BOOK 26 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ezekiel 45

Ezekiel book home•Chapter 45 of 48•25 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Ezekiel 45 Overview

The restored land includes a holy district for the sanctuary, priests, Levites, city, and prince. The prince is warned against violence and exploitation, honest measures are required, and offerings and festival provisions are assigned, including rites associated with the first month, Passover, and the feast in the seventh month.

EzekielBook

45Chapter

25Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Ezekiel 45

Coming from

Because the LORD’s glory entered through the east gate, that gate is shut, while the prince has a special place connected with it. The LORD rebukes earlier admission of uncircumcised foreigners into sanctuary service, distinguishes Levites who went astray from the sons of Zadok who remained faithful, and sets detailed priestly holiness rules.

In this chapter

Leads into

Ezekiel receives regulations for the prince’s worship at the east inner gate, Sabbath and new-moon offerings, daily offerings, movement of worshippers through opposite gates, voluntary offerings, inheritance rules preventing the prince from seizing family land, and kitchens for priests and Levites to prepare offerings.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter ties worship to economics and government. Holy land allocations, just weights, limits on princely property, and offerings all belong within one restored order; holiness is not confined to rituals.

The calendar and sacrificial language resembles Torah worship but is not identical in every detail, which is one reason interpretations of the final vision differ. Readers should note both continuity and difference rather than forcing the chapter into an exact duplicate of Mosaic legislation.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Righteous worship includes economic justice

The same chapter that regulates offerings also demands just balances and measures.

Political authority must not become property exploitation

Princes are assigned land specifically so they will no longer oppress the people by taking inheritances.

Restored worship remains ordered by revealed times and provisions

The vision includes specific festival and offering arrangements rather than private improvisation.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Leviticus 19:35-36

The Torah also commands just weights and measures as part of holiness.

1 Kings 21

Ahab’s seizure of Naboth’s inheritance illustrates the kind of royal land abuse the restored order excludes.

Hebrews 10:1-14

Because Hebrews presents animal sacrifices as shadows surpassed by Christ’s once-for-all offering, Ezekiel’s sacrificial vision must be read in a way consistent with that fulfillment.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not assume every festival detail in Ezekiel is simply a quotation of Moses.

There are noticeable differences, and those differences are part of the interpretive discussion around the vision.

Do not separate “spiritual” worship from honest economics.

The chapter puts just measures, fair princely conduct, and sanctuary offerings side by side.

Read Ezekiel 45 watching for…

the holy land allotment

land assigned to the prince

just balances and measures

the prince’s role in offerings

Passover and seventh-month feast arrangements

Chapter outline4 sections

1-8A holy portion of land is set apart for the sanctuary, priests, Levites, city, and prince 9-12Princes are commanded to stop oppression and use honest measures 13-17The people’s offerings provide the prince’s responsibility for sacrifices 18-25Purification and appointed Passover and feast offerings are prescribed

Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the LORD, an holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about.

Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.

And of this measure shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place.

The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the LORD: and it shall be a place for their houses, and an holy place for the sanctuary.

And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth, shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers.

And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over against the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border.

In the land shall be his possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.

Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.

The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.

And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.

This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley:

Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer:

And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord GOD.

All the people of the land shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel.

And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:

And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.

And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.

In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.

And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering.

And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oil for an ephah.

In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil.