Ezekiel 45:1-9
Evangelical Heritage Version
Property for the Lord,
for the Priests, and for the Prince
45 When you cast lots to divide the land as an inheritance, you are to devote a contribution to the Lord, a holy area of the land. Its length is to be twenty-five thousand cubits and its width twenty thousand cubits.[a] Its entire area will be holy.
2 Within this area, a square five hundred by five hundred cubits[b] is to be set aside for the sanctuary. There is also to be an open area of fifty cubits all around it.
3 From this measured area, you are to measure off a separate area which has a length of twenty-five thousand cubits and a width of ten thousand cubits. The sanctuary, the most holy place, will be in it. 4 It is to be a holy area of the land.[c] It will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who draw near to serve the Lord. It will be a place for their houses, as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.
5 Also an area twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide will be set aside for the Levites, the servants of the temple, as their possession, to provide them with cities to live in.[d][e]
6 As the city’s property, you are to assign an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand cubits long[f] along one side of the holy contribution.[g] It will belong to the whole house of Israel.
7 For the prince, an area is to be set aside on both sides of the holy contribution and of the area for the city. It will run alongside the holy contribution and alongside the city’s property. On the west side of the city, it will extend west along the tribal boundaries to the western boundary of the land, and on the east side, it will extend eastward in the same way. 8 This land is to be the prince’s property in Israel, so that my princes will no longer oppress my people but will allot the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
9 This is what the Lord God says. You have done enough, you princes of Israel! Remove violence and mayhem, and practice justice and righteousness. Remove the burden from my people that you caused by evicting them from their land, declares the Lord God.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ezekiel 45:1 This area is somewhat more than eight miles by six miles. A Hebrew variant says that the district is 10,000 cubits wide. The Greek text says that it is 20,000 cubits wide. Which measurement is correct depends on whether the area being measured here is the whole district for both priests and Levites or only the portion for the priests. The context seems to refer to the whole district for the clergy, which was 20,000 cubits wide.
- Ezekiel 45:2 About 875 feet by 875 feet—smaller than today’s Temple Mount
- Ezekiel 45:4 This area is a band extending across the top 40% of the special area for the Lord.
- Ezekiel 45:5 The translation follows the Greek text. The Hebrew reads they will have as their possession twenty rooms.
- Ezekiel 45:5 This area covers the 40% of the special area that lies south of the area for the priests and the temple.
- Ezekiel 45:6 About 1.6 miles by 8.3 miles
- Ezekiel 45:6 Along the south side
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.