Ezekiel 45 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
573 BC, the twenty-fifth year of the Babylonian exile
Location
A visionary division of the land of Israel, centered on a sacred district containing the temple
Audience
Judean exiles in Babylonia who remembered how kings and officials had abused power before the exile
Situation
The land is divided so that a set portion is reserved for the sanctuary, the priests, the Levites, the city, and the ruler. God then demands honest weights and measures, sets the taxes the people owe the ruler, and lays out the festival offerings for the year.
Key Background
Kings in Israel and Judah had a long record of seizing land, as with Ahab and Naboth's vineyard, so granting the ruler a fixed allotment and forbidding him to evict anyone is a direct constraint on royal appetite. Standard weights and measures were a royal responsibility across the ancient Near East, and rigged scales were a common way to cheat farmers and small traders, which is why the demand for accurate measures sits beside the tax schedule rather than in a separate moral section. The title used for the leader in these chapters is prince rather than king, a deliberate downgrade that leaves the throne itself to God.
When you divide the land by lot as an you must set aside a for Yahweh, a section of the land that belongs to him, twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand cubits wide. The whole area belongs to
From this area, a square section five hundred by five hundred cubits will be designated for the with an open border of fifty cubits surrounding it on every side.
From this measured area, mark out a section twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide. Within it will stand the for the part that to him
This section of the land to It is for the who serve in the for the ones who come to minister before Yahweh. It will give them room for their homes and ground set aside for the for
Another section, twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide, will belong to the who serve in the temple — it will be their possession, with towns for them to live in.
Alongside the for you will designate a strip for the city, five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand long. It will belong to the whole of
The will have land on both sides of the portion kept for God and the city's property, stretching westward from the west side and eastward from the east side, running parallel to one of the tribal portions from the western border to the eastern border of the land.
This land will be his possession in Israel. And my princes will never again my people. Instead, they will give the rest of the land to the house of Israel, tribe by tribe.
This is what the says: Enough, princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction. Practice and do what is Stop evicting my people from their land — this is the declaration of the
You must use an and an
The dry measure and the liquid measure will be standardized — the liquid measure holding a tenth of a and the dry measure holding a tenth of a The will be the baseline standard for both.
The must weigh twenty Your will equal sixty shekels — twenty plus twenty-five plus fifteen.
This is the you are to offer: a sixth of a dry measure from every homer of wheat, and a sixth of a dry measure from every homer of barley.
The prescribed portion of oil — measured by the liquid measure — will be a tenth of a liquid measure from every Ten liquid measures equal one homer, since ten liquid measures make a homer.
And one sheep from every flock of two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel — these are for the the and the to make for the people. This is the declaration of the Lord Yahweh.
All the people of the land will be required to give this contribution to the prince in Israel.
It will be the prince's responsibility to provide the entirely-burned the grain and the during the festivals, the the — all the of the house of Israel. He will furnish the the grain the entirely-burned and the peace to make reconciliation on behalf of the house of Israel.
This is what the Lord Yahweh says: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you will take a young bull and the for
The priest will take some of the from the failure offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate to the inner court.
You will do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has or out of ignorance. This is how you will make reconciliation for the temple.
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you will observe the — a festival of seven days when will be eaten.
On that day the prince will provide a bull as a failure offering for himself and for all the people of the land.
During the seven days of the festival, he will provide entirely-burned offerings to Yahweh — seven bulls and seven rams without defect, every day for the seven days — along with a male goat each day as a failure offering.
He will also provide a grain offering of one dry measure per bull and one dry measure per ram, along with a of oil for each dry measure.
In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, during the he will provide the same offerings for seven days — the same failure offerings, entirely-burned offerings, grain offerings, and oil.