THIS IS WHAT THE Sovereign LORD says: “These are the boundaries by which you are to divide the land for an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel, with two portions for Joseph. 14You are to divide it equally among them. Because I swore with uplifted hand to give it to your forefathers, this land will become your inheritance.
15“This is to be the boundary of the land:
“On the north side it will run from the Great Sea by the Hethlon road past Lebo Hamath to Zedad, 16Berothah and Sibraim (which lies on the border between Damascus and Hamath), as far as Hazer Hatticon, which is on the border of Hauran. 17The boundary will extend from the sea to Hazar Enan, along the northern border of Damascus, with the border of Hamath to the north. This will be the north boundary.
18“On the east side the boundary will run between Hauran and Damascus, along the Jordan between Gilead and the land of Israel, to the eastern sea and as far as Tamar. This will be the east boundary.
19“On the south side it will run from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribah Kadesh, then along the Wadi of Egypt to the Great Sea. This will be the south boundary.
20“On the west side, the Great Sea will be the boundary to a point opposite Lebo Hamath. This will be the west boundary.
21“You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance,” declares the Sovereign LORD.
48:1“These are the tribes, listed by name: At the northern frontier, Dan will have one portion; it will follow the Hethlon road to Lebo Hamath; Hazar Enan and the northern border of Damascus next to Hamath will be part of its border from the east side to the west side.
2“Asher will have one portion; it will border the territory of Dan from east to west.
3“Naphtali will have one portion; it will border the territory of Asher from east to west.
4“Manasseh will have one portion; it will border the territory of Naphtali from east to west.
5“Ephraim will have one portion; it will border the territory of Manasseh from east to west.
6“Reuben will have one portion; it will border the territory of Ephraim from east to west.
7“Judah will have one portion; it will border the territory of Reuben from east to west.
8“Bordering the territory of Judah from east to west will be the portion you are to present as a special gift. It will be 25,000 cubits wide, and its length from east to west will equal one of the tribal portions; the sanctuary will be in the center of it.
9“The special portion you are to offer to the LORD will be 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide. 10This will be the sacred portion for the priests. It will be 25,000 cubits long on the north side, 10,000 cubits wide on the west side, 10,000 cubits wide on the east side and 25,000 cubits long on the south side. In the center of it will be the sanctuary of the LORD. 11This will be for the consecrated priests, the Zadokites, who were faithful in serving me and did not go astray as the Levites did when the Israelites went astray. 12It will be a special gift to them from the sacred portion of the land, a most holy portion, bordering the territory of the Levites.
13“Alongside the territory of the priests, the Levites will have an allotment 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide. Its total length will be 25,000 cubits and its width 10,000 cubits. 14They must not sell or exchange any of it. This is the best of the land and must not pass into other hands, because it is holy to the LORD.
15“The remaining area, 5,000 cubits wide and 25,000 cubits long, will be for the common use of the city, for houses and for pastureland. The city will be in the center of it 16and will have these measurements: the north side 4,500 cubits, the south side 4,500 cubits, the east side 4,500 cubits, and the west side 4,500 cubits. 17The pastureland for the city will be 250 cubits on the north, 250 cubits on the south, 250 cubits on the east, and 250 cubits on the west. 18What remains of the area, bordering on the sacred portion and running the length of it, will be 10,000 cubits on the east side and 10,000 cubits on the west side. Its produce will supply food for the workers of the city. 19The workers from the city who farm it will come from all the tribes of Israel. 20The entire portion will be a square, 25,000 cubits on each side. As a special gift you will set aside the sacred portion, along with the property of the city.
21“What remains on both sides of the area formed by the sacred portion and the city property will belong to the prince. It will extend eastward from the 25,000 cubits of the sacred portion to the eastern border, and westward from the 25,000 cubits to the western border. Both these areas running the length of the tribal portions will belong to the prince, and the sacred portion with the temple sanctuary will be in the center of them. 22So the property of the Levites and the property of the city will lie in the center of the area that belongs to the prince. The area belonging to the prince will lie between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin.
23“As for the rest of the tribes: Benjamin will have one portion; it will extend from the east side to the west side.
24“Simeon will have one portion; it will border the territory of Benjamin from east to west.
25“Issachar will have one portion; it will border the territory of Simeon from east to west.
26“Zebulun will have one portion; it will border the territory of Issachar from east to west.
27“Gad will have one portion; it will border the territory of Zebulun from east to west.
