Ezekiel 47:13 - Exposition

Thus saith the Lord . The usual formula introducing a new Divine enactment (comp. Ezekiel 43:18 ; Ezekiel 44:9 ; Ezekiel 45:9 , Ezekiel 45:18 ; Ezekiel 46:1 , Ezekiel 46:16 ). This. גֵה is obviously a copyist's error for זֶה , which the LXX ; the Vulgate, and the Targum have substituted for it; the change seems demanded by the complete untranslatability of גֵה , and by the fact that וְזֶה גְּבוּל recurs in Ezekiel 47:15 . T he border, whereby ye shall inherit the land ; or, divide the land for inheritance (Revised Version). The term גְּבוּל , applied in Ezekiel 43:13 , Ezekiel 43:17 to the border of the altar here signifies the boundary or limit of the land. (For the verb, comp. Numbers 32:18 ; Numbers 34:13 ; Isaiah 14:2 .) According to the twelve tribes . This presupposed that at least representatives of the twelve tribes would return from exile; but it is doubtful if this can be proved from Scripture to have taken place, which once more shows that a literal interpretation of this temple-vision cannot be consistently carried through. Smend observes that the word commonly employed in the priest-cede to denote "tribes" is מַטּוֹת ( Numbers 26:55 ; Numbers 30:1 ; Numbers 31:4 ; Numbers 33:54 ; Joshua 14:1 ; Joshua 21:1 ; Joshua 22:14 ), which is never used by Ezekiel, who habitually selects, as here, the term שְׁבָטִים ( Ezekiel 37:19 ; Ezekiel 45:8 ; Ezekiel 48:1 ), which also was not unknown to the priest-cede ( Exodus 39:14 ; Numbers 18:2 ; Joshua 13:29 ; Joshua 21:16 ; Joshua 22:9 , Joshua 22:10 , Joshua 22:11 , Joshua 22:13 ). That is to say, if the priest-cede existed before Ezekiel, he had the choice of both terms, and selected shebhet ; whereas if Ezekiel existed before the priest-cede, and prepared the way for it, the author of the latter rejected Ezekiel's word shebhet , and adopted another perfectly unknown to the prophet. This fact appears to point to a dependence of Ezekiel on the priest-cede rather than of the priest-cede on Ezekiel. Joseph shall have two portions ; rather, Joseph portions , as חֲבָלִים is not dual . Yet that two were intended is undoubted (see Genesis 48:22 ; Joshua 17:14 , Joshua 17:17 ).