Ezekielchapter 46
24 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, whoever enters by the north gate to worship must go out by the south gate, and whoever enters by the south gate must go out by the north gate. No one is to return through the gate by which he entered, but each must go out by the opposite gate.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel described this order of worship for exiles who had spent decades without a sanctuary. After the vision of glory, they needed to know what a sabbath and a feast would look like. The chapter reads as protocol, and in that world protocol marked rank and access. Listen for where the prince stands and how near he comes, and for which way a worshipper leaves the court. Listen also for the land law that guards the people's inheritance once more. The chapter ends in the kitchens, where the offerings are cooked for the people to eat.
Context
- Who
- Exiles who had spent decades without a sanctuary and wanted to know how worship would actually run
- What
- The rules for the inner east gate, the prince's offerings, the movement of worshippers, the prince's gifts of land and the temple kitchens.
- Where
- In vision, at the inner east gate and in the courts and kitchens 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 how worship would run in the restored house and to keep the prince from taking the people's inheritance.
Historical context
The chapter is mostly protocol, and protocol is how ancient societies expressed rank. The inner east gate stays shut on the six working days and is opened on the sabbath and at the new moon. The prince enters by the porch of that gate, stands at the doorpost while the priests prepare his offering, worships at the threshold, and goes out, and the gate stays open until evening. He gets nearer than anyone but the priests, and he still does not go in.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The sabbath and the new moon are paired because both were public markers of time. The new moon opened each month in a lunar calendar, and its sighting mattered for the whole festival year.
One rule is pure crowd control and reads like it: whoever enters by the north gate to worship goes out by the south gate, and whoever enters by the south goes out by the north. Nobody turns back the way they came. With thousands of pilgrims moving through gates at a festival, that is the difference between order and a crush.
The prince's gifts follow a land law the exiles knew. A gift from his inheritance to one of his sons is permanent. A gift to one of his servants is held only until the year of liberty, the jubilee, when property returned to its family, and then reverts. And he may not take any of the people's inheritance to give his sons a holding. It is the same fence as the previous chapter, built again from a different direction.
The chapter closes at the kitchens. There are boiling places in the corners of the outer court where the ministers cook the people's sacrifices, and separate ones near the sanctuary for the priests' portions. Most offerings were eaten, and a shared meal in the courts was what a festival actually looked and smelled like.
Significance
After the enormous visions of glory and dry bones, this chapter is deliberately ordinary: gates opening on the right days, people walking in one door and out another, meat being boiled in the corner of a courtyard.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
That ordinariness is the promise. Exiles do not only need to know that God will return; they need to know what an ordinary sabbath will look like afterwards. Here it is, down to which way you leave.
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, Ki Tisa 15:2. Under the fourteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 6:1.
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 offerings of the chapter against the Torah and says where they part. At the six lambs of the Sabbath he writes, "I do not know why". He then reads the Sabbath here as a festival, and the smaller number as a teaching that one missing animal "does not render the other one invalid" (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:4:1). The single bull of the new moon he reads through Menahoth 45a in the same way. If two cannot be found, one is brought (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:6:1). The meal offerings follow the same rule (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:5:1).
The gates are read through Tractate Middoth once more. The inner eastern gate is the gate of the Heichal with its two wickets, from Middoth 4:2, and Rashi ties the closed one back to chapter 44 (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:1:1). On the feasts the people cross the court from north to south, and the prince goes with them. He must "make the Temple Court a short-cut" and leave by the southern gate "with the rest of the people of the land" (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:10:1). The people go straight through because "It is incumbent upon them to be seen in full view in the Court" (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:9:1).
The year of liberty is "the Jubilee year" (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:17:1). The kitchens of the last verses he explains from Middoth 2:5 as courts that had no roofs (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:22:1). The people's sacrifices boiled there are the peace offerings, "which do not become unfit by going out of the Israelites’ Court as do the sin-offering and the guilt-offering" (Rashi on Ezekiel 46:24:1).
The corpus carries five 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 46:7:1, 46:11:1, 46:15:1, 46:16:1 and 46:18:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries sixteen 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 Menachot 45a:5, Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 15:2 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 51:7. It also holds Tractate Soferim 17:9 there. On the third verse it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 51:8. On the sixth verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 782:2. On the seventh verse it holds Menachot 45a:21 and Menachot 45a:8.
On the ninth verse it holds Berakhot 62b:19, Megillah 29a:13 and Tractate Soferim 7:1. On the eleventh verse it holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Halakhic Midrashim, Halakhic Midrash 94 and Sifrei Devarim 294:9. On the twelfth verse it holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Missing and Extra Letters 1:36. On the fourteenth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 6:1.
