And the rest shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy heave-offering and of the possession of the city, in front of the five and twenty thousand of the heave-offering toward the east border, and westward in front of the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, answering to the [other] portions it shall be for the prince; and the holy heave-offering and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst of it.
Ezekiel's last chapter divides the land among the twelve tribes and keeps a holy portion for the sanctuary, the priests, the Levites and the city. Verse 21 gives the rest to "the prince", which raises three questions: is this a real map, who is this prince, and why does the sanctuary stand at the centre of his land?
This division of the land has never yet happened. One writer compares it to the sharing out of the land under Joshua, with one new feature added:
In the days of Joshua the land was divided by lot, and so it will be in the day when One greater than Joshua takes the kingdom. The portion set apart for God is a wholly new feature of this fresh division of Israel. It comes when He arrives whose right the crown is, and whose first care is the sanctuary of Jehovah. Prince, priests, and Levites will all be there, each in his proper place in relation to the city and the sanctuary. This is not a question of heaven, or of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from God. It is a question of the earth and the land.
Commentators are careful about who this prince is, and who he is not:
Notice that in the millennial kingdom Israel will have a prince on earth who will go in and out of the sanctuary. Who is this prince? Certainly not the Lord Jesus, the Messiah Himself. He will be the earthly representative of Jehovah and His Christ, and of Him we learn more in Ezekiel 45 and 46. Doubtless he will be a direct descendant of David, God's chosen king of Israel.
Another writer notes the title the vision never gives him, and how far into the temple he may go:
This prince is clearly a direct descendant of the royal house of David, and in him the promises about the Kingdom will be literally fulfilled. He is not said to be the King. Messiah is King, and the prince appears to be His earthly representative. He is allowed to sit in the porch of the outer east gate and to eat bread before Jehovah (Ezekiel 44:3). The priests prepare his burnt offering and peace offering. He comes from the royal line, not the priestly one, so although he worships at the threshold, he does not enter the court of the priests as a worshipper there.
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Measured out, the prince's share is no scrap:
A square of 25,000 reeds, an area of about 2,500 square miles, will be set apart for the sanctuary, the priests, the Levites and the city. All the land east and west of this square will be the prince's portion, and a truly royal portion it will be.
Older translations give the figure 25,000 without naming a unit; the ESV reads cubits, while these writers reckon in reeds.
The prince's two strips run out from the holy offering to the borders of the land:
This larger offering ran from the Mediterranean Sea on the west to the eastern boundary of the land — in other words, to the Jordan and the Dead Sea. It included the holy offering of 25,000 by 25,000 reeds, with the prince's portions, one on each side. These portions ran from the line of the holy offering out to the east and west borders of the land, and stretched from the border of Judah to that of Benjamin.
One writer reads the whole layout as a single settlement, tied together by God's own name:
Israel has its portion in the land belonging to the city. The prince has his, and the tribes have theirs, in the land as a whole. Jehovah ties the whole system of His people, civil and religious, to His own name. From then on, selfish oppression will be as unknown as corruption in worship.
The verse ends by placing the holy portion and the sanctuary at the centre. One writer traces what lies around it:
The Sanctuary, it is said, is in the midst of the offering. From Ezekiel 45:3-4 we know that the Sanctuary was in the priests' portion, which measured 25,000 by 10,000. So this must be the central division of the holy offering, since the Sanctuary is in the middle of the whole offering. On one side of it lies the Levites' portion, also 25,000 by 10,000, and on the other the city and its land — 25,000 by 5,000.
That centre is not Israel's alone:
Inside its borders stand all the interests of the worship and government of God on earth. Here we have the mountain of Jehovah's house, to which all nations will come.
- Centre first. God measures out His dwelling first. The prince gets only what is left on either side of it.
- Centre held by a servant. The prince is not Messiah. He is Messiah's earthly representative, a descendant of David, royal in line but not priestly.
- Centre free of greed. God fixes the prince's own vast estate, so selfish oppression will be as unknown as corruption in worship.
- Centre on real soil. The strips run from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, between Judah and Benjamin — an earthly land, not the heavenly city.
- Centre for all nations. The sanctuary at the heart of this square is the mountain to which the nations will come.
And from the possession of the Levites and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which shall be the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince.
Ezekiel's survey of the land ends with one block set apart: the holy portion, the Levites' share and the city's share. Two questions follow — is this a real map, and who is this prince who holds the ground on either side, yet is never called king?
The prince's land lies on each side of the holy portion, never inside it. Writers who work through the figures find the pieces fit together only one way.
The holy portion and the city's land together form a square. Judah bounds it on the north and Benjamin on the south. But verse 8 shows that this holy portion is part of a larger offering, which is not called holy... That larger offering included the holy portion with the Prince's shares, one on each side. They ran from the edge of the holy portion out to the east and west borders of the land, and stretched from the border of Judah to that of Benjamin. Verses 20-23 make this clear. In fact no other arrangement seems possible if we follow what the text requires.
So does this map belong to earth or to heaven? The temple in the middle of it settles the question.
Notice that the land is divided by lot, as in the days of Joshua. So it will be in the day when one greater than Joshua takes the kingdom... Prince, priests and Levites will all be there, each in his proper place in relation to the city and the sanctuary. This is not a question of heaven, or of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from God. It is a question of the earth and the land. The temple stands out here as clearly as it is missing from Revelation 21.
The land on both sides belongs to the prince. Commentators identify him from what the nearby chapters say about his privileges and his family.
God will have a representative on earth — the prince — and the prince will sit "to eat bread before the LORD." He has the honour of going in and out by the way of the porch of that gate. No high priest ever claimed this. He is not a priest but the prince, the earthly chief of Israel... He is certainly not the Messiah. He is clearly marked off from a priest, yet he needs to offer a sin offering, and he may have sons. He is no doubt a future prince of the house of David.
The prince has land, but fixed borders hold him in. Those borders answer a long history of rulers who seized what was not theirs.
The prophets spoke out against abuses like Ahab's... Ezekiel found the princes of the land "like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain." Many passages in the prophets confirm how common such oppression was. They show how deep and vile the corruption was — religious, moral and civic — which destroyed the life of both kingdoms until there was no remedy... How good to know that the day of restoration will not be spoiled by this evil — "my princes shall no more oppress my people."
Of all twelve tribes, these two stand next to the holy portion. Their placing is not an accident.
Notice that Judah and Benjamin, the tribes that stayed faithful to David's house, receive honour by standing nearest to the glorious centre of the Messiah's kingdom. "Those who honour Me I will honour, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed."
Another writer reads the same placing through the meaning of their names.
Judah and Benjamin, the "Lawgiver" and the "Son of my right hand," take the places closest to the sanctuary, to the north and to the south. This is because government is the matter here, and these two tribes represent it... Levi belongs in the centre. He is connected with the temple, as the "Prince" is with the city.
- Centre. The holy portion sits at the heart of the land. The temple stands in it, and Levi belongs there too.
- Prince. The ground on each side of that centre belongs to a coming ruler of David's line. He is not the Messiah, since he offers a sin offering and may have sons, but God's representative on earth.
- Limits. His land runs only from Judah's border to Benjamin's. The oppression that marked Israel's old rulers is over for good.
- Honour. Judah and Benjamin stayed loyal to David's house, so they hold the places nearest the centre. God honours those who honour Him.
- Earth. This is a real land with a real temple. It is not the heavenly city of Revelation 21, which has no temple at all.