Ezekielchapter 48
35 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
“Now these are the names of the tribes: At the northern frontier, Dan will have one portion bordering the road of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath and running on to Hazar-enan on the border of Damascus with Hamath to the north, and extending from the east side to the west side.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel closed his book with a map for twelve tribes whose descendants were scattered across an empire. Most of the northern tribes had lost their land more than a century earlier. The chapter lays the tribes out in bands from east to west, with the holy district between them and a city at its heart. Listen for the names of tribes the hearers thought were gone, and for the names of the city's gates. Listen above all for the last words of the book, the new name of the city. That name answers the fear the book has carried since the glory left the temple.
Context
- Who
- Twelve tribes' worth of descendants scattered across an empire, most of whose tribal land had been lost for over a century
- What
- The division of the land into strips for the twelve tribes, the holy district and the city, and the city's gates and name.
- Where
- Across the whole land of Israel from the eastern border to the Great Sea, with the city in the holy district.
- When
- The twenty-fifth year of the exile, about 573 BC, within the vision dated in Ezekiel 40:1.
- Why
- To restore every tribe to the land, give the city to all Israel, and close the book with God's presence in the city's name.
Historical context
The division is nothing like the old map. Instead of the irregular territories won and settled in Joshua's day, the land is cut into level bands running east to west across the country: seven tribes north of the holy district and five south of it, each with a strip of coast, hill country and valley. Everyone gets a share of every kind of ground.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
How it is assigned is as significant as the shape. The original allotment was decided by lot, tribe by tribe, over years of fighting. This one is simply announced, and it includes tribes that had effectively ceased to exist, the northern tribes deported by Assyria a hundred and forty years earlier, listed here as though nothing had been lost.
The city is measured as a square of four thousand five hundred cubits on each side with open land around it, and it has twelve gates, three on each side, each one named for a tribe. Real cities named their gates by where the road went, the Fish Gate, the Sheep Gate, the Valley Gate. Naming every gate for a tribe means there is no side of this city that belongs to anyone in particular.
The farmland around the city is worked by labourers drawn from all the tribes of Israel, and its produce feeds the city's workers. Nobody owns the capital.
The last line of the book is the name of the city, and it is the answer to everything that went before: the LORD Is There. The book that began with the glory arriving at a canal in Babylon, and turned on the glory walking out of the temple, ends with the name of a city that cannot be abandoned.
Significance
For hearers whose tribal identity was the one thing exile had not been able to take, hearing Dan and Asher and Naphtali read out with land again would have been almost unbearable. Those names had been gone since before their grandparents were born.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the final name closes the wound the book opened. Their great terror had been that God had left. The city's name, given as its permanent title from that day onward, is a sentence about presence, and it is the same promise the last chapters of the New Testament pick up when they describe a city with twelve gates and no temple in it, because God Himself is there.
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 sixteenth verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 17. Under the thirty-fifth verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 61.
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 list of tribes as a map, "the place of each one" (Rashi on Ezekiel 48:1:1). At the eighth verse he asks the question a reader of Joshua would ask. "Now, if you ask, how is it possible that Jerusalem should be in its place?" Jerusalem lay on the northern border of Judah, and here it stands in the middle of the tribes. He answers "this division is not like Joshua’s division, for this one is like the rows of a vineyard and all the portions are equal". In Joshua's division Judah held more than it could use, until Simeon took part of it (Rashi on Ezekiel 48:8:1).
The holy portion he measures strip by strip: the priests' portion, the Levites' beside it, and the five thousand left over "for the residential area of the city" (Rashi on Ezekiel 48:12:1, 48:13:1 and 48:15:1). The open land of the city is "an open space with neither houses or fields" (Rashi on Ezekiel 48:17:1). At the eighteenth verse he reports a reading he heard. The workers of the city "are the Gibeonites", whom Joshua made hewers of wood and drawers of water. "So I heard in the name of Rabbi Menahem of blessed memory" (Rashi on Ezekiel 48:18:1).
The remaining tribes lie south of the holy portion, Benjamin first, and "Gad is therefore at the southern boundary of the land of Israel" (Rashi on Ezekiel 48:23:1). The exits of the city are "the gates of its four sides" (Rashi on Ezekiel 48:30:1).
The corpus carries four 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 48:7:1 and at Metzudat David on Ezekiel 48:24:1, 48:29:1 and 48:31:1.
