Ezekiel 43:1-12

The Glory Returns to the Temple

43:1 Then he brought me to the gate that faced toward the east. 43:2 I saw ¹  the glory of the God of Israel ²  coming from the east; ³  the sound was like that of rushing water; ⁴  and the earth radiated ⁵  his glory. 43:3 It was like the vision I saw when he ⁶  came to destroy the city, and the vision I saw by the Kebar River. I threw myself face down. 43:4 The glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate that faces east. 43:5 Then a wind ⁷  lifted me up and brought me to the inner court; I watched ⁸  the glory of the Lord filling the temple. ⁹ 

43:6 I heard someone speaking to me from the temple, while the man was standing beside me. 43:7 He said to me: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne ¹⁰  and the place for the soles of my feet, ¹¹  where I will live among the people of Israel forever. The house of Israel will no longer profane my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their spiritual prostitution or by the pillars of their kings set up when they die. ¹²  43:8 When they placed their threshold by my threshold and their doorpost by my doorpost, with only the wall between me and them, they profaned my holy name by the abominable deeds they committed. So I consumed them in my anger. 43:9 Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

43:10 “As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they will be ashamed of their sins and measure the pattern. 43:11 When they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its pattern, its exits and entrances, and its whole design – all its statutes, its entire design, and all its laws; write it all down in their sight, so that they may observe its entire design and all its statutes and do them.

43:12 “This is the law of the temple: The entire area on top of the mountain all around will be most holy. Indeed, this is the law of the temple.

[43:2]  ¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[43:2]  ² sn This same title appears in 8:4; 9:3; 10:19; and 11:22.

[43:2]  ³ sn Earlier Ezekiel had observed God leaving the temple to the east (11:23).

[43:2]  ⁴ sn See Ezek 1:24; Rev 1:15; 14:2; 19:6.

[43:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “shone from.”

[43:3]  ⁶ tc Heb “I.” The reading is due to the confusion of yod (י, indicating a first person pronoun) and vav (ו, indicating a third person pronoun). A few medieval Hebrew mss, Theodotion’s Greek version, and the Latin Vulgate support a third person pronoun here.

[43:5]  ⁷ tn See note on “wind” in 2:2.

[43:5]  ⁸ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[43:5]  ⁹ sn In 1 Kgs 8:10-11 we find a similar event with regard to Solomon’s temple. See also Exod 40:34-35. and Isa 6:4.

[43:7]  ¹⁰ sn God’s throne is mentioned in Isa 6:1; Jer 3:17.

[43:7]  ¹¹ sn See 1 Chr 28:2; Ps 99:5; 132:7; Isa 60:13; Lam 2:1.

[43:7]  ¹² tn Heb “by their corpses in their death.” But the term normally translated “corpses” is better understood here as a reference to funeral pillars or funerary offerings. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:583-85, and L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:257.