Ezekiel 45:1-12

The Lord’s Portion of the Land

45:1 “‘When you allot the land as an inheritance, you will offer an allotment ¹  to the Lord, a holy portion from the land; the length will be eight and a quarter miles ²  and the width three and one-third miles. ³  This entire area will be holy. ⁴  45:2 Of this area a square 875 feet ⁵  by 875 feet will be designated for the sanctuary, with 87½ feet ⁶  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 ⁷  and a width of three and one-third miles; ⁸  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. ⁹  45:5 An area eight and a quarter miles ¹⁰  in length and three and one-third miles ¹¹  in width will be for the Levites, who minister at the temple, as the place for the cities ¹²  in which they will live.

45:6 “‘Alongside the portion set apart as the holy allotment, you will allot for the city an area one and two-thirds miles ¹³  wide and eight and a quarter miles ¹⁴  long; it will be for the whole house of Israel.

45:7 “‘For the prince there will be land on both sides of the holy allotment and the allotted city, alongside the holy allotment and the allotted city, on the west side and on the east side; it will be comparable in length to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border 45:8 of the land. This will be his property in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress my people, but the land will be allotted to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

45:9 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction, and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people, ¹⁵  declares the sovereign Lord. 45:10 You must use just balances, ¹⁶  a just dry measure (an ephah), ¹⁷  and a just liquid measure (a bath). ¹⁸  45:11 The dry and liquid measures will be the same, the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, ¹⁹  and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure. 45:12 The shekel will be twenty gerahs. Sixty shekels ²⁰  will be a mina for you.

[45:1]  ¹ tn Heb “a contribution.”

[45:1]  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.

[45:1]  ³ tc The LXX reads “twenty thousand cubits.”

[45:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “holy it is in all its territory round about.”

[45:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “five hundred cubits” (i.e., 262.5 meters); the phrase occurs twice in this verse.

[45:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).

[45:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).

[45:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “ten thousand cubits” (i.e., 5.25 kilometers).

[45:4]  ⁹ tc The LXX apparently understood “open land” instead of “sanctuary.”

[45:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).

[45:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “ten thousand cubits” (i.e., 5.25 kilometers).

[45:5]  ¹² tc The translation follows the LXX here. The MT reads “twenty.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:246.

[45:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “five thousand cubits” (i.e., 2.625 kilometers).

[45:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).

[45:9]  ¹⁵ sn Evictions of the less fortunate by the powerful are described in 1 Kgs 21:1-16; Jer 22:1-5, 13-17; Ezek 22:25.

[45:10]  ¹⁶ sn Previous legislation regarding this practice may be found in Lev 19:35-36; Deut 25:13-16; Mic 6:10-12.

[45:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “ephah,” which was 1/2 bushel.

[45:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “bath,” a liquid measure, was 5 1/2 gallons.

[45:11]  ¹⁹ sn The homer was about 5 bushels as a dry measure and 55 gallons as a liquid measure.

[45:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels.”