Ezekiel 48

Eze 48:1-35.

ALLOTMENT OF THE

LAND TO THE

SEVERAL

TRIBES.

1. Dan--The lands are divided into portions of ideal exactness,

running alongside of each other, the whole breadth from west to east,

standing in a common relation to the temple in the center: seven

tribes' portions on the north, five in the smaller division in the

south. The portions of the city, the temple, the prince, and the

priesthood, are in the middle, not within the boundaries of any tribe,

all alike having a common interest in them. Judah has the place of

honor next the center on the north, Benjamin the corresponding place of

honor next the center on the south; because of the adherence of these

two to the temple ordinances and to the house of David for so long,

when the others deserted them. Dan, on the contrary, so long locally

and morally semi-heathen

(Jud 18:1-31),

is to have the least honorable place, at the extreme north. For the

same reason, St. John

(Re 7:5-8)

omits Dan altogether.

3. Asher--a tribe of which no one of note is mentioned in the Old

Testament. In the New Testament one is singled out of it, the prophetess

Anna.

4. Manasseh--The intercourse and unity between the two and a half

tribes east of the Jordan, and the nine and a half west of it, had been

much kept up by the splitting of Manasseh, causing the visits of kinsmen

one to the other from both sides of the Jordan. There shall be no need

for this in the new order of things.

5. Ephraim--This tribe, within its two dependent tribes, Manasseh and

Benjamin, for upwards of four hundred years under the judges held the

pre-eminence.

6. Reuben--doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel"

(Ge 49:4).

So no distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from it. Of it

were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the mutineers. A pastoral and

Bedouin character marked it and Gad

(Jud 5:16).

15-17. The five thousand rods, apportioned to the city out of the

twenty-five thousand square, are to be laid off in a square of four

thousand five hundred, with the two hundred fifty all around for

suburbs.

profane--that is, not strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but

applied to secular uses.

24. Benjamin--Compare Jacob's prophecy

(Ge 49:27;

De 33:12).

It alone with Judah had been throughout loyal to the house of David, so

its prowess at the "night" of the national history was celebrated as

well as in the "morning."

25. Simeon--omitted in the blessing of Moses in

De 33:1-29,

perhaps because of the Simeonite "prince," who at Baal-peor led the

Israelites in their idolatrous whoredoms with Midian

(Nu 25:14).

26. Issachar--Its ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon.

Compared

(Ge 49:14)

to "a strong ass crouching between two burdens," that is, tribute and

tillage; never meddling with wars except in self-defense.

31. gates--

(Re 21:12,

&c.). The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes to imply

that all are regarded as having an interest in it.

35. Lord is there--Jehovah-Shammah. Not that the city will be

called so in mere name, but that the reality will be best expressed by

this descriptive title

(Jer 3:17; 33:16;

Zec 2:10;

Re 21:3; 22:3).

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