Ezekiel 48: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD finishes the vision by dividing the land among the twelve tribes in parallel strips running from the eastern border to the sea, seven tribes north of the center and five to the south. In the middle lies a square set-apart district holding the priests' land with the sanctuary, the Levites' land, the city with its open pasture and farmland, and land on both sides for the prince. The chapter ends with the city's measurements and its twelve gates, three on each side, each named for a tribe, and gives the city's new name: The LORD is there.

Claim by Claim

1. 48:1
   • These are the names of the tribes.
   • The boundary runs from the north end along the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath.
   • The boundary includes Hazar-enan.
   • The border of Damascus lies northward, alongside Hamath.
   • This portion extends from the east side to the west side.
   • Dan has one portion.
2. 48:2
   • Alongside the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher has one portion.
3. 48:3
   • Alongside the border of Asher, from the east side to the west side, Naphtali has one portion.
4. 48:4
   • Alongside the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh has one portion.
5. 48:5
   • Alongside the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim has one portion.
6. 48:6
   • Alongside the border of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side, Reuben has one portion.
7. 48:7
   • Alongside the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah has one portion.
8. 48:8
   • Alongside the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, will be the offering that you shall set apart.
   • The offering shall be twenty-five thousand in breadth.
   • Its length shall equal one of the tribal portions, from the east side to the west side.
   • The sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.
9. 48:9
   • The offering that you shall set apart to the LORD shall be twenty-five thousand in length.
   • It shall be ten thousand in breadth.
10. 48:10
    • This holy offering shall belong to the priests.
    • It shall measure twenty-five thousand on the north.
    • It shall measure ten thousand in breadth on the west.
    • It shall measure ten thousand in breadth on the east.
    • It shall measure twenty-five thousand in length on the south.
    • The sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst of it.
11. 48:11
    • It shall be for the consecrated priests of the sons of Zadok.
    • Those priests kept the LORD's charge.
    • Those priests did not go astray when the children of Israel went astray.
    • The Levites did go astray.
12. 48:12
    • This offering from the offering of the land shall be theirs.
    • It is a thing most holy.
    • It lies beside the border of the Levites.
13. 48:13
    • Alongside the border of the priests, the Levites shall have a portion twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth.
    • The whole length shall be twenty-five thousand.
    • The breadth shall be ten thousand.
14. 48:14
    • They shall not sell any of it.
    • They shall not exchange it.
    • They shall not transfer the first portion of the land.
    • It is holy to the LORD.
15. 48:15
    • The five thousand that remain in the breadth, alongside the twenty-five thousand, shall be common land.
    • That land is for the city.
    • It is for dwelling.
    • It is for open pasture land.
    • The city shall be in the midst of it.
16. 48:16
    • These are the city's measurements.
    • The north side is four thousand five hundred.
    • The south side is four thousand five hundred.
    • The east side is four thousand five hundred.
    • The west side is four thousand five hundred.
17. 48:17
    • The city shall have open pasture land.
    • It extends two hundred fifty to the north.
    • It extends two hundred fifty to the south.
    • It extends two hundred fifty to the east.
    • It extends two hundred fifty to the west.
18. 48:18
    • The remainder in length alongside the holy offering shall be ten thousand eastward and ten thousand westward.
    • It shall lie alongside the holy offering.
    • Its produce shall be food for those who serve the city.
19. 48:19
    • Those who serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.
20. 48:20
    • The whole offering shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand.
    • You shall set apart the holy offering as a square, together with the possession of the city.
21. 48:21
    • The remainder on both sides of the holy offering and of the possession of the city shall belong to the prince.
    • It extends alongside the twenty-five thousand of the offering to the east border.
    • It extends westward alongside the twenty-five thousand to the west border.
    • It lies alongside the tribal portions and belongs to the prince.
    • The holy offering shall be there.
    • The sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst of it.
22. 48:22
    • The possession of the Levites and the possession of the city lie in the midst of what belongs to the prince.
    • That area lies between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin.
    • It shall belong to the prince.
23. 48:23
    • As for the rest of the tribes, from the east side to the west side, Benjamin has one portion.
24. 48:24
    • Alongside the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon has one portion.
25. 48:25
    • Alongside the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar has one portion.
26. 48:26
    • Alongside the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun has one portion.
27. 48:27
    • Alongside the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad has one portion.
28. 48:28
    • Alongside the border of Gad, on the south side southward, the border shall run from Tamar to the waters of Meribah at Kadesh.
    • From there it runs along the wadi to the Great Sea.
29. 48:29
    • This is the land you shall allot as inheritance to the tribes of Israel.
    • These are their portions.
    • The Lord GOD declares this.
30. 48:30
    • These are the exits of the city.
    • On the north side the measure is four thousand five hundred.
31. 48:31
    • The gates of the city shall be named after the names of the tribes of Israel.
    • There are three gates on the north.
    • One is the gate of Reuben.
    • One is the gate of Judah.
    • One is the gate of Levi.
32. 48:32
    • The east side measures four thousand five hundred.
    • There are three gates on the east.
    • One is the gate of Joseph.
    • One is the gate of Benjamin.
    • One is the gate of Dan.
33. 48:33
    • The south side measures four thousand five hundred.
    • There are three gates on the south.
    • One is the gate of Simeon.
    • One is the gate of Issachar.
    • One is the gate of Zebulun.
34. 48:34
    • The west side measures four thousand five hundred.
    • There are three gates on the west.
    • One is the gate of Gad.
    • One is the gate of Asher.
    • One is the gate of Naphtali.
35. 48:35
    • The circuit around the city is eighteen thousand.
    • From that day the name of the city shall be, The LORD is there.

