Ezekielchapter 45
25 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
You must use honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel gave this part of the vision to landless exiles who had seen kings and officials take whatever they wanted. Before the tribes receive their shares, a portion of the land is set apart for God, His servants, the city and the ruler. The chapter then turns to scales, measures and weights, and to the offerings due at the feasts. Listen for why the prince is given an estate of his own, and whom the command about honest measures addresses. The calendar at the close begins the year with the cleansing of the sanctuary. In this vision worship and the marketplace answer to the same God.
Context
- Who
- Landless exiles who had watched kings and officials take whatever they wanted
- What
- The holy district of the land, the prince's portion, the law of honest measures and the offerings for the feasts.
- Where
- In vision, over the land of Israel, with the sanctuary at the centre of a district set apart for the LORD.
- When
- The twenty-fifth year of the exile, about 573 BC, within the vision dated in Ezekiel 40:1.
- Why
- To guard the people's land from their rulers and to set justice in trade and order in worship under the prince.
Historical context
The land grant is laid out as a rectangle: a district twenty-five thousand by twenty thousand set apart, with the sanctuary at its centre, a portion for the priests, a portion for the Levites, a strip for the city and its workers, and the prince's holding on both sides of the whole block. The text does not state whether the units are cubits or the longer reeds, and readers have divided over it for centuries; either way the shape and the priorities are the point.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The reason given for the prince's allotment is explicit and it has a famous case behind it. My princes shall no more oppress my people, but shall let the house of Israel have the land according to their tribes. Israel's land law tied every family to an inherited plot that could not simply be bought out, and the story of Ahab taking Naboth's vineyard is the standing example of what a king could do when he ignored it. The prince here is given his own estate so that he never needs to take anyone else's.
The demand for honest measures is just as concrete. Have just balances, a just dry measure and a just liquid measure; the two are to hold the same amount, a tenth of a homer. The shekel is fixed at twenty gerahs and the mina at sixty shekels. Trade ran on stone weights and standard jars, and inscribed Judean weights have been recovered by the hundred, including some that are deliberately light. Cheating the scales was the ordinary man's daily experience of injustice.
The offerings the people bring are set at fixed small fractions, a sixtieth of the wheat and barley, a hundredth of the oil, one sheep from every two hundred, and the prince is made responsible for providing the public offerings at the festivals. Duty runs upward here, not downward.
The festival calendar named includes a purification of the sanctuary at the start of the year and the Passover in the first month, kept for seven days with unleavened bread.
Significance
The people hearing this had lost their fields to an empire and, before that, to their own officials. The first thing done with the new land is to fence the ruler off from it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
That is why the honest-measures paragraph sits in the middle of a temple vision without feeling out of place. In this house the worship and the market are governed by the same God, and a fair ephah is treated as a matter of holiness.
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, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the first verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Masei 4:1.
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 division of the land as a new order. The tribes will hold "twelve strips, not like the original division", where a large tribe had more and a small one less. "Now the portions are equal and they are like rows in a vineyard, from the western side to the eastern side" (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:1:1). He lays out the strips of the priests, the Levites, the city and the prince across the land (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:7:1). The command to end evictions he reads as a word against those who drove people "from their inherited property" (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:9:1).
The offering of a sixth of an ephah from a homer "amounts to one out of sixty", and he cites Terumoth 4:3 for the smallest gift the stingy may give (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:13:1). At the seventeenth verse he gives two readings of the prince. "I say that this “prince” as well as every [mention of] “the prince” in this section means the High Priest" (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:17:1). He adds the second: "but I heard in the name of Rabbi Menahem that it means the king" (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:17:1).
The offerings of the last verses differ from the Torah's, and Rashi says so openly. He reports Chagigah 13a, "that they sought to suppress the Book of Ezekiel for his words contradicted the words of the Torah". Hananiah the son of Hezekiah is "remembered for good" for expounding it, and Rashi grieves that his explanation of the bull on the fourteenth of Nisan has been lost (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:22:1). At the next verse he reconciles seven bulls with the Torah's two through Menahoth 45a (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:23:1). At the meal offering he admits the difficulty outright: "Now I do not know what this means", before offering a reading of the measure (Rashi on Ezekiel 45:24:1).