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 Bereshit Rabbah 69:5, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 10:2 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 12:20:3. It also holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:5:3, Sifrei Devarim 315:3 and Sifrei Devarim 75:2 there. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 17:3 there. On the second verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 884:12 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 884:2. On the third verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:17. On the seventh verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 15:17:2, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:12:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 253:2.
On the fourteenth verse it holds Tractate Soferim 7:4. On the sixteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 17, Ein Yaakov, Nedarim 4:4 and Nedarim 38a:1. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Introduction 3 and Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Introduction 4 there. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Midrash Ketiv V'lo Keri 8 and Tractate Soferim 6:9 there. On the nineteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4, Bava Batra 122a:9 and Bereshit Rabbah 20:5. It also holds Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 4:1:7, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 6:7:3 and Midrash Shmuel 28:7 there. It also holds Midrash Tehillim 1:8 there. On the twenty-third verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 15:17:2.
On the twenty-ninth verse it holds Bava Batra 122a:7 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 773:7. On the thirty-first verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 8:15, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 8:17 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 28:17:3. On the thirty-fifth verse it holds Bava Batra 75b:4, Bereshit Rabbah 64:4 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 61. It also holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:51, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 5:29 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:45 there. 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 48:1:1 to 48:30:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 48:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Ezekiel 48:24:1, 48:29:1 and 48:31:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/48.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.
Seven tribal portions north of the sanctuary
Ezekiel 48:1-7
the names of the tribes: Seven tribes receive parallel strips, beginning “At the northern frontier” with Dan and ending with Judah, whose portion borders the holy portion. In Joshua the tribes received land by lot within borders shaped by rivers and hills. Here the portions are straight bands around a fixed center.
Ezekiel 48:1
“Dan--The lands are divided into portions of ideal exactness, running alongside of each other, the whole breadth from west to east, standing in a common relation to the temple in the center: seven tribes' portions on the north, five in the smaller division in the south.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 48:1
“Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren thus to dwell together! It was a figure of the communion of churches and saints under the gospel-government; thus, though they are many, yet they are one, and should hold together in holy love and mutual assistance.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 48:1
“The distribution of the holy land is seen in detail throughout Ezek. 48. The order of the original occupation by the tribes under Joshua is partly, but only partly, followed. It is a new order of things - and its ideal character is evinced as elsewhere, by exact and equal measurements. From north to south seven tribes succeed each other.”
Asher will have one portion: Asher's lot in Joshua 19:24 to 31 lay along the northern coast toward Sidon. Here it lies next to Dan, second from the northern border. The sons of Jacob's two maidservants, Dan, Asher, Naphtali and Gad, receive the strips farthest from the sanctuary.
Naphtali will have one portion: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that no one of note from Asher appears in the Old Testament, while the New Testament names Anna (Luke 2:36). Naphtali, the next strip south, held the hills of Galilee in Joshua 19:32 to 39. Matthew 4:13 to 16 sets Jesus' ministry in Naphtali's region.
Ezekiel 48:3
“Asher--a tribe of which no one of note is mentioned in the Old Testament. In the New Testament one is singled out of it, the prophetess Anna.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Manasseh will have one portion: Manasseh had held two territories, half east of the Jordan and half west of it, as Joshua 13:29 to 31 and 17:1 to 13 record. Here the whole tribe receives one strip west of the Jordan. The divided tribe is made whole.
Ezekiel 48:4
“And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh. Just in like manner, next to Naphtali lay the tribe of Manasseh, and the portion of land appointed for that tribe; even such Christians who "forget" the things that are behind, and reach to those that are before; forget their former companions, their own people, and father's house, their carnal lusts and pleasures, and their own works of righteousness, and follow after Christ and his righteousness.”
Ephraim will have one portion: John Gill notes that Joseph goes unnamed here because his two portions of 47:13 appear as Manasseh and Ephraim. Ephraim, the younger son, had received the greater blessing in Genesis 48:19. The brothers now hold equal strips side by side.
Ezekiel 48:5
“And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Ephraim. Close to the tribe of Manasseh, and the inheritance of it, which is no more reckoned a half, but a whole tribe, and has an inheritance equal to the rest, lay the tribe of Ephraim, and the inheritance assigned to that; even to such believers as are fruitful in grace and good works. Joseph is not mentioned, as in Eze 47:13, the two portions there given him being here allotted to his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.”
Reuben will have one portion: Reuben, the firstborn, lost his birthright for his sin in Genesis 49:3 to 4, and his tribe settled east of the Jordan in Numbers 32. John Gill notes that his portion now lies west of the river, next to Judah. The firstborn returns across the Jordan.