On the twentieth verse it holds Menachot 96a: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 46:1:1 to 46:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 46:7:1, 46:11:1, 46:15:1, 46:16:1 and 46:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/46.json, the 16 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 prince worships at the opened east gate
Ezekiel 46:1-3
kept shut during the six days of work: The gate of the inner court that faces east is opened “on the Sabbath day and on the day of the New Moon”. The prince is to “bow in worship at the threshold of the gate”. The people of the land bow “at the entrance to that gateway”.
Ezekiel 46:1
“The prophet beholds in vision people, priest, and prince uniting in most solemn worship before the throne of God. The character of the rites here described is symbolic.”
bow in worship at the threshold of the gate: Albert Barnes compares the prince to Solomon standing before the altar in 2 Chronicles 6:12 to 13, leading the people while the priests offer. Some later kings had taken the priest's work on themselves, as Uzziah did in 2 Chronicles 26:16 to 19. Here each office keeps its place.
Ezekiel 46:2
“In the time of Solomon, priest, king, and people each took his due part in the temple-service. Of the later kings some forsook Yahweh for false gods, some encroached upon the prerogative of the priest. Now all should be set right. The prince occupies a position analogous to that of Solomon 2Ch 6:12-13, standing in front of the porch of the eastern gate of the inner court, and at the head of his people to lead their worship, while the priests are sacrificing before him.”
at the entrance to that gateway: Barnes notes in Herod's temple the people worshipped from the court of Israel, while Ezekiel's worshippers are admitted to the inner court at this gate. John Gill compares the scene to Israel meeting at the tent's door in Exodus 29:42. Matthew Henry observes that even princes worship with reverence.
Ezekiel 46:3
“Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the Lord,.... Publicly, and in a spiritual manner; attending the ministration of the word and ordinances with constancy and fervency; praying to God, praising his name, and hearing his word with attention; and performing all the duties of religious worship. The allusion is to the people of Israel meeting at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, Exo 29:42, "in the sabbaths, and in the new moons"; at their stated weekly and monthly meetings; see Isa 66:23.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 46:3
“At the door of this gate - In Herod’s Temple the place for worshipping “before the Lord” was the court of Israel, west of the court of Women, separated from the inner court by a low parapet. In Ezekiel’s the worshippers were admitted into the inner court itself. The upper pavement (E. Plan II) on either side of the eastern gate provided room for such worshippers.”
Ezekiel 46:3
“Note, The greatest of men are less than the least of the ordinances of God. Even princes themselves, when they draw near to God, must worship with reverence and godly fear, owning that even they are unworthy to approach to him. But Christ is our prince, whom God causes to draw near and approach to him, Jer. xxx.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 46:4-7
six unblemished male lambs and an unblemished ram: On the Sabbath the prince presents “six unblemished male lambs and an unblemished ram”. The New Moon adds “a young, unblemished bull”. Gill notes that the grain with the lambs is left to the giver, “as much as he is able”, within an otherwise fixed ordinance.
Ezekiel 46:4
“The burnt-offerings that the prince shall offer - The chief magistrate was always obliged to attend the public worship of God, as well as the priest, to show that the civil and ecclesiastical states were both under the same government of the Lord; and that no one was capable of being prince or priest, who did not acknowledge God in all his ways. It is no wonder that those lands mourn, where neither the established priest nor the civil magistrate either fear or love God. Ungodly priests and profligate magistrates are a curse to any land.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
as much as he is able: An ephah with the ram is five times the two tenths set for a ram at the New Moon in Numbers 28:12. A hin of oil goes with each ephah. The Sabbath offering of Numbers 28:9 was two lambs, and here it grows to six lambs and a ram.
Ezekiel 46:5
“As he shall be able to give - Rather, “as he shall be willing to give.” So also in Eze 46:7.”
a young, unblemished bull: John Gill notes the difference from Numbers 28:11, which required two bulls, one ram and seven lambs at the New Moon. Barnes adds that the drink offerings and the trumpets of Numbers 10:10 go unmentioned. Henry links the unblemished victims to Christ (1 Peter 1:19).
Ezekiel 46:6
“And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish,.... This is also different from the law of Moses, which required two young bullocks and a ram, and seven lambs, Num 28:11, whereas here only one bullock: and six lambs, and a ram; they shall be without blemish; and here Kimchi acknowledges again that this is a new thing to be done in future time.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 46:6
“Those who do much for God and their souls, statedly and constantly, must yet, upon some occasions, do still more. All the sacrifices were to be without blemish; so Christ, the great sacrifice, was ( 1 Pet. i. 19 ), and so Christians, who are to present themselves to God as living sacrifices, should aim and endeavour to be-- blameless, and harmless, and without rebuke.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
as much as he is able with the lambs: Adam Clarke reads the phrase as the prince's own ability, what God's providence has put in his hand. He notes that these amounts differ from Numbers 15:4 to 12, where each animal had a fixed measure. Freedom enters a fixed ritual here.
