45:1–6 This section transitions from the regulations for the priests and Levites (ch. 44) to the rules for the prince (remainder of ch. 45) by granting a focused preview of land redistribution (focus of ch. 48). Land ownership is the basis of status and wealth in most societies, so to reassign the ownership of every square inch of the land is a major reorientation of power. Strikingly Ezekiel’s plan is not a return to the patchwork quilt of tribal areas assigned by lot under Joshua but an entirely new orientation of the land in horizontal strips aligned with the temple, which itself is safely protected in a sacred strip of its own.309 The land’s central focus around the temple is matched by a concentration of priests and Levites around the temple, whereas previously they were to be scattered in various cities around the Promised Land.

In 44:28 the Lord declared himself to be the inheritance of the priests and Levites. This leads to a brief discussion of the assignment of the land as an inheritance, focusing on the sacred “portion” (Hb. terumah) to be set aside as a “holy district,” to be presented to the Lord as an offering (45:1). Nothing similar existed in Israel before or after the exile; previously the temple had been part of the larger royal palace complex, which led to a number of abuses (cf. 43:7–9). But in Ezekiel’s vision the land is divided into thirteen strips, aligned along the sacred east-west axis of the temple. One strip is set apart as sacred;310 at the center of this strip is a square allocated to the temple, surrounded in turn by a square buffer zone, 25,000 cubits (37,500 feet [11,000 m]) per side.311 The central east-west portion of this square, 10,000 by 25,000 cubits, provides living space for the priests (45:4). To the north of this priestly strip is a strip of equal width for the Levites,312 while to its south is a 5,000-cubit-wide strip for “the city,” an area belonging to all the twelve tribes of Israel (v. 6) rather than simply to the house of David. This is to give the people a place to stay on their regular pilgrimages to the temple while still keeping the secular city at a safe distance from the sacred temple.313

This arrangement of space extends the principle of graded holiness from the temple itself to the area around the temple, just as during the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings the priests and Levites camped immediately adjacent to the tabernacle, themselves surrounded by the camps of the twelve tribes (cf. Numbers 2). Nothing profane is to be allowed to approach the sacred space to defile it, as had happened too often in the past; on the contrary, the ordering of the entire land is now aligned with the temple and with Israel’s God, who has once again taken up his residence there.

45:7–17 Continuing the theme of privilege combined with responsibility, the prince is also assigned a portion of the sacred strip as his personal property: the area to the east and west of the 25,000-cubit holy square assigned to the temple, as far as the Mediterranean to the west and the Jordan to the east (Ezek. 45:7–8). This is a significant piece of real estate, but its function is not merely to honor the prince. Rather, it is both to prevent him from appropriating the property of the other tribes and to grant him the resources he will need to provide for the sacrifices and offerings of the temple. The first theme is prominent in verse 9, in which the former kings are critiqued for their land-grabbing policies that resulted in the evictions of the Lord’s people. Ahab’s murder of Naboth and the theft of his vineyard in 1 Kings 21 provides an example of the sort of thing the prophet has in mind, while the prince’s duty to provide for the temple comes to the fore in Ezekiel 45:13–25.

Part of the royal duty of executing justice and righteousness (v. 9) is to ensure the use of accurate weights and measures (v. 10; cf. Lev. 19:35–36). Unscrupulous merchants could use slightly smaller weights to measure out goods, cheating the purchaser. Or, when it came to collecting taxes, the royal measures might be slightly larger than standard, in order to gather more than is due. This is not an abstract obligation on the prince. Since the prince is responsible for presenting from his estates the offerings for use in the temple (Ezek. 45:13–25), the temptation to shortchange those measures would be real.314 All the prince’s obligations center around the temple, as does everything else in chapters 40–48.

It is to the required offerings for the temple that Ezekiel turns next. Prior to the exile, much of the temple provision likely came from royal resources—as was fitting, given the tight connection between temple and (Davidic) monarchy (cf. 2 Samuel 7). Although the ruler has been moved further away from the temple, his obligation to support it has not been diminished but rather, if anything, has increased. The obligation to support the temple is shared with the people of the land throughout Israel, who are to bring grain, oil, and sheep for the various temple sacrifices (Ezek. 45:13–16): grain offerings (Leviticus 2), burnt offerings (Leviticus 1), and peace offerings (Leviticus 3). These offerings had various functions within the OT sacrificial system, but Ezekiel’s presentation is narrowly focused on a single aspect: to make atonement (Hb. lekapper) for the people.315

Though the regular offerings in Ezekiel 45:13–16 come from all the people, they are to be channeled to the temple through the prince, who in addition is to provide the multitudinous resources required for the additional offerings to be made on the special days of the Jewish calendar: the Sabbaths, new moon festivals, and “appointed feasts” (i.e., annual festivals; v. 17). This is a considerable privilege for the prince to be the representative of the people in worship, which is now focused uniquely on what transpires in the temple.

