Ezekiel 45:5 - Exposition

A portion of similar dimensions should likewise be marked off for the Levites, for themselves, for a possession of twenty chambers ; better, for a possession unto themselves for twenty chambers (Revised Version). Ewald, Hitzig, and Smend, as usual, follow the LXX . αὐτοῖς εἰς κατάσχεσινπόλεις τοῦ κατοικεῖν ), and amend the text after Numbers 35:2 ; Joshua 21:2 , so as to read "cities ( עָרִים ) to dwell in;" and with them Keil agrees, only substituting "gates" ( שְׁעָרִים ) instead of "cities." Kliefoth and Curroy retain the word "chambers "as in the text, and think the "chambers" and the "land" were two distinct possessions of the Levites, the chambers having been within (see Ezekiel 40:17 , Ezekiel 40:18 ) as the land was without the sanctuary. Rosenmüller, Havernick, Hengstenberg, and Schroder decide for "chambers," or "courts," rows of dwellings standing outside the sanctuary as the priests' chambers were located within. Havernick supposes that along with these, which were obviously designed to be employed when the Levites were on duty, there may have been other Levitical towns and dwellings, Hengstenberg conceives them as having been "barracks for the Levites, the inhabitants of which used the twentieth part of the land assigned to them as pasturage." Unfavorable to the first view is the fact that it requires the text to be altered. Against the second is its awkward dividing of the verse and unexpected interjection of a reference to cells within the sanctuary while speaking of the land without. The third, while not free from difficulty as taking לְשָׁכֹת to be equivalent to "cell-buildings," is perhaps the best.