Holy Bible

A measuring reed. Ezekiel 40:2-3 The measuring reed W. W. Battershall, D. D. It is a complex and mysterious thing, — this human life which it is appointed us to live. At first glance it seems as if it were simply the outflowing of ourselves from day to day, very much as water flows from a jar, without effort or design or law of movement, Take the history of a day, or the larger history of a life from the cradle to the grave; what subtle breaths of desire, of affection and repulsion determine its movements! What accidents, casual contacts, unexpected pressures of circumstance carve its outlines! Day by day the tapestry is woven. We cannot stop the play of the loom. But what a wilderness of aimless lines comes out in the fabric! What a blur of unfinished patterns, overlying each other! What a tangle of broken threads! But a deeper glance reveals to us the persistent and inexorable action of law in the shaping of our life. Indeed it is easy to formulate a theory of life in which it seems as if it were all law, nothing but law, law that crushed all freedom and spontaneity out of life. This happens when you try to reduce life to a department of physics. You find everywhere law; only the law lies not so much in the life as in the things that press upon it and give it direction. The water that flows from a jar falls and sparkles and runs on the ground with no choice of its own. Every drop is the slave of law. So it seems when we look upon life and treat it as a chapter of mechanics; as if it were simply the product of the forces that beat upon it, as if the measure of the forces gave the measure of the life, as if the colours and shapes it takes in its outflow were all determined by the angle of the sunbeam that strikes it, and the lay of the ground where it falls. It is evident that this conception of life is inadequate and false. It is all the more dangerous, because it falls in with a current fashion of thought and contains a half-truth. We read so much nowadays of force and law, that it is natural to speak of the energy of life under these terms; only, if we take our conceptions of force and law entirely from the physical world, we reduce all the intricate and mysterious movement of life to the irresponsible throbbings of a machine. The life which each of us is living is neither a formless, accidental jumble of thoughts, words and deeds, which link themselves together without any compelling force or law of combination; nor is it the fixed and inevitable result of forces that lie outside the domain of the will, and that beat resistlessly upon our life for good or evil. There is both freedom and law in our life; freedom working within law, along the lines of law. Every human life is a structure like that temple in the prophet's dream. It is built up stone by stone. And every stone has a meaning. It falls into its place in obedience to a law. The design of the structure determines the position of the stone. The building grows according to the law of the design. But what determines the design? Here is where the element of choice comes in. We can choose one design or another. But the design once chosen determines the character of the building. It gives the law of measurement to every stone and door post and pinnacle. It is like a man with a measuring reed standing in the gate. Now there are certain things which, you will agree with me, fall entirely within our choice, which have such power and influence in the shaping of character that they become the measuring reeds of life. They give the design on the lines of which the structure of the life is built. One of these things is a man's estimate of himself. What a man holds himself to be, he tries to be, and in the long run becomes. If he count himself a cur, his life will be a kennel, whatever money he may lavish on it and however richly he may decorate it. If he recognise and hold himself true to a royalty of soul, his life will be a palace. Though it have the dimensions of a hut, and the roof cover but a single room, that room will be a throne chamber. Have you never noticed how Christ, in His effort to lift men to higher levels of life, kept in sight this law? Never was such dignity dreamed for human nature as He gave to it. He called men God's children. And all, that He might win them to a life that had the purity and beauty of God in it, a life that should be worthy of the sons of God. Christ recognised the law: man is the measure of his life. His estimate of his own worth gives the quality of his daily deed and word. The law runs from the sublime heights to which Christ carried it, to the beaten paths where men pass to and fro on the business of the world. If you hold yourself copper, your life will be copper. If you count yourself gold and diamond, your life will be gold and diamond. You must first estimate yourself as something cheap and mean, before you can sell yourself to a cheap and mean sin. But there is another measuring reed of life. As he goes on with the years, every man makes not only an estimate of himself, but also a philosophy of life. If we choose to explain life as a selfish, brutal struggle for existence, as a dull, lingering misery to be borne simply with patience or defiance, as a hunt for pleasurable sensations, as a plot for the mastery of our fellows, as a school for the education of character, as an opportunity of lighting up this earth with something of the life that pulses in the heart of God; in every case, life rises up and answers: "Yes, that is my explanation of myself. I can furnish proofs of your theory. You have translated the cipher on my heart. Take me, read me, treat me as you choose; I will supply you with plenty of facts to substantiate your philosophy of me." Life echoes back our own answer. She comes to us and sits down by us and goes to and fro over our threshold, in the very feature, step, and accent of our theory. The smallest details of life take tone and colour from our creed. Our life makes a constant effort to adjust itself to our theory. How can it be otherwise? Our theory is a measuring reed, with which we stand in the gate, and which we apply to every stone and beam that go into the structure of our life. Is it any wonder that the whole structure is simply a sort of flower, which has blossomed on the stalk of our measuring reed? ( W. W. Battershall, D. D. ) To the intent that I might shew them unto thee. Ezekiel 40:4 A good intent J. Wells. I. THE PURPOSE OF GOD TO STAIN THE PRIDE OF THE GLORY OF ALL FLESH. We may gather some instruction upon this from the 4th chapter of Daniel. The testimony that Nebuchadnezzar himself bore at the last, seems to me to be very expressive, and may be, as it were, put into the mouth of everyone that God has humbled. It is truth that we all do need humbling by the power of God. Happy man you will be if you are brought to nothing. It is one of the hardest things in the world to be nothing — to be nothing but a sinner; not a good thought, not a good word, not a good work, not a single grain or atom of goodness, but a thing of nought altogether. Now God has purposed this; He has purposed to stain the pride of the glory of all flesh; and He has purposed to do so first in mercy, and then He will do so in wrath; that is, those that He does not deal so with in their lifetime as to humble them down that they may receive His truth, He will deal with in wrath at that last great, that tremendous day. Every man's natural spirit is a spirit of ignorance, a spirit of unbelief, a spirit of enmity against God. Wherever true conviction enters, the soul is divided from the spirit of ignorance, and the soul comes into the knowledge of its own condition; the soul is divided from the spirit of unbelief, and comes into the faith of the Gospel; the soul of the man, his immortal soul, is divided from the native enmity of the spirit; for the natural spirit that is in us lusteth to envy, desireth to envy; it is the very desire of it, the very essence of it. Now when God begins His work it severs the soul from this spirit. II. THE PURPOSE OF THE LORD IN BRINGING HIS PEOPLE TO RECEIVE THE TRUTH. If the Lord has thus brought you down far enough, then I will name now the truths that you will be glad to receive. The man that is from his own experience prepared to receive that testimony certainly is not far from the kingdom of God; the man that is prepared from his heart and soul to receive that testimony in the understanding of it, in the love of it, and to abide thereby — there never was one so poor in spirit, there never was one so humbled, there never was one so led, and at the same time lost. If we are really brought down and know our nothingness, our hearts are prepared to receive the testimony in the 1st chapter of Second Timothy. The apostle knew the tendency; he knew that Timothy would get no worldly honour; he knew it would make Timothy rather what they call narrow-minded; he knew it would be offensive to many professors, but he says, "Be not thou ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, His prisoner," as I am a prisoner for that testimony. Now comes what the testimony is. "Who hath saved us" — that is the first thing He did. Believest thou this? Art thou brought down low enough to trace up thy salvation to this Divines this pure and heavenly source? "And called us with an holy calling not according to our works" — no — "but according to His own purpose and grace," etc. There is a clear epitome of the Gospel itself. Doth this offend you, or doth it please you? Are you sorry such testimonies are on record? or can you set your seal to it, that unless you are saved after that Divine order you never can be saved at all? Then, if so, I may apply to you the words here, which the Lord spake to Ezekiel, — "Son of man, behold with thine eyes." So I say to you, — Behold with your eyes; see after what a Divine, see after what a righteous, what a lovely, what a gracious, what a merciful, what a glorious way God hath saved thee. "And hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither." So, poor sinner, you may set your heart upon these truths, and you will never have to take it away again. III. THE SPECIAL PURPOSE OF BRINGING EZEKIEL TO WHERE HE WAS BROUGHT, AS MEANT IN OUR TEXT. Ezekiel was brought to the river of God. First, its source — it came from under the threshold, just the same as we read in the last chapter of the Revelation of a river proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. That river I take to represent the Gospel in the life and blessedness thereof. That is one thing, then — its source. The second is its increase — it went on increasing. And just so the Gospel, in direct contrast, as we sometimes say to this life. For soma of us are getting into the shades a Lit; and this is narrowing and that is .narrowing, and the time is drawing nigh when we shall say we have no pleasure in this life. But, then, there is pleasure there — the river of God's pleasure — and those who drink of that river, "they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing"! Bless the Lord for this. And then mark also the power of this river. There is a lake on the southeastern side of Judea, about forty-five miles long, and from perhaps twelve to fifteen wide; that lake has nothing in it in a way of life. Nothing can live in it; it is so bituminous, so nauseous, and so deadly, that nothing can live in it. Now this river was to turn this lake into a fresh-water lake; for the river was to come down into this Dead Sea, and the waters were to be healed. You can see what that means, can you not? that the souls of men are in a state of death and bitterness. And this water of the Dead Sea, all travellers tell us, is nasty to the last degree to drink; you could hardly be put to a greater punishment than to be obliged to drink half a pint of it; you would not forget it for a twelvemonth. And just so the mind — the soul. Ah, could we see ourselves as God sees us, could we see sin as He sees it, we should indeed stand aghast; for "the heart is," even beyond angelic comprehension, "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Yet these waters were to heal this Dead Sea, turn it into a fresh-water lake. Just so the Gospel comes, destroys the bitterness, destroys all that is unpleasant, and turns the soul into that that is pleasant, to holiness, to righteousness, as pleasant to God as it was before unpleasant. There is another view of the river that I may just name, and that is that on its banks were trees whose leaves faded not, and that brought forth new fruit "according to their months." Let these trees all of them represent Jesus Christ, and let their leaves that never fade represent His promises; and let the fruits that are perennial and immortal represent the blessings that come to us by those promises. ( J. Wells. ) Declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel. Taught that we may teach I. THE MANIFESTATIONS WITH WHICH CERTAIN OF GOD'S SERVANTS ARE FAVOURED. 1. The Lord Jesus Christ does draw near in a very special manner to some of His people. He will show Himself to any of you who seek Him. He will unveil the beauties of His face to every eye that is ready to behold them. There is never a heart that loves Him but He will manifest His love to that heart. But, at the same time, He does favour some of His servants who live near to Him, and who are called by Him to special service, with very remarkable manifestations of His light and glory. 2. These revelations are not incessant. I suppose that no man is always alike. John was in Patmos I know not how long; but he was "in the Spirit on the Lord's day" on one occasion, and he specially notes it. Days of heavenly fellowship are red-letter days, to be remembered so long as memory holds her seat. 3. Yes, and it is noteworthy that the occasion of these manifestations was one of great distress. Saints have seen Jesus oftener on the bed of pain than in robust health. 4. It appears, in this case, that the manifestation to Ezekiel was made when he was put into an elevated condition. God has ways of lifting His people right up, away, away, away from mortal joy or sorrow, care or wish, into the spiritual realm. And then, when the mind has been lifted above its ordinary level, and the faculties are brought up by some divine process into a receptive state, He reveals Himself to us. 5. When He had elevated him thus it appears that He conducted him to certain places, for He says, "For to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither." God's children are brought in experience to unusual places, on purpose that they may get clearer sights of the love and grace and mercy of God in Christ than they could obtain elsewhere. 6. However, it is not outward circumstances that can affect the Divine purpose, there must always be a movement of the Divine Spirit. In the third verse you read, "He brought me there." We never learn a truth inwardly until God brings us to it. We may hear a truth, we ought to be careful that we do not hear anything but the truth; but God must bring that truth home. II. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THESE CHOSEN MEN WHILE THEY ARE THUS FAVOURED. When the Spirit of God favours you with light, mind that you see; and, when there is a sound of grace, mind that you hear. We tell our children to learn their lessons "by heart." If we put the full meaning into that expression, that is the way to learn the things of God. 1. "See with thine eyes." What are the eyes for but to see with? He means this, — look, pry, search with your eyes. Looking to Christ will save you, but it is looking into Christ that gives joy, peace, holiness, heaven. 2. "Hear with thine ears." Well, a man cannot use his ears for any. thing else, can he? Ay, but hear with your ears. Listen with all your might. 3. "Set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee." Oh, but that is the way to learn from God — by loving all that He says — feeling that, whatever God says, it is the thing you want to know. 4. The Lord bids us do this towards all that He shall shew us. "Set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee!" We are to be impartial in our study of the word, and to be universal in its reception. III. WHAT IS GOD'S REASON FOR MANIFESTING HIMSELF TO HIS SERVANTS? The object is this, — "Declare thou all that thou seest to the house of Israel." First, see it yourself, hear it yourself, give your heart to it yourself, and then declare it to the house of Israel. Dear brother, you cannot tell who it may be to whom you are to speak, but this may be your guide: speak about what you have seen and heard to those whom it concerns. Have you been in gloom of mind, and have you been comforted? The first time you meet with a person in that condition, tell out the comfort. Have you felt a great struggle of soul, and have you found rest? Speak of your conflict to a neighbour who is passing through a like struggle. Has God delivered you in the hour of sorrow? Tell that to the next sorrowing person you meet. Ay, but still this is not all your duty. God has shown us His precious word that we may tell it to the house of Israel. Now, the house of Israel were a stiff-necked people, and when Ezekiel went to them, they cast him aside, they would not listen. Yet, he was to go and teach the word to them. We must not say, "I will not speak of Christ to such a one; he would reject it." Do it as a testimony against him, even if you know he will reject it. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) And he brought me by the steps whereby they went up to it. Ezekiel 40:49 The steps of the sanctuary There are no such steps as these to be found anywhere in the world. A step to honour, a step to riches, a step to worldly glory: these are everywhere, but what are these to the steps by which men do ascend to the house of the Lord! He, then, that entereth into the house of the Lord is an ascending man; as it is said of Moses, he went up into the mount of God. It is ascending to go into the house of God. The world believe not this; they think it is going downwards to go up to the house of God. The steps, then, by which men go up into the temple are, and ought to be, opposed to those which men take to their lusts and empty glories. Hence such steps are said not only to decline from God, but to take hold of the path to death and hell ( Psalm 44:18 ; Proverbs 2:18 ). ( John Bunyan . ).