Ezekiel 46:7
“According as his hand shall attain unto - According to his ability, to what the providence of God has put in his hand, i.e., his power. This proportion of offerings is different from that prescribed by the Mosaic law, Num 15:4-12.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 46:8-10
go in through the portico of the gateway: The prince goes in “through the portico of the gateway” and goes “out the same way”. At the feasts “whoever enters by the north gate to worship must go out by the south gate”. When the people enter, “the prince shall go in with them”.
Ezekiel 46:8
“And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate,.... See Gill on Eze 46:2; and he shall go forth by the way thereof; the same way he came in, he shall go out; not so the people; and, to introduce the manner of their going in and out, this is repeated concerning the prince.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 46:8
“That gate - The eastern gate of the inner court. See Eze 46:2.”
How the people come in and go out; the daily lamb
each must go out by the opposite gate: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain the rule by the festival crowds, so that those leaving would not meet those arriving. The north and south gates of the outer court were measured in 40:20 to 27. Each worshipper crosses the whole court.
Ezekiel 46:9
“The worshippers were on the great feasts to pass from one side to the other, through the temple courts, in order that, in such a throng as should attend the festivals, the ingress and egress should be the more unimpeded, those going out not being in the way of those coming in.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the prince shall go in with them: The prince enters and leaves with the crowd. Adam Clarke says he must go straight through, so prince and people begin and end their worship together. Jerome reads the prince in their midst as Christ, a reading others set aside because this prince offers for his own sin in 45:22.
Ezekiel 46:10
“And the prince in the midst of them - Even he shall act in the same way: he must also go straight forward, and never turn his back to go out at the same gate by which he entered. The prince and the people were to begin and end their worship at the same time.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 46:10
“That the ordinances of worship were fixed. Though the prince is supposed himself to be a very hearty zealous friend to the sanctuary, yet it is not left to him, no, not in concert with the priests, to appoint what sacrifices shall be offered, but God himself appoints them; for it is his prerogative to institute the rites and ceremonies of religious worship.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 46:11-12
At the festivals and appointed feasts: At the festivals the grain offering keeps the same measures, “an ephah with a bull, an ephah with a ram”. When the prince brings a freewill offering, “the gate facing east must be opened for him”. The freewill offering stands apart from the fixed calendar.
the gate facing east must be opened for him: Matthew Henry links this gate to the shut gate of 44:2, opened only on high days or for the prince. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see the freewill offering as the prince leading his people in generosity. Once he leaves, the gate is shut again.
Ezekiel 46:12
“Not only is he to perform official acts of worship on holy days and feasts, but in "voluntary" offerings daily he is to show his individual zeal, surpassing all his people in liberality, and so setting them a princely example.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 46:13-15
unblemished year-old lamb as a daily burnt offering: Beneath the sabbath and new moon offerings sits the base rhythm of every morning, a yearling lamb without blemish with its own meat offering. Henry notes the daily lamb as the floor under the whole calendar, the one offering that never waits for a feast day.
Ezekiel 46:13
“It is strange that no mention is made of the evening sacrifice; but Christ having come, and having offered himself now in the end of the world ( Heb. ix. 26 ), we are to look upon him as the evening sacrifice, about the time of the offering up of which he died.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 46:13
“Compare with marginal references. The evening sacrifice is here omitted, because the seer is selecting a few only of the sacrifices of the Law, with a particular object in view.”
every morning a grain offering: The law of Exodus 29:38 to 42 set a lamb each morning and evening, and here only the morning offering is named. The flour is a sixth of an ephah, larger than the tenth in Numbers 28:5. Oil rises from a quarter hin to a third.
The plural they shows the community providing the offering, and Gill takes it to mean the Lord's people, whom he calls priests offering spiritual sacrifices. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown instead see the prince leading this daily giving. The repetition fixes the morning rite.
Ezekiel 46:15
“Thus shall they prepare,.... This shows that not a single person is meant in the preceding verses, but all the Lord's people; who are all priests unto God, and who are to offer up daily spiritual sacrifices unto him: the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil every morning, for a continual burnt offering; which is repeated for the confirmation of it, and to excite a careful and constant attention to it.”
The prince's gifts and the people's inheritance protected
Ezekiel 46:16-18
gives a gift to any of his sons: A gift to a servant belongs to him “until the year of freedom; then it will revert to the prince”. The closing line gives the reason, “so that none of My people will be displaced from his property”. Gill sets the rule against the wrong Ahab did to Naboth.
