Various ordinances A. M. 3430. Olymp. LI. 3. Anno Servii Tullii, R. Roman., 5. CHAP. XLV. с f and regulations. sanctuary, unto the inner court, and every dedicated thing in 28 And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession. 30 And the first of all the first-fruits of all things, and every A. M. 3430. B. C. 574. Olymp. LI. 3. Anno Servii Tullii, R. Roman., 5. oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house. 1 sidered as the Lord's property, and these he gave to them; and this is always implied in the Lord's being their inheritance and their possession. They had a plentiful support. parish; but these matters have undergone such alterations since the time of their institution, that some emendation of the system is at present absolutely necessary. Verse 28. I am their inheritance] Those who affect to form their ecclesiastical matters on the model of the Jewish Church have with one consent left this out of Hitherto tithes have been thought the best mode of the question. They will not live on the free-will of-paying the clergy, and providing for the poor of each ferings of the people; but must have vast revenues, and these secured to them by law. That every minister of God should be supported by the altar I grant; but I think, instead of that method of paying the parochial clergy which I see is so much objected to, and breeds so much dissension between the pastors and their flocks, it would be better, on these accounts, to assign them a portion of land adequate to their supply, or let the state maintain them as it does its other officers. In Israel God was their inheritance and their possession; but they had the breast and shoulder of all sin-offerings and trespass-offerings, and all dedicated things were theirs; and they had a portion of all the dough that was prepared for bread. These were con There should be a public acknowledgment of God in every nation, and this should be provided for by the state in a way the least burdensome to the people, that all may rejoice in the benefit. Happy the nations that have a Bible so correct, and a Liturgy so pure, as those in the British empire! In such cases, a religion established by the state is an unutterable blessing to the nation; only keep it to the Bible, and to the Liturgy, and all, under God, will be well; but when the sermon is against these, all is bad. CHAPTER XLV. The several portions of land appointed for the sanctuary, 1–5, the city, 6, and the prince, 7, 8. Regulations concerning the weights and measures, 9-12; with ordinances respecting the provisions for the ordinary and extraordinary sacrifices, 13-25. Various ordinances A. M. 3430. B. C. 574. Olymp. LI. 3. Anno Servii Tullii, EZEKIEL. GOD." q and regulations. Lord 10 Ye shall have just 'balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. the length of five and twenty take away your exactions from thousand, and the breadth of ten my people, saith the thousand: and in it shall be the R. Roman., 5. sanctuary and the most holy place. 4 The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the LORD and it shall be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 i And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth, shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers. k 6 And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over against the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel. 7 m And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border. 8 In the land shall be his possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes. 9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, Chap. xlviii. 10. Ver. 1; chap. xlviii. 10, &c.i Chap. xlviii. 13. See chap. xl. 17.- Chap. xlviii. 15.- - Ch. Chap. xlvi. 18; see Jer. xxii. 17; chap. xxii. 27. • Chap. xliv. 6.— Jer. xxii. 3. xlviii. 21. See Verse 4. The holy portion] See the plan, A. Verse 5. And the five and twenty thousand] the plan, B. Verse 6. Ye shall appoint] See the plan, FF. Verse 7. A portion shall be for the prince] nasi, he who had the authority of chief magistrate; for there was neither king nor prince among the Jews after the Babylonish captivity. For these allotments and divisions, see the plan, EE, FF, GG. Verse 8. My princes shall no more oppress my people] By exorbitant taxes to maintain profligate courts, or subsidize other powers to help to keep up a system of tyranny in the earth. The former princes even robbed the temple of God to give subsidies to other states. A. M. 3430. Olymp. LI. 3. Anno Servii Tullii, R. Roman., 5. 11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. 12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels shall be your maneh. 13 This is the oblation that ye shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley: 14 Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer: 15 And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat-offering, and for a burnt-offering, and for " peace-offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord GOD. 16 All the people of the land shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel. 17. And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt-offerings, and meat-offerings, and drinkofferings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sinoffering, and the meat-offering, and the burntoffering, and the ' peace-offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel. Heb. expulsions. Lev. xix. 35, 36; Prov. xi. 1. xxx. 13; Lev. xxvii. 25; Num. iii. 47. Or, kid. thank-offerings.- v Lev. i. 4.- - Heb. shall be for: with. Or, thank-offerings. Exod. Or, Or, Verse 9. Take away your exactions from my people] This is the voice of God to all the rulers of the earth. Take away your exactions; do not oppress the people; they are mine. Abolish all oppressive taxes. Verse 10. Ye shall have just balances] This appreciation of weights, measures, and money was intended to show them that they must not introduce those to which they had been accustomed in the captivity, but those which God had prescribed to their forefathers. See the notes on the parallel places. Verse 16. All-this oblation for the prince] A present or offering to the prince. Verse 18. Thou shalt take a young bullock—and cleanse the sanctuary.] There is nothing of this in and for the people. A. M. 3430. 22 And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself Olymp. LI. 3. and for all the people of the land d a bullock for a sin-offering. Anno Servii Tullii, R. Roman., 5. 23 And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt-offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin-offering. 24 And he shall prepare a meat-offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil for an ephah. 25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the h feast of the seven days, according to the sinoffering, according to the burnt-offering, and according to the meat-offering, and according to the oil. d Lev. iv. 14. e Lev. xxiii. 8. See Num. xxviii. 15, 22, 30; xxix. 5, 11, 16, 19, &c.- Chap. xlvi. 5, 7.- Lev. xxiii. 33; Num. xxix. 12; Deut. xvi. 13. the feast of tabernacles the same things that he was desired to do on the passover. The prince should offer the same number of victims, of the same quality, Verse 20. For him that is simple] That wants un- and with the same ceremonies, as during the above derstanding to conduct himself properly. seven days. The offerings were, sin-offerings, burnt Verse 25. In the seventh month] He shall do at offerings, and peace-offerings. CHAPTER XLVI. Ordinances of worship prescribed for the prince and for the people, 1-15; and the gifts he may bestow on his sons and servants, 16-18. A description of the courts appointed for boiling or baking any part of the holy oblations, 19–24. A. M. 3430. B. C. 574. Olymp. LI. 3. Ando A. M. 3430. B. C. 574. Olymp. LI. 3. Anno Servii Tullii, THUS saith the Lord GOD; of the gate: then he shall go The gate of the inner court forth but the gate shall not be Servii Tullii, that looketh toward the east shall shut until the evening. R. Roman., 5. be shut the six working days; 3 Likewise the people of the R. Roman., 5. but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in land shall worship at the door of this gate the day of the new moon it shall be opened. before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the 2 And the prince shall enter by the way of new moons... the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priest shall prepare his burnt-offering and his peaceofferings, and he shall worship at the threshold NOTES ON CHAP. XLVI. 4 And the burnt-offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish. b Chap. xlv. 17. It is no not acknowledge God in all his ways. Verse 4. The burnt-offering that the prince shall wonder that those lands mourn, where neither the offer] The chief magistrate was always obliged to at-established priest nor the civil magistrate either tend the public worship of God, as well as the priest, fear or love God. Ungodly priests and profligate to show that the civil and ecclesiastical states were magistrates are a curse to any land. In no country both under the same government of the Lord; and that have I found both so exemplary for uprightness, as in no one was capable of being prince or priest, who did Britain. Ordinances for the prince, A. M. 3430. B. C. 574. Olymp. LI. 3. Anno A. M. 3430. Anno 5 And the meat-offering shall | voluntarily unto the LORD, hone be an ephah for a ram, and the shall then open him the gate that Olymp. LI. 3. Servii Tullii, meat-offering for the lambs as looketh toward the east, and he Servii Tullii, K. Roman., 5. he shall be able to give, and a shall prepare his burnt-offering R. Roman., 5. hin of oil to an ephah. and his peace-offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate. 6 And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish. 7 And he shall prepare a meat-offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and a hin of oil to an ephah. 13 Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt-offering unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it 'every morning. 14 And thou shalt prepare a meat-offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an 8 And when the prince shall enter, he ephah, and the third part of a hin of oil, to shall go in by the way of the porch of that temper with the fine flour; a meat-offering gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof. continually by a perpetual ordinance unto 9 But when the people of the land shall the LORD. come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it. 15 Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat-offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt-offering. 16 Thus saith the Lord GOD; If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance. 17 But if he give a gift of his inheritance 10 And the prince in the midst of them, to one of his servants, then it shall be his to when they go in, shall go in; and when they the year of liberty; after it shall return to go forth, shall go forth.. the prince; but his inheritance shall be his sons' for them. 18 Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression, to 11 And in the feasts and in the solemnities the meat-offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an thrust them out of their possession; but he ephah. 12 Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt-offering or peace-offerings C Chap. xlv. 29; ver. 7, 11.- d Heb. the gift of his hand; Deut. xvi. 17.-—— Ver. 2.