Words Worth Explaining

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

48:1

The twelve tribes were the family groups descended from the twelve sons of Jacob (also called Israel); land in Israel was held tribe by tribe. The boundary markers here (Hethlon, the approach to Hamath, Hazarenan, Damascus) are places along the far northern frontier, in what is now Lebanon and Syria. The layout described in this chapter is a plan, not a description of how the tribes had actually been settled: each tribe gets an equal horizontal strip running the full width of the land from the Jordan region to the Mediterranean, in an order that does not match the historic map.

48:2

The order of the tribes is not random. Dan and Asher, placed farthest north and so farthest from the temple, descend from sons born to Jacob's servant wives Bilhah and Zilpah rather than to Leah and Rachel. The tribes descended from the two full wives are placed closer in.

48:4

Manasseh and Ephraim were Joseph's two sons. Their families each get a strip, so Joseph's line gets two.

48:5

Ephraim and Manasseh were the two sons of Joseph, and each is counted here as a tribe in its own right. That keeps the total at twelve even though the tribe of Levi receives no strip of land, the Levites are given a separate reserved area instead (verse 13).

48:7

Judah gets the strip immediately north of the sacred area and Benjamin the one immediately south, the two closest positions of all. These were the two tribes that made up the southern kingdom, Ezekiel's own homeland; in the old geography Judah lay in the far south, so this placement is a deliberate rearrangement.

48:8

"Measures" translates a Hebrew text that mostly gives bare numbers with no unit named; the King James supplies "reeds" here, while most translators supply "cubits." A cubit was about eighteen inches, the length of a forearm, which would make 25,000 about seven miles or eleven kilometres. A reed was roughly six cubits, which would make the same figure about forty miles. The ambiguity is in the text itself. The land "set aside" is a portion lifted off the whole and given over to God before the rest is divided, the same idea as an offering taken from a harvest. "The LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters (YHWH) that Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud.

48:9

The KJV word "oblation" means something lifted out of a larger amount and handed over to God. It usually refers to food or produce; here the thing set aside is a block of land.

48:10

Priests were the men authorised to carry out the sacrifices and rituals at the sanctuary. "The holy place" is the temple complex described in chapters 40–47.

48:11

Zadok was the chief priest in Jerusalem under David and Solomon, and his descendants held the senior priesthood afterwards. The Levites were the wider tribe from which priests came; those who were not descended from Zadok did the supporting work of the sanctuary rather than serving at the altar. "Set apart" translates a word meaning dedicated to a particular use and kept away from ordinary use.

48:12

"Most holy" is a technical grade, not just strong praise. The vision sorts space into rings of decreasing holiness: the temple itself, then the priests' land, then the Levites' land, then ordinary ground.

48:13

Under the older law the Levites received no farmland of their own and lived off offerings and scattered towns. Here they are given a solid block, though it sits one step out from the priests' land.

48:14

The King James "firstfruits" refers to the first and best part of a harvest, which was owed to God; here it is used of the choicest part of the land itself. "Alienate" in older English simply meant to transfer ownership to someone else, not to make hostile.

48:15

The King James "profane" does not mean blasphemous. It is the older sense of the word: ordinary, common, for everyday use rather than reserved for worship. "Suburbs" likewise means something different from the modern word: it is the open ground immediately outside a town's walls, used as pasture and kept clear of building.

48:16

4,500 cubits is roughly a mile and a quarter, or two kilometres, on each side.

48:17

250 cubits is roughly 125 yards, or a little over 100 meters.

48:18

The city needs staff, and rather than paying them a wage the plan assigns farmland whose crops support them.

48:20

"Foursquare" is the King James word for square, equal on all four sides.

48:21

"The prince" translates a Hebrew word meaning leader or chief. Ezekiel consistently avoids calling this figure a king, and the prince in these chapters has defined landholdings and duties rather than unlimited authority.

48:23

There are twelve strips for twelve tribes, but the arithmetic takes some care. Levi gets no strip, because the priests and Levites are provided for inside the sacred district; Joseph is counted twice, as his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, which brings the total back to twelve.

48:28

Tamar lay south of the Dead Sea. "The waters of strife at Kadesh" is Meribath-kadesh; "Meribah" means quarreling, and the name recalls a dispute over water during Israel's years in the wilderness. "The brook" is the Brook of Egypt, a seasonal watercourse (now Wadi el-Arish) that marked the traditional southern edge of the land. "The Great Sea" is the Mediterranean.

48:29

Dividing land "by lot" meant assigning it by drawing marked stones or sticks, a method used precisely so that no human preference decided the outcome. The word rendered "theirs" or "inheritance" means a permanent family holding, passed down and not meant to be sold off. "Lord GOD" with GOD in capitals renders a double title in Hebrew: the word for master followed by the personal divine name.

48:30

The King James "goings out" simply means the exits, that is, the gateways.

48:31

Levi has a gate here even though the Levites receive no tribal strip of land, and Joseph has a single gate rather than separate gates for his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. Counting that way keeps the total at exactly twelve gates for twelve tribes.

48:32

Joseph is given a single gate here, standing for both Ephraim and Manasseh, which balances the extra gate given to Levi and keeps the total at twelve.

48:35

18,000 cubits is roughly five miles, or eight kilometres, the four sides of 4,500 added together. The name is two words in Hebrew, YHWH shammah, "the LORD is there." The city is never called Jerusalem anywhere in these closing chapters; this new name is the only one given to it.