Ezekiel 46:16
Perhaps it will be restored under Messiah's coming reign. Compare Isa 61:2, 3, where "the acceptable year of the Lord" is closely connected with the comforting of the mourners in Zion, and "the day of vengeance" on Zion's foes. The mention of the prince's sons is another argument against Messiah being meant by "the prince."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 46:16
“The prince was robe provided with possessions of his own, in order to prevent exactions from his subjects; further enactments are added to prevent the alienation of the prince’s land. Any gifts made to his servants must revert to the prince in the “year of liberty,” or jubilee (see the marginal reference note).”
until the year of freedom: Adam Clarke identifies the year of freedom with the Jubilee of Leviticus 25:10, when servants went free and sold land returned to its owners. Jerome notes that Theodotion kept the Hebrew word deror here. Matthew Henry contrasts the son and the servant, as Jesus does in John 8:35.
Ezekiel 46:17
“The servant might have the rents, issues, and profits, for such a term, but the inheritance, the jus proprietarium--the right of proprietorship, shall remain in the prince and his heirs. It was fit that a difference should be put between a child and a servant, like that John viii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 46:17
“To the year of liberty - That is, to the year of jubilee, called the year of liberty, because there was then a general release. All servants had their liberty, and all alienated estates returned to their former owners.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The prince must not take any of the inheritance of the people: The rule answers Ahab's seizure of Naboth's vineyard in 1 Kings 21 and Samuel's warning in 1 Samuel 8:14. His sons inherit from his own land. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown count those sons as one argument against reading the prince as the Messiah, a reading others hold.
Ezekiel 46:18
“23 And there was a row of building round about in them, round about them four, and it was made with boiling places under the rows round about. 24 Then said he unto me, These are the places of them that boil, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The kitchens where the offerings are boiled
Ezekiel 46:19-20
the holy chambers facing north: The guide brings the prophet “through the entrance at the side of the gate into the holy chambers facing north”. There the priests “boil the guilt offering and the sin offering” and “bake the grain offering”. The chambers of chapter 42 keep what is most holy from what is common.
Ezekiel 46:19
“The careful provision here made to keep separate the offerings of priests and people was to prevent collision, just as the enactments Eze 46:16-18 were intended to secure their respective rights to prince and people. Eze 46:19 At the side of the gate - The entrance to the inner court at the same side as the northern gate Eze 42:9. Eze 46:20 See M Plan II. Boil - It was unique to the Paschal lamb, that it was to be eaten roasted.”
Adam Clarke notes that these offerings were the priests' food, as Numbers 18:9 to 10 assigns them. Matthew Henry reads the rule as guarding the people from thinking that contact with holy flesh made them acceptable to God. The same concern governs the priests' garments in 44:19.
Ezekiel 46:20
“The trespass-offering - Part of this, and of the sin-offering, and the flour-offering was the portion of the priests. See Num 18:9, Num 18:10.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 46:20
“Care was taken that they should not bear them out into the outer court, to sanctify the people. Let them not pretend to sanctify the people with this holy flesh, and so impose upon them; or let not the people imagine that by touching those sacred things they were sanctified, and made any the better or more acceptable to God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 46:21-24
led me around to its four corners: In each of the outer court's four corners stands an enclosed court, with “ovens built at the base of the walls on all sides”. The guide names their use: “These are the kitchens where those who minister at the temple will cook the sacrifices offered by the people”.
Ezekiel 46:21
“Then he brought me forth into the utter court,.... From the holy chambers of the priests, and from viewing the place where they boiled the sacrifices, and baked the meat offering: and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; in each of the four corners of the outward court there was another court; signifying that there will be courts or churches in the several parts of the world in the latter day.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 46:21
“These were the places where, it is likely, there was most room to spare for this purpose; and this purpose was found for the spare room, that none might be lost.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
enclosed courts: The Hebrew word rendered enclosed is uncertain, and John Gill records a rendering made with chimneys, letting the smoke and steam rise. Each court measures forty by thirty cubits. They sit in the four corners, away from the gates and the inner court.
Ezekiel 46:22
“In the four corners of the court there were courts joined,.... To the side walls of the outward court, which met in right angles: or, "were made with chimneys" (r), as some render it; that the smoke of the fire of the kitchens in them, and the steam of the boiled flesh, might ascend through them.”
ovens built at the base of the walls: Adam Clarke explains these hearths as places where worshippers' peace offerings were cooked for family meals, with portions sent to the poor, widows and orphans. Jerome records that Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion each rendered the rare Hebrew word differently. The meal belonged to the worship.
Ezekiel 46:23
It was made with boiling places - These were uncovered apartments, where they kept fires for dressing those parts of the peace-offerings, which were made in the temple by individuals through a principle of devotion. On these their families and their friends feasted; and portions were sent to the poor, the widows, and the orphans. And thus the spirit of devotion was the means of preserving the spirit of mercy, charity, and benevolence in the land. How true is that word, “Godliness is profitable for all things.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the kitchens where those who minister at the temple: Those who minister at the temple are the Levites of 44:11, who slaughter the people's sacrifices. The priests cook the holy offerings in their own rooms (46:20), while these kitchens serve the offerings the people eat. Jerome calls this the house of the kitchens.
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; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.