Ezekiel 43:25

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. These are the measures of the altar - as to the altar of burnt offering, which was the appointed means of access to God. Verse 15. The altar - [HEBREW, har'eel ( H741 )] I:E., MOUNT OF GOD; DENOTING THE HIGH SECURITY TO BE IMPARTED BY IT TO THE RESTORED ISRAEL. IT WAS A HIGH PLACE, BUT A HIGH PLACE OF GOD (AS THE HEBREW FOR "ALTAR" MEANS), NOT OF IDOLS. _ From the altar_ - the Hebrew for "altar" is literally, 'the lion of God' [ 'ªri'eel ( H741)], Arieil (in...

Verse Ezekiel 43:25. _SEVEN DAYS SHALT THOU PREPARE_] These are, in general, ordinances of the LAW; and may be seen by consulting the parallel passages. All these directions are given that they might follow them, when they should be put in possession of their own land. For in several cases the prophet enters into particulars, as if he had supposed that the book of the law had perished....

There was, on each of the seven days, a burnt-offering of a bullock and a ram, preceded by a “sin-offereng of a bullock” on the first day, and of a “kid of the goats” on the other days. Ezekiel 43:24 Salt is here added to the “burnt-offering” to express still more the idea of purification. In the second temple no sacrifice was complete without the use of salt, and the rabbis assert that there was a great heap of salt close to the altar, always ready for use, and that the inclined plane to the altar was kept covered with salt. Compare Mark 9:49. Ezekiel 43:26 CONSECRATE THEMSELVES - literally, as in the margin.

EXPOSITION The consecration of the new temple by the entrance into it of the glory of the God of Israel (Ezekiel 43:1), and a description of the altar with its dedication to the solemn ritual for which it was in future to be employed (Ezekiel 43:13), form the contents of the present chapter, and complete the prophet's picture of the future sanctuary of Israel. EZEKIEL 43:1 The consecration of the temple by the entrance into it of the glory of the God of Israel. EZEKIEL 43:1 AFTERWARD, etc. Having completed the survey of the temple precincts

SEVEN DAYS SHALT THOU PREPARE EVERY DAY A GOAT FOR A SIN OFFERING,.... By this it appears that the altar was seven days a consecrating and cleansing; and that on each day a goat was prepared and offered, typical of Christ, as before observed. Here Kimchi owns that this was not according to the order of Moses, or was done by those that came out of the captivity of Babylon; and is obliged to confess that there will be a change or an innovation in the order of sacrifices in time to come, or under the Messiah. THEY SHALL ALSO PREPARE A YOUNG BULLOCK, AND A RAM OUT OF THE FLOCK WITHOUT BLEMISH; which, either one or all of them, should be offered up on each of the seven days; Ezekiel 43:23....

II. THE TEMPLE WORSHIP (43-44) CHAPTER 43 _ 1. The return of the glory of the Lord and filling the house (Ezekiel 43:1) _ 2. The address to the nation (Ezekiel 43:10) 3. The dimensions of the altar (Ezekiel 43:13) 4. The offerings to be bought (Ezekiel 43:18)...

THE ALTAR. In a system of worship based upon sacrifice, the altar is of special importance: its dimensions (Ezekiel 43:13) and consecration (Ezekiel 43:18) are therefore elaborately described. Approached by steps (Ezekiel 43:17), it consisted of four square stones, each smaller in breadth but greater in height than the one below it, ranging from a base of 27 feet square and 1½ feet high, to the hearth at the top (on which the victim was laid) 18 feet square and 6 feet high thus preserving the proportion of two to three characteristic of the rooms of the Temple proper. Above the hearth were horns (Ezekiel 43:13). The altar

Sacrifices and ceremonies by which the altar was consecrated and inaugurated The general purpose of the altar is to offer burnt-offerings upon and to sprinkle blood thereon. The statement in Ezekiel 43:19 is somewhat elliptical, the writer's object being to advert specially to the difference between the sin-offering on the first day and that on the following days. Hence he describes the ritual of the sin-offering on the first day fully, omitting to refer to the burnt-offering, which he mentions only in connexion with the second and following days. And when in Ezekiel 43:25 it is said that a goat for sin-offering and a young bullock and a ram were offered for seven days, the difference between the sin-offering on the first day (a bullock) and that for the following six days (a goat) is not adverted to, t

_2. The dedication of the altar (43:18-27_) TRANSLATION (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) You shall give to the priests the Levites that are of the seed of Zadok who are near unto Me, to minister unto Me, (oracle of the Lord GOD), a young bullock for a sin-offering. (20) And you shall take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the ledge, and upon the border round about: and thus shall you cleanse it and make atonement for it. (21) You shall also take the bullock of the sin-offering, and it shall be burnt in the appointed place of the house, without the sanctuary. (22) And on the second day you shall offer a he-goat without blemish for a sin-offering; and they shall clean...

§ 2. THE ORDINANCES OF THE NEW ISRAEL (EZEKIEL 40-48) This concluding section of the book is dated in the twenty-fifth year of Ezekiel's captivity, i.e. the fourteenth year after the fall of Jerusalem (572 b.c.). It is therefore thirteen years later than the previous section (Ezekiel 33-39), and, with the exception of Ezekiel 29:17, forms the latest part of the book. It is in the form of a vision, which is the counterpart of that in Ezekiel 8-11. There God forsook the old Temple which had been polluted by idolatry. Here we have a description of the Temple of the restored kingdom, of God's return to it, and of the various religious arrangements and institutions of the future. The vision is marked by great minuteness of detail, and no doubt Ezekiel had brooded long and deeply over the particulars of the Temple and its ritual. Yet, as in former cases, there is no reason to doubt that