the chariot of cherubim seen at the Kebar.
Ezekiel 43:2
“The glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east - This was the chariot of cherubim, wheels, etc., which he saw at the river Chebar. And this glory, coming from the east, is going to enter into the eastern gate of the temple, and thence to shine out upon the whole earth. Is there not a mystery here? All knowledge, all religion, and all arts and sciences, have traveled, according to the course of the sun, From East To West!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:2
“Came - When the glory departed, it went eastward, and now it returns, it comes from the east. And his voice - Though by the voice of God, thunder is sometimes meant, yet here it was an articulate voice.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
when He came to destroy the city: Ezekiel identifies this glory with the one he saw in chapters 8 to 11, when judgment fell on Jerusalem. John Wesley reads the words to destroy as God declaring the ruin their sins would bring, pointing to 9:3 and 9:4. The same God who judged now returns.
Ezekiel 43:3
“And it - This glory of the God of Israel. To destroy - To declare, that their sins would ruin their city, chap. ix, 3, 4. I fell - Overwhelmed, and as it were swallowed up.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
entered the temple through the gate facing east: Matthew Henry notes God's glory filled the tabernacle and Solomon's temple (Exodus 40:34), but the record never says it filled the second temple. He finds fulfillment in the gospel church, and John Gill in Christ dwelling in His church in the latter day. Dispensational interpreters expect a future literal temple.
Ezekiel 43:4
“And the glory of the Lord came into the house, Before described and measured; and being fitted and prepared, the builder and owner of it comes and takes up his residence in it; as Christ will do in his church, more especially and more visibly in the latter day: by the way of the gate whose prospect is towards the east; which was the direct way into the outward court, and so to the inward court, and into the holy, and into the most holy place; and was the way by which he departed from hence, Eze 10:18.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 43:4
“Came - The sins of Israel caused the glory of the Lord to go out of his house, now the repentance of Israel is blest with the return of this glory.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 43:4
“God's glory filled the house as it had filled the tabernacle which Moses set up and the temple of Solomon, Exod. xl. Now we do not find that ever the Shechinah did in that manner take possession of the second temple, and therefore this was to have its accomplishment in that glory of the divine grace which shines so brightly in the gospel church, and fills it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 43:5-9
the Spirit lifted me up: The voice names the room “the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet,” where He will dwell forever. Israel's kings defiled His holy name. The command to remove “their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings” is the condition of the dwelling.
Ezekiel 43:5
“And when, he says, I had fallen, the majesty of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east, and immediately the spirit lifted me up (for I could not go on lying down), and he led me into the court of annihilation, for I had fallen outside; and behold, I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east, and I saw the glory of the Lord filling his house, and I heard a voice speaking to me from inside the house.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 43:5
“The spirit took me up - And, to follow this thought for a moment, how many men has this heavenly Spirit taken up; filled them with his own influence, and sent them to every country, and nation, and tongue, and people, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God, and to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ! What spiritual temples have been raised, beautified, and filled with the glory of God!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 43:5
“The glory of the Lord filled the house - Compare the marginal reference; Exo 40:34-35.”
The place of my throne and the soles of my feet
someone speaking to me from inside the temple: The guide still stands beside Ezekiel. The voice comes from inside the house, where the glory has just entered. Matthew Henry reads the guide as standing aside once God begins to speak, since the angel has no more to say.
Ezekiel 43:6
“God's glory shining in the church, we must thence expect to receive divine oracles. The man stood by me; we could not bear to hear the voice of God any more than to see the face of God if Jesus Christ did not stand by us as Mediator. Or, if this was a created angel, it is observable that when God began to speak to Ezekiel he stood by and gave way, having no more to say.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 43:6
“The man - A “man.” Probably an angel different from “the man” who had hitherto accompanied the seer. That angel guided, measured, and explained; this is present only to guide.”
Ezekiel 43:6
“He showed me that there was an angel who measured the building, and he showed me these things; and he was very like Michael, who was given the responsibility of looking after the people.”
Theodoret of Cyrus · written before 458 · Commentary on Ezekiel 16:43patristic
the place of My throne: John Wesley calls this the throne of grace, where God shows Himself king. Matthew Henry notes the old command not to defile His name becomes a promise here, and he points to the everlasting covenant of Jeremiah 32. The covenant supplies what it requires.
