BOOK 26 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ezekiel 46

Ezekiel book home•Chapter 46 of 48•24 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Ezekiel 46 Overview

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.

EzekielBook

46Chapter

24Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Ezekiel 46

Coming from

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.

In this chapter

Leads into

Water flows from beneath the temple threshold eastward, growing from ankle-deep to an uncrossable river that brings life wherever it goes, heals the sea, and nourishes fruit trees whose leaves are for medicine. The chapter then gives Israel’s land boundaries and commands inheritance allotments for resident strangers alongside native Israelites.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter repeatedly limits princely power. The prince participates in worship and supplies offerings but is not portrayed as a priest, and his inheritance rights cannot become an excuse to confiscate the people’s property.

Traffic through the gates is deliberately ordered so worshippers entering by one side leave by the opposite side. Even movement through sacred space reflects the vision’s concern for order and non-confusion.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Leaders remain worshippers under God

The prince has responsibilities and privileges but approaches the LORD within revealed boundaries.

Authority must respect family inheritance

The prince may give from his own possession but may not thrust people out of theirs.

Order in worship can serve fairness and clarity

Gate movement, offerings, and preparation areas are regulated rather than left chaotic.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Numbers 28–29

The Torah also orders daily, Sabbath, new-moon, and feast offerings, providing background for Ezekiel’s calendar.

Micah 2:1-2

Micah condemns rulers and powerful people who covet fields and seize inheritances, the abuse Ezekiel’s prince is forbidden to practice.

1 Corinthians 14:40

Paul’s command that church worship be done decently and in order reflects a broad biblical principle, though Ezekiel’s specific gate rules are not church ordinances.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not identify the prince automatically as Christ without addressing the chapter’s inheritance and offering provisions.

Interpreters propose different identities; the text distinguishes the prince from priests and assigns him human governmental responsibilities.

Do not transfer Ezekiel’s gate-direction rule into a universal requirement for church buildings.

It belongs to this temple vision and its ordered flow of worshippers.

Read Ezekiel 46 watching for…

the east inner gate on Sabbaths and new moons

the prince worshipping at the threshold

daily and voluntary offerings

entering and exiting by opposite gates

inheritance protections and cooking places

Chapter outline4 sections

1-8Sabbath and new moon worship and the prince’s entrance and offerings are ordered 9-15Worshippers’ movement and the continual daily burnt offering are regulated 16-18The prince’s gifts may not be used to dispossess the people of their inheritance 19-24Priestly kitchens and places for boiling the people’s sacrifices are shown

Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons.

And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.

And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.

And he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof.

But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it.

And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth.

And in the feasts and in the solemnities the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.

Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.

Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it every morning.

And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD.

Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance.

But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons' for them.

Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own possession: that my people be not scattered every man from his possession.

After he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests, which looked toward the north: and, behold, there was a place on the two sides westward.

Then said he unto me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the meat offering; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people.

Then he brought me forth into the utter court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and, behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.

In the four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four corners were of one measure.

And there was a row of building round about in them, round about them four, and it was made with boiling places under the rows round about.

Then said he unto me, These are the places of them that boil, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people.