The corpus carries one further note on this chapter without an English text, marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. It stands cited and unquoted at Radak on Ezekiel 45:19:1.
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 first verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 23:6 and Midrash Tanchuma, Masei 4:1. On the third verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187:2. On the seventh verse it holds Sifrei Devarim 346:1. On the eleventh verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Terumot 4:3:2, Jerusalem Talmud Terumot 4:3:3 and Menachot 77a:3. It also holds Menachot 77a:4, Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 8:10:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 8:10:2 there. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Melechet HaMishkan 1:52 and Pesachim 36b:15 there.
On the twelfth verse it holds Bava Batra 90a:9, Bekhorot 5a:20 and Ein Yaakov, Bekhorot 1:3. It also holds Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 1:4:10, Menachot 77a:10 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 38:25:1 there. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 6:26:2 there. On the thirteenth verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 786:5. On the fourteenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 1:6, Eruvin 14b:7 and Menachot 77a:5. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 387:1 there. On the fifteenth verse it holds Chullin 90b:2, Jerusalem Talmud Orlah 2:1:10 and Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 4:7:3. It also holds Menachot 5a:4, Menachot 6a:15 and Pesachim 47b:12 there. It also holds Pesachim 48a:1 there.
On the eighteenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Menakhot 4:9, Megillah 30a:25 and Menachot 45a:11. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 521:1 there. On the twentieth verse it holds Menachot 45a:16. On the twenty-first verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 201:2. On the twenty-third verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 547:8.
On the twenty-fourth verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 938:28. On the thirty-fifth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sukkah 4:2. 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 45:1:1 to 45:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 45:19:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/45.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 no weekly portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The holy portion, the city's land, and the prince's
Ezekiel 45:1-3
The prophet turns from the temple to the ground around it. When the tribes divide the land, a holy portion is set aside “for the LORD,” and the whole tract is holy. The sanctuary and the Most Holy Place stand inside this strip, measured before any tribe receives its share.
Ezekiel 45:1
“By lot - Not by casting lots, but by “allotment,” the several portions being assigned by rule Jos 13:6. Oblation - The oblation (properly “heaveoffering”) was regarded as the Lord’s portion Lev 27:30. This “oblation” is given here as part of the provision made for the priests, and was probably in lieu of tithes Lev 27:30; Num 18:21, just as the prince had his definite portion of land instead of being supported by the contributions of the people. The priests and Levites had, in addition, the sacrifices (Eze 44:28, note).”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 45:1
“Here is the portion of land assigned to the sanctuary, in the midst of which the temple was to be built, with all its courts and purlieus; the rest round about it was for the priests.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
500 cubits square: Albert Barnes takes the sanctuary as the whole temple precinct, the same 500 cubit square the guide measured around the courts in 42:15 to 20. The fifty cubits of open land give it a margin on every side. Holiness is kept at a distance from common ground.
Ezekiel 45:2
“The “sanctuary” here probably means the whole temple precincts. Suburbs - literally, as margin. To mark out more distinctly the sacred precincts, a vacant space of fifty cubits was left on all sides.”
the Most Holy Place: This strip is the priests' share of the larger holy portion, and the sanctuary stands inside it. Chapter 48 measures every tribe's land outward from this center, seven tribes to the north and five to the south. The whole country is arranged around God's house.
Ezekiel 45:3
“And of this measure - See the plan, A, B, C, D, E.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 45:4-5
the priests who minister in the sanctuary: Two strips are marked off, one for the priests “who draw near to minister before the LORD,” and one beside it for the Levites. Gill reads the order as the vision's rank, priest before Levite. The grant follows the temple's concentric holiness, nearer the center for the higher office.
for towns in which to live: The Hebrew reads the Levites receive twenty chambers, and Barnes suggests these may be twenty of the thirty rooms of the outer court in 40:17. The Septuagint reads towns to dwell in, which the Berean follows. That reading recalls the Levitical towns of Numbers 35:2.
