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Ezekiel 43: What the Passage Says

110 claims across 27 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Ezekiel 43 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The glory of the God of Israel returns from the east and enters the temple through the east gate, the glory fills the house, and Ezekiel falls facedown. A voice from inside tells him this is the place of God's throne, where he will live among Israel forever, and that Israel and its kings must no longer defile his holy name as they did before. Ezekiel is told to describe the temple and its laws to the people so they may be ashamed of their sins and follow the plan. The chapter closes with the measurements of the altar and the seven days of offerings that will cleanse and dedicate it, after which the priests may present burnt offerings and peace offerings there.

Claim by Claim

  1. 43:1
    • A figure brought Ezekiel to the gate.
    • That gate faces toward the east.
  2. 43:2
    • The glory of the God of Israel came from the direction of the east.
    • The sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters.
    • The earth shone with his glory.
  3. 43:3
    • The appearance Ezekiel saw was like the vision he had seen before.
    • It was like the vision he saw when he came to destroy the city.
    • The visions were like the vision he saw by the river Chebar.
    • Ezekiel fell on his face.
  4. 43:4
    • The glory of the LORD entered the house.
    • It entered by way of the gate that faces east.
  5. 43:5
    • A spirit lifted Ezekiel up.
    • The spirit brought him into the inner court.
    • The glory of the LORD filled the house.
  6. 43:6
    • Ezekiel heard someone speaking to him from inside the house.
    • A man was standing beside him.
  7. 43:7
    • The speaker addressed Ezekiel as son of man.
    • The speaker said this is the place of his throne.
    • The speaker said this is the place of the soles of his feet.
    • The speaker said he will dwell there among the children of Israel forever.
    • The house of Israel will no longer defile his holy name.
    • Neither the people nor their kings will defile it.
    • They defiled it by their whoredom.
    • They defiled it by the corpses of their kings, either at their high places or at their deaths; the wording is ambiguous.
  8. 43:8
    • They set their threshold beside the LORD's threshold.
    • They set their doorpost beside the LORD's doorpost.
    • Only a wall stood between the LORD and them.
    • They defiled the LORD's holy name by the abominations they committed.
    • Therefore the LORD consumed them in his anger.
  9. 43:9
    • The LORD calls them now to put their whoredom far from him.
    • He calls them to put the corpses of their kings far from him.
    • Then the LORD will dwell among them forever.
  10. 43:10
    • The LORD addresses Ezekiel as son of man.
    • Ezekiel is to describe the house to the house of Israel.
    • The purpose is that they be ashamed of their iniquities.
    • They are to measure the plan.
  11. 43:11
    • The condition is that they be ashamed of all they have done.
    • Then Ezekiel is to make known to them the design of the house.
    • He is to make known its arrangement.
    • He is to make known its exits.
    • He is to make known its entrances.
    • He is to make known all its forms.
    • He is to make known all its ordinances.
    • He is to make known all its forms.
    • He is to make known all its laws.
    • He is to write it down in their sight.
    • The purpose is that they keep its whole form and all its ordinances.
    • The purpose is that they carry them out.
  12. 43:12
    • This is the law of the house.
    • The whole territory of the house on the top of the mountain, all around, shall be most holy.
    • The statement that this is the law of the house is repeated.
  13. 43:13
    • These are the measurements of the altar in cubits.
    • The cubit used is a cubit and a handbreadth.
    • The base or gutter is a cubit.
    • Its width is a cubit.
    • Its rim along its edge all around is one span.
    • This is the back or upper part of the altar.
  14. 43:14
    • From the base on the ground to the lower ledge is two cubits.
    • The width there is one cubit.
    • From the smaller ledge to the larger ledge is four cubits.
    • The width there is a cubit.
  15. 43:15
    • The altar hearth is four cubits.
    • From the hearth upward there are four horns.
  16. 43:16
    • The altar hearth is twelve cubits long.
    • It is twelve cubits wide.
    • It is square on its four sides.
  17. 43:17
    • The ledge is fourteen cubits long.
    • It is fourteen cubits wide.
    • It is square on its four sides.
    • The rim around it is half a cubit.
    • Its base is a cubit all around.
    • Its steps face east.
  18. 43:18
    • The speaker addressed Ezekiel as son of man.
    • The message is declared to be the word of the Lord GOD.
    • These are the ordinances of the altar for the day it is made.
    • The altar is for offering burnt offerings on it.
    • The altar is for sprinkling blood on it.
  19. 43:19
    • Ezekiel is to give a young bull for a sin offering.
    • It is to be given to the Levitical priests of the seed of Zadok.
    • Those priests approach the LORD to minister to him.
    • This is declared by the Lord GOD.
  20. 43:20
    • Ezekiel is to take some of the bull's blood.
    • He is to put it on the four horns of the altar.
    • He is to put it on the four corners of the ledge.
    • He is to put it on the rim all around.
    • By this he cleanses the altar.
    • By this he makes atonement for it.
  21. 43:21
    • Ezekiel is to take the bull of the sin offering.
    • It is to be burned in the appointed place of the house.
    • That place is outside the sanctuary.
  22. 43:22
    • On the second day a male goat without blemish is to be offered for a sin offering.
    • They shall cleanse the altar with it.
    • The cleansing is done as it was done with the bull.
  23. 43:23
    • When the cleansing is finished, a young bull without blemish is to be offered.
    • A ram from the flock without blemish is to be offered.
  24. 43:24
    • They are to be presented before the LORD.
    • The priests are to cast salt on them.
    • They are to offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD.
  25. 43:25
    • For seven days a goat for a sin offering is to be prepared each day.
    • A young bull is also to be prepared.
    • A ram from the flock is also to be prepared.
    • The bull and ram are to be without blemish.
  26. 43:26
    • For seven days they shall make atonement for the altar.
    • They shall purify it.
    • They shall fill the hands, which may mean consecrating themselves or consecrating the altar; the wording is ambiguous.
  27. 43:27
    • The seven days will be completed.
    • From the eighth day onward the priests shall offer the people's burnt offerings on the altar.
    • They shall offer the people's peace offerings.
    • The LORD will accept the people.
    • This is declared by the Lord GOD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

