altar when dedicated; the priests being directed to make their burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon it, (verse 27,) for therefore it was sanctified, that it might sanctify the gift that was offered upon it. And for their encouragement in this whole service, God promises, on condition of their observing these di ral law that all the sacrifices must be seasoned with salt, (Lev. ii. 14,) particular orders are given (verse 24) that the priests shall cast salt upon the sacrifices. Grace is the salt with which all our religious performances must be seasoned, Col. iv. 6. An everlasting covenant is called a covenant of salt, because it is incorruptible. The glory reserved for us is in-rections, that he would graciously accept them: for corruptible and undefiled; and the grace wrought in us, influencing the hidden man of the heart, is in that which is not corruptible, and therefore, in the sight of God, of great price. We may observe further here, that constant use was to be made of the those that give themselves to God shall be accepted of him, their persons first, and then their performances, through the Mediator; and if our persons be accepted, and our services be pleasing to him, it is enough, we need no more. CHAPTER XLIV. In this chapter we have, (1,) The appropriating of the east gate of the temple to the prince, 1-3. (2,) A reproof to Israel for their former profanations of the sanctuary, and a caution, 4–9. (3,) The degrading of one part of the Levites, and establishing of the family of Zadok in the priesthood, 10-16. (4,) Divers laws and ordinances concerning the priests, 17–31. A. M. 3430. b B. C. 574. THEN he brought me back the way || man shall enter in by it; because A. M. 3430. of the gate of the outward sanc- the LORD the God of Israel hath entuary which looketh toward the east; and it tered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. was shut. a 2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no a Chap. xliii. 1. b Chap. xliii. 4. NOTES ON CHAPTER XLIV. Verses 1, 2. Then he brought me back, &c.— From the altar to the gate belonging to the court of the priests, and leading to the outward court of the temple. All the courts were reckoned holy ground, and called sometimes by the name of the temple. And it was shut-After that the glory of the Lord had entered that way. Then saith the Lord, This gate shall be shut-Shall be generally kept shut; no man shall enter in by it-None of the common people: see chap. xlvi. 1. Because the Lord hath entered in by it-Namely, that glory which was the visible sign of God's presence. This order was given, both to perpetuate the remembrance of the solemn entrance of the glory of the Lord VOL. III. ( 47 ) 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 d Gen. xxxi. 54; xliii. 31; 1 Cor. x. 18.- -d Chap. xlvi. 2, 8. into the house, and also to possess the minds of the people with a deep reverence for the Divine Majesty, and with very awful thoughts of his transcendent glory; which was also designed in God's charge to Moses at the bush, Put off thy shoe from off thy foot. Verse 3. It is for the prince-The words, It is, are not in the Hebrew, which is only, For the prince; and therefore the meaning seems to be, that this gate should, in general, be shut for, or to the prince, as well as to private persons; even he should not have the liberty of entering in at it, except at certain seasons. Dr. Waterland translates the clause thus: As to the prince, since he is prince, he shall sit, &c. The kings of Judah had a distinguished place in the 3 737 Israel is reproved for B. C. 574. EZEKIEL. profaning the sanctuary. B. C. 574. A. M. 3430. that gate, and shall go out by the || offer "my bread, the fat and the A. M. 3430. way of the same. blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. 8 And ye have not kept the charge of my holy things: but ye have set keepers of my 3 charge in my sanctuary for yourselves. 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: fand I fell upon my face. 2 7 In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, muncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye Chapter iii. 23; xliii. 5.- Chap. i. 28. Chap. xl. 4. 1 Heb. set thy heart. h Chap. ii. 5. Chap. xlv. 9; 1 Pet. iv. 3.- - Chapter xliii. 8; Verse 9; Acts xxi. 28.- 2 Heb. children of a stranger. Levit. xxii. 25.— Levit. xxvi. 41; Deut. x. 16; Acts vii. 51. temple; a kind of tribunal placed opposite the eastern gate: see chap. xlvi. 12; 2 Chron. vi. 12, 13. By the prince here is probably meant the chief governor of the Jews after the captivity, such as were Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, for Sheshbazzar, or Zerubbabel, is called the prince of Judah, Ezra i. 8. The prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord-To eat part of the peace-offerings which were provided at his charge: see chap. xlvi. 2. Bread stands for all sorts of entertainments, and particularly for a religious feast made of the remainder of a sacrifice see the margin. Verses 4-8. Then he brought me by the way of the north gate of the house-The east gate being shut. And, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord-As appeared by the light which shone through the windows, for there was no door into the sanctuary on that side. And the Lord said, Son of man, mark well, &c.