Benson Commentary Ezekiel 40:1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither. Ezekiel 40:1-2 . In the five and twentieth year of our captivity — Of the captivity of those that were carried away with Jehoiachin, eleven years before Jerusalem was taken. In the beginning of the year — In the month Nisan; in the tenth day of the month — The day that the paschal lamb was to be taken up in order to the feast on the fourteenth day; in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten — Zedekiah’s reign commenced from Jehoiachin’s captivity, in the eleventh year of whose reign the city was destroyed, Jeremiah 52:5-6 . So the fourteenth year after its destruction must be coincident with the twenty-fifth of Jehoiachin’s captivity. In the selfsame day the hand of the Lord was upon me, &c. — I was actuated by a divine power, which brought me, in vision, from the land of my captivity to the place where Jerusalem had stood. In the visions of God brought he me — This plainly declares that the prophet was not transported to the land of Israel in body, but only that it appeared to him, in his vision, as if he were transported thither, and things were represented to his mind just the same as if he had been actually there. And set me upon a very high mountain — This expression is thought to point out mount Moriah, on which the temple was built. Or, if that mountain could not properly be so characterized, the prophet’s station may be considered as merely represented in vision, without a corresponding real one. Michaelis thinks nothing more is signified by it “than that Jerusalem, and the true worship of God, should be very much exalted, and made known to all the world.” Or is it not rather so denominated, as representing the seat of the Christian Church, foretold by the prophets to be established on the top of the mountains, Isaiah 2:1 ; Micah 4:1 : compare Revelation 21:10 . By which was the frame of a city — The portrait of a city. By this was signified the temple, on the south of the mountain where the prophet was set, which, with all its courts, buildings, and walls encompassing the courts, and the whole area, or holy mountain, resembled a city for largeness. Ezekiel 40:2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south. Ezekiel 40:3 And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate. Ezekiel 40:3-5 . Behold, there was a man — The same no doubt that appeared to the prophet, Ezekiel 1:20 , (where see the note,) whose name is the Branch, and who builds the temple of the Lord, Zechariah 6:12-13 ; whose appearance was like the appearance of brass — Bright and sparkling, Revelation 1:15 . With a line of flax in his hand — The use of the line was to measure the land of Israel, and of the reed to take the dimensions of the buildings in and about the temple; as also to set out several portions of land belonging to the sanctuary and city, to the prince and people: see the margin. And he stood in the gate — Probably the north gate, being the first entrance the prophet may be supposed to have arrived at, as he came from Chaldea, which lay northward of Judea. Song of Solomon of man, behold, &c., and hear — Take notice of what thou seest, so that thou mayest afterward tell it to thy people. And, behold, a wall on the outside — A wall went round the whole compass, or square, of the holy mountain, whereon the temple was situate, to separate the holy ground from that which was common: see Ezekiel 42:20 . And in the man’s hand a measuring-reed of six cubits long, &c. — Here is explained what sort of a cubit is meant in the following delineation of the temple, namely, one that consisted of six hand-breadths, or one hand-breadth over the cubit used in Chaldea, where he now lived. This is the measure of a Scripture cubit, generally agreed to be equivalent to eighteen inches, or a foot and a half of our measure. See Bishop Cumberland, Of Scripture Weights and Measures, p. 36, &c. According to Michaelis, the Hebrew measures are, 1. The finger’s-breadth: 2. Four fingers, or a hand-breadth: 3. The ell; the smaller of five hand-breadths, the larger of six: 4. The rod, of six ells. He also allows the rabbinical account, that a finger is equal to the length of six barley grains. So he measured the breadth of the building — That is, of the outward wall, which was three yards high, and three yards broad. This wall surrounded a part which corresponded to the court of the Gentiles, and served as a security against the precipices of the mount on which the temple stood. Ezekiel 40:4 And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel. Ezekiel 40:5 And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed. Ezekiel 40:6 Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad. Ezekiel 40:6-8 . Then came he unto the gate, &c. — After having passed the court of the Gentiles, he came to the eastern gate, or the court of Israel. For the temple being placed toward the west part of the holy mountain, as the holy of holies was at the west end of the temple, this was the first gate that led to it, and it opened into the court of the people: see Ezekiel 40:19 . It is called the king’s gate, ( 1 Chronicles 9:18 ,) as being built by King Solomon. And went up the stairs thereof, &c. — He went up the stairs that he might more easily measure the upper lintel, as well as the lower threshold. The word ? Š, translated threshold, signifies the lintel, or upper part of the door-case, as well as the threshold properly so called, or the lower part of it. Some understand the word here of the two side-posts, in which sense it is used Amos 9:1 . And every little chamber, &c. — Along the wall of the porch were chambers, three on each side, Ezekiel 40:10 ; these the angel measured, and they were of equal dimensions, each one reed square, with a passage of five cubits breadth between them. And the threshold of the gate, &c., was one reed — The inward threshold at the further end of the porch, looking into the first court, was of the same size with the outward one, Ezekiel 40:6 . He measured also — Or, he even measured; the porch of the gate within — The words seem to be a repetition of what was said in the latter part of Ezekiel 40:7 . Ezekiel 40:7 And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within was one reed. Ezekiel 40:8 He measured also the porch of the gate within, one reed. Ezekiel 40:9 Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward. Ezekiel 40:9-12 . Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits, &c. — This was a portico beyond the little chambers which looked into the first court. It was eight cubits wide, and the two side-posts were two cubits thick, which made up the ten cubits mentioned Ezekiel 40:11 . And the little chambers of the gate eastward were three, &c. — Or the little chambers of the eastern gate, which he has hitherto been describing, and the form of which is here repeated. These rooms were for the use of the porters that took care of the several gates that led to the temple. And the posts had one measure — The side-posts, or fronts of the doors, belonging to each row of chambers, were of the same size. And the length of the gate thirteen cubits — By the length of the gate, Villalpandus understands the height, which he supposes to have been two reeds, or twelve cubits and a half. The space also before the little chambers was one cubit, &c. — There was a border, or a rail, which enclosed a cubit’s space before each chamber. Ezekiel 40:10 And the little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this side, and three on that side; they three were of one measure: and the posts had one measure on this side and on that side. Ezekiel 40:11 And he measured the breadth of the entry of the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits. Ezekiel 40:12 The space also before the little chambers was one cubit on this side , and the space was one cubit on that side: and the little chambers were six cubits on this side, and six cubits on that side. Ezekiel 40:13 He measured then the gate from the roof of one little chamber to the roof of another: the breadth was five and twenty cubits, door against door. Ezekiel 40:13-14 . He measured then the gate from the roof of one little chamber, &c. — Measuring the arch of the gate from north to south, it was in breadth twenty-five cubits, which is thus computed: the breadth of the gate ten cubits, the breadth of both the side walls thirteen cubits, and two cubits for the space or border on each side of the chambers, Ezekiel 40:12 . Door against door — The door on each chamber exactly answered the door on the opposite side. He made also posts, &c. — He described, or made a delineation of the height of the columns or pillars which were to support the rooms or stories over the arch of the gate; and these were in height sixty cubits. Even unto the posts of the court round about the gate — It is supposed there is an ellipsis in these words, which may be thus supplied: And there was one measure to the pillars of the court, and of the gate round about; which makes the sense run plain and easy. Ezekiel 40:14 He made also posts of threescore cubits, even unto the post of the court round about the gate. Ezekiel 40:15 And from the face of the gate of the entrance unto the face of the porch of the inner gate were fifty cubits. Ezekiel 40:15-16 . And from the face of the gate, &c. — The whole length of the porch, from the outward front unto the inner side, which looked into the first court, was fifty cubits. There were narrow windows to the little chambers, &c. — Every one of these little chambers ( Ezekiel 40:7 ) had a narrow window to it, toward the inside of the gate where the passage was; and so there was over the side-posts