45:18–25 These “appointed feasts” (v. 17) are yet another area in which Ezekiel’s legislation radically diverges from the Mosaic prescriptions observed before and after the exile. The Mosaic law featured three annual festivals: Passover, Weeks, and Booths (cf. Deuteronomy 16), each with its own distinctive patterns of observation. Instead of these the prophet describes only two annual festivals, which are now very similar to one another and radically different from any of the old Mosaic festivals.

The first feast, still called the Feast of Passover (Ezek. 45:21), is now preceded by two preparatory days, on the first and the seventh day of the first month. This is somewhat similar to the old Feast of Booths, which was preceded by the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the “seventh month”316 and then the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the same month (Lev. 23:24–32). However, the content of Ezekiel’s preparatory days is quite different, focused on the sacrifice of a purification offering (“sin offering”) of a “bull from the herd”—the most expensive of possible offerings317—on each day to purify the temple from the effects of unintentional sin (Ezek. 45:20). This follows the pattern for a purification offering in response to an unintentional sin on the part of the whole community (Lev. 4:13–20).

The Feast of Passover in Ezekiel’s plan still involves a seven-day avoidance of leavened bread, beginning on the fourteenth day of the first month (Ezek. 45:21). There is no mention of the meal that is such a prominent part of the Exodus Passover account, though the application of sacrificial blood to the doorposts of the temple clearly recalls the original festival (vv. 19–21).318 However, the focus falls squarely on the offering of atoning and purificatory sacrifices on each of the days of the feast: the prince is to present (on behalf of himself and the people of the land) seven young bulls and rams daily as whole burnt offerings, along with their accompanying grain and oil offerings, as well as a daily male goat for a purification offering (vv. 22–24)—the sacrifice prescribed for an unintentional sin by a leader in the community in Leviticus 4:22–23.

In the seventh month, on the fifteenth of the month (the date of the Feast of Booths), the same seven-day celebration of atoning and purificatory offerings is to be observed, though it is given no name nor none of the distinctive features of the Feast of Booths (Ezek. 45:25). Meanwhile, the Feast of Weeks, always the least important of the OT annual festivals, is completely omitted. The cumulative impact of these changes is unmistakable, especially since it aligns entirely with the emphasis of the changes to the temple (cf. discussion of the altar of sacrifice in ch. 43). The focus of the annual-festival calendar is now radically reoriented toward sacrifices that atone for sin and purify the temple from any accumulated defilement, in order to ensure the continued presence of the Lord in the midst of his people.319

46:1–15 Having discussed the role of the prince in providing for the annual feasts, the prophet turns his attention now to the Sabbath and new moon festivals and to the role of the worshiping community. The focus of his attention turns to the inner east gate. The outer east gate, of course, has been permanently shut (44:2), but the inner gate marks the sabbatical cycle: six days it is shut, as the people do their normal daily work, but on the seventh day, the day of rest, it is left wide open, inviting the people to connect with their God (46:1). The same is true on the monthly day of rest observed at new moon time (cf. Num. 28:11–15).

On each of these special days the prince, as representative of the people, shall enter the inner gatehouse from the outer court (Ezek. 46:2). He is not to enter the inner court, but at this dividing line of holiness he is to hand over his offerings to the priests, who perform the actual sacrifices. While that ceremony is transpiring at the altar of burnt offering, which is clearly visible to him, he is to prostrate himself in worship at the threshold (v. 2). Thereafter he may leave, but the door remains open all day, while the people of the land are allowed to come and offer their own worship, prostrating themselves a little farther away, at the entrance of the gate (v. 3). Given the massive length of the gatehouse and the flight of steps ascending to it, however, the laity are still at quite a distance from the Lord’s presence.