Ezekiel 45:5
“For a possession for twenty chambers - literally, “For a possession twenty chambers,” possibly twenty out of the thirty chambers in the outer court Eze 40:17, and assigned for their use during residence in the sanctuary. The Septuagint reads “for cities to dwell in” (compare Num 35:2) which some adopt here.”
Ezekiel 45:6-8
As the property of the city: A third strip, “5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long,” belongs to the whole house of Israel as the city's land. The chapter's plainest moral note follows, “My princes will no longer oppress My people.” The grant answers the abuse the kings before the exile were charged with.
Ezekiel 45:6
“This portion is to belong to the whole people, not to be subject to the encroachments made by the later kings of Judah Jer 22:13. The Levites’ portion 10,000 reeds, the priests’ portion 10,000 reeds, and the city portion 5,000 reeds. make in all 25,000 reeds from north to south. The measure of each of these portions from east to west has been defined to be 25,000 reeds (Eze 45:1 note), and thus we have a square of 25,000 in all.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 45:6
“And ye shall appoint the possession of the city, Which is something distinct from the house or temple, which was as the frame of a city, being so large, and consisting of so many parts, Eze 40:2 and seems also different from the city in Eze 48:30, the measures of the one and of the other not agreeing.”
the prince will have the area bordering each side: The prince's land runs west to the sea and east to the Jordan on both sides of the holy district. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, following Fairbairn, read the placement as the head of the community standing nearest the sanctuary. Fixed borders prevent the seizures of 1 Samuel 8:14, Barnes adds.
Ezekiel 45:7
“On either side of the 25,000 reeds a strip of land, running westward to the sea, eastward to the Jordan, formed the possession of the prince (see Eze 46:18 note). For the other tribes the limits from west to east are the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Eze 48:8. Eze 45:7 And the length shall be over against - Or, “and” in length “over against.” The definition of the prince’s territory was to prevent the oppressions foretold (1Sa 8:14 ff), described 2Ki 23:35, and reproved Jer. 22.”
3 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 45:7
“Over against - What is called now over- against, or by the side, is called before three times together. So now you have an exact square of twenty-five thousand cubits laid out for God, the Levites and city, which appears thus in the breadth. And the length of each, twenty-five thousand, that is twelve miles and half square.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 45:7
“The prince's possession is to consist of two halves, one on the west, the other on the east, of the sacred territory. The prince, as head of the holy community, stands in closest connection with the sanctuary; his possession, therefore, on both sides must adjoin that which was peculiarly the Lord's [FAIRBAIRN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 45:7
“But so much is said of the prince in this mystical holy state, to intimate that in the gospel-church magistrates should be as nursing fathers to it and Christian princes its patrons and protectors; and the holy religion they profess, as far as they are subject to the power of it, will restrain them from oppressing God's people, because they are more his people than theirs.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
My princes will no longer oppress My people: The promise answers the rulers of 22:25 to 27, who tore their prey like wolves, and the shepherds of chapter 34. Adam Clarke names the abuses as heavy taxes and the robbing of the temple to pay foreign powers. Matthew Henry applies the verse to rulers who protect God's people.
Ezekiel 45:8
“My princes shall no more oppress my people - By exorbitant taxes to maintain profligate courts, or subsidize other powers to help to keep up a system of tyranny in the earth. The former princes even robbed the temple of God to give subsidies to other states.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Just balances, an honest ephah and bath
The Lord turns from the land to a charge on the princes, “Cease your violence and oppression, and do what is just and right.” Henry reads the verse as the standing indictment of the monarchy that lost the land. The single verse carries the book's whole case against unjust rulers.
Ezekiel 45:9
“The princes are exhorted to execute judgment, and abstain from “exaction” (literally “ejection”) such as that of Naboth by Ahab 1Ki 21:19.”
Ezekiel 45:10-12
You must use honest scales: The command for “honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath” sets one standard for dry and liquid measure, a tenth of a homer. It fixes “twenty gerahs” to the shekel. Clarke reads the ruling against the habit of one weight for buying and a lighter one for selling.