or fronts placed at the entrance of every chamber; and likewise to the arches — The word translated arches signifies also a porch, or entrance; and the word being so taken, the sense is, that there was a window over every door. And upon each post were palm-trees — A palm-tree was carved upon the chapiter of each side-post, or front. Ezekiel 40:16 And there were narrow windows to the little chambers, and to their posts within the gate round about, and likewise to the arches: and windows were round about inward: and upon each post were palm trees. Ezekiel 40:17 Then brought he me into the outward court, and, lo, there were chambers, and a pavement made for the court round about: thirty chambers were upon the pavement. Ezekiel 40:17 . Then brought he me into the outward court — There were two courts belonging to Solomon’s temple; the outward for the people, the inward for the priests. It is probable that Solomon built only the inner court: see 1 Kings 6:36 , compared with chap. 1 Kings 8:64 : and that the outer court was built after his time, whereupon it is called the new court, ( 2 Chronicles 20:5 ,) after which time there is particular mention of the two courts of the house of the Lord, 2 Kings 21:5 . A third court, called the court of the Gentiles, was afterward added by Herod, when he rebuilt the temple. And lo, there were chambers — These chambers were over the cloister, and supported by it: see Ezekiel 40:14 , and Ezekiel 42:8 . They might be for the use of the priests, and likewise store-houses for tithes and offerings: see 1 Chronicles 28:12 . And a pavement made for the court round about — A beautiful floor made with checker-work. The whole floor of this court was thus paved. Thirty chambers were upon the pavement — That is, fifteen on the south side of the gate, and fifteen on the north side, built over the pavement. Ezekiel 40:18 And the pavement by the side of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement. Ezekiel 40:19 Then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower gate unto the forefront of the inner court without, an hundred cubits eastward and northward. Ezekiel 40:19 . Then he measured the breadth, &c., a hundred cubits eastward and northward — He measured the whole space of ground between the west front of the lower gate, (namely, the gate at the east end of the outer court,) and the east front of the upper gate, which led into the inner court, and found it a hundred cubits; the same was the space between the south front and the north front: so the court was exactly square. The expression is elliptical; as if he had said, There were a hundred cubits from west to east, and from north to south. It must be observed, the gate at the east end of the outer court is called the lower gate, for the same reason as the pavement is called the lower pavement, Ezekiel 40:18 ; because there was still an ascent, as a person went from one court to the other. Ezekiel 40:20 And the gate of the outward court that looked toward the north, he measured the length thereof, and the breadth thereof. Ezekiel 40:21 And the little chambers thereof were three on this side and three on that side; and the posts thereof and the arches thereof were after the measure of the first gate: the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits. Ezekiel 40:22 And their windows, and their arches, and their palm trees, were after the measure of the gate that looketh toward the east; and they went up unto it by seven steps; and the arches thereof were before them. Ezekiel 40:23 And the gate of the inner court was over against the gate toward the north, and toward the east; and he measured from gate to gate an hundred cubits. Ezekiel 40:23 . The gate of the inner court was over against the gate toward the north, &c. — The words may be translated more intelligibly thus: And the gate of the inner court was proportionable, or answerable, to the gate that was toward the north and toward the east. The expression is elliptical, like that of Ezekiel 40:19 , and the full import of it is, that the north gate of the inner court did exactly answer this north gate of the outer court, described Ezekiel 40:20 ; Ezekiel 40:22 . And in like manner the east gate of the inner court answered the east gate of the outward court. Ezekiel 40:24 After that he brought me toward the south, and behold a gate toward the south: and he measured the posts thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures. Ezekiel 40:24-26 . After that he brought me to the south, &c. — The prophet having shown, by way of parenthesis, in the 23d verse, the exact correspondence between the gates of both courts, proceeds in these three verses to describe the south gate of the outer court, by the same dimensions he had before given of the east and north gate. Ezekiel 40:25 And there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about, like those windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits. Ezekiel 40:26 And there were seven steps to go up to it, and the arches thereof were before them: and it had palm trees, one on this side, and another on that side, upon the posts thereof. Ezekiel 40:27 And there was a gate in the inner court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south an hundred cubits. Ezekiel 40:27-31 . And there was a gate in the inner court toward the south — The south gate in the inner court was exactly parallel to the south gate in the outer court: see Ezekiel 40:23 . And he brought me to the inner court by the south gate — Those who maintain that the outer court enclosed the inner on the east, north, and south sides, explain these words in this sense, that the prophet was conducted from the south gate of the outer court, Ezekiel 40:24 , to the south gate of the inner court, which was over against it, and so into the inner court itself. And he measured the south gate, &c. — After he had measured the inner court, he took the dimensions of the south gate itself, and the chambers thereto belonging, and found them of the same dimensions with the former. The arches five and twenty cubits long, &c. — Length is here taken for height, as before, Ezekiel 40:11 . The words express the dimensions of those arches which were between the several little chambers, between each of which there was a space of five cubits, Ezekiel 40:7 . The arches were toward the outer court — Or, were like [those of] the outer court. Ezekiel 40:28 And he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these measures; Ezekiel 40:29 And the little chambers thereof, and the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, according to these measures: and there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about: it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad. Ezekiel 40:30 And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits long, and five cubits broad. Ezekiel 40:31 And the arches thereof were toward the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof: and the going up to it had eight steps. Ezekiel 40:32 And he brought me into the inner court toward the east: and he measured the gate according to these measures. Ezekiel 40:33 And the little chambers thereof, and the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, were according to these measures: and there were windows therein and in the arches thereof round about: it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad. Ezekiel 40:34 And the arches thereof were toward the outward court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going up to it had eight steps. Ezekiel 40:35 And he brought me to the north gate, and measured it according to these measures; Ezekiel 40:36 The little chambers thereof, the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, and the windows to it round about: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits. Ezekiel 40:37 And the posts thereof were toward the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going up to it had eight steps. Ezekiel 40:38 And the chambers and the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering. Ezekiel 40:38 . And the chambers were by the gates where they washed the burnt-offerings — The chambers, mentioned Ezekiel 40:36 , were near the entrance of the north gate, where they washed the legs and entrails of the burnt-offerings; and marble tables were placed there for that purpose. According to this exposition, the word gates in the plural stands for gate in the singular. But Dr. Lightfoot says, they washed the sacrifices on the south side, as well as on the north side of the court of the priests, when the sacrifices were more numerous than the north side could well contain: he therefore understands the word gates as comprehending here both the north and south gate, and confirms this interpretation from the placing of the lavers which were designed for that use, and were set five on the right side of the house, and five on the left, 1 Kings 7:39 . Ezekiel 40:39 And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to slay thereon the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering. Ezekiel 40:39-40 . In the porch of the gate were two tables, &c. — Those expositors who, by the word gates, in Ezekiel 40:38 , understand both the north and south gates, render the sense of these two verses perspicuously thus: In the porch of one gate (namely, that on the