—Exod. xxii. 14-17; Deut. xvi. 16. Ver. 5. Verse 7. According as his hand shall attain unto] According to his ability, to what the providence of God has put in his hand, i. e., his power. This proportion of offerings is different from that prescribed by the Mosaic law, Num. xv. 4-12.. Verse 9. He that entereth in by the way of the north, &c.] As the north and the south gates were opposite to each other, he. that came in at the north must go out at the south; he that came in at the south must go out at the north. No person was to come in at the east gate, because there was no gate at the west; and the people were not permitted to turn round and go out at the same place by which they came in; for this was like turning their backs on God, and the decorum and reverence with which public worship was to be conducted would not admit of this. Besides, returning by the same way must have occasioned a shall give his sons' inheritance out of his own possession: that my people be not scattered every man from his possession. Chap. xliv. 3; ver. 2. Heb. a son of his year.xxv. 10. Chap. xlv. 8. great deal of confusion, where so many people must have jostled each other, in their meetings in different parts of this space. Exod. xxix. 38; Num. xxviii. 3. Heb. morning by morning. Lev. Verse 10. And the prince in the midst of them] Even he shall act in the same way he must also go straight forward, and never turn his back to go out at the same gate by which he entered. The prince and the people were to begin and end their worship at the same time. Verse 13. Thou shalt prepare it every morning.] The evening offering is entirely omitted, which makes an important difference between this and the old laws. See Exod. xxix. 31-46. Verse 17. To the year of liberty] That is, to the year of jubilee, called the year of liberty, because there was then a general release. All servants had their liberty, and all alienated estates returned to their former owners. The vision of A. M. 3430. B. C. 574. Olymp. LI. 3. Anno Servii Tullii, CHAP. XLVII. the holy waters. A. M. 3430. in every corner of the court Olymp. LI. 3. there was a court. 19 After he brought me through|ners of the court; and, behold, the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chamR. Roman., 5. bers of the priests, which looked toward the north: and, behold, there was a place on the two sides westward. 20 Then said he unto me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespassoffering and the sin-offering, where they shall P bake the meat-offering; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people. 21 Then he brought me forth into the utter court, and caused me to pass by the four cor 02 Chron. xxxv. 13.—p Lev. ii. 4, 5, 7.—— Chap. xliv. 19. Heb. a court in a corner of a court, and a court in a corner of a court. Verse 19. He brought me through the entry] The prophet had entered by the north gate of the court of the priests, where he had seen, a little before, the glory of the Lord, and where he had received all those directions from chap. xliv. 4, 5, to this chapter. From that gate, (see plan Q,) he entered the vestibule by a gate which was by the side of the apartments of the priests, which were along this aisle, (see S,) to the right of the vestibule towards the west. At the extremity of a row of chambers, he remarked, at the west, the place where they boiled the flesh of the sinofferings, (see T.) They did not boil there the flesh of all sorts of victims, there were other kitchens appointed for that, (see PP :) but that only which could not be eaten but in the outer court, and by the priests which were sanctified; such were the parts of the of S Anno Servii Tullii, R. Roman., 5. 22 In the four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four corners were of one measure. t 23 And there was a row of building round about in them, round about them four, and it was made with, boiling places under the rows round about. 24 Then said he unto me, These are the places of them that boil, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people. Or, made with chimneys.- - Heb. cornered. See ver. 20; Lev. viii. 31; 1 Kings xix. 21; 2 Kings vi. 29. ferings for sins of commission and ignorance, and the offerings of flour with which they were accompanied. Verse 20. The trespass-offering] Part of this, and of the sin-offering, and the flour-offering, was the portion of the priests. See Num. xviii. 9, 10. Verse 23. It was made with boiling places] These were uncovered apartments, where they kept fires for dressing those parts of the peace-offerings, which were made in the temple by individuals through a principle of devotion. On these their families and their friends feasted; and portions were sent to the poor, the widows, and the orphans. And thus the spirit of devotion was the means of preserving the spirit of mercy, charity, and benevolence in the land. How true is that word, "Godliness is profitable for all things!" CHAPTER XLVII.. The vision of the holy waters issuing out of the temple, and their virtue; an emblem of the power of God's grace under the Gospel, capable of healing all but the incorrigibly impenitent, represented by the marshy ground that cannot be healed, 1-12. Also a description of the several divisions of the Holy Land indiscriminately shared betwixt Jews and proselytes; to denote that in after times the privileges now enjoyed by the Jews should be also extended to the Gentiles, 13-23. A. M. 3430. B. C. 574. Olymp. LI. 3. b AFTERWARD he brought me again unto the door of the Anno Servii Tullii, house; and, behold, a waters is R. Roman., 5. sued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the fore front a Joel iii. 18; Zech. xiii. 1; xiv. 8; Rev. xxii. 1. NOTES ON CHAP. XLVII. Verse 1. Behold, waters issued out from under the threshold] Ezekiel, after having made the whole compass of the court of the people, is brought back by the north gate into the courts of the priests; and, having reached the gate of the temple, he saw waters which had their spring under the threshold of that gate, that looked towards the east; and which, passing to the |