Ezekiel 48:35 - Exposition

The entire circuit of the city should, according to the above measurement of the walls, be eighteen thousand reeds, i.e. 18,000 x 6 (cubits) x 1.5 (feet) = 162,000 feet = 30 miles. Josephus ('Wars,' 5.4. 3) reckoned the circuit of Jerusalem in his day to be thirty-three stadia, or four miles. The name of the city from that day should be, The Lord is there . It is debated whether "from that day" ( מִיוֹם ) should be connected with the preceding or the succeeding words, and likewise whether שָׁמָּה should be translated" there" or "thither." The Authorized and Revised Versions, Ewald, Havernick, Hengstenberg, Schroder, and Smend agree that מִיוֹם belongs to the antecedent clause, but differ as to whether it should be understood as equivalent to "from this time forth," i . e . for all time to come (Ewald), or "from henceforth," i.e. from that clay on, i.e. from the day of the city's building (Hengstenberg), which seems the most natural interpretation. Kliefoth and Keil prefer to conjoin "from that day" with the clause following, and expound the prophet's statement as saying that the city's name should be, "Henceforward Jehovah is there, or thither." Ewald, Hitzig, Keil, and Smend, with the two English Versions, decide for "there," Havernick, Hengstenberg, Kliefoth, and Schroder for "thither," as the sense of שָׁמָּה . That "thither" is the ordinary import of שָׁמָּה is undoubted; but that by Ezekiel. (see Ezekiel 23:3 ; Ezekiel 33:29 , Ezekiel 33:30 ) and others ( Jeremiah 18:2 ; Psalms 122:5 ; 2 Kings 23:8 ) it is used as "there" is also correct (see Gesenius, 'Lexicon,' sub rose). Happily, whichever rendering be adopted, the difference in significance is not material. If "there," the sense is that Jehovah will henceforth reside in the city; if "thither," that he will henceforth direct his regards towards the city. To object against the former view that Jehovah was in the future to reside in the temple rather than in the city is hypercritical, since, if Jehovah should make the temple his peculiar habitation, it would be for the sake of the city; if the latter view be taken, Kliefoth's explanation must be set aside that" from this day on Jehovah would direct himself towards the city; that the city and all concerning it may come to pass." As Keil observes, the name Jehovah Shammah was not to be given to the city before but after it was built (comp. Isaiah 60:14 ).