south) were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, &c. And at the outer side of the step of the entry of the north gate were two tables; which interpretation agrees very well with what follows, Ezekiel 40:41 , Four tables were on this side, and four on that side. But they that understand these verses to be only a description of the north gate (on which side of the altar the sacrifices were commonly killed) suppose that two tables were on each side, as a person came into the porch of the gate, and two on each side of the inner part of the gate that looked toward the altar. Ezekiel 40:40 And at the side without, as one goeth up to the entry of the north gate, were two tables; and on the other side, which was at the porch of the gate, were two tables. Ezekiel 40:41 Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they slew their sacrifices . Ezekiel 40:42 And the four tables were of hewn stone for the burnt offering, of a cubit and an half long, and a cubit and an half broad, and one cubit high: whereupon also they laid the instruments wherewith they slew the burnt offering and the sacrifice. Ezekiel 40:43 And within were hooks, an hand broad, fastened round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering. Ezekiel 40:43 . Within were hooks, a hand broad, fastened round about — Within the gate, or entrance, on the north side of the inner court, were iron hooks, for the hanging up the beasts that were to be sacrificed, in order to the flaying off their skins. And upon the tables was the flesh, &c. — Or, they laid the flesh of the offering; upon the marble tables the priests laid the flesh of the slain beasts, which they cut in pieces, and fitted for the altar: see Leviticus 1:6 . Ezekiel 40:44 And without the inner gate were the chambers of the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south: one at the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north. Ezekiel 40:44-47 . And without the inner gate, &c. — Houbigant, following the LXX., translates this verse thus: And he brought me to the inner gate, where there were two chambers in the inner court; one at the northern side of the gate which looked to the south; the other at the southern side of the gate which looked to the north. And he said, This chamber, whose prospect is toward the south, is for the priests — The word chamber may stand for chambers in the plural, (as side-chamber doth, Ezekiel 41:5-9 ,) and signify a row of buildings on the north side of the inner court, distinct from the chambers of the singers, Ezekiel 40:44 , and designed for the use of the priests, who were in constant attendance, according to their courses, upon the service of the temple: see the margin. The keepers of the charge of the house — They took care of the holy vessels, and kept constant watch and ward about the temple. The word priests may include Levites under it, as Levites elsewhere comprehends priests. And the chamber whose prospect is toward the north, &c. — Another row of chambers on the south side of the inner court, is for the descendants of Aaron, whose office it is to attend upon the service of the altar, and keep the fire burning thereon perpetually. These are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi — The family of Zadok is only taken notice of in this vision; it may be for this reason, because they kept close to the worship of God, when the priests of Ithamar’s line forsook it, and fell into idolatry. The altar that was before the house — Or rather, The altar was before the house; that is, stood in the inner court, just before the porch that opened into the temple. The altar was not now measured, the measure of it being described afterward. Ezekiel 40:45 And he said unto me, This chamber, whose prospect is toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the house. Ezekiel 40:46 And the chamber whose prospect is toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, which come near to the LORD to minister unto him. Ezekiel 40:47 So he measured the court, an hundred cubits long, and an hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar that was before the house. Ezekiel 40:48 And he brought me to the porch of the house, and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side. Ezekiel 40:48-49 . And measured each post of the porch — By the posts are meant the side-posts, or columns, on each side of the door of entrance: see Ezekiel 40:9 ; these were measured to be five cubits thick, both on the north and south sides. And the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side, &c. — “Two doors, of three cubits wide, opening each way, formed the entrance; these, with five on each side, called the posts of the porch, amount to sixteen cubits; and the other four may be supposed to have been the distance from these posts to the outside of the walls of the temple.” — Scott. Ezekiel 40:49 The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits; and he brought me by the steps whereby they went up to it: and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and another on that side. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Ezekiel 40:1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither. THE IMPORT OF THE VISION WE have now reached the last and in every way the most important section of the book of Ezekiel. The nine concluding chapters record what was evidently the crowning experience of the prophet’s life. His ministry began with a vision of God; it culminates in a vision of the people of God, or rather of God in the midst of His people, reconciled to them, ruling over them, and imparting the blessings and glories of the final dispensation. Into that vision are thrown the ideals which had been gradually matured through twenty years of strenuous action and intense meditation. We have traced some of the steps by which the prophet was led towards this consummation of his work. We have seen how, under the idea of God which had been revealed to him, he was constrained to announce the destruction of that which called itself the people of Jehovah, but was in reality the means of obscuring His character and profaning His holiness (chapters 4-24). We have seen further how the same fundamental conception led him on in his prophecies against foreign nations to predict a great clearing of the stage of history for the manifestation of Jehovah (chapters 25-32). And we have seen from the preceding section what are the processes by which the divine Spirit breathes new life into a dead nation and creates out of its scattered members a people worthy of the God whom the prophet has seen. But there is still something more to accomplish before his task is finished. All through, Ezekiel holds fast the truth that Jehovah and Israel are necessarily related to each other, and that Israel is to be the medium through which alone the nature of Jehovah can be fully disclosed to mankind. It remains, therefore, to sketch the outline of a perfect theocracy - in other words, to describe the permanent forms and institutions which shall express the ideal relation between God and men. To this task the prophet addresses himself in the chapters now before us. That great New Year’s Vision may be regarded as the ripe fruit of all God’s training of His prophet, as it is also the part of Ezekiel’s work which most directly influenced the subsequent development of religion in Israel. It cannot be doubted, then, that these chapters are an integral part of the book, considered as a record of Ezekiel’s work. But it is certainly a significant circumstance that they are separated from the body of the prophecies by an interval of thirteen years. For the greater part of that time Ezekiel’s literary activity was suspended. It is probable, at all events, that the first thirty-nine chapters had been committed to writing soon after the latest date they mentioned, and that the oracle on Gog, which marks the extreme limit of Ezekiel’s prophetic vision, was really the conclusion of an earlier form of the book. And we may be certain that, since the eventful period that followed the arrival of the fugitive from Jerusalem, no new divine communication had visited the prophet’s mind. But at last, in the twenty-fifth year of the captivity, and on the first day of a new year, he falls into a trance more prolonged than any he had yet passed through, and he emerged from it with a new message for his people. In what direction were the prophet’s thoughts moving as Israel passed into the midnight of her exile? That they have moved in the interval-that his standpoint is no longer quite identical with that represented in his earlier prophecies-seems to be shown by one slight modification of his previous conceptions, which has been already mentioned. I refer to the position of the prince in the theocratic state. We find that the king is still the civil head of the commonwealth, but that his position is hardly reconcilable with the exalted functions assigned to the Messianic king in chapter 34. The inference seems irresistible that Ezekiel’s point of view has somewhat changed, so that the objects in his picture present themselves in a different perspective. It is true that this change was effected by a vision, and it may be said that that fact forbids our regarding it as indicating a progress in Ezekiel’s thoughts. But the vision of a prophet is never out of relation to his previous thinking. The prophet is always