Ezekiel 45

Translator Notes

1. The terumah ('contribution, offering raised up') here refers to a territorial allotment set apart for sacred purposes — a district of land consecrated to the LORD before the tribal allotments are distributed. The dimensions — 25,000 by 10,000 long cubits — create a rectangle of approximately 8.5 by 3.4 miles (13.7 by 5.5 km). The word qodesh ('holy') is applied to the land itself, not merely to buildings on it — the soil is consecrated.
2. The KJV adds 'reeds' as the unit of measurement, but the Hebrew simply gives numbers without a unit. Most scholars supply 'cubits' based on context and the measurement system used throughout the Temple vision (the long cubit of 40:5). We follow this reading.

Translator Notes

1. The sanctuary itself occupies a square of 500 by 500 cubits — approximately 850 by 850 feet (260 by 260 meters). The migrash ('open space, pastureland, buffer zone') of fifty cubits around it creates a separation zone between the sanctuary and everything else — a physical expression of the holiness gradient. This matches the Temple compound measurements given in 42:15-20.

Translator Notes

1. This measured section (25,000 by 10,000) constitutes the priestly zone within the larger sacred district. The designation qodesh qodashim ('most holy') for this entire area — not just the inner sanctum of the Temple — continues the pattern from 43:12, where the whole mountaintop is designated most holy. The sanctuary (miqdash) sits within this zone as its focal point.

Translator Notes

1. The priestly zone serves a dual function: residential space for the priests (maqom lebattim, 'a place for houses') and sacred space for the sanctuary (miqdash lammiqdash, 'a holy place for the sanctuary'). The priests live within the sacred district, adjacent to the sanctuary — their daily existence is literally embedded in holy ground. The phrase haqqerevim lesharet et YHWH ('those who draw near to serve the LORD') repeats the Zadokite authorization language from 43:19 and 44:15.

Translator Notes

1. The Levites — the demoted priestly class from 44:10-14 — receive their own zone of equal dimensions to the priestly zone but separate from it. The 'twenty chambers' (esrim leshakhot) likely refers to residential or service buildings within the Levitical zone. Some manuscripts and versions read 'cities' (arim) instead of 'chambers' (leshakhot), which would align with the Levitical cities tradition of Numbers 35:1-8. The word ahuzzah ('property, holding') echoes the land-tenure vocabulary used throughout the allotment.

Translator Notes

1. The city zone — five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand long — runs parallel to the sacred district. Unlike the priestly and Levitical zones, which belong to specific groups, the city zone lekhol bet Yisrael yihyeh ('belongs to the whole house of Israel'). This is the common, civic space — the city where ordinary Israelites live and conduct their affairs, positioned adjacent to but distinct from the sacred zone. The total sacred district plus city zone creates a three-banded layout: priests, Levites, and city, all running east-west.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The prince's land flanks the sacred district on both sides — east and west — extending from the sacred zone to the territorial boundaries of the land. This arrangement is deliberately designed to prevent the abuses of the pre-exilic monarchy: the prince has generous land but cannot encroach on the sacred district or on the tribal allotments. His territory is defined and bounded, unlike the historical kings who seized land at will (cf. 1 Kings 21, Naboth's vineyard).

Translator Notes

1. The prohibition velo yonu od nesi'ai et ammi ('my princes will no longer oppress my people') uses the verb yanah ('to oppress, to mistreat, to defraud') — a term associated with economic exploitation and land seizure. This is not merely a prediction but a command embedded in the land distribution: the princes' defined territory eliminates the mechanism of royal land-grabbing that plagued pre-exilic Israel. The phrase leshivteihem ('according to their tribes') confirms the traditional tribal allotment system as the basis of land distribution.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The exclamation rav lakhem ('enough for you!') echoes 44:6, where the same phrase rebuked Israel's detestable practices. Here it targets the princes' specific abuse: hamas ('violence') and shod ('destruction, plunder'). The word gerushoteikhem ('your evictions, your dispossessions') from the root g-r-sh ('to drive out, to expel') refers to the practice of rulers forcing people off their ancestral land — the very abuse Naboth suffered at Ahab's hands (1 Kings 21).

