Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 43

Verses 1-27

The prophet's next vision was of Jehovah's return to the Temple. Again he beheld a vision and heard a voice. The visions which he had seen by the river Chebar appeared again. The same glory on which he had gazed when he came to destroy the city, that is, to utter his predictions concerning its destruction, appeared in this great hour of restoration, when Jehovah, so long exiled from His Temple, returned to it. The voice of Jehovah was as the sound of many waters, but in speaking to Ezekiel it became the voice of a man, and declared that Jehovah had taken up His abode in the house, that He would dwell in the midst of Israel forever, and that she should no more defile His holy name.

In the sequence of the prophecy a parenthesis occurs in which Ezekiel was charged to show the house of Israel this future glory, in order that they might be ashamed of their iniquities. To those who were ashamed, he was, moreover, charged to make known in detail the form and fashion of the house, and to declare its law.

Returning to the sequence of the message concerning the return of Jehovah, the prophet described the altar of burnt-offering, giving its measurements and a description of the ceremonies of its consecration and of its use.