prepared for his vision; it comes to him as the answer to questions, as the solution of difficulties, whose force he has felt, and apart from which it would convey no revelation of God to his mind. It marks the point at which reflection gives place to inspiration, where the incommunicable certainty of the divine word lifts the soul into the region of spiritual and eternal truth. And hence it may help us, from our human point of view, to understand the true import of this vision, if from the answer we try to discover the questions which were of pressing interest to Ezekiel in the later part of his career. Speaking generally, we may say that the problem that occupied the mind of Ezekiel at this time was the problem of a religious constitution. How to secure for religion its true place in public life, how to embody it in institutions which shall conserve its essential ideas and transmit them from one generation to another, how a people may best express its national responsibility to God-these and many kindred questions are real and vital today amongst the nations of Christendom, and they were far more vital in the age of Ezekiel. The conception of religion as an inward spiritual power, moulding the life of the nation and of each individual member, was at least as strong in him as in any other prophet; and it had been adequately expressed in the section of his book dealing with the formation of the new Israel. But he saw that this was not for that time sufficient. The mass of the community were dependent on the educative influence of the institutions under which they lived, and there was no way of impressing on a whole people the character of Jehovah except through a system of laws and observances which should constantly exhibit it to their minds. The time was not yet come when religion could be trusted to work as a hidden leaven, transforming life from within and bringing in the kingdom of God silently by the operation of spiritual forces. Thus, while the last section insists on the moral change that must pass over Israel, and the need of a direct influence from God on the heart of the people, that which now lies before us is devoted to the religious and political arrangements by which the sanctity of the nation must be preserved. Starting from this general notion of what the prophet sought, we can see, in the next place, that his attention must be mainly concentrated on matters belonging to public worship and ritual. Worship is the direct expression in word and act of man’s attitude to God, and no public religion can maintain a higher level of spirituality than the symbolism which gives it a place in the life of the people. That fact had been abundantly illustrated by the experience of centuries before the Exile. The popular worship had always been a stronghold of false religion in Israel. The high places were the nurseries of all the corruptions against which the prophets had to contend, not simply because of the immoral elements that mingled with their worship, but because the worship itself was regulated by conceptions of the deity which were opposed to the religion of revelation. Now the idea of using ritual as a vehicle of the highest spiritual truth is certainly not peculiar to Ezekiel’s vision. But it is there carried through with a thoroughness which has no parallel elsewhere except in the priestly legislation of the Pentateuch. And this bears witness to a clear perception on the part of the prophet of the value of that whole side of things for the future development of religion in Israel. No one was more deeply impressed with the evils that had flowed from a corrupt ritual in the past, and he conceives the final form of the kingdom of God to be one in which the blessings of salvation are safeguarded by a carefully regulated system of religious ordinances. It will become manifest as we proceed that he regards the Temple ritual as the very centre of theocratic life, and the highest function of the community of the true religion. But Ezekiel was prepared for the reception of this vision, not only by the practical reforming bent of his mind, but also by a combination in his own experience of the two elements which must always enter into a conception of this nature. If we may employ philosophical language to express a very obvious distinction, we have to recognise in the vision a material and a formal element. The matter of the vision is derived from the ancient religious and political constitution of the Hebrew state. All true and lasting reformations are conservative at heart; their object never is to make a clean sweep of the past, but so to modify what is traditional as to adapt it to the needs of a new era. Now Ezekiel was a priest, and possessed all a priest’s reverence for antiquity, as well as a priest’s professional knowledge of ceremonial and of consuetudinary law. No man could have been better fitted than he to secure the continuity of Israel’s religious life along the particular line on which it was destined to move. Accordingly we find that the new theocracy is modelled from beginning to end after the pattern of the ancient institutions which had been destroyed by the Exile. If we ask, for example, what is the meaning of some detail of the Temple building, such as the cells surrounding the main sanctuary, the obvious and sufficient answer is that these things existed in Solomon’s Temple, and there was no reason for altering them. On the other hand, whenever we find the vision departing from what had been traditionally established, we may be sure that there is a reason for it, and in most cases we can see what that reason was. In such departures we recognise the working of what we have called the formal element of the vision, the moulding influence of the ideas which the system was intended to express. What these ideas were we shall consider in subsequent chapters; here it is enough to say that they were the fundamental ideas which had been communicated to Ezekiel in the course of his prophetic work, and which have found expression in various forms in other parts of his writings. That they are not peculiar to Ezekiel, but are shared by other prophets, is true, just as it is true on the other hand that the priestly conceptions which occupy so large a place in his mind were an inheritance from the whole past history of the nation. Nor was this the first time when an alliance between the ceremonialism of the priesthood and the more ethical and spiritual teaching of prophecy had proved of the utmost advantage to the religious life of Israel. The unique importance of Ezekiel’s vision lies in the fact that the great development of prophecy was now almost complete, and that the time was come for its results to be embodied in institutions which were in the main of a priestly character. And it was fitting that this new era of religion should be inaugurated through the agency of one who combined in his own person the conservative instincts of the priest with the originality and the spiritual intuition of the prophet. It is not suggested for a moment that these considerations account for the inception of the vision in the prophet’s mind. We are not to regard it as merely the brilliant device of an ingenious man, who was exceptionally qualified to read the signs of the times, and to discover a solution for a pressing religious problem. In order that it might accomplish the end in view, it was absolutely necessary that it should be invested with a supernatural sanction and bear the stamp of divine authority. Ezekiel himself was well aware of this, and would never have ventured to publish his vision if he had thought it all out for himself. He had to wait for the time when "the hand of the Lord was upon him," and he saw in vision the new Temple and the river of life proceeding from it, and the renovated land, and the glory of God taking up its everlasting abode in the midst of His people. Until that moment arrived he was without a message as to the form which the life of the restored Israel must assume. Nevertheless the psychological conditions of the vision were contained in those parts of the prophet’s experience which have just been indicated. Processes of thought which had long occupied his mind suddenly crystallised at the touch of the divine hand, and the result was the marvellous conception of a theocratic state which was Ezekiel’s greatest legacy to the faith and hopes of his countrymen. That this vision of Ezekiel’s profoundly influenced the development of post-exilic Judaism may be inferred from the fact that all the best tendencies of the restoration period were towards the realisation of the ideals which the vision sets forth with surpassing clearness. It is impossible, indeed, to say precisely how far Ezekiel’s influence extended, or how far the returning exiles consciously aimed at carrying out the ideas contained in his sketch of a theocratic constitution. That they did so to some extent is inferred from a consideration of some of the arrangements established in Jerusalem soon after the return from Babylon. But it is certain that from the nature of the case the actual institutions of the restored community must have differed very widely in many points from those described in the last nine chapters of Ezekiel. When we look more closely at the composition of this vision, we see that it contains features which neither then nor at any