The offerings to be presented by the prince on the Sabbath and at new moon festivals are also specified. On the Sabbaths he is to present six lambs and a ram as whole burnt offerings, with their accompanying grain and oil offerings. This is a significant increase from the Mosaic requirements for the Sabbath of two lambs (Num. 28:9–10), even before considering the requirement that he is to offer “as much as he is able”320 in the form of the grain offering (Ezek. 46:4–5). The amounts for the new moon festival are reduced from the Mosaic requirements, however, from two bulls to one and from seven lambs to six, along with a ram (vv. 6–7; cf. Num. 28:11). This may represent a move to elevate the Sabbath further by downplaying the regular new moon festival often paired with it.321

At Ezekiel’s two annual festivals the laymen (“the people of the land”) are expected to present themselves in the temple, as before. Yet this too is ordered and regularized. Instead of coming and going from the outer court of the temple as they please, they are to present themselves before the Lord in two neat lines, one moving from north to south while the other moves from south to north, presumably pausing in the center to prostrate themselves in worship (Ezek. 46:9). They thus process through the temple in the “profane” north-south or south-north direction, at right angles to the “holy” east-west orientation of priestly actions (cf. 43:17).

This is a very formal act of submission on their part, far removed from the wild and joyous celebrations previously accompanying the Feast of Booths. It is analogous to the command for a vassal to prostrate himself annually at the court of the great king, which was a common requirement of many ancient covenant treaties.322 Instead the prince is required to enter and leave with the people (46:10), underlining his role as their representative in worship—and therefore as a fellow vassal along with them before the Great King, the Lord.

The prince is also permitted to enter the inner east gate to present his offerings in the same way described earlier whenever he offers a freewill offering, even on a day that is not a Sabbath or a new moon. The inner east gate is to be opened for him to present his burnt offering or peace offering, then closed after he leaves (v. 12). Meanwhile, the former twice-daily sacrifices, offered morning and evening, are simplified to one lamb, presented as a whole burnt offering in the morning, along with its accompanying grain and oil offerings (vv. 13–15). It is not clear why the evening sacrifice is discontinued; Cook suggests that it is due to a desire to emphasize the role of new beginnings rather than endings in Ezekiel’s vision.323

46:16–18 The section covering the rules for the prince ends by returning to the topic of his land ownership and use (cf. 45:1–6). In the past, kings had built and abused their power by appropriating land they then gifted to loyal supporters.324 The result was the impoverishment of ordinary people, while the rich and powerful built massive estates (cf. Isa. 5:8). The land originally intended to be evenly distributed among the people (Joshua 13–21), then redistributed back to its original owners every fifty years in the Jubilee year (Lev. 25:10–34), came to be held by only a few hands—and royal power was key to this redistribution of wealth.

In response to these past sins Ezekiel prohibits the prince from abusing his power over the land. In the future he cannot take any of the land allotted to others as their inheritance (46:18), nor is he able to gift permanently any of the land within his own inheritance to outsiders (v. 17). Any such gift is merely a temporary assignment until the “year of liberty” (or “jubilee”; cf. Lev. 25:10–13), at which time it will revert to the prince. The goal is to maintain the prince’s inheritance intact, lessening the temptation for him to steal land that belongs to others. He may gift property from his own inheritance to his sons, however, as that land would still remain within the royal family (Ezek. 44:16).

There is no historical evidence that the Jubilee principle was ever observed in Israel;325 it remained more of an aspiration than a reality. But Ezekiel reminds his hearers that the principle remains valid. It serves as a reminder that the driving force behind this redistribution of wealth is not a primitive form of communism but a recognition that the land belongs fundamentally first to the Lord, not to human beings. The prince is to be the arbiter of justice, not the oppressor of his people, and the land God promised the patriarchs is to belong to his people in perpetuity—something that must seem like a very distant dream to Ezekiel’s hearers, who by now have spent twenty-five years in exile in Babylon (40:1).

46:19–24 Ezekiel’s tour of the temple began outside the complex, then moved in a meandering fashion inward to the center (chs. 40–42). Now the angel rounds off his tour by returning the prophet outward to the most peripheral areas of the outer court: the “chambers for the priests” in the inner court (46:19–20) and the kitchens in the outer court in (vv. 21–24), both of which serve as places in which the sacrifices are to be cooked. Even in this final section the principles of separation and protection of the sacred is prominent, along with the theme of sacrifice, as the Lord designates two separate cooking areas, one for the more sacred offerings prepared by the priests (vv. 19–20) and another for the sacrifices of the ordinary people, prepared by the Levites (vv. 21–24).