Ezekiel 43:6-18

EZEKIEL—NOTE ON Ezekiel 43:6 The emphasis now is on the activities that are to take place in the temple. The main altar and its round of sacrifices is the first element put in place (Ezekiel 43:13). The identification of the prince’s gate in Ezekiel 44:1 introduces the regulations concerning access to the temple area and the rules governing priests (Ezekiel 44:4). Chapter Ezekiel 45:1 includes the arrangements of the lands around the temple (Ezekiel 45:1), exhortations to justice (Ezekiel 45:9), and regulations concerning offerings and sacrifices, Sabbaths, and festivals (Ezekiel 45:13). Instructions concerning the “prince” are interspersed but are emphasized at Ezekiel 45:7 and Ezekiel 46:16. There is no other OT body of legislation like this outside the Pentateuch, which is probably why it is called the law of the temple (Ezekiel 43:12). Thus Ezekiel can be seen as a second Moses, meeting with God on the mount of the new temple.