Ezekiel 44:9

THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD; NO STRANGER, UNCIRCUMCISED IN HEART, NOR UNCIRCUMCISED IN FLESH, SHALL ENTER INTO MY SANCTUARY, OF ANY STRANGER THAT IS AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. _ No JFB commentary on this verse._...

Admonition to the ministering priests, grounded upon former neglect. Ezekiel 44:4 THE NORTH GATE BEFORE THE HOUSE - The north gate of the inner court. God expostulates with His people in the seat of their former idolatries Ezekiel 8:3. Ezekiel 44:5 MARK WELL - The careful arrangements made had all been intended to keep the temple and its surroundings from profanation. Hence, attention to these particulars is enjoined. Ezekiel 44:7 STRANGERS - This refers especially to the

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 ...

THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD,.... This that follows is the law and rule to be observed, and which will be observed by the churches in the latter day, though so little regarded now: NO STRANGER UNCIRCUMCISED IN HEART, NOR UNCIRCUMCISED IN FLESH, SHALL ENTER INTO MY SANCTUARY; of these Ezekiel 44:7 unregenerate men may not be admitted members of a Gospel church; for that is holy, and holiness becomes it; but they are unholy, and as unfit to be received as swine into a king's palace; saints and they cannot talk together, their language being different, they are barbarians to one another; nor can they walk together, being not agreed in sentiment and practice; besides, such persons disquiet the churches of Christ by their quarrelsome behaviour in it, and immoral conversation out of it; and are dangerous and infectious persons, whether heterodox in principle, or immoral in life: and

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 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 suggested by the solemn introduction in Ezekiel 44:5. In the past the menial offices of the sanctuary _had_ been discharged by aliens often probably prisoners of waruncircumcised in flesh and therefore, from Ezekiel's point of view, also uncircumcised in heart. That is an abomination, to be tolerated no more within Yahweh's holy house. But who is henceforth to discharge those duties? The Levites, Ezekiel answers; and by that he means those who had officiated at the worship of the high places, nominally no doubt a Yahweh worship, but in reality, and especially to a man like Ezekiel, idolatrous. Whe

THUS SAITH, &c. This emphatic commencement is repeated in Ezekiel 45:9; Ezekiel 45:18; Ezekiel 46:1; Ezekiel 46:16; Ezekiel 47:13. Compare Ezekiel 31:10; Ezekiel 31:15; Ezekiel 43:18. STRANGER. foreigner. CHILDREN. sons....

Such services shall not be performed by foreigners any more, but by the Levites who formerly ministered at the high-places. Because of their sin in leading the house of Israel astray they shall bear their iniquity and be excluded from the priesthood....

_2. The qualifications of the temple ministers (44:4-14_) TRANSLATION (4) Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face. (5) And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say unto you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entrance of the house, with every egress of the sanctuary. (6) And you shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: O house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, (7) in that you have brought in foreigners uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary, to profane it, even My house, when you offer My bread, the fat and the blood, and they have...

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 ...