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16 He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.

17 He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.

18 He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.

19 ¶ He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

20 He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.

6 Heb. wind.

Verse .4. "There they shall lay their garments wherein they minister.”—From this it appears still more clearly than from Exod. xxviii., that the priests did not ordinarily wear any of the sacred garments in which they discharged their sacred functions. Whether there was any thing in their dress which distinguished them in common life from the mass of the people does not appear in Scripture; but certainly they wore none of their sacred habiliments; and the probability is, that they wore the common dress of the time, being, as the Targum expresses it, "mingled with the people." The Jewish writers favour the opinion that the priests appeared in the common dress of private persons when not officiating. The Rabbinical writers say that the priestly wardrobe was kept by a priest, whose duty it was to deliver out and receive back the sacerdotal vestments, the several articles of which were kept separately in chests in an apartment appropriated to the purpose, each chest having on it the name of the article of dress which it contained, so that there was no confusion or mistake when the dresses were wanted.

CHAPTER XLIII.

1 The returning of the glory of God into the temple. 7 The sin of Israel hindered God's presence. 10 The prophet exhorteth them to repentance, and observation of the law of the house. 13 The measures, 18 and the ordinances of the altar. AFTERWARD he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east:

2 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east and 'his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.

3 And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw 'when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face.

4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.

5 So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.

6 And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by

me.

7 ¶ And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.

8 In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts,

'and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger.

9 Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.

10 Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the 'pattern.

11 And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.

12 This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

13 And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth; even the 'bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the 'edge thereof round about shall be a span: and this shall be the higher place of the altar.

14 And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the 1 Chap. 1. 24. Chap. 1. 4, and 8. 4. 3 Or, when I came to prophesy that the city should be destroyed. See chap. 9. 2, 5. • Or, for there was but a wall between me and them. Or, sum, or, number. 6 Heb. bosom. 7 Heb. lip.

lesser settle even to the greater settle shall be four cubits, and the breadth one cubit.

15 So the altar shall be four cubits; and from 'the altar and upward shall be four horns.

16 And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof.

17 And the settle shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in the four squares thereof; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward the east.

18¶ And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.

19 And thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a sin offering.

20 Ånd thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it.

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21 Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, without the sanctuary.

22 And on the second day thou shalt offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bullock.

23 When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.

24 And thou shalt offer them before the LORD, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the LORD.

25 Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bullock, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish.

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26 Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves.

27 And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your "peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD.

Heb. Harel, that is, the mountain of God. • Heb. Ariel, that is, the lion of God. 10 Heb. fill their hands. 11 Or, thank offerings. Verse 3. "When I came to destroy the city."-That is, when he came to prophesy that the city should be destroyed. This is a strong and remarkable instance of what occurs several times in the writings of the prophets, who express themselves as doing, or having done, that which they were commissioned to foretel or declare. Some other instances of this practice have been noticed as they occurred.

7. "By the carcases of their kings.”—Michaelis, apparently following a hint to that effect in the Targum, suggests that some of the kings were buried and their monuments erected near the wall which surrounded the temple and its courts, and that this vicinity is regarded as a profanation of the temple. The very general disposition manifested in different countries to inter the dead in or near holy places renders this far from improbable; while, on the other hand, it is certain that the law regarded the contact and proximity of a dead body as most polluting. Other explanations of the present text have, however, been given. Some understand the passage to refer to idols, called "carcases," as things lifeless and abominable, while others suppose it alludes to the carcases of the human sacrifices offered to Moloch or Milcom, understanding the word rendered “their kings" as the proper or titular name of this idol.

8. "Threshold."-See the note on 1 Sam. v. 5.

CHAPTER XLIV.

1 The east gate assigned only to the prince. 4 The priests reproved for polluting of the sanctuary. 9 Idolaters uncapable of the priest's office. 15 The sons of Zadok are accepted thereto. 17 Ordinances for the priests.

THEN he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.

2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

3 It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the

same.

4 Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face.

5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, 'mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the

Heb. set thine heart.

house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.

6 And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,

7 In that ye have brought into my sanctuary 'strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.

8 And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my 'charge in my sanctuary for your

selves.

9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.

10 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.

Il Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.

12 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and 'caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity. 13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.

14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.

15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:

16 They shall enter into my sanctuary,

Heb, children of a stranger.
Or, in sweating places.
VOL. III.

and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.

17¶ And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner courts they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while, they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.

18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves 5 with any thing that causeth sweat.

19 And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.

20 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.

21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.

22 Neither shall they take for their wives a 'widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow 'that had a priest before.

23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.

25 And they shall come at no "dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves.

26 And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.

27 And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord GOD.

28 And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I "am their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.