Translator Notes

1. The triad of mo'znei tsedeq ('just scales'), eiphat tsedeq ('just ephah'), and bat tsedeq ('just bath') covers the full range of commercial measurement: scales for weight, the ephah for dry goods, the bath for liquids. The word tsedeq ('just, righteous, honest') applied to measuring instruments connects economic honesty directly to the theological concept of righteousness. A false scale is not merely dishonest — it is unrighteous, a violation of the cosmic order God established. This echoes Leviticus 19:35-36 and Deuteronomy 25:13-16.

Translator Notes

1. The equivalence established here: 1 homer = 10 ephahs = 10 baths. The homer (approximately 220 liters / 6.25 bushels) is the largest standard unit. The ephah (dry) and bath (liquid) are identical in volume — approximately 22 liters / 5.8 gallons each. Setting the homer as the reference standard (el hahomer yihyeh matkuneto, 'the homer shall be its standard') prevents local variation in measurement — a common form of economic fraud in the ancient Near East.

Translator Notes

1. The shekel-to-gerah ratio (1 shekel = 20 gerahs) matches Exodus 30:13 and Leviticus 27:25. The mina (maneh) calculation is unusual: 20 + 25 + 15 = 60 shekels per mina. The standard Mesopotamian mina was 60 shekels, so the total is correct, but the three-part breakdown is puzzling. Some scholars suggest it reflects three different weight standards being harmonized, or three marked weights that together make a mina. The Septuagint reads 'fifty shekels make your mina,' which is a different standard. We preserve the Masoretic reading and note the difficulty.
2. A shekel weighs approximately 11.5 grams (0.4 ounces). A gerah is approximately 0.57 grams. A mina at 60 shekels is approximately 690 grams (1.5 pounds).

Translator Notes

1. The terumah ('contribution') is a proportional tax on agricultural produce: one-sixth of an ephah per homer, which equals 1/60th of the harvest (since 1 homer = 10 ephahs, and 1/6 of an ephah out of 10 ephahs = approximately 1.67%). This is a modest levy compared to later rabbinic tithing requirements. Both wheat (hittim) and barley (se'orim) are specified — the two primary grain crops of ancient Israel.

Translator Notes

1. The oil levy is 1/10 of a bath per kor (homer), which is 1/100th of the total oil production — an even more modest levy than the grain contribution. The kor (also written 'cor') is identified as equivalent to the homer — ten baths. The parenthetical clarification 'ten baths make a homer; a kor equals a homer' ensures no ambiguity in the measurement standard.

Translator Notes

1. The livestock levy is 1 sheep per 200 — a 0.5% rate. The phrase mimashqeh Yisrael ('from the well-watered pastures of Israel') specifies that only healthy, well-fed animals from good pasture qualify for sacrifice — no sickly or malnourished animals. The three offering categories — minhah ('grain offering'), olah ('burnt offering'), and shelamim ('fellowship offerings') — cover the full range of sacrificial worship. The purpose lekhapper aleihem ('to make atonement for them') ties economic contribution to spiritual reconciliation.

Translator Notes

1. The contribution (terumah) flows from the people to the prince, who then bears responsibility for the public offerings. This creates a two-stage system: the people provide the raw materials (grain, oil, livestock), and the prince administers their use for worship. The nasi functions as a liturgical intermediary between the people and the priesthood — he does not sacrifice (that is priestly work) but he funds the sacrificial system.

Translator Notes

1. The prince's liturgical responsibility is comprehensive: he provides the offerings for every regular occasion — festivals (haggim), new moons (hodashim), Sabbaths (shabbatot), and all appointed times (mo'adim). The verb ya'aseh ('he shall do, prepare, provide') means the prince is responsible for procuring and presenting the offerings, though the actual altar service remains the priests' function. The final clause lekhapper be'ad bet Yisrael ('to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel') gives the prince a quasi-priestly mediatorial role — he atones for the nation through provision, not through priestly sacrifice.