-See notes on chap. xl. 4; and xliii. 2. Mark well the entering, &c., with every going forth of the sanctuary-The word laws is to be understood in this last sentence, the sense being, that the prophet should admonish the people of the laws relating to the admitting certain persons into the temple, or the courts of it, and to suffer none that were unqualified to attend upon God's service there. This appears to be the sense from the following verses. And thou shalt say, Let it suffice you of all your abominations-Let the time past be sufficient for you to have provoked me with your abominations. In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, &c.-In that ye have 738 set up idols within the precincts of my temple, and have appointed idolatrous priests to officiate there. When ye offer my bread, the fat, and the bloodAt the very time when ye were offering my sacrifices upon the altar. Or the words may imply, that they suffered heathen to offer at God's altar, expressly contrary to the law, Lev. xxii. 27. By bread may be understood the meat-offerings made of flour, which accompanied the other sacrifices, although every thing offered upon the altar is properly called the bread of God. The fat and blood of every sacrifice were peculiarly appropriated to God. And they have broken my covenant-Idolatry was a direct breach of that covenant into which God had entered with the Jews: upon which account it is so often represented under the metaphor of adultery. And ye have not kept the charge of my holy thingsYou have not observed the laws I gave you for taking care of the things relating to my house and worship, but have appointed such persons to officiate there as best suited with your own inclinations. Verses 9-14. No stranger shall enter into my sanctuary-To offer any sacrifice or oblation there, (see verse 7,) nor be suffered to go beyond the precincts appointed for proselytes. The Levites that are gone far from me, &c.-Many of the Levites departed from God's service, and fell into idolatry; first in the general apostacy of the ten tribes, and afterward under Ahaz, and other wicked kings of Judah: see 2 Kings xxiii. 9. These, God here says, should bear the punishment due to their iniquity, and be degraded from attending upon the higher ( 47* ) 3 Laws and ordinances B. C. 571. B. C. 574. A. M. 3130. 12 Because they ministered unto 16 They shall enter into my sanc- A. M. 3430. them before their idols, and * caused1 tuary, and they shall come near to the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; there- my table, to minister unto me, and they shall || h fore have I lifted up my hand against them, keep my charge. 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. offices belonging to the priesthood, and thrust down to lower services: see verse 13. Many of the priests and Levites, who had been employed in the service of the first temple, lived to see the second, as appears from Ezra iii. 12. But the descendants of former idolatrous priests and Levites may be here meant; or, the ordinances here prescribed were intended to be standing rules, which were to be always observed whenever such a case as that here specified should happen. Yet they shall be ministers, &c., having charge at the gates-Performing the office of porters, or other inferior offices belonging to the Levites. They shall slay the burnt-offering, &c. -Shall kill and flay the beasts appointed for the sacrifices. And they shall stand before them, &c.They shall be servants to the people, in performing the most servile offices belonging to the temple. Because they ministered unto them before their idols, &c.-They led the people into idolatry, by giving them a bad example. Therefore have I lift ed up my hand against them-I have solemnly sworn that I will punish them for this their sin. They shall not come near me, &c.-They shall not offer any sacrifice at my altar, or come into the temple to perform any part of the priestly office there. So Josiah discharged the priests that had been guilty of idolatry from attending upon the service of the altar, 2 Kings xxiii. 9. Verses 15, 16. The priests the Levites-The Levites who are priests; the sons of Zadok-Who continued faithful; they shall stand before me to 17 And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, 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. 6 19 And when they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer 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 I Deut. x. 8.- - Verse 7h Chapter xli. 22.- Li Exodus xxviii. 39, 40, 43; xxxix. 27, 28.- k Exodus xxviii. 40, 42; xxxix. 28. -5 Or, in sweating places.- Heb. in, or, with sweat. Chap. xlii. 14. Chap. xlvi. 20: Exod. xxix. 37; xxx. 29; Lev. vi. 27; Matt. xxiii. 17, 19.- a Lev. xxi. 5. offer the fat, &c.