Ezekiel 43:7
“The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name. The precept of the law says, You must not defile my name: the grace of the gospel says, You shall not. Thus what is required in the covenant is promised in the covenant, Jer. xxxii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 43:7
“He said - i. e., God “said.” Both the Septuagint and the Vulgate break this verse into two, so as to make the first half the solemn words of dedication. place a full stop after “forever;” the words mark the distinction between the new and the former sanctuary. The palace of Solomon abutted upon the southern side of the embankment of the temple-platform; there was but “a wall between Yahweh and them.” When the kings gave themselves up to idolatry, this vicinity was to the temple a pollution and defilement.”
Ezekiel 43:7
“He - The glorious God of Israel. My throne - The throne of his grace is in his temple; in the dispensations of grace, God manifests himself a king. My feet - Speaking after the manner of men, and expressing his abode and rest, in his temple, as the type, in his church, as the antitype.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
with only a wall between Me and them: Adam Clarke and John Wesley read the kings' thresholds as idol altars set up beside the Lord's own, even in the temple courts. Only a wall divided palace and sanctuary. The new plan answers with open space around the house (41:10, 42:20).
Ezekiel 43:8
In their setting of their threshold - They had even gone so far as to set up their idol altars by those of Jehovah; so that their abominable idols were found in the very house of God! therefore, “he consumed them in his anger.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:8
“Their threshold - The kings of Judah and Israel, built temples and altars for their idols, and these are called their thresholds. They erected these in the courts, or near the courts of the temple.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the funeral offerings for their kings: The Hebrew phrase behind funeral offerings is read three ways. Adam Clarke takes it as the royal tombs near the temple. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown follow Fairbairn in reading dead idols once treated as kings, and the Berean renders it offerings for dead kings.
Ezekiel 43:9
“Now let them put away their whoredom - Their idolatry. And the carcasses of their kings - It appears that God was displeased with their bringing their kings so near his temple. David was buried in the city of David, which was on Mount Zion, near to the temple; and so were almost all the kings of Judah; but God requires that the place of his temple and its vicinity shall be kept unpolluted; and when they put away all kinds of defilement, then will he dwell among them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:9
“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." Hence these defunct kings are associated with the "high places" in Eze 43:7 [FAIRBAIRN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 43:10-12
describe the temple to the people of Israel: The purpose of nine chapters of measuring is stated only now, to “describe the temple to the people of Israel” so they may be ashamed. The law of the temple follows in one sentence, “All its surrounding territory on top of the mountain will be most holy.”
Ezekiel 43:10
“Shew - Describe it to them in all the parts. To the house - To the rulers, prophets, and priests especially, not excluding others. Their iniquities - When they shall blush to see what glory their iniquities had ruined.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Write it down in their sight: Ezekiel is told to write the plan while the people watch, so the design becomes a written law they can keep. Moses likewise received a pattern for the tabernacle (Exodus 25:9, 40). The plan is given to those who are ashamed.
Ezekiel 43:11
“And if they be ashamed - If, in a spirit of true repentance, they acknowledge their past transgressions, and purpose in his help never more to offend their God, then teach them every thing that concerns my worship, and their profiting by it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:11
“But the house and law of all the commandments of God, and the city which is situated on the top of the mountain, that is to be believed, as it is written: A city cannot be hidden when it is situated on a mountain. And: The rushing of the river makes the city of God rejoice: which clearly refers to the Church, and is located on that mountain, which is at the top of all mountains, and from which the prince of Tyre was wounded: and all the borders and boundaries of this house are holy of holies.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
This is the law of the temple: Holiness becomes the rule for the whole mountain, and John Wesley calls it the first rule of the house. Adam Clarke extends it from the summit to the foot, with no ground left for common use. Charles Spurgeon preached the verse as a picture of the church.
Ezekiel 43:12
“The law - This is the first comprehensive rule: holiness becomes God's house; and this relative holiness referred to personal and real holiness. The top - The whole circuit of this mountain shall be holy, but the top of it on which the temple stands, shall be most holy.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 43:12
“This is the law of the house - From the top of the mountain on which it stands, to the bottom, all round about, all shall be holy; no buildings shall be erected in any part, nor place nor spot be appropriated to a common use; all shall be considered as being most holy.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 43:12
“I SHALL not enter into the immediate meaning of Ezekiel's vision. I believe that the house of which Ezekiel speaks is typical of the Church of the Living God. In it I see not so much the visible Church as that spiritual, mystical Church of Jesus Christ which is the one place of His abode. It is found in a state of Grace on earth and in full Glory in Heaven. Below it is the holy Church militant—above it is the holy Church triumphant.”
The altar laid out by its measurements
Ezekiel 43:13-17
the measurements of the altar in long cubits: The altar is measured “in long cubits (a cubit and a handbreadth),” rising by ledges to a hearth “twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide”. Commentators read the stepped ledges as an altar approached in stages, the restraint that governed the earlier altar of earth or unhewn stone (Exodus 20:24-25).