Ezekiel 48:6
“And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Reuben. Who, through his sin, lost his birthright; but now, his sin being forgiven and forgotten, has a portion assigned him upon the border of Ephraim, and next to the tribe of Judah; when in Moses and Joshua's time it lay on the other side Jordan: this points to such persons that shall have their lot and portion in spiritual things; that "see the Son", that look to Christ alone for righteousness, peace, pardon, and eternal life.”
Judah will have one portion: Judah's strip borders the holy portion on the north. In Joshua 15 Judah held the south of the land, and Jerusalem stood on its border with Benjamin. Here Judah lies north of the center and Benjamin south, reversing their old positions.
Ezekiel 48:7
“And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah. Such who "confess" the Lord before men, and "praise" his name for all blessings, temporal and spiritual, they receive from him: these seven tribes already mentioned, as they lay contiguous to each other, and had portions and inheritances alike assigned to them; so they were all of them to the north of the sanctuary and city after mentioned.”
The holy oblation for priests, Levites, city, and prince
the portion you are to set apart: Bordering Judah lies “the portion you are to set apart”, and the verse's last clause states its purpose: “In the center will be the sanctuary”. Chapter 45 already set this square of land apart for the sanctuary and its ministers. Chapter 48 now fixes it within the tribal map.
Ezekiel 48:8
“Length” is throughout measured from west to east, as breadth is from north to south. The offering Eze 48:9-22, or, “oblation,” here includes all the land given to priests, Levites, city, and prince; the different parts being distinguished. All these together are to extend from west to east in the same way as the portions of the other tribes, the imaginary Jordan being the eastern boundary of all.
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 48:8
“But our being left at this uncertainty is an intimation that these things are to be understood spiritually, and that what is principally meant is that there is an exact and just proportion observed by Infinite Wisdom in modelling the gospel church, which though now we cannot discern we shall when we come to heaven.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 48:9-12
special portion you set apart to the LORD: The priests receive the innermost strip, with “the sanctuary of the LORD” at its center. It is for “the descendants of Zadok, who kept My charge and did not go astray as the Levites did when the Israelites went astray”. The wording repeats the standard chapter 44 already set.
Ezekiel 48:9
“The oblation - This was a portion of land twenty-five thousand cubits in length, by ten thousand broad; in the center of which was the temple, which must be destined for the use of the priests, the Levites, and the prince.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 48:9
“The oblation that ye shall offer to the Lord,.... That which belonged to the sanctuary, and to the priests, which was taken and separated for that use; which here, and in the following verses, is particularly and separately considered: shall be of five and twenty thousand in length; that is, five and twenty thousand reeds from east to west: and of ten thousand in breadth; from north to south; see Eze 45:3.”
In the center will be the sanctuary of the LORD: The sanctuary stands in the middle of the priests' strip, and the whole land is measured outward from it. Matthew Henry reads the grant as honor to ministers and a charge to them to attend continually to their work. Those nearest the house serve it.
Ezekiel 48:10
“As, on the one hand, this denotes honour and comfort to ministers, that what is given for their support and maintenance is reckoned a holy oblation to the Lord, so it intimates their duty, which is that, since they are appointed and maintained for the service of the sanctuary, they ought to attend continually to this very thing, to reside on their cures.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
who kept My charge: Jerome notes that naming Zadok's sons kept every priestly family from claiming this ground by a common title. Zadok had stood with David and anointed Solomon (1 Kings 1:39). Matthew Henry takes the verse as God's honor reserved for those faithful in times of general apostasy.
Ezekiel 48:11
“It shall be for the priests that are sanctified,.... That are set apart by the Lord; called by him to this office, and sanctified with the gifts and graces of his Spirit; and so fitted and qualified for the work: of the sons of Zadok, which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray; ministers faithful to the Lord in the worst of times; and who are and wil be taken notice of by him, both now and hereafter, Mat 25:21; see Gill on Eze 44:15, Eze 44:16.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 48:11
“God will put honour upon those who keep their integrity in times of general apostasy, and he has special favours in reserve for them. Those are swimming upwards, and so they will find at last, that are swimming against the stream. The land which was appropriated to the ministers of the sanctuary might by no means be alienated.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
a most holy portion adjacent to the territory of the Levites: John Gill reads most holy as meaning the land could not be turned to other use or passed to others. The same term marks the altar and the priests' share of the offerings (Exodus 29:37; Leviticus 6:17). The ground itself now carries that rank.