—They shall serve at the altar of burnt-offering, and offer sacrifices thereon. They shall enter into my sanctuary—Into the holy place; to minister unto me-To burn incense there upon the golden altar, to sprinkle the blood of the victims before the veil, to trim the lamps, and to change the loaves on the sacred table every sabbath. They shall keep my charge--They shall have this honour in reward of their fidelity. Observe, reader, God will put marks of honour upon those who are faithful to him in trying times, and will employ those in his service who have kept close to it when others drew back. Verses 17-20. When they shall enter in at the gates of the inner court--The court just before the temple, where the altar of the burnt-offering stood; they shall be clothed with linen garments--The ephod, breeches, mitre, and girdle, (the habit of the ordinary priests,) were all of fine linen, contrived for glory and beauty, (Exod. xxviii. 40,) fine linen being the habit of persons of the greatest quality; while they minister in the gates of the inner court -That is, in the court of the priests; and within-In the sanctuary itself. They shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat-Not with a woollen girdle, which may make them sweat during their laborious service about the altar, and make their garments smell offensively. When they go forth into the outer court, they shall put off their garments--See note on chap. xlii. 14. They shall not sanctify the people with their garments--Ae, Laws and ordinances B. C. 574. A. M. 3430. suffer their locks to grow long; they || to my judgments: and they shall A. M. 3430. shall only poll their heads. keep my laws and my statutes in B. C. 574. 21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow they enter into the inner court. my sabbaths. ple to discern between the clean and the unclean, that they may not confound the distinctions between right and wrong, nor mistake concerning them, so as to put darkness for light, or light for darkness ; but may have a well-informed judgment, especially in all matters of duty. cording to the law, common things, touching holy things, became consecrated, and no more fit for common use. Neither shall they shave their heads -This prescription is implied in the words of the law, Lev. xxi. 5; especially according to the translation of the LXX., who render the sentence, Thou shalt not share thyself with baldness [to make thy- Verse 24. And in controversy they shall stand in self bald] upon the head for the dead. They indeed judgment—The priests were to determine all conunderstand it as an expression of mourning for the troversies relating to the law, as well the judicial as dead, which agrees with the sense of the parallel the ceremonial part of it, which were brought before texts, Lev. xix. 27, 28; Deut. xiv. 1. But the words them, Deut. xvii. 8, 9; and the people were to seek in the original contain a general prohibition, and the law at their mouths, (Mal. ii. 7,) that is, to inconsequently include other seasons, as well as times quire of them what was the purport and meaning of of mourning. St. Jerome upon this place supposes, it, and to abide by their determination. And they with great probability, that the Jewish priests were || shall judge according to my judgments-Which I forbidden to shave their heads, that they might dis- || have declared, and not according to their own fantinguish themselves from the heathen priests, par- || cies, inclinations, or secular interests. Thus ministicularly the Egyptian priests of Isis and Serapis, ters must decide controversies among the people of who had their heads shaved and uncovered. Learn-|| God according to his word; and must take care that ed men have observed, that many other Jewish laws were made in opposition to the rites observed in the heathen worship. Nor suffer their locks to grow long-Letting their hair grow long and neglected was a sign of mourning, as well as shaving it close to the head, and therefore was forbidden to be practised by the priests of God. || they give no countenance to any false or perfidious, fraudulent or dishonest practices, but must set their faces against them. And they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies, &c.—As well upon the solemn festivals, and the assemblies proper to them, as at other times, and on ordinary occasions. And they shall hallow my sabbaths— Whereas the priests before the captivity profaned them: see chap. xxii. 26. Verses 25, 26. They shall come at no dead person to defile themselves-Whosoever touched a dead body became legally unclean, (Num. xix. 11,) and thereby was disqualified for attending upon God's worship in the temple, Lev. xxii. 3. Upon which account the priests were forbidden to contract such defilement, unless for their nearest relations, which prohibition is here renewed: see the margin. After he is cleansed they shall reckon unto him seven days Verses 21-23. Neither shall any priest drink wine when they enter into the inner court―That is, during the time of their ministration: see the note on Lev. x. 9, 10, from whence this law is taken, and where the reason of it is given. Neither shall they take for their wives a widow-This law we find Lev. xxi. 13, 14; but it there concerns only the high-priest, here it is applied to all the priests in general. And they shall teach my people the difference between the|| holy and profane, &c.