Ezekiel 45:18-25 - Exposition

These verses allude to the institution of a new feast-cycle, whose deviations from that of the Pentateuch will be best exhibited in the course of exposition. Whether three festivals are referred to or only two is debated by expositors. Fairbairn, Havernick, Ewald, Keil, Schroder, and Plumptre decide for three—the festival of the new year ( Ezekiel 45:18-20 ), the Passover ( Ezekiel 45:21-24 ), and the Feast of Tabernacles ( Ezekiel 45:25 ). Kliefoth, Smend, and Curtsy find only two a Passover and a Feast of Tabernacles. Hengstenberg sees in the solemnities of the first and seventh days of the new year a special consecration service for the new temple, not to be repeated, corresponding to the dedication of the tabernacle on the first day of the first month ( Exodus 40:1 , Exodus 40:17 ), or of the Solomonic temple in the seventh month ( 1 Kings 8:2 ; 2 Chronicles 7:8 ), and in imitation of which the post-exilic temple was dedicated, probably on the first day of the year ( Ezra 6:16-22 ). Against the notion of a special dedication service, however, stand the facts