Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 48

Introduction

CHAPTER 48

:-. ALLOTMENT OF THE LAND TO THE SEVERAL TRIBES.

Verse 1

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. The portions of the city, the temple, the prince, and the priesthood, are in the middle, not within the boundaries of any tribe, all alike having a common interest in them. Judah has the place of honor next the center on the north, Benjamin the corresponding place of honor next the center on the south; because of the adherence of these two to the temple ordinances and to the house of David for so long, when the others deserted them. Dan, on the contrary, so long locally and morally semi-heathen ( :-), is to have the least honorable place, at the extreme north. For the same reason, St. John ( :-) omits Dan altogether.

Verse 3

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.

Verse 4

4. Manasseh—The intercourse and unity between the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan, and the nine and a half west of it, had been much kept up by the splitting of Manasseh, causing the visits of kinsmen one to the other from both sides of the Jordan. There shall be no need for this in the new order of things.

Verse 5

5. Ephraim—This tribe, within its two dependent tribes, Manasseh and Benjamin, for upwards of four hundred years under the judges held the pre-eminence.

Verse 6

6. Reuben—doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel" ( :-). So no distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from it. Of it were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the mutineers. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked it and Gad ( :-).

Verse 15

15-17. 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.

Verse 24

24. Benjamin—Compare Jacob's prophecy (Genesis 49:27; Deuteronomy 33:12). It alone with Judah had been throughout loyal to the house of David, so its prowess at the "night" of the national history was celebrated as well as in the "morning."

Verse 25

25. Simeon—omitted in the blessing of Moses in :-, perhaps because of the Simeonite "prince," who at Baal-peor led the Israelites in their idolatrous whoredoms with Midian (Numbers 25:14).

Verse 26

26. Issachar—Its ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon. Compared ( :-) to "a strong ass crouching between two burdens," that is, tribute and tillage; never meddling with wars except in self-defense.

Verse 31

31. gates— ( :-, &c.). The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes to imply that all are regarded as having an interest in it.

Verse 35

35. Lord is there—Jehovah-Shammah. Not that the city will be called so in mere name, but that the reality will be best expressed by this descriptive title (Jeremiah 3:17; Jeremiah 33:16; Zechariah 2:10; Revelation 21:3; Revelation 22:3).