Ezekiel 43:13
“Border - A ledge going round on all the squares. The edge - On the outer edge of this settle a span high. The back - As the back bears burdens, so this was to bear the weight of the whole altar.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:13
“The altar of sacrifice which stood in the inner court, not the altar of incense described Eze 41:22. In the temple of the vision the dimensions differ from those of the tabernacle Exo 27:1, and of Solomon’s Temple 2Ch 4:1, with a view to introduce definite propositions and symbolic numbers. See Plan L. The bottom - The base (I) of the altar so called, because it forms with its “border” (K) a kind of socket to receive the “lower settle” (L). It was to be “a cubit” in depth.”
the lower ledge: Albert Barnes describes the altar as a base on the ground with two stages above it, the upper smaller than the lower. John Wesley calls the lower ledge lower because a second one rests upon it. The altar narrows as it rises.
Ezekiel 43:14
“From the bottom - From the first ledge, which was a cubit broad, and a cubit high from the ground. To the lower - To the top of that square settle, which is called lower, because another settle is raised upon it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:14
“The bottom - The basement just described is now called “the bottom upon the ground.” The altar (independently of the bottom) was composed of two stages called “settles,” the base of the “upper settle” (M) being less than that of the “lower” (L).”
four horns: Albert Barnes notes that two Hebrew names are used for the hearth, and why they were chosen is a matter of conjecture. The horns follow the altar of Exodus 27:2. Barnes suggests victims were at times bound to them, citing Psalm 118:27.
twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide: The hearth is twelve cubits square, larger than the five-cubit altar of Moses (Exodus 27:1) and smaller than Solomon's altar of twenty (2 Chronicles 4:1). Its sides are equal. The square repeats the shape of the Most Holy Place and of the whole enclosure.
Altar steps were forbidden in Exodus 20:26, and Albert Barnes reports the Jewish tradition that a ramp was used instead. A priest climbing them faces west, toward the house. In 8:16 men had turned their backs on the temple to worship the sun in the east.
Ezekiel 43:17
“The settle - The “lower settle” (L), projecting beyond the “upper settle” (M) one cubit on every side. His stairs - Jewish tradition says that the approach to the altar was by an inclined plane, because to go up “by steps” was forbidden Exo 20:26. The number “twelve” was symbolic of the twelve tribes, “four,” of the earth; “sixteen” is the square of “four,” and “fourteen” the double of “seven,” the number of the covenant, as being composed of “three,” the number of God, and of “four,” the number of the world.”
Seven days of cleansing the altar
Ezekiel 43:18-21
The dedication follows the pattern of Aaron's altar (Exodus 29:36-37), with a young bull's blood on horns, ledge and rim to “make atonement for it”. The priests are “of the family of Zadok,” the line this book marked out at 40:46, so the consecration is entrusted to a proven priesthood.
Ezekiel 43:18
“The rites here described are not those of the regular service, but those to be observed on the day of dedication. (Compare Lev 8:10 ff; 1Ki 8:63 ff; 2Ch 7:4 ff, In the tabernacle the priest killed the victims, but Moses sprinkled the blood. In the vision the seer is addressed as though he were to perform the part of Moses.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:18
“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. Under the Christian dispensation they would directly oppose the doctrine taught in Heb 10:1-18, namely, that Christ has by one offering for ever atoned for sin.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the Levitical priests who are of the family of Zadok: Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry trace Zadok to his appointment by Solomon in place of Abiathar (1 Kings 2:35). Henry notes that Zadok's name means righteous. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown hold that a literal reading could fit only the second temple, since Hebrews 10 teaches one offering for sin forever.
Ezekiel 43:19
“That family was substituted in the room of Abiathar by Solomon, and God confirms it. His name signifies righteous, for they are the righteous seed that are priests to God, through Christ the Lord our righteousness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:19
“The priests - that be of the seed of Zadok - It was this Zadok that was put in the place of Abiathar, by Solomon, 1Ki 2:35, in whose family the priesthood had continued ever since.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
make atonement for it: John Gill, following the Jewish commentator Kimchi, notes Ezekiel died in Babylon and never performed this rite, so the command is visionary. Its meaning after Christ is disputed. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown argue that literal sacrifices would contradict Hebrews 10, while dispensational interpreters expect memorial offerings in a future temple.