-Between good and evil, between what is lawful and what is unlawful; that they may neither scruple what is lawful, nor venture-His uncleanness continued seven days, according upon what is unlawful; that they may not pollute what is holy, nor pollute themselves with what is profane. Ministers should take pains to cause peo to the forecited law, Num. xix. 11; and the priests were to reckon to him seven days more, before he could be admitted into the sanctuary. " The division of B. C. 574. CHAPTER XLV. d the holy land. B. C. 574. A. M. 3430. 28 And it shall be unto them for || things, and every oblation of all, of A. M. 3430. an inheritance; I am their inherit- every sort of your oblations, shall be ance and ye shall give them no possession in the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest Israel: I am their possession. the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thy house. 29 They shall eat the meat-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30 And the 10 first of all the first-fruits of all с z Num. xviii. 20; Deut. x. 9; xviii. 1, 2; Josh. xiii. 14, 33. a Lev. vi. 18, 29; vii. 6. Lev. xxvii. 21, 28, compared with Num. xviii, 14. 9 Or, devoted. e Verses 28-30. It shall be unto them for an inherit- it was threshed and laid in heaps in the floor or ance, &c.-Their ministry in my sanctuary, and the granary; and so of oil and wine, after they were perquisites thereto belonging, shall be to them instead pressed and fitted to be used. Ye shall also give of lands and inheritances, of which they shall not unto the priests the first of your dough—The first have any share, as the other tribes have, (see the dough that you bake of the new corn every year, in margin,) excepting the portion allotted to them in the same proportion as in other first-fruits. That he the beginning of the following chapter. They shall || may cause a blessing to rest on thy house-That the eat the meat-offering, &c.-They shall have their priest, whose office it is to bless the people in God's share of them, after the part dedicated to God has name, may pray for and bless thee and thy family. been consumed upon the altar. And every dedicated || Observe, reader, it is all in all to the comfort of any thing shall be theirs-Whatsoever men dedicate to house to have the blessing of God upon it, and that God, the use of it shall accrue to the priests; if it be blessing to rest in it; to dwell where we dwell, and a living creature, it shall be killed, and the priests to extend to those that shall come after us. And the shall have the benefit of it; if a piece of land, it shall way to have the blessing of God upon our estates is, belong to the priests: see the margin. And the first to honour God with them, and to give him and his of all the first-fruits, &c.—The word, trans- ministers, him and his poor, their share out of them. lated first-fruits, signifies the first ripe, or best of the God blesses, he surely blesses, the habitation of those fruits, while they were growing in the field: see the who are thus just, or righteous, Prov. iii. 33; and margin. The latter word, 217, rendered oblation, ministers, by instructing and praying for the famidenotes an offering out of the product of the ground lies that are kind to them, should do their part toafter it was made fit for use; as out of the corn, afterward causing God's blessing to rest there. CHAPTER XLV. This chapter contains, (1,) The division of the holy land, 1-8. (2,) The ordinances that were given both to the prince and to the people, 9-12. (3,) The oblations to be offered, and the prince's part therein, 13-17. Particularly in the beginning of the year, 18-20. And in the passover and feast of tabernacles, 21-25. 1 Heb. when ye cause the land to fall.— Chap. xlvii. 22. NOTES ON CHAPTER XLV. Verse 1. When ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance-The land was first divided by lot under Joshua, a particular share of which was to be God's portion, as an acknowledgment of his sovereign dominion: see Lev. xxv. 23. It is therefore here called b Chap. xlviii. 8.- 2 Heb. holiness. of the land or soil itself, chap. xlviii. 14. shall be five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth ten thousand-The Hebrew does not express either reeds or cubits: our translation supplies. the word reeds, but Houbigant, Waterland, New-, come, and many other interpreters, read cubits, , an oblation. The word properly signifies which sense they think is plainly determined by the offering made to God out of the first-fruits and verse 3, where it is said, Of this measure (namely, other increase of the ground, (see chap. xliv. 30; the cubit measure mentioned in the preceding clause, Num. xviii. 24,) because this was a sort of first-fruits || versc 2) shalt thou measure the length of five and |