The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 356

the part of their authors to make them no mention of a cleansing of the ee.nctuary harmonize with the mee.surements of the (that of oh, xiv. 18 referring to a special temple. But there does not appear Bllfficient case), but 'only of the altar, that was suffl- reBson why the measurements of Ezekiel's oiently explained by the circumstance that nltar should he.ve agreed with those of Jehovah was already in the "house." The Solomon's rBther than with those of Moses'. final clause, to oft'er burnt oft'erings there- The border (or, parapet) of half a oubit which on, and to sprinkle blood thereon, indicates ran round the ledge, or bottom, of a oubit, the purpose for which the altar was to be et the foot of the lower ezarah we.s olearly used. designed, not for the protection of the priest • Ver. 19.-Thou ahe.lt give to the prielltl. officiating, but for ornament. The stairs ( or, This injunction, which WBB addressed to ateps), mention of which closes the description, Ezekiel, not as the representative of the mark e departure, not from the pattern of tile people or of the priests (Smend), but e.s the Solo1I1Qnic temple, in which the altar must prophet of Jehovah, made it clee.r that have had steps (see Keil's 'Biblische Arcba- Ezekiel was not to act in the futnre conse- iilogie,' p. 141), but from the pattern of the cration of the altar alone e.s Moses did in t&bernacle, in which altar-steps were disal- the dedication of the tabernacle altar, but lowed (Exod. xx. 26) and wd not exist (Exod. that the priests were to bear their part in xxxviii. 1-7). Bnt if, as Jewish tradition the ceremonial. If some expressions, e.s asserts, the post-exilic altar had no steps as the use of "thou " in this and the follow- Ezekiel's had, having been reached by an in- ing verses, appear to Bllggest that Ezekiel clined plane, becallSe in the so-called book of alone should officiate, the employment of the covenant steps were forbidden, how does "they" in vers. 22, 24, 25, 26 e.s plainly this harmonize with the theory that Ezekiel's indicates that Ezekiel's share in the cere- vision temple was designed e.s a model Cot monial was to be performed throngh the the post-exilic temple? And why, if the medium of the priests. And, indeed, if the priest-code we.s the composition of IL writer temple was a pattem designed to be con- who worked in the spirit and on the lines of verted into an actnel bnilding after the Ezekiel, should it have omitted to assign retum from captivity, as the newer oriticism steps to the tabernacle eltar? contends, it is apparent that Ezekiel ooald Ver. 18.-The ordinanoes of the altar. not have been expected to have any hand These were not the regulations for the in its erection. The Levites that be of the sBcrificial worship to be afterwards per- BBed of Zadok. The assistants of Ezekiel formed upon this altar, but the rites to be and the offi.ciating priests at the new all.or observed at its consecration when the day were not to be the whole body of the Le- should arrive for its construction. As the vitioal priesthood, but those only who altar in the tabernacle (Exod. x.xi.x. 1--46; derived their descent from Zadok (see on Lev. viii. 11-88), end thnt in Solomon's ob. xliv. 15). A young bullock for a dn temple (1 Kings viii. 68-66; 2 Chron. vii. cft'ering. With the offering of this the ritual 4-10), so was this in Ezekiel's "house" commenced, as in Exod. x:i:ix. I, 10 and dedicated by a special ceremonial before Lev. viii. 14 (comp. eh. xiv. 18). It is ob- being brought into ordinary use. The par- servBble that iu the Leviticel code e. young ticular ritual observed by Solomon is not bullock, i.e. of a bullock in the fnll vigour described in detail; but a comparison be- of youth, is appointed as the requisite sin tween that enjoined upon and practised by offering for the priest, i.e. the high priest, Moses with that revealed to and published who was the head and representative of the by Ezekiel shows that while in some respects people. they agreed, in other important particulars Ver. 20.-And thou shalt take of the blood they differed. In both the ceremony thereof, and put it. The application of the largely consisted lil offering sacrifice and victim's blood to and upon the altar formed smearing blood, and lasted seven days; but an integml part of every expiatory offering; in the former the ceremony was performed but "wherens in all the other kinds of exclusively by Moses, consisted, in addition sacrifice the blood wa.s poured indifferently to the above, of an anointing of the altar, round about the altar of the fore court, in the holy utensils, and the tabernncle itself the sin offering it was not to be &]Winkled, with oil, and was essociated with the conse- lest the intention should be overlooked, bnt cration of the priests; whereas in the latter, smeared with the finger upon the horns of in addition to some variations in the B1Lori- the altar (' And the priest shall put of the ficial victims, which will be noted in the blood ur,on the horns,' Lev. iv. 7, 18, 25, iourse of exposition, the priests should bear 30, 84) ' (Kurtz, 'Sacrificial Worship of an active part.--there should be no'onoiuting the Old Testament,' § 107). In the present with oil, ond no consecration of the priests, instonce the blood was to be carefully put the priesthood being assumed as already ex- upon the four horns of the o.ltar-the only isting. If in Ezekiel'a ritulll there W!l,S purt to be smc1:1rcd with blood in the Mosaio ~ZE!tll!;t,-H, h 870 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, [oa, XLIII, 1-27.