Ezekiel 43:20
“And thou shalt take of the blood thereof,.... Ezekiel being a priest. This must be understood in a visionary way; for, as Kimchi observes, Ezekiel did not live to come up out of the captivity, but died, and was buried in the land of Babylon, and so did not actually do this: though it is a mere dream of the same writer, that this is to be understood of the resurrection of the dead, when he supposes Ezekiel will be high priest, though Aaron be present; or however be the second, or deputy to him.”
outside the sanctuary: Albert Barnes places the burning in the separate place of 41:12, inside the temple grounds but outside the sanctuary proper. The law burned sin offerings outside the camp (Leviticus 4:12). Hebrews 13:11 to 12 applies that pattern to Jesus, who suffered outside the city gate.
Ezekiel 43:21
“In the appointed place of the house - A place within the temple-court, but “without the sanctuary” properly so called, that is to say, without the temple and inner court. This was probably the “separate place” (see Eze 41:12).”
Ezekiel 43:22-27
an unblemished male goat as a sin offering: Seven days purge the altar before worship begins, as Aaron and his sons spent seven days at the tabernacle door (Leviticus 8:33-35). The priests “sprinkle salt on them,” the covenant of salt from Leviticus 2:13 and Numbers 18:19. The chapter closes on the Lord's words, “Then I will accept you.”
Ezekiel 43:22
“They shall cleanse - By sprinkling the blood Eze 43:18. Here “they” marks the act as that of the priests. Moses did his part before the priests were consecrated, and the seer could act through them.”
a young, unblemished bull and an unblemished ram: Albert Barnes sets out the pattern of the week: each day a burnt offering of a bull and a ram, after a sin offering. Purification comes first. John Gill reads all these victims as pointing to the one sacrifice of Christ.
Ezekiel 43:23
“When thou hast made an end of cleansing it,.... The altar, by the sacrifices of the bullock and the kid, on the first and second days; then, on the third day, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish; all these sacrifices point at the one sacrifice of Christ; which was pure and perfect, and once offered up for the sins of many, and needs no reiteration; only the doctrine of it is to be frequently inculcated in the ministry of the word and ordinances.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 43:23
“There was, on each of the seven days, a burnt-offering of a bullock and a ram, preceded by a “sin-offereng of a bullock” on the first day, and of a “kid of the goats” on the other days. Eze 43:24 Salt is here added to the “burnt-offering” to express still more the idea of purification.”
sprinkle salt on them: John Wesley links the salt to the lasting covenant made by sacrifice. The burnt offering is seasoned too. Jesus drew on the same custom in Mark 9:49, where He speaks of everyone being salted with fire.
Ezekiel 43:24
“Shalt offer - Direct them to offer. Salt - It may allude to the perpetuity of the covenant thus made by sacrifice.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
For seven days: John Gill notes that even Kimchi admits this rite departs from the order of Moses, a change the Jewish reader had to explain. Moses consecrated Aaron's altar over seven days with a bull each day (Exodus 29:36 to 37). Ezekiel adds a daily goat.
Ezekiel 43:25
“Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering,.... By this it appears that the altar was seven days a consecrating and cleansing; and that on each day a goat was prepared and offered, typical of Christ, as before observed. Here Kimchi owns that this was not according to the order of Moses, or was done by those that came out of the captivity of Babylon; and is obliged to confess that there will be a change or an innovation in the order of sacrifices in time to come, or under the Messiah.”
consecrate it: Jamieson, Fausset & Brown trace the seven days to Moses' command for the altar in Exodus 29:37. The Hebrew idiom behind consecrate is to fill the hands, used when priests were ordained (Exodus 29:24, 35). The altar is installed as a priest was.
Ezekiel 43:26
“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).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Then I will accept you: Albert Barnes reads the scene through Hebrews 8 to 10 as the cleansing of the church by Christ's blood. John Gill takes the eighth day as the Lord's Day. Those who expect a future temple read the eighth day as the start of its regular service.
Ezekiel 43:27
“After this inauguration the regular service shall be resumed, and be acceptable unto God (compare Mal 1:11). The Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 8–10 helps us to recognize in this vision the symbol of the purification of the Church of God by the cleansing blood of Christ, Victim and priest.”
How this psalm is built
The patterns in this chapter
How this chapter is built
1 more paragraph on the patterns
The return follows the road of the departure in reverse. In Ezekiel 10:18 and 19 and 11:22 and 23 the glory leaves the house, stops at the east gate and goes to the mountain east of the city. In verses 2 to 5 of this chapter it comes from the east, enters through the gate facing east and fills the temple. Verse 3 says the vision was like the ones by the River Kebar and at the city's destruction, tying the three together. The chapter then moves from the house to the altar, its measures in verses 13 to 17 and its seven days of dedication in verses 18 to 27.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
C. F. Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1618: “Holiness, The Law of God's House” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.