subsequent time have been historically fulfilled. The most remarkable thing about it is that it unites in one picture two characteristics which seem at first sight difficult to combine. On the one hand it bears the aspect of a rigid legislative system intended to regulate human conduct in all matters of vital moment to the religious standing of the community; on the other hand it assumes a miraculous transformation of the physical aspect of the country, a restoration of all the twelve tribes of Israel under a native king, and a return of Jehovah in visible glory to dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever. Now these supernatural conditions of the perfect theocracy could not be realised by any effort on the part of the people, and as a matter of fact were never literally fulfilled at all. It must have been plain to the leaders of the Return that for this reason alone the details of Ezekiel’s legislation were not binding for them in the actual circumstances in which they were placed. Even in matters clearly within the province of human administration we know that they considered themselves free to modify his regulations in accordance with the requirements of the situation in which they found themselves. It does not follow from this, however, that they were ignorant of the book of Ezekiel, or that it gave them no help in the difficult task to which they addressed themselves. It furnished them with an ideal of national holiness, and the general outline of a constitution in which that ideal should be embodied; and this outline they seem to have striven to fill up in the way best adapted to the straitened and discouraging circumstances of the time. But this throws us back on some questions of fundamental importance for the right understanding of Ezekiel’s vision. Taking the vision as a whole, we have to ask whether a fulfilment of the kind just indicated was the fulfilment that the prophet himself anticipated. Did he lay stress on the legislative or the supernatural aspect of the vision-on man’s agency or on God’s? In other words, does he issue it as a programme to be carried out by the people as soon as the opportunity is presented by their return to the land of Canaan? or does he mean that Jehovah Himself must take the initiative by miraculously preparing the land for their reception, and taking up His abode in the finished Temple, the "place of His throne, and the place of the soles of His feet"? The answer to that question is not difficult, if only we are careful to look at things from the prophet’s point of view, and disregard the historical events in which his predictions were partly realised. It is frequently assumed that the elaborate description of the Temple buildings in chapters 40-42 is intended as a guide to the builders of the second Temple, who are to make it after the fashion of that which the prophet saw on the mount. It is quite probable that in some degree it may have served that purpose; but it seems to me that this view is not in keeping with the fundamental idea of the vision. The Temple that Ezekiel saw, and the only one of which he speaks, is a house not made with hands; it is as much a part of the supernatural preparation for the future theocracy as the "very high mountain" on which it stands, or the river that flows from it to sweeten the waters of the Dead Sea. In the important passage where the prophet is commanded to exhibit the plan of the house to the children of Israel, { Ezekiel 43:10-11 } there is unfortunately a discrepancy between the Hebrew and Greek texts which throws some obscurity on this particular point. According to the Hebrew there can hardly be a doubt that a sketch is shown to them which is to be used as a builder’s plan at the time of the Restoration. But in the Septuagint, which seems on the whole to give a more correct text, the passage runs thus: "And, thou son of man, describe the house to the house of Israel (and let them be ashamed of their iniquities), and its form, and its construction: and they shall be ashamed of all that they have done. And do thou sketch the house, and its exits, and its outline; and all its ordinances and all its laws make known to them; and write it before them, that they may keep all its commandments and all its ordinances, and do them." There is nothing here to suggest that the construction of the Temple was left for human workmanship. The outline of it is shown to the people only that they may be ashamed of all their iniquities. When the arrangements of the ideal Temple are explained to them, they will see how far those of the first Temple transgressed the requirements of Jehovah’s holiness, and this knowledge will produce a sense of shame for the dulness of heart which tolerated so many abuses in connection with His worship. No doubt that impression sank deep into the minds of Ezekiel’s hearers, and led to certain important modifications in the structure of the Temple when it had to be built; but that is not what the prophet is thinking of. At the same time we see clearly that he is very much in earnest with the legislative part of his vision. Its laws are real laws, and are given that they may be obeyed-only they do not come into force until all the institutions of the theocracy, natural and supernatural alike, are in full working order. And apart from the doubtful question as to the erection of the Temple, that general conclusion holds good for the vision as a whole. Whilst it is pervaded throughout by the legislative spirit, the miraculous features are after all its central and essential elements. When these conditions are realised, it will be the duty of Israel to guard her sacred institutions by the most scrupulous and devoted obedience; but till then there is no kingdom of God established on earth, and therefore no system of laws to conserve a state of salvation, which can only be brought about by the direct and visible interposition of the Almighty in the sphere of nature and history. This blending of seemingly incongruous elements reveals to us the true character of the vision with which we have to deal. It is in the strictest sense a Messianic prophecy-that is, a picture of the kingdom of God in its final state as the prophet was led to conceive it. It is common to all such representations that the human authors of them have no idea of a long historical development gradually leading up to the perfect manifestation of God’s purpose with the world. The impending crisis in the affairs of the people of Israel is always regarded as the consummation of human history and the establishment of God’s kingdom in the plenitude of its power and glory. In the time of Ezekiel the next step in the unfolding of the divine plan of redemption was the restoration of Israel to its own land; and in so far as his vision is a prophecy of that event, it was realised in the return of the exiles with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus. But to the mind of Ezekiel this did not present itself as a mere step towards something immeasurably higher in the remote future. It is to include everything necessary for the complete and final inbringing of the Messianic dispensation, and all the powers of the world to come are to be displayed in the acts by which Jehovah brings back the scattered members of Israel to the enjoyment of blessedness in His own presence. The thing that misleads us as to the real nature of the vision is the emphasis laid on matters which seem to us of merely temporal and earthly significance. We are apt to think that what we have before us can be nothing else than a legislative scheme to be carried out more or less fully in the new state that should arise after the Exile. The miraculous features in the vision are apt to be dismissed as mere symbolisms to which no great significance attaches. Legislating for the millennium seems to us a strange occupation for a prophet, and we are hardly prepared to credit even Ezekiel with so bold a conception. But that depends entirely on his idea of what the millennium will be. If it is to be a state of things in which religious institutions are of vital importance for the maintenance of the spiritual interests of the community of the people of God, then legislation is the natural expression for the ideals which are to be realised in it. And we must remember, too, that what we have to do with is a vision. Ezekiel is not the ultimate source of this legislation, however much it may bear the impress of his individual experience. He has seen the city of God, and all the minute and elaborate regulations with which these nine chapters are filled are but the exposition of principles that determine the character of a people amongst whom Jehovah can dwell. At the same time we see that a separation of different aspects of the vision was inevitably effected by the teaching of history. The return from Babylon was accomplished without any of those supernatural adjuncts with which it had been invested in the rapt imagination of the prophet. No transformation of the land preceded it; no visible presence of Jehovah welcomed the exiles back to their ancient abode. They found Jerusalem in ruins, the holy and beautiful house a desolation, the land occupied by aliens, the seasons unproductive as of old. Yet in the hearts of these men there was a vision even more impressive, than that of Ezekiel in his solitude. To lay the foundations