Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred [reeds] by five hundred, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.
God's plan for dividing the land in the coming age does not begin with the tribes. It begins with a strip reserved for Himself, and inside it a measured square for the sanctuary, ringed by open ground. Who owns the land? How large is this square? And why must empty space surround it?
These measurements describe a future ordering of Israel's land. One writer sees God claiming the land as owner, then using it for His people's good:
The Lord claims His right as the acknowledged owner of the land, but uses these portions for His people's sanctuary and for those who carry on the worship there, whether priests or Levites. It is a fresh arrangement for the millennial age. Nothing like it was known in the past.
Verse 2 carves the square "of this" — out of the holy portion offered up in verse 1. That offering belongs to a family of gifts with one shared feature:
When the land is divided among the tribes again, the portion set apart for the Levites and the sanctuary will count as a heave-offering. These offerings differ from one another, but they all share one feature: they are portions taken out of a larger whole, whether of fruit, of animals, of money, or of land.
The order of the shares matters too. What touches the sanctuary is named before the portions of the tribes:
The Lord's portion is the one especially in view. Ezekiel 48 gives the tribal portions. The Lord's portion is given first place, and the order in which the parts of this heave offering are listed emphasizes that the Lord comes before all. The portion of the priests and Levites comes first, because what has to do with the sanctuary matters most.
Translations differ here: the ESV supplies "cubits" for the square, while others supply "reeds." The text itself names a unit only for the fifty of the surrounding margin. That one exception has served as the key to the whole vision:
In Ezekiel 45:1-8 we find another detailed list of the parts that make up this heave offering. Again the dimensions are given without naming the reed or the cubit, with one exception: 50 cubits are allowed as open space around the 500 by 500 (something) for the sanctuary (v. 2). The naming of cubits in this one item seems to imply that the measures in the other cases use a different unit. Turning to Ezekiel 42:15-20, we are told that after finishing the measurement of the inner house, the prophet was brought toward the gate facing east. Here a space with a wall was measured as 500 by 500 reeds. This made a separation between what was holy and what was common. This appears to settle the allotted space of Ezekiel 45:2 as 500 reeds, surrounded by a free or open space of 50 cubits… The reed is six cubits (Ezekiel 40:5; 43:13).
On that reading the enclosure is a stretch of country, not a courtyard:
The Temple area, including courts and outer wall, will be 500 reeds square — a little under one mile square — with open land of 50 cubits around it.
Commentators differ over the unit.
Whichever reading is right, the purpose of the margin is clear:
In the previous chapters the prophet is describing the sanctuary, the new temple. From there he passes outside the gate and sees a clear separation between holy and common, made by the measurements around the sanctuary. Some have thought this was a space 500 reeds square; others, only a wall 500 cubits square surrounding the temple court. Either way, the evident meaning is to make a complete separation between what is holy and what is not.
The whole design of the new sanctuary teaches one lesson. In the age described, the whole world will see it:
It is all clearly designed to impress on the observer the distinct holiness of the Lord and of His dwelling-place. This is a needed lesson for all times. In the days these visions of God point to, it will not only be taught as a command; it will also be on continual display before the whole world, in the plan and service of the sanctuary, to which all nations shall come to worship.
The measuring line is not only prophecy to read. It is a standard to use:
In the millennium God will have a separation between that which belongs to Him and that which is unholy. In our time we have to apply the same measure. God wants a clear separation between that which is holy and that which is unholy.
- Owner. The land is the Lord's. He takes a portion of it first, and uses it for the sanctuary and for the priests and Levites who serve there.
- Offering. The holy portion is a heave-offering — a share lifted out of the whole. The sanctuary square is cut out of that share.
- Measure. Fifty cubits is the one unit the verse itself names. On that basis the 500 are read as reeds — an enclosure just under a mile square.
- Margin. The open ground around the sanctuary exists to make a complete separation between what is holy and what is common.
- Lesson. In that age all nations who come to worship will see the separation — and God's people must apply the same measure now.
And of this measure shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand; and in it shall be the sanctuary, the holy of holies.
In Ezekiel's vision the measuring line now leaves the temple buildings and crosses the land itself. It marks off the strip of ground where the sanctuary will stand — which raises the question of why any land is given back to God at all.
Israel cannot hand a piece of the land back to God unless He owns it first. One writer ties this chapter to an earlier word about who owns it:
"The land is Mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with Me," says Jehovah to Israel (Lev. 25:23). "Moreover, when you divide the land by lot for inheritance, you shall present an offering to Jehovah, a holy portion of the land" (Ezek. 45:1). This holy portion is twenty-five thousand reeds square, or about sixty miles. It is divided into three parts.
The ESV counts this strip in cubits; this writer counts in reeds, which gives the much larger figure of about sixty miles.
The order of the survey matters. Ezekiel measures the holy strip first; the tribal boundaries wait until chapter 48.
Little more needs to be said here, except to notice that the Lord's portion is especially in view. The tribal portions are stated in Ezekiel 48. The Lord's portion is given first place, and the order in which the parts of this offering are listed emphasizes the Lord's pre-eminence. The portion of the priests and Levites comes first, because what has to do with the Sanctuary is of chief importance.
Verse 3 takes its section from a larger measured district. How big was that district? Commentators differ over the wording of verse 1, and the answer changes with it:
It may be better to read 20,000 here, following the Greek Old Testament. Keil, Davidson, and others prefer this reading. It seems to make verse 3 easier to understand. "Of this measure [or, out of this measure, i.e. the 25,000x20,000]" they were to measure 25,000x10,000 for the priests, and the sanctuary stood in it. So the allotment mentioned earlier — 500x500 plus 50 cubits all around — lay inside this portion given to the priests.
Readers have taken the closing words two ways: as two places, or as one place under its strongest name. One writer argues for the second, because the Hebrew here has no article:
In Ezekiel 45:3 the sanctuary is called "holy of holies" without the article. For the prophet there writes of the most holy sanctuary, not of the sanctuary and the most holy place, as the Authorised Version would represent it.
(The older translation this writer is correcting reads "the sanctuary and the most holy place"; modern versions such as the ESV render it "the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.")
Israel's past holds nothing like this: land set apart for God with the sanctuary inside it. One commentator names the claim behind it and its newness:
So Jehovah claims His right as the acknowledged owner of the land, but uses these portions for His people's sanctuary and for those who carry on the worship there, whether priests or Levites. It is a fresh arrangement for the millennial age. Nothing like it was known in the past.
Where the sanctuary sits matters. One writer follows the centre of the land out to the whole earth:
So the sanctuary stands at the very centre of Immanuel's land... At the very centre of the sanctuary portion stands the altar of burnt offering. In the millennial age the mountain of Jehovah's house will be established on the top of the mountains (Isa. 2:2-3; 66:23; Zech. 14:16), raised above the hills, and all nations will flow into it. Then the altar in the middle of the land will be not only God's centre for Israel, but His centre for worship for the whole earth.
- Owner first. The land is God's, and Israel lives on it as guests. Giving back a holy portion admits what was always true.
- Measured first. Ezekiel marks out God's portion before any tribe receives its inheritance, and names the priests' share first. The sanctuary comes before everything else.
- Most holy. The last phrase may name one place, not two: the sanctuary itself, called "holy of holies."
- New, not repeated. Israel's past held nothing like this grant of land. Commentators read it as a fresh arrangement for a coming age.
- Central, then worldwide. The sanctuary stands at the heart of the land, and from that centre worship reaches all nations.