Ezekiel 44:26

Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before. No JFB commentary on these verses....

Regulations as to the priests’ services. The garments of the priests are defined and various rules prescribed in the Law are repeated with some additions in order to denote additional care to avoid uncleanness. Ezekiel 44:18 The material of which the four vestments of the ordinary priest were made was “linen,” or, more accurately, “byssus,” the cotton stuff of Egypt. The two special qualities of the byssus - white and shining - are characteristic, and on them part of the symbolic meaning depended. Compare Revelation 19:8. Ezekiel 44:19 THEY SHALL NOT SANCTIFY THE PEOPLE - They shall not touch the p

EXPOSITION The prophet, having finished his account of the temple, or place of worship, proceeds, in the second section of his vision (Ezekiel 44-46.), to set forth the culture, or ritual, to be performed in the temple; treating first of the several classes in the new community, and of their relation to the sanctuary (Ezekiel 44:1.); next of the regulations to be observed in the maintenance of worship (Ezekiel 45:1.); and, thirdly, of certain supplementary orders for the prince, the people, and the priests, when engaged in the solemnities of their religion (Ezekiel 46:1.). In particular, the present chapter deals (1) with the relation of the prince to the sanctuary ...

AND AFTER HE IS CLEANSED,.... From any sin or iniquity, failing and imperfection, that he has been guilty of at such seasons, in mourning for the dead, by a fresh application of the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin; typified by the water of separation, made of the ashes of the red heifer, by which those who were in this way ceremoniously unclean were cleansed, Hebrews 9:13: THEY SHALL RECKON UNTO HIM SEVEN DAYS; that is, seven days shall be reckoned from the time of his cleansing, before he enters on public service again: according to the old law, seven days were reckoned from the defilement to the purification; here seven more are numbered after the purification is made; and therefore, as Kimchi truly notes, this is a new law or rule, to be observed in after times....

CHAPTER 44 _ 1. The outward eastern gate for the prince (Ezekiel 44:1) _ 2. The charge concerning the strangers and the rebellious tribes (Ezekiel 44:4) 3. The charge concerning the priests, the sons of Zadok (Ezekiel 44:15) 4. The inheritance of the priests (Ezekiel 44:28)...

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 with Adonijah, was deposed (1 Kings 2:35). Doubtless the Jerusalem priests were, in point of morality and religion, superior, broadly speaking, to the country priests (_cf._ Ezekiel 44:15), though the revelations in ch. 8 show that the Temple worship could be depraved enough; but the high prerogatives are here conferred upon them, just because of their connexion with Jerusalem. Their officiating dress, which was to be of linen, they had to change, before going out to the people in the outer court: ot

AND AFTER HE IS CLEANSED. SEVEN DAYS. Reference to Pentateuch (Numbers 6:10, "on the eighth day "). App-92....

Regulations for their necessary contact with the dead. They shall approach the dead bodies only of their nearest relatives, father, mother, son, daughter, brother and unmarried sister. From the defilement caused by this contact they must purify themselves before resuming their service in the inner court. It is curious that no reference is made to the priest's wife among the relatives with whose dead bodies they may defile themselves. The same omission occurs Leviticus 21:1-3. In Ezekiel 24:15 it is understood that he would naturally shew tokens of mourning for his wife. The two things, however, are not identical, and Ezek. was not an acting priest. According to Leviticus 21:11 the high-priest was not to defile hims

_3. The regulations for the Zadokite priests (44:15-27_) TRANSLATION (15) But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood, (oracle of the Lord GOD): (16) they shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table, to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge. (17) And it shall be 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 tires upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causes sweat. (19) And when they go forth int...

THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES Standing at the inner northern gate Ezekiel again saw the glory of God filling the Temple and was again addressed by the divine voice (Ezekiel 44:4). The Speaker first rebuked the custom which had prevailed in the old Temple, of having foreigners as servants in the sanctuary (Ezekiel 44:6). He directed that in future their place should be taken by the Lévites who were not of the family of Zadok. These had formerly shared the priestly office, but for their encouragement of Israel's idolatry they were to be deprived of this privilege, and to have humbler services assigned to them (Ezekiel 44:9). The Levites of the family of Zadok alone were to exercise the priesthood in future ...