28“The southern boundary of Gad will run south from Tamar to the waters of Meribah Kadesh, then along the Wadi of Egypt to the Great Sea.
29“This is the land you are to allot as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel, and these will be their portions,” declares the Sovereign LORD.
30“These will be the exits of the city: Beginning on the north side, which is 4,500 cubits long, 31the gates of the city will be named after the tribes of Israel. The three gates on the north side will be the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah and the gate of Levi.
32“On the east side, which is 4,500 cubits long, will be three gates: the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin and the gate of Dan.
33“On the south side, which measures 4,500 cubits, will be three gates: the gate of Simeon, the gate of Issachar and the gate of Zebulun.
34“On the west side, which is 4,500 cubits long, will be three gates: the gate of Gad, the gate of Asher and the gate of Naphtali.
35“The distance all around will be 18,000 cubits.
“And the name of the city from that time on will be:
THE LORD IS THERE.”
Original Meaning
THE FINAL SECTION of Ezekiel’s book records the delineation and distribution of the renewed land, continuing the trend of the vision to move outward from the temple. The land itself is oriented around the temple, however, and so the final section of the book will return to themes that have been central throughout the vision of chapters 40–48. In the same way as chapters 40–42 presented theology in architectural form, this final section renders theological concepts in geographical form.1 In both formats, the concepts of space, access, and position relative to the temple are crucial.2
The passage opens with the description of the boundaries of the new Promised Land (Ezek. 47:13–20). The area circumscribed is broadly similar to the original area allotted to Moses in Numbers 34:1–12, stretching from Lebo Hamath in the north to the Wadi of Egypt and Meribah Kadesh3 in the south, and from the Mediterranean in the west to the Jordan River in the east.4 This is a larger area of territory than was ever controlled by Israel, even at the height of the Davidic empire; however, of greater significance than its absolute size is the fact that it is the same land that God promised to Moses. In receiving this land, the people receive the fulfillment of the covenant promise.
Strikingly absent from the land to be divided is the territory in the Transjordan (east of the Jordan River), which was occupied by Israel for much of its history. This land, historically the home of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh, is no longer considered part of the Promised Land, for the simple reason that it was not part of the original promise.5 Even in Numbers 34, it is evident that the Transjordanian region is not part of the Promised Land proper. Although the fact of its reception by the two and a half tribes as their inheritance is mentioned (34:14–15), it lies outside the boundaries defined for the land itself.
Similarly, in the book of Joshua there is a clear distinction between the inheritance of the nine and a half tribes in Canaan, which it terms “the LORD’s land” (Josh. 22:19), and the territory of the Transjordanian tribes. In Ezekiel 48, in line with this long-standing distinction, the more radical move is made to allot all twelve of the tribes land within the boundaries of the Promised Land proper. For Ezekiel, there can be no inheritance outside the land.
Equally radical is the distribution of the land itself (47:21–23). It is to be distributed “according to the tribes of Israel,” which represents a return to the premonarchic state of affairs. In place of the preexilic historic reality of two divided kingdoms, the reunited people receive the land as twelve tribes. Yet it is a return to the beginning that takes into account the intervening history, for the twelve tribes are now united under a single “prince” (48:21).6
Further, there is to be an inheritance in the land not merely for the native-born Israelite and his children but also for the resident alien (gēr) and his children. In earlier Old Testament legislation, the gēr was considered consistently in need of special protection as part of a powerless class, subject to exploitation (Lev. 19:33). Because the gēr did not own land, he did not have the rights of full citizenship.7 But although socially a second-class citizen, the gēr was able to participate fully in religious affairs if he chose to do so. If he and his household were circumcised, he could partake of the Passover meal (Ex. 12:48), and he could present sacrifices to the Lord just like a native-born Israelite (Lev. 22:18). This provision recognized the fact that some resident aliens in Israel were proselytes, who had relocated for religious rather than economic reasons. The status of these proselytes is confirmed by Ezekiel through the allocation to them also of a hereditary portion in the renewed land. Given the significance of the land in Ezekiel 40–48, this is high privilege indeed.
Figure 3. Ezekiel’s Re(Vision) of the Land of Israel
In chapter 48, the prophet moves on to the division of the land itself among the tribes. Each of the twelve tribes is assigned an equal portion (47:14), running in a strip from east to west. This is not merely a fair way of dividing a country whose major topographic features run from north to south. It is far more fundamentally a way of orientating the entire land along the sacred east-west axis of the temple. The tribal strips themselves are left dimensionally undefined, with the borders between the tribes unmarked by geographic indicators. Only the central sacred portion has dimensions that are minutely recorded.