43:1
"The man" is the guide who has been showing Ezekiel around the temple since chapter 40, a figure with the appearance of bronze, carrying a measuring cord and a measuring rod. The gate is one of the outer gateways of the temple complex Ezekiel has been measuring.
43:2
"Glory" here translates a Hebrew word for weight or substance; in Ezekiel it means the blazing, visible presence of God, the same thing Ezekiel saw leave the Jerusalem temple by its east gate in chapter 10. It comes back now by the road it left by.
43:3
The Chebar was a large canal near Babylon, where Ezekiel and other Judean exiles were settled; his first vision (chapter 1) happened there. "When I came to destroy the city" refers to his vision in chapters 8–11 of Jerusalem's destruction. The Hebrew here is odd and ancient copies differ: it may read "when he came to destroy the city," i.e. when God came, rather than the prophet.
43:4
Where the King James says "the house" it means the temple. Ancient temples were thought of as a god's residence, so "house" was the ordinary word for one.
43:5
The temple had nested courtyards, each more restricted than the last: an outer court open to worshipers, an inner court for the priests, and then the temple building itself.
43:7
"Son of man" is Hebrew for "human being", God's standard way of addressing Ezekiel throughout the book, marking the distance between the speaker and the mortal being spoken to. "Prostitution" is the prophets' regular image for worshiping other gods: Israel is pictured as a wife being unfaithful. Some of the practices being condemned may also have involved sex at shrines. The last phrase is genuinely uncertain. The Hebrew word can mean "corpses" or "funeral offerings/memorial stones," and the final word can be read as "their high places" (open-air worship sites, often on hilltops) or as "their death." So this is either about royal tombs placed too near the temple or about funeral rites performed for dead kings.
43:8
In Jerusalem the royal palace stood immediately next to the temple, sharing its walls and courts, so that the king's household and God's house were separated only by a partition. That physical closeness is the complaint. "Disgusting things" translates a word used mainly for religious practices regarded as intolerable, idol worship, and rites borrowed from neighboring peoples.
43:10
"Let them measure the pattern" means study the plan closely, working through its dimensions rather than glancing at a drawing.
43:12
"Most holy" is literally "holy of holies," the highest grade of holiness, normally reserved for the innermost room of the temple. Here the whole hilltop precinct is given that status.
43:13
A cubit was the distance from elbow to fingertip, about 18 inches or 45 cm. The "long cubit" used here adds a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), giving roughly 21 inches or 52 cm. A span is the width of a spread hand, thumb-tip to little-finger-tip, about 9 inches or 23 cm, half a cubit. The altar being described is a stepped structure, like a small square tower: a channelled base, then two ledges of decreasing width, then the flat top where the fire burned.
43:15
"Horns" were four upward projections, one at each corner of the altar's top. Blood was smeared on them in the rituals described below, and a person in danger could claim protection by grabbing hold of them. The Hebrew words for the altar top in verses 15–16 sound like "mountain of God" and "hearth of God"; translators differ over which sense is meant.
43:16
Twelve long cubits is roughly twenty-one feet, about six and a half meters, so the burning surface was around the size of a small room. Adding the stages below it, the altar stood about ten cubits, roughly seventeen feet, above the ground.
43:17
Steps up to an altar were forbidden in an older law (Exodus 20:26), which required a ramp or level ground so that the priest's body would not be exposed. Ezekiel's altar has them, facing east.
43:18
A burnt offering was burned whole on the altar, with none of it eaten. Blood was collected from the slaughtered animal and dashed or smeared on the altar as part of the ritual.
43:19
Levites were the tribe set apart for work at the sanctuary; Zadok was the chief priest under David and Solomon, and his descendants held the senior priesthood in Jerusalem. Ezekiel restricts altar service to that one family. A "sin offering" (better, a purification offering) was not primarily about forgiving a person. Its blood was used to scour ritual contamination off sacred objects and buildings, here, off the brand-new altar.
43:20
The verb translated "make it pure" is the one usually rendered "make atonement." Applied to an object rather than a person, it means to wipe clean or decontaminate.
43:21
The body of a purification-offering animal was not eaten or burned on the altar itself; it was taken to a designated spot away from the holy building and burned there.
43:22
"With no flaw" means physically perfect, no injury, disease, blindness or deformity. Damaged animals were disqualified for sacrifice.
43:23
A ram is a grown-up male sheep. A flock is a group of sheep kept together.
43:24
Salt was added to offerings as a standard part of the ritual. It preserves rather than spoils, and "a covenant of salt" was an idiom for an agreement meant to last.
43:25
A seven-day ceremony matches the ordination described in Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8, where Aaron and his sons were installed as priests over the same span of time.
43:26
Seven days of daily sacrifice was the standard length for installing something or someone into sacred service. The Hebrew idiom behind "set apart" is literally "fill the hands," used for ordaining priests; here it is applied to the altar itself, though some read it as the priests being ordained.
43:27
A "peace offering" (also called a fellowship offering) was different from a burnt offering: only part of it went on the fire, and the rest was eaten as a shared meal by the worshipers and priests. That the altar moves on to these offerings on the eighth day signals that the dedication period is over and normal worship has begun.

Read Ezekiel 43