Ezekiel 48:12
“And this oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy,.... Be peculiarly theirs, and not converted to any other use; but be accounted most sacred, and not alienable, or made use of by other persons, or to other purposes by the border of the Levites; it should be continued, and reach unto their border; or where that should begin, and their part assigned them, which is next considered.”
Ezekiel 48:13-14
Bordering the territory of the priests: The Levites receive a strip beside the priests. “They must not sell or exchange any of it, and they must not transfer this best part of the land”. Ordinary inheritance in Israel could return to its owner at the jubilee, while this ground stays fixed to its holy use.
They must not sell or exchange any of it: Leviticus 25:34 had already barred the sale of the Levites' pasturelands. Jerome's Latin calls this ground the firstfruits of the land, where the Berean reads best part. Firstfruits belonged to the Lord before any harvest was used (Exodus 23:19).
Ezekiel 48:15-19
for common use by the city: Beside the holy portion lies ground “for common use by the city, for houses, and for pastureland”, with the city “in the center of it”. Common use stands next to consecrated use, the same distinction chapter 42 drew between the priests' garments and the outer court.
Ezekiel 48:15
“The five thousand rods, apportioned to the city out of the twenty-five thousand square, are to be laid off in a square of four thousand five hundred, with the two hundred fifty all around for suburbs. profane--that is, not strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular uses.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
4,500 cubits on the north side: The city is a square of 4,500 cubits, and with the 250 cubits of pastureland it fills 5,000 cubits, the width of its strip. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown work out this fit. John Wesley reckons the perimeter at eighteen thousand cubits, the figure verse 35 gives.
Ezekiel 48:16
“So it shall be an equilateral square, every side exactly the same, north, south, east, and west, four thousand five hundred apiece, by which measures the whole content is visible eighteen thousand cubits not reeds.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The pastureland of the city will extend 250 cubits: The pastureland is an open belt of 250 cubits on every side, like the fifty cubits around the sanctuary in 45:2. Jerome records the Hebrew word as magras. Levitical towns had the same kind of pastureland in Numbers 35:2 to 5.
Ezekiel 48:17
“The city being 4500 reeds square, 250 reeds are marked off north, south, east, west from the city land.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 48:17
“And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty,.... That is, so many reeds: and toward the south two hundred and fifty; which make five hundred; and these being added to four thousand five hundred, north and south, make five thousand: and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty; which being added to four thousand five hundred, east and west, make five thousand; and so an equilateral square on each side, length and breadth.”
Its produce will supply food for the workers of the city: Two farm tracts of 10,000 cubits flank the city on the east and west. Albert Barnes takes those who serve the city as its cultivators. The city's workers eat from land set apart for them.
Ezekiel 48:18
“Eze 48:18 Then, that serve - i. e., the cultivators or farmers. Eze 48:19 Of old the city belonged to Benjamin and Judah, and its inhabitants were mainly from these tribes. Now all the tribes are to have equal part in it, and avoid jealousies (compare 2Sa 19:43).”
will come from all the tribes of Israel: Jerusalem had stood on the border of Judah and Benjamin, and the northern tribes once quarreled with Judah over the king in 2 Samuel 19:43. Here workers come from every tribe. John Gill reads them as all true Israelites sharing the honor and labor of service.
Ezekiel 48:19
“And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel. Whether they be civil magistrates, or ministers of the word, they shall be of Israel, and be Israelites indeed; and shall be taken out of the several tribes; some out of one tribe, and some out of another; all shall have the honour, as well as the labour, of serving the church and interest of Christ; yea, all true Israelites shall contribute as much as in them lies to the service of it.”
Ezekiel 48:20-22
The entire portion will be a square: The whole reserved block is “a square, 25,000 cubits by 25,000 cubits”, and the remaining land on both sides “will belong to the prince”. His land surrounds the holy portion and the city property. These closing chapters give him the title prince and withhold the title king.
will belong to the prince: The prince's land lies on both sides of the holy district and reaches to the eastern border and the sea, as Jerome's rendering also shows. With fixed land of his own, he has no claim on any tribe's fields. The same arrangement was set out in 45:7 to 8.
