Ezekiel 45:9-17

1. The rights and duties of the prince (45:9-17)

TRANSLATION

(9) Thus says the Lord GOD: Let it suffice you, O prince of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute justice and righteousness; take away your exactions from My people, (oracle of the Lord GOD). (10) You 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 a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. (12) And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. (13) This is the oblation that you shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of wheat; and you shall give the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of barley; (14) and the set portion of oil, of the bath of oil, the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is ten baths, even a homer; (for ten baths are a homer;) (15) and one lamb of the flock, out of two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel; for a meal-offering, and for a burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement for them, (oracle of the Lord GOD). (16) All the people of the land shall give unto this oblation for the prince in Israel. (17) And it shall be the prince's part to give the burnt-offerings, and the meal-offerings, and the drink-offerings, in the feasts, and on the new moons, and on the sabbaths, in all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin-offering, and the meal-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.

COMMENTS

God appeals to the future rulers of His people to abandon the greed and corruption of their predecessors who did violence to the helpless and took spoil of them. He urges them to take away their exactions the unjust seizure of property; to rule in justice and righteousness (Ezekiel 45:9). The most common means of defrauding people was by means of unjust measures. The future leaders must eliminate this evil and demand that just weights and measures be used throughout the land. The ephah was a dry measure, the bath[530] a liquid measure (Ezekiel 45:10). Both were equal to a tenth of a homer,[531] which was the standard unit of measure (Ezekiel 45:11). A shekel (about 0.4 ounces) was equal to twenty gerahs. Sixty shekels made up a mina (KJV maneh).[532] The shekels were in use in denominations of twenty, twenty-five and fifteen in the days of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 45:12).

[530] An ephah and bath were equal to about five gallons.
[531] Homer, literally ass-load, was equal to about six bushels.

[532] Elsewhere it is fifty shekels which equals a mina. Perhaps the Jewish shekel had been devalued during the Exile to bring it into harmony with the Babylonian shekel.

The reason for the concern about weights and measures appears in Ezekiel 45:13. The people are to present offerings to their prince. He in turn had the responsibility of supplying the needs of the Temple service. A sixth of an ephah of wheat and barley was required (Ezekiel 45:13), a tenth of each bath of oil,[533] (Ezekiel 45:14), and one lamb out of a flock of two hundred. These required dues were to be used in Temple offerings to make atonement for the people (Ezekiel 45:15).

[533] The cor was identical to the homer. Cf. Ezekiel 45:11.

The prince had the responsibility of collecting the Temple offerings from the people (Ezekiel 45:16). He in turn provided the communal sacrifices offered throughout the year, as well as those special sacrifices offered on festival days (Ezekiel 45:17).