This contrasts dramatically with the division of the land in Joshua 14–21, whose roots are in historical rather than theological geography, where the boundaries between the different tribes are clearly defined. However, it corresponds exactly with the trend within the temple complex itself to define precisely the areas within the most holy zone, while leaving the outer areas less completely defined.8 Holy space is important, so it must be completely defined. Profane space is less significant and may therefore have blurred edges.
The arrangement of the tribes within the land is not a random process. The number twelve is maintained, even though the tribe of Levi has no portion of its own, by treating the two half-tribes descended from Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) as tribes in their own right, as in the original division of the land (Ezek. 47:13). The four tribes most distant from the sacred zone, and therefore in the position of least honor, are Dan, Asher, Naphtali, and Gad, the sons of Jacob’s concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah (48:1–3, 27–28). The eight sons of Jacob’s wives, Rachel and Leah, take the four strips immediately to the north and the four to the south of the sacred zone (48:4–7, 23–26).9 Of these, Benjamin and Judah, historically located immediately to the north and south of Jerusalem, are immediately north and south of the sacred zone (48:7, 23). Their historical order has been reversed, moving Judah to the north of the sacred reservation while Benjamin is on the south. This may be due to a desire to stress the integration of the new nation. No longer are they “north” and “south,” “Israel” and “Judah”; now Judah itself, the royal nation, is part of the north.10
It should also be noted that the site of the temple itself seems to have migrated north in Ezekiel’s vision. Given that the tribal strips are equal (47:14) and that there are seven to the north of the sacred reservation and five to the south, the site of the temple ought in strict geographical terms to be located somewhere close to Shiloh, thirty miles north of its old location.11 Although the vision (perhaps surprisingly) does not explicitly identify the location of the heart of the sacred portion within the renewed Israel, it would not be surprising to find that Ezekiel envisaged a change in place for the sanctuary. Given his radical assessment of the defilement of the temple’s former home in Jerusalem, a location in the heartland of the old traditions, such as Shiloh, may well have proved attractive. Yet the shift in theological geography may also have been driven by a simple desire to locate the temple closer to the center of the land, in the midst of the people, while still (in deference to history) slightly south of center.
The sacred portion is certainly the spiritual center of the land (48:8–22; for the layout, see Fig. 2). Its importance is indicated not only by its physically central location and detailed dimensions but, in literary terms, by the amount of attention devoted to it. Whereas the other tribal portions can be taken up and dismissed in a single verse, the sacred portion receives no fewer than fifteen verses. The sacred strip is 25,000 cubits (almost eight miles) wide and extends across the breadth of the land (48:8). At its heart is a 25,000-cubit square, which is itself comprised of three east-west strips, two of 10,000 cubits breadth and one of 5,000 cubits.
The first of these 10,000-cubit strips is assigned to the Zadokite priests (48:10–11). It is (lit.) “a sacred portion within the sacred portion of the land” (48:12), a kind of Holy of Holies for the land. Within it is the sanctuary itself, which the priestly land surrounds as a buffer of holiness. The second 10,000-cubit strip, which most commentators locate to the north of the priestly portion,12 is allocated to the Levites (48:13). It too is privileged ground, “the best of the land” (48:14), and must not be sold into other hands.
The remaining 5,000-cubit strip along the southern edge of the sacred portion is the location of “the city” (48:15–19). The city, which occupies a 4,500-cubit (1.5 mile) square, is surrounded by a 250-cubit perimeter of pasture land and flanked by two strips of land stretching east and west for food production. In this way, the “holy” square shape is maintained in the middle of an east-west oriented strip. The city functions as a visible symbol and focus of the unity of the tribes, inhabited and maintained by workers from all of the tribes (48:19).
Flanking the square sacred portion on both sides and occupying the remainder of the sacred strip is the land belonging to the prince (nāśîʾ, 48:21–22). This is land of an intermediate level of holiness. It is part of the sacred strip but not part of the central square. It is defined in one direction (25,000 cubits broad) but relatively undefined in the other (extending “to the eastern border” and “to the western border”). The purpose of this land is not the focus here.13 Rather, in this context it serves to indicate the prince’s status: He ranks above the ordinary lay members of the tribes of Israel, yet below the priests and Levites. The entire land is assigned to God’s people on the basis of a graded hierarchy, in exactly the same way (and with the same gradations) as was the temple itself.