Ezekiel 48:21
Or, “And the residue shall be for the prince - on the one side and on the other side of the holy oblation and of the possession of the city over against the 25,000 of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the 25,000 toward the west border, over against the portions (of Judah and Benjamin, between which the oblation was included), shall be “for the prince; and it shall be that the holy oblation and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 48:21
“And the residue - for the prince - His portion was alongside that of the Levites, from west to east; these were on each side twenty-five thousand cubits in length, from the east to the west. by twelve thousand five hundred cubits in breadth from north to south. The space both above and below was equal, between the tribe of Judah and that of Benjamin to north and south; and the portion of the Levites, which had Judah and Benjamin to the north and south, and the portion of the prince to the east and to the west.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judah lies north of the reserved block and Benjamin south. These two tribes had stayed with David's house when the kingdom divided (1 Kings 12:21), and Jerusalem lay on their shared border. Jerome's text describes the prince's land surrounding the rest on both sides.
Five tribal portions to the south
Ezekiel 48:23-27
As for the rest of the tribes: South of the prince's land, Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun and Gad take strips in the same straight bands as the northern tribes. The order departs from Jacob's blessing and from Joshua's allotment alike, arranged by distance from the sanctuary. Gad sets up the border the next verse describes.
Ezekiel 48:23
“As for the rest of the tribes,.... Not yet mentioned, which lay to the south of the sanctuary, and are as follow: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin shall have a portion; the sons of God's right hand, who are as near and dear to him as a man's right hand is to him.”
Simeon will have one portion: In Joshua 19:1 to 9 Simeon's towns lay inside Judah's land, as Jacob's words of scattering in Genesis 49:7 foretold. John Gill notes that Simeon now holds a separate strip. The scattered tribe receives its own border.
Ezekiel 48:24
“And by the border of Benjamin, from the east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion. Close by the border of Benjamin, running east and west, Simeon's part and inheritance in the land shall be; even such true Israelites as "hear", understand, and believe the Gospel, and practise what they hear. This tribe is not now to be divided and scattered in Israel, or to have its inheritance in Judah, as formerly, Gen 49:5, but to be distinct, and have a portion by itself.”
Issachar will have one portion: Issachar's old portion was the Valley of Jezreel, assigned in Joshua 19:17 to 23. Here it lies south of the city. Genesis 49:14 to 15 pictures Issachar as a strong donkey bearing burdens.
Ezekiel 48:25
“And by the border of Simeon, from the east side unto the west side, Issachar a portion. Next, closely adjoining to Simeon's inheritance, and in the same direction, shall be Issachar's; such Christians as shall have the "rewards" of grace for their services and sufferings in times of tribulation.”
Zebulun will have one portion: Zebulun lies next to Issachar, the brothers Moses blessed together in Deuteronomy 33:18 to 19. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown recall Issachar's ancient home on the plain of Esdraelon, beside Zebulun's old territory in Joshua 19:10 to 16. The two neighbors keep company in the new order.
Ezekiel 48:26
“Issachar--Its ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon. Compared (Ge 49:14) to "a strong ass crouching between two burdens," that is, tribute and tillage; never meddling with wars except in self-defense.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Gad will have one portion: Gad had settled east of the Jordan with Reuben in Numbers 32:33. Its new strip lies west of the river, farthest south. Like Dan at the far north, Gad descends from one of Jacob's maidservants, while the sons of Leah and Rachel lie nearer the center.
Ezekiel 48:27
“And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side, Gad a portion. The last of the tribes; a "troop" of overcomers, who are more than conquerors over all their enemies through Christ: all Christians shall have their part and portion in the church below, and in all the privileges and immunities of it; and in the church above, in all the glories and blessedness thereof.”
Ezekiel 48:28-29
the waters of Meribath-kadesh: The southern border runs “from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh”, echoing the border Numbers 34 drew when Israel first entered the land. The section closes with the formula: “This is the land you are to allot as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel”.
Ezekiel 48:28
“From Tamar - in Kadesh - The former was on the south of the Dead Sea; and the latter, or Kadesh-Barnea, was still farther south, and at the extremity of the portion of Gad, which was the most southern tribe, as Dan was the most northern.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The allotment ends with the words declares the Lord GOD, setting His authority over the whole division. Joshua 21:43 recorded the land given under Joshua, and readers divide: Henry reads it spiritually, while dispensational writers expect a literal allotment still to come. The oath of 47:14 stands behind it.
Twelve gates, and the city named The LORD Is There
Ezekiel 48:30-31
The city has twelve gates, three to a side, “named after the tribes of Israel”. Levi took no strip of farmland, since its portion was the holy ground, and the gate list restores Levi to the twelve. Revelation 21:12-13 gives the New Jerusalem twelve gates named for the twelve tribes.
