EZEKIEL 40-48. RELIGIOUS ORGANISATION OF THE PEOPLE IN THE MESSIANIC DAYS. To a modern taste these Chapter s, crowded with architectural and ritual detail, may seem dreary and irrelevant: to Ezekiel they are the real climax of his book, the crown as well as the conclusion of all his literary and rel... [ Continue Reading ]
EZEKIEL 44-46. THE TEMPLE OFFICERS AND FESTIVALS. Ezekiel 44:1. From the inner court where he had seen the Divine glory and heard the mysterious voice (435f.) the prophet was led back to the outer eastern gate; but as Yahweh had crossed its threshold on re-entering the Temple (_cf._ 1 Samuel 5:5)... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LEVITES. The regulations that follow are among the most important in the book, and they have played a great part in the critical rearrangement of OT literature and the consequent reconstruction of OT history (p. 129). The drastic character of the innovation about to be described is forcibly sugg... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIESTS. (_Their duties.) The_ only officials qualified to bear the name or discharge the duties of priests especially the duty of sacrifice are the Zadokites, _i.e._ the descendants of the Zadok who had been appointed head of the Jerusalem priesthood by Solomon, when Abiathar, who had sided wit... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIESTS. (_Their revenues._) Certain offerings are to be the perquisites of the priests, also as they are the representatives of the Deity the best of the first-fruits. Formerly the sin-offering and the guilt-offering had been paid to them in money (2 Kings 12:16). The welfare of the people woul... [ Continue Reading ]