Ezekiel 45:10
“Ye shall have just balances - This appreciation of weights, measures, and money was intended to show them that they must not introduce those to which they had been accustomed in the captivity, but those which God had prescribed to their forefathers. See the notes on the parallel places.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the homer will be the standard measure for both: The ephah measured grain and the bath measured liquids, and tying both to the homer gave them one reference. Barnes estimates the homer at about 75 gallons. The law had already demanded honest measures in Leviticus 19:36 and Deuteronomy 25:13 to 15.
Ezekiel 45:11
“The ephah was in use for dry measure, the bath for liquid. The homer seems to have contained about 75 gallons (see Exo 29:40, note; Lev 19:36, note). After the homer - i. e., according to the standard of the homer.”
The shekel will consist of twenty gerahs: The three weights of twenty, twenty-five and fifteen shekels add up to sixty, the value of one mina. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown suggest that weighing them together against the mina exposed any light weight. Minas of differing value circulated in Ezekiel's day, Barnes notes.
Ezekiel 45:12
“Twenty gerahs - A gerah was one penny half-penny, the shekel then was two shillings and six-pence, twenty shekels was two pounds ten shillings, fifteen shekels was one pound seventeen shillings and six-pence, and twenty five was three pound two shillings and six-pence.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 45:12
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) [MENOCHIUS]. The Septuagint reads, "fifty shekels shall be your maneh."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 45:12
“The shekel - See the marginal reference. The “maneh” shall be of true weight, but it would seem that in Ezekiel’s time there were “manehs” of different value.”
The offerings the prince is to provide
Ezekiel 45:13-15
This is the contribution you are to offer: The contribution uses the honest measures: “a sixth of an ephah from each homer” of wheat and of barley, and one sheep in two hundred. The stated purpose closes the unit, “to make atonement for the people.” Fairbairn notes the modest fraction required, a system built to be sustainable.
Ezekiel 45:13
“And these are the firstfruits that you shall offer: one-sixth of an ephah of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah of barley. The measure of oil: a bath of oil is one-tenth of a cor; and ten baths make one cor, for ten baths fill a cor. And these are the firstfruits that you shall separate: one-sixth of a measure of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah of barley, and a prescribed measure of oil, a cotyle, which is a tenth of a cor; and ten cotyles make one measure, for ten cotyles are a cor.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 45:13
“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 hundredth part; and of the flock, one from every two hundred.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
a tenth of a bath from each cor: The oil portion comes to one hundredth. The grain in verse 13 was one sixtieth, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown trace a descending scale from grain to oil to flock. Matthew Henry notes that grain and oil went together, since flour mixed with oil belonged to every grain offering.
to make atonement for the people: Matthew Henry reads these sacrifices as pointing to Christ, by whom reconciliation is made. Readers divide on the offerings: dispensational writers such as the Scofield Reference Bible expect memorial sacrifices in a future temple. Keil and Fairbairn read them as a figure of new covenant worship.
Ezekiel 45:16-17
All the people of the land must participate: The prince supplies the offerings “for the feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths,” with the sin offerings that make atonement for the house of Israel. The arrangement makes the prince a steward of worship. Henry reads the office as royal provision restored to its proper use, supporting the altar.
Ezekiel 45:16
“Some read it to the prince, and understand it of Christ, who is indeed the prince in Israel, to whom we must offer our oblations, and into whose hands we must put them, to be presented to the Father.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
to provide the burnt offerings: The feasts, New Moons and Sabbaths listed here follow the calendar of Numbers 28 and 29, now supplied through one officer. The people give their contribution to the prince in verse 16, and he answers for the offerings. Earlier kings stripped the temple (2 Kings 16:17; 18:16).
Passover and the feasts kept in the new order
Ezekiel 45:18-20
you are to take a young bull without blemish: The sacred year opens on the first day of the first month with a young bull's blood on the doorposts of the temple. The rite is repeated on the seventh day “for anyone who strays unintentionally or in ignorance.” Keil sets it beside the altar's consecration in Exodus and Leviticus.