Ezekiel 48:30
“And these are the goings out of the city,.... The gates of it, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it, by which they went out of it, and into it; and also the sides of it. The Lord here returns to the city again, to give an account of its circumference and name: on the north side four thousand and five hundred measures; the north side of the city measured so many measures; that is, reeds, as Jarchi explains it.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 48:30
“These are the goings out - Each of the four sides of the city was four thousand five hundred cubits long. There were three gates on each side, as mentioned below; and the whole circumference of the city was eighteen thousand cubits. See the map, plan B. dddd. The rector of New Haven College, in New England, supposes the preceding representations to refer to the happy state of the Church in what is called the Millennium.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 48:30
“Simeon here is not divided in Jacob, nor is Zebulun a haven of ships, a plain intimation that it is not so much to be understood literally as spiritually, though the mystery of it is very much hidden from us. In gospel times old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah, and the gate of Levi: The north wall carries three sons of Leah: Reuben the firstborn, Judah the royal tribe, and Levi the priestly tribe. Henry observes that Simeon and Zebulun differ from Jacob's words in Genesis 49:7 and 49:13, and so reads the vision chiefly in a spiritual sense. Others read the gates literally.
the gate of Joseph: The east side names Joseph, Benjamin and Dan. Joseph stands as one name here rather than split into Ephraim and Manasseh, since the gate list needs the traditional twelve names. Dan, placed first in the land allotment at the northern extreme, closes the eastern gate list.
the gate of Simeon: The south gates bear the names Simeon, Issachar and Zebulun, the three tribes whose land strips lie on that side of the map. Each side of the wall is “4,500 cubits long”, so the circuit is a square, built to one pattern whatever name stands over each gate.
Ezekiel 48:33
“The south side of the city measured just the same as the north and east sides did: and three gates; were on that side, as on the others: one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun; at which these tribes entered, or those they represent.”
the gate of Gad: The west gates bear the names Gad, Asher and Naphtali. The gate list returns to the traditional twelve, with Joseph standing for his two sons and Levi restored to a name. The land list had split Joseph into Ephraim and Manasseh and set Levi apart with the priests.
Ezekiel 48:34
“Note, Into the church of Christ, both militant and triumphant, there is a free access by faith for all that come of every tribe, from every quarter. Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven for all believers.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The book's last clause names the city “THE LORD IS THERE”, Jehovah-shammah in the Hebrew. The glory that rose and left the temple eastward in chapter eleven now rests in the city's own name. The site's dispensational tradition expects a literal Jerusalem to come, the older commentators an ideal city.
Ezekiel 48:35
“THESE words may be used as a test as well as a text. They may serve for examination as well as consolation and, at the beginning of a year, they may fulfill this useful double purpose. In any case they are full of marrow and fatness to those whose spiritual taste is purified. It is esteemed by the Prophet to be the highest blessing that could come upon a city that its name should be, "JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH, The Lord Is There." Even Jerusalem, in its best estate, would have this for its crowning blessing—nothing could exceed this.”
3 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 48:35
“The Lord is there - The Lord who as his name alone is Jehovah, so is the only true God, faithful to his promise, rich in mercy, glorious in majesty, righteous in his judgments, wise and holy in his government, whose presence makes us happy, whose withdrawing from us leaves us to misery.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 48:35
“The circuit of the city walls, a square of 4500 reeds, was 18,000 reeds, not quite 37 English miles. The circuit of Jerusalem in the time of Josephus was reckoned by him to be about four miles. The name ... - The manner of expressing a spiritual meaning by giving a name to a city, a people, or the like, is familiar to the prophets (see Eze 43:15 note).”
Ezekiel 48:35
“Where the gospel is faithfully preached, gospel ordinances are duly administered, and God is worshipped in the name of Jesus Christ only, it may truly be said, The Lord is there; for faithful is he that has said, and he will be as good as his word, Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The patterns in this chapter
How this chapter is built
1 more paragraph on the patterns
The tribes are named in order from north to south. Seven stand north of the holy portion in verses 1 to 7, from Dan to Judah, and five stand south of it in verses 23 to 28, from Benjamin to Gad. The holy portion between them holds the sanctuary, the priests, the Levites, the city and the prince in verses 8 to 22. The chapter closes on the city's twelve gates in verses 30 to 34, three on each side, and on its name in verse 35.
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 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; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and 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.