The closing verses of the book (48:30–35) bring us back to contemplate the city and some of the major themes of the vision of chapters 40–48. The prophet notes the exits of the city, recalling 43:11, where the prophet was instructed to bring to the attention of the people the entrances and exits of the temple. Like the temple, the city is a precisely measured square. With its twelve gates, named for the twelve tribes of Israel (this time including Levi and counting Ephraim and Manasseh as one tribe, Joseph), the city functions as a visible focus of the unity of the restored people.
Yet the city is not an end in itself: It faces north, toward the temple, the center of the renewed land. For that reason, the north wall and north gates are described first and assigned to the favored tribes of Reuben, Judah, and Levi, the three most significant tribes descended from Leah. The other three tribes descended from Leah (Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun) are assigned the southern gates. The gates to the east are the tribes descended from Rachel (Joseph and Benjamin) and one from her servant Bilhah (Dan), while the least-favored west gates are assigned to Gad, Asher, and Naphtali, descendants of the concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah (48:34). 14
Finally, the city is given a new name, reflecting the focus of the entire temple vision: “THE LORD IS THERE” (yahweh šāmmâ, 48:35). At first sight, this seems to conflict with the earlier assertion that God is present in his temple, which has been separated from the city by a priestly buffer zone, protecting its holiness. However, the language of God’s dual presence is necessary in order to communicate both God’s transcendence and his immanence.15
Both of these themes have been developed in Ezekiel 40–48: The high walls of the temple underline God’s transcendent presence in the midst of God’s people but separate from them, while the river of life speaks of God’s immanent presence for blessing in the midst of his people. Similarly, God’s transcendence is emphasized in the separation of the temple from the city, while at the same time his immanence is asserted by the sacred shape given to the city and its new name, “THE LORD IS THERE.”
Temple and city are where Ezekiel 40–48 started out (40:2), and they are where the vision ends. Both are transformed versions of the defiled and destroyed earthly institutions. In place of the earthly temple, contaminated by the sins of the people and abandoned by the presence of God (chs. 8–11), Ezekiel has seen an undefiled temple, refilled by God’s glory (chs. 40–43). In place of an adulterous city named Jerusalem, which is put to death on account of her sins, Ezekiel has seen a holy city named “THE LORD IS THERE,” the habitat of the twelve renewed tribes of Israel. In place of a devastated land, Ezekiel has seen a land of peace and prosperity, watered by the river of life. In short, Ezekiel’s entire temple vision is the unfolding of his earlier prophecy:
I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. (37:26–27)
Bridging Contexts
THEOLOGY IN THE FORM of geography. The perspective of 47:13–48:35 is a modified utopianism. It is utopian in that it is a document whose message is drawn in broad strokes, setting out a better future in direct contrast to the past and to the existing state of affairs, without addressing the means whereby such change is to be brought about.16 Only the intervention of the Lord can bring about these changes. Yet it is not pure utopianism, since this Promised Land is not located somewhere over the rainbow, in a land where dreams come true. Redemption for Israel will take place not in an emerald city at the end of the yellow brick road, but rather in the land of Israel, which the Lord swore to give to the patriarchs.17
In Ezekiel’s vision, the past history of Israel is not abolished or ignored, with a return to some “perfect” earlier point in history. Rather, it is reformed and brought to its intended fulfillment. Thus, even though the land is divided among the twelve tribes, there is still room for a reformed monarchy in the figure of the prince. The historical “accidents” of birth are not abolished but continue to play a role in the location of the twelve tribes. This does not mean that we should therefore anticipate a “literal” future fulfillment of this chapter, any more than of the temple of Ezekiel 40–42. This section is “theology in the form of geography,” just as the earlier depiction was theology in the form of architecture.
However, it is the history of promise and fulfillment that provides the background for the future hope. The God who covenanted with Abraham, who brought the twelve tribes out of Egypt, who provided the rebels with life-giving water at Meribah Kadesh, is the same God who will graciously restore the rebels of Ezekiel’s day and provide for them life-giving water. The goal of chapters 40–48 is to encourage repentance, faithfulness, and hope: repentance over the sins of the past, faithfulness in the difficult present, and hope for a brighter future through God’s grace.18
The book of Ezekiel in the light of the book of Revelation. Given this genre, how shall we appropriate the message of Ezekiel 40–48 in our very different situation? The best answer is to look again at how the New Testament appropriates its message. The book of Revelation adopts the central thrust of Ezekiel’s vision, yet transforms it in important ways in the light of the fulfillment of the old covenant in Christ. The city that John sees is no longer called “THE LORD IS THERE” but “the new Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:2). That is certainly not because the Lord is not there in the new Jerusalem, but rather because Babylon has taken over from Jerusalem the role of the anti-heavenly city in Revelation. The city still has twelve gates with the names of the twelve tribes on them (21:12), but added to that are twelve foundations for the walls inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (21:14).