Translator Notes

1. The annual purification of the sanctuary begins on the first day of the first month (Nisan/Aviv) — New Year's Day in the religious calendar. The verb chitteta ('purify, de-sin') is the same used for the altar consecration in 43:20. The sanctuary requires annual cleansing because accumulated impurities from the community's sins throughout the year contaminate sacred space — the same logic that drives the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16.

Translator Notes

1. Blood is applied to three locations: the Temple doorposts (mezuzat habayit), the four corners of the altar ledge (arba pinnot ha'azarah), and the inner court gate doorposts (mezuzat sha'ar hehatser happenimit). These three points trace the path from the sanctuary outward through the altar court to the inner gate — a line of purification that cleanses the entire sacred zone. The application of blood to doorposts echoes the original Passover (Exodus 12:7, 22), where blood on the doorpost marked the threshold between death and life.

Translator Notes

1. The purification is repeated on the seventh of the month — a provision not found in the Mosaic legislation. The two categories of sin covered — shogeh ('one who errs, sins unintentionally') and peti ('simple, naive, ignorant') — refer to sins committed without malicious intent. The verb kipper ('make atonement') is applied to the Temple itself (et habayit, 'the Temple') — the building absorbs the impurity of the community's sins and must be periodically cleansed. This concept of the sanctuary as a repository of communal sin underlies the entire sacrificial system.

Translator Notes

1. The Passover date — the fourteenth of the first month — matches the Mosaic legislation (Exodus 12:6, Leviticus 23:5, Numbers 28:16). The phrase hag shevuot yamim ('a festival of weeks of days,' i.e., 'a seven-day festival') refers to the combined Passover/Unleavened Bread observance. In the Pentateuch, Passover proper (14th Nisan) is technically distinct from the Festival of Unleavened Bread (15th-21st), but they are treated as a single observance in common practice and here.

Translator Notes

1. The prince's Passover sin offering — a bull — differs from the Mosaic Passover, where each household provides a lamb (Exodus 12:3-4). Ezekiel's system centralizes the sin offering under the prince's responsibility. The phrase ba'ado uve'ad kol am ha'arets ('for himself and for all the people of the land') echoes the high priest's Day of Atonement role in Leviticus 16:17, where the high priest atones 'for himself and for his household and for the whole assembly of Israel.' The prince here assumes a function that was previously the high priest's prerogative.

Translator Notes

1. The scale of the offerings is enormous: seven bulls and seven rams daily for seven days equals 49 bulls and 49 rams, plus seven goats for sin offerings — 105 animals total for the Passover festival. This far exceeds the Numbers 28:19-24 Passover prescription (two bulls, one ram, seven lambs daily). The escalation reflects the grandeur of the restored Temple and the prince's wealth. The requirement of tamimim ('without defect') for every animal maintains the unblemished standard of Leviticus 22:17-25.

Translator Notes

1. The grain offering accompaniment: one ephah (approximately 22 liters / 5.8 gallons of grain) per large animal, and one hin (approximately 3.7 liters / 1 gallon) of oil per ephah of grain. The oil is mixed with the grain to form the minhah. The proportions here match 46:5, 7 and establish a consistent ratio throughout Ezekiel's festival legislation.

Translator Notes

1. The 'festival' (hag) on the fifteenth of the seventh month is the Festival of Booths/Tabernacles (Sukkot, Leviticus 23:34). The prescription ka'elleh ('like these') means the Sukkot offerings match the Passover offerings exactly — seven bulls, seven rams, and a goat daily for seven days, with corresponding grain offerings and oil. This parity between the two major festivals is distinctive to Ezekiel's system; in Numbers 29:12-38, the Sukkot offerings follow a different, decreasing pattern (13 bulls on day one, 12 on day two, etc.).
2. Notably, neither the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, 10th of the seventh month) nor the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) is mentioned in Ezekiel's festival calendar. Whether this represents an intentional modification or an incomplete list is debated.