Ezekiel 45:18
“Thou shalt take a young bullock - and cleanse the sanctuary - There is nothing of this in the Mosaic law; it seems to have been a new ceremony. An annual purification of the sanctuary may be intended.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 45:18
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
put it on the doorposts of the temple: Blood on the doorposts recalls the Passover of Exodus 12:7, and this cleansing falls in the same month as that feast. Gill reads it as an emblem of Christ's blood. Matthew Henry commends beginning the year with renewed repentance, as Hezekiah did in 2 Chronicles 29.
Ezekiel 45:19
“And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering,.... An emblem of the blood of Christ, who was made sin for his people, and an offering for their sin; and which blood cleanses from all sin: and put it upon the posts of the house; of the house of God, the sanctuary or temple; upon everyone of the posts of it, which stood at the entrance into it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 45:19
“Those what worship God together should often join in renewing their repentance for their manifold defects, and applying the blood of Christ for the pardon of them, and in renewing their covenants to be more careful for the future; and it is very seasonable to begin the year with this work, as Hezekiah did when it had been long neglected, 2 Chron. xxix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
anyone who strays unintentionally or in ignorance: The second cleansing covers sins of error and simplicity, the unintended sins of Leviticus 4 and Numbers 15:22 to 29. Defiant sin had no sacrifice, Matthew Henry notes. John Wesley explains that such errors defiled the courts where the offenders came, so the house itself needed cleansing.
Ezekiel 45:20
“For every one that erreth - For all the errors of all the house of Israel, through ignorance. For him that is simple - That is half- witted, or a fool. Reconcile - Cleanse, as ver. 18, which legally was defiled by those errors done in the city, or courts of the house, whither these persons might come.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 45:21-25
you are to observe the Passover: The calendar closes with two pilgrim feasts, the Passover and the feast of the seventh month. Each lasts seven days, with the prince's own sin offering “for himself and for all the people of the land.” Gill notes the vision restores the appointed times the law already named.
Ezekiel 45:21
“Christ is our passover, that is sacrificed for us. We celebrate the memorial of that sacrifice and feast upon it, triumphing in our deliverance out of the Egyptian slavery of sin and our preservation from the sword of the destroying angel, the sword of divine justice, in the Lord's supper, which is our passover-feast, as the whole Christian life is, and must be, the feast of unleavened bread.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 45:21
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
for himself and for all the people of the land: The prince offers a sin offering for himself as well as for the people. He stands among the worshippers who need atonement. For that reason many interpreters distinguish him from the Messiah, while Matthew Henry reads the office as a picture of godly rulers serving the church.
seven bulls and seven rams without blemish: Numbers 28:19 to 24 required two bulls, one ram and seven lambs each day, while here the prince brings seven bulls and seven rams. The number matches the feast's seven days. Such changes from the law of Moses are one reason readers debate whether this ritual is meant literally.
a hin of olive oil for each ephah of grain: An ephah of grain with each bull and each ram is more than the three tenths and two tenths set in Numbers 28:20. A hin of oil goes with each ephah. Over seven days the prince's supply is large, drawn from the land set aside for him in verse 7.
the fifteenth day of the seventh month: The fifteenth of the seventh month opens the Feast of Tabernacles, and Adam Clarke notes the prince repeats the Passover offerings in number and kind. This calendar names two of the three pilgrim feasts. Matthew Henry adds that thankful and broken hearts remain daily offerings acceptable through Christ.
Ezekiel 45:25
“In the seventh month - He shall do at the feast of tabernacles the same things that he was desired to do on the passover. The prince should offer the same number of victims, of the same quality, and with the same ceremonies, as during the above seven days. The offerings were, sin-offerings, burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 45:25
“Though the sacrifice of atonement is offered once for all, yet the sacrifices of acknowledgement, that of a broken heart, that of a thankful heart, those spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through Christ Jesus, must be every day offered.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
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 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; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.