The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 396

EXPOSITION. Vera. 1-8.-The portions of land that CHAPTER XLV. should be allotted to the sanctuary, the From the sustenance of the priests ( eh. city, and the prince. xliv. 29-31), the new Torah naturally Ver. 1.-Moreover, when ye sho.11 divide pe.sses in the present chapter to the main- by lot the land (literally, and in your tenance of the temple service as a whole, causing the land to fall) for inheritanoe. setting forth in the nrst section of the As the territory of Ca.no.an had been origin- ally divided by lot among the twelve chapter (vers. 1-8) the portions of land tribes after the conquest (comp. Numb. that should be allotted respectively to the xxvi. 55; xxxiii. 54; Josh. xiii. 6, etc.), sanctuary, i4. for the temple buildings, and this same method of allocating the soil tile priests' and Levites' honses (vers. 1-5), amongst the new community should be to the city and its inhabitants, that they followed on e. second time to.king possession of it after the exile. Currey believes the might be able to discharge their religious phrase, "divide by lot," "does not imply and civil obligations on the one hand to the anything like ea.sting lots, but is equivalent temple, and on the other hand to the state to our notion of allotment, the several por- (ver. 6), and to the prince to enable him to tions being l\ssigned by rule." There is, 81.lpport himself and meet the charge of however, little doubt" lots" were cast to de- termine, if not the actual size, at least the those public offerings which were required precise situation, of ea.eh tribe's territory of him e.s the head of the community (vers. (see Keil and 'Pulpit Commentary' 011 7, 8); in the second section (vers. 9-17) Numb. xxvi. 54). That no suoh methodical den.ling with the oblations the people should distribution of Cane.an ever took ple.oe, or make to the prince for this purpose, re- for that matter could have to.ken place minding the prince, on the one hand, that amongst the retnrned exiles, should be proof sufficient that the prophet hern moves in the these shonld not be levied from the people region of the ideal and symbolical rather than by extortion (ver. 9), and the people, on the of tho real and literal. Ye shall o:tf'er an obla- other, that these should be delivered to the tion-)itero.lly, lift up a hea11e of!ering_(oomp. prince with honesty (vers. 10-1 G), and both eh. xhv. 30; Exod. xxv. 2, 3; xx1x. 28; that a certain part of the prince,•~ rcvenuo xxx. 13, 14 ; Lev. vii. 14, 32; xxii. 12 ; Numb. xv. 19; xvi ii. 24:)-unto the Lord, an from the people's oblations should be de- holy portion of the land; literally, a holy voted to the furnishing of offerings for the (portion)/rom the land. Very significantly, solemnities of the house of Israel (ver. 17); in the new partition of Palestine the Lord's and in the third section (vers. 18-25) portion should bo the first to be marked instituting a new feast-cycle, beginning off and solemnly dedicated to Jehovnh for the pu;poscs to be forthwith specified. with a Passover in the first (vcrs. 18-24) Those who, like Wellhausen and Smend, and ending with a Fca.et of Tabernacles in perceive in this allotment of le.nd to the seventh (ver. 25) month.. Jehovah, and therefore to the priests, o. con- ott. xtv. 1-25.J TB:E BOOK OF TllE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 411