of a theocratic state in the dreary, discouraging daylight of the present was an act of faith as heroic as has ever been performed in the history of religion. The building of the Temple was undertaken amidst many difficulties, the ritual was organised, the rudiments of a religious constitution appeared, and in all this we see the influence of those principles of national holiness that had been formulated by Ezekiel. But the crowning manifestation of Jehovah’s glory was deferred. Prophet after prophet appeared to keep alive the hope that this Temple, poor in outward appearance as it was, would yet be the centre of a new world, and the dwelling-place of the Eternal. Centuries rolled past, and still Jehovah did not come to His Temple, and the eschatological features which had bulked so largely in Ezekiel’s vision remained an unfulfilled aspiration. And when at length in the fulness of time the complete revelation of God was given, it was in a form that superseded the old economy entirely, and transformed its most stable and cherished institutions into adumbrations of a spiritual kingdom which knew no earthly Temple and had need of none. This brings us to the most difficult and most important of all the questions arising in connection with Ezekiel’s vision-What is its relation to the Pentateuchal Legislation? It is obvious at once that the significance of this section of the book of Ezekiel is immensely enhanced if we accept the conclusion to which the critical study of the Old Testament has been steadily driven, that in the chapters before us we have the first outline of that great conception of a theocratic constitution which attained its finished expression in the priestly regulations of the middle books of the Pentateuch. The discussion of this subject is so intricate, so far-reaching in its consequences, and ranges over so wide a historical field, that one is tempted to leave it in the hands of those who have addressed themselves to its special treatment, and to try to get on as best one may without assuming a definite attitude on one side or the other. But the student of Ezekiel cannot altogether evade it. Again and again the question will force itself on him as he seeks to ascertain the meaning of the various details of Ezekiel’s legislation, How does this stand related to corresponding requirements in the Mosaic law? It is necessary, therefore, in justice to the reader of the following pages, that an attempt should be made, however imperfectly, to indicate the position which the present phase of criticism assigns to Ezekiel in the history of the Old Testament legislation. We may begin by pointing out the kind of difficulty that is felt to arise on the supposition that Ezekiel had before him the entire body of laws contained in our present Pentateuch. We should expect in that case that the prophet would contemplate a restoration of the divine institutions established under Moses, and that his vision would reproduce with substantial fidelity the minute provisions of the law by which these institutions were to be maintained. But this is very far from being the case. It is found that while Ezekiel deals to a large extent with the subjects for which provision is made by the law, there is in no instance perfect correspondence between the enactments of the vision and those of’ the Pentateuch, while on some points they differ very materially from one another. How are we to account for these numerous and, on the supposition, evidently designed divergencies? It has been suggested that the law was found to be in some respects unsuitable to the state of things that would arise, after the Exile, and that Ezekiel in the exercise of his prophetic authority undertook to adapt it to the conditions of a late age. The suggestion is in itself plausible, but it is not confirmed by the history. For it is agreed on all hands that the law as a whole had never been put in force for any considerable period of Israel’s history previous to the Exile. On the other hand, if we suppose that Ezekiel judged its provisions unsuitable for the circumstances that would emerge after the Exile, we are confronted by the fact that where Ezekiel’s legislation differs from that of the Pentateuch it is the latter and not the former that regulated the practice of the post-exilic community. So far was the law from being out of date in the age of Ezekiel that the time was only approaching when the first effort would be made to accept it in all its length and breadth as the authoritative basis of an actual theocratic polity. Unless, therefore, we are to hold that the legislation of the vision is entirely in the air, and that it takes no account whatever of practical considerations, we must feel that a certain difficulty is presented by its unexplained deviations from the carefully drawn ordinances of the Pentateuch. But this is not all. The Pentateuch itself is not a unity. It consists of different strata of legislation which, while irreconcilable in details, are held to exhibit a continuous progress towards a clearer definition of the duties that devolve on different classes in the community, and a fuller exposition of the principles that underlay the system from the beginning. The analysis of the Mosaic writings into different legislative codes has resulted in a scheme which in its main outlines is now accepted by critics of all shades of opinion. The three great codes which we have to distinguish are: (1) the so-called Book of the Covenant; ( Exodus 20:24 - Exodus 23:1-33 , with which may be classed the closely allied code of Exodus 34:10-28 ) (2) the Book of Deuteronomy; and (3) the Priestly Code (found in Exodus 25:1-40 ; Exodus 26:1-37 ; Exodus 27:1-21 ; Exodus 28:1-43 ; Exodus 29:1-46 ; Exodus 30:1-38 ; Exodus 31:1-18 ; Exodus 35:1-35 ; Exodus 36:1-38 ; Exodus 37:1-29 ; Exodus 38:1-31 ; Exodus 39:1-43 ; Exodus 40:1-38 , the whole book of Leviticus, and nearly the whole of the book of Numbers). Now of course the mere separation of these different documents tells us nothing, or not much, as to their relative priority or antiquity. But we possess at least a certain amount of historical and independent evidence as to the times when some of them became operative in the actual life of the nation. We know, for example, that the Book of Deuteronomy attained the force of statute law under the most solemn circumstances by a national covenant in the eighteenth year of Josiah. The distinctive feature of that book is its impressive enforcement of the principle that there is but one sanctuary at which Jehovah can be legitimately worshipped. When we compare the list of reforms carried out by Josiah, as given in the twenty-third chapter of 2 Kings, with the provisions of Deuteronomy, we see that it must have been that book and it alone that had been found in the Temple and that governed the reforming policy of the king. Before that time the law of the one sanctuary, if it was known at all, was certainly more honoured in the breach than the observance. Sacrifices were freely offered at local altars throughout the country, not merely by the ignorant common people and idolatrous kings, but by men who were the inspired religious leaders and teachers of the nation. Not only so, but this practice is sanctioned by the Book of the Covenant, which permits the erection of an altar in every place where Jehovah causes His name to be remembered, and only lays down injunctions as to the kind of altar that might be used. { Exodus 20:24-26 } The evidence is thus very strong that the Book of Deuteronomy, at whatever time it may have been written, had not the force of public law until the year 621 B.C., and that down to that time the accepted and authoritative expression of the divine will for Israel was the law embraced in the Book of the Covenant. To find similar evidence of the practical adoption of the Priestly Code we have to come down to a much later period. It is not till the year 444 B.C., in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, that we read of the people pledging themselves by a solemn covenant to the observance of regulations which are clearly those of the finished system of Pentateuchal law. { Nehemiah 8:1-18 ; Nehemiah 9:1-38 ; Nehemiah 10:1-39 } It is there expressly stated that this law had not been observed in Israel up to that time, { Nehemiah 9:34 } and in particular that the great Feast of Tabernacles had not been celebrated in accordance with the requirements of the law since the days of Joshua. { Nehemiah 8:17 } This is quite conclusive as to actual practice in Israel; and the fact that the observance of the law was thus introduced by instalments, and on occasions of epoch-making importance in the history of the community, raises a strong presumption against the hypothesis that the Pentateuch was an inseparable literary unit, which must be known in its entirety where it was known at all. Now the date of Ezekiel’s vision (572) lies between these two historic transactions-the inauguration of the law of Deuteronomy in 621, and that of the Priestly Code in 444; and in spite of the ideal character which belongs to the vision as a whole, it contains a system of legislation which admits of being compared point by point with the provisions of the other two codes on a variety of subjects common to all three. Some of the results of this comparison will appear as we proceed with the exposit