Ezekiel 45:13

Here, God starts to explain the sacred duties of the prince. The passage about the prince continues until 46:18.

The prince was *Israel’s ruler. He was not a priest. He had duties at the *temple. But he could not burn the *sacrifices or enter the inner areas. Only priests could do those things. Instead, the prince carried out his duties in the outer area, and in the inner and outer east gates. These were public duties. In other words, he acted on behalf of all the *Israelites. He brought *sacrifices to the priests on their behalf.

For example, there were *sacrifices for the *Sabbath (46:4). It was necessary to offer these *sacrifices every week. But unless people lived near the *temple, they could not go to the *temple every *Sabbath. It was too far away. But the prince would be present at the *temple. And he would bring the *sacrifices on their behalf.

Also, a person could not afford to offer his own *sacrifices very often. But there had to be regular *sacrifices at the *temple. So the prince organised these *sacrifices. He collected the gifts from everyone in *Israel. And he used these gifts for the regular *sacrifices. So the *sacrifices came from all the *Israelites. Everyone shared in the regular *sacrifices at the *temple. God would receive the *sacrifice of *worship from them all.

The amounts that each person gave were fair. They had to give a certain proportion (share) of their harvest. So a wealthy person would give more than a poor person would. And a person would give less if his harvest was poor that year. As the people measured their harvest, they separated some of it for God. Part of everything that God provided would go back to him. By this means, the people could see clearly that everything belongs to God.