29 They shall eat the meat offering, and

3 Or, ward, or, ordinance: and so verse 14 and 16. Heb. were for a stumbling-block of iniquity unte, & Heb. in, or, with sweat. 7 Levit. 21. 13. 8 Heb. thrust forth. 9 Heb. from a priest. 10 Lev. 21. 1.11. 11 Num. 18. 20. Deut. 10. 9, and 18. 1, 2. Josh. 13. 14, 33

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ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house.

31 The priest shall not eat of any thing that is "dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.

30 And the 13 14first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: 12 Or, devoted. 13 Or, chief. 14 Exod. 13. 2, and 22. 29, 30. Num. 3. 13, and 18. 12. 15 Exod. 22. 31. Lev. 22. 8. Verse 2. "This gate shall be shut.”—In the note to 1 Chron. ix. 18, we have taken some notice of the Oriental custom of honouring monarchs by appropriating gates to their exclusive use, keeping them closed, except when they are to enter, and building them completely up when the sovereign has finally passed through them. This usage seems to explain the present passage: and to the illustrations already given we may now add the one furnished by Chardin, who informs us, that when a great man in Persia had built a palace, it was the custom for him to entertain the king and his grandees in it for several days. The great gate was then kept open; but when the festivities were over, and the king had departed, it was shut up to be opened no more. He adds, that he understood the same custom to exist in Japan

20. “They shall only poll their heads.”—That is, only cut their hair: they were not to shave their heads, on the one hand, nor to allow their hair to grow long, on the other. Jerome conjectures that the regulation forbidding the priests to shave their heads was in order to distinguish them from several of the heathen priests, and particularly the Egyptian priests of Isis and Serapis, who had their heads shaved and uncovered. Most of the rules which the priests are directed to observe, in this chapter, are the same as those that occur in the Law of Moses, where the most remarkable of them have already received our attention.

CHAPTER XLV.

1 The portion of land for the sanctuary, 6 for the city, 7 and for the prince. 9 Ordinances for the prince.

MOREOVER, 'when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the LORD, an holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about.

2 Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.

3 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 and the most holy place.

4 The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the LORD: and it shall be a place for their houses, and an holy place for the sanctuary.

5 And the five and twenty thousand of length, and the ten thousand of breadth, shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for twenty chambers.

6¶ And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over against the ob

1 Heb. when ye cause the land to fall.

lation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

7 And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border.

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8 In the land shall be his possession in Israel and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your 'exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.

10 Ye shall have just 'balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.

11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.

12 And the 'shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.

13 This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley:

Heb. holiness. 3 Or, void places.
Exod. 30. 13. Levit. 27. 25. Num 3. 47.

Heb. expulsions, 3 Levit. 19. 35, 36.

14 Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer:

15 And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord God. 16 All the people of the land 'shall give this oblation for the prince in Israel.

17 And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the "peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.

18 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:

the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.

20 And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.

21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

22 And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.

23 And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering.

24 And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oil for an ephah.

25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil.

10 Or, with. 11 Or, thank-offerings.

18 Num. 29. 12.

19 And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of 7 Or, kid. 8 Or, thank-offerings. 9 Heb. shall be for. Verse 12. "Twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh "-" During the captivity of the Jews, and after their return, they made use of the weights and measures of other nations. Ezekiel accordingly mentions foreign manehs of fifteen, of twenty, and of five and twenty shekels." (Jahn's 'Archæologia Biblica,' p. 115.) There is, however, another explanation, which supposes that we are to add these several sums together, in order to obtain the amount of the Hebrew maneh, which is thus stated at sixty shekels. And to account for the singular mode of computation, it is alleged that the component sums were pieces of money, of the respective values stated, and the amount of which made a maneh. Another explanation of this last matter, suggests a reference to the Oriental mode of stating sums of money in contracts and acknowledgments; when, to prevent fraud by changes in single words and figures, not only is the whole sum stated, but it is added, that the half of it is so much, and the quarter so much. Nothing of all this appears very satisfactory to our minds. As it would require discussion, we will not here particularly insist that a comparison of 1 Kings x. 17, with 2 Chron. ix. 16, seems to furnish clearer evidence for taking the maneh at 100 shekels than the present text does for making it sixty; but, with respect to what is said about coins of different values, we may observe that there is not the least evidence or probability that the Hebrews had any such pieces of money, and that the text does not speak of money or value, but of weight. And then, as to the explanation suggested by the Oriental mode of stating values, it clearly cannot apply in the present instance, since the numbers fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, have not that corresponding relation to each other, and to the whole sum, which the practice alluded to requires. The text is however very difficult; and it is easier to object to the explanations which have been given, than to suggest one liable to no objection.

CHAPTER XLVI.

shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the 1 Ordinances for the prince in his worship, 9 and threshold of the gate: then he shall go for the people. 16 An order for the prince's inhe-forth; but the gate shall not be shut until ritance. 19 The courts for boiling and baking.

THUS saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

2 And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests

the evening.

3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons.

4 And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.

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