Text -- Ezekiel 45:1-5 (NET)

The Lord’s Portion of the Land

45:1 “‘When you allot the land as an inheritance, you will offer an allotment to the Lord, a holy portion from the land; the length will be eight and a quarter miles and the width three and one-third miles. This entire area will be holy. 45:2 Of this area a square 875 feet by 875 feet will be designated for the sanctuary, with 87½ feet set aside for its open space round about. 45:3 From this measured area you will measure a length of eight and a quarter miles and a width of three and one-third miles; in it will be the sanctuary, the most holy place. 45:4 It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 45:5 An area eight and a quarter miles in length and three and one-third miles in width will be for the Levites, who minister at the temple, as the place for the cities in which they will live.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Eze 45:1

¹ tn Heb “a contribution.”

² tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers). The measuring units here are the Hebrew “long” cubit, consisting of a cubit (about 18 inches or 45 cm) and a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), for a total of 21 inches (52.5 cm). Because modern readers are not familiar with the cubit as a unit of measurement, and due to the additional complication of the “long” cubit as opposed to the regular cubit, all measurements have been converted to American standard miles (one mile = 5,280 feet), with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes.

³ tc The LXX reads “twenty thousand cubits.”

tn Heb “ten thousand cubits” (i.e., 5.25 kilometers).

⁴ tn Heb “holy it is in all its territory round about.”

NET Notes: Eze 45:2

¹ tn Heb “five hundred cubits” (i.e., 262.5 meters); the phrase occurs twice in this verse.

² tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 45:3

¹ tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).

² tn Heb “ten thousand cubits” (i.e., 5.25 kilometers).

NET Notes: Eze 45:4

¹ tc The LXX apparently understood “open land” instead of “sanctuary.”

NET Notes: Eze 45:5

¹ tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).

² tn Heb “ten thousand cubits” (i.e., 5.25 kilometers).

³ tc The translation follows the LXX here. The MT reads “twenty.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:246.