Most strikingly, the city has no temple, not because the temple is sited elsewhere as in Ezekiel’s vision, but because the Lord God and the Lamb are its temple (Rev. 21:22). Moreover, John’s new Jerusalem is substantially larger than Ezekiel’s, comprising a cube with sides 1,400 miles long, rather than a square with sides about eight miles long. In other words, the new Jerusalem is not a literal fulfillment of Ezekiel’s vision but a creative appropriation of its central themes for the different situation of the early church.
The fundamental theme of Ezek. 47:13–48:35 is inheritance. For the landless people to whom Ezekiel’s vision is communicated, the commitment is made that God’s promise to Abraham and Isaac and to Moses will be fulfilled. God’s people will ultimately possess the land as an inheritance for themselves and their descendants and the resident aliens, those whom God calls out from the nations to join them. They will finally enter their rest. The rest that the people of Joshua’s day sought in vain in their conquest of the land will one day become a reality.
According to the New Testament it becomes a reality not through the reoccupation of the physical territory of Israel that Ezekiel has described but through a spiritual appropriation of the heavenly reality to which the land of Canaan always pointed. “Entering God’s rest” is begun in this present age by faith (Heb. 3:18–19; 4:2–3), specifically faith in Christ, the One who came to bring rest to the “weary and burdened” (Matt. 11:28). Those who inherit the land in New Testament terminology are the meek (5:5), the sheep gathered from all nations (25:32–34). Those who will inherit are those who overcome in Christ, not simply those who may be physically descended from Abraham (Rev. 21:7). The land they seek to inherit does not stretch from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, like that of Ezekiel’s vision. Rather, they seek the reality that Abraham sought and that Ezekiel tried to describe—the heavenly “city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).
Contemporary Significance
THE VERTICAL DIMENSION. Does the person who dies with the most toys win? To the Israelites in exile, the temptation to think so was real. What significance could God and his ancient promise of a land of their own have to a people who felt abandoned by him and who had been exiled from his land? Why not just assimilate into the local culture and live to accumulate toys? Ezekiel’s answer is to point the exiles up to God’s heavenly temple and back to God’s promises to Moses that Abraham’s descendants would indeed inherit the land of Canaan.
Many people in the world in which we live are similarly driven by the desire to own and possess a significant slice of this world’s action. In part, this is a natural response to the loss of a vertical dimension in their lives. Robbed of spiritual significance, what else is there for people to live for than material possessions? If our treasure is not stored up in heaven, where else shall we put it other than on the earth?
In the Beatitudes, Jesus points Christians in a different direction. Instead of envying and imitating the lifestyles of the rich and famous, Christians are to envy and emulate the meek, who act humbly and gently toward others based on a true estimate of their own standing before God (Matt. 5:5).19 But why are the meek so blessed? Why should we envy their lifestyle so much and seek to imitate them? Because, according to Jesus, it is they who “will inherit the land.”
Most English translations today render Jesus’ words in the form that has become proverbial, “The meek will inherit the earth,” but that translation obscures what it is that Jesus is promising. Jesus is here quoting from Psalm 37:11, which says, “The meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.” “Land” gets across what he is driving at far better than “earth,” because it carries overtones of God’s promise to Israel, which spoke of a land that may only be possessed spiritually.20 As the philosopher Nietzsche and the pop group “Tears for Fears” each expressed in their own way, “Everybody wants to rule the world”; but only those who are spiritual long for God’s land. Just as God promised Abraham to give his descendants a spiritual land of their own, Jesus extends that same promise to the meek, those who are the citizens of his new kingdom.
But the meek will not invade the land. They will not overpower the land. They will not overrun the land because of their great might. They will inherit the land. It is God’s gift to them, not the fruit of their own efforts. So it is with the temple-centered land of Ezekiel’s vision. It is not offered to the rich and powerful, on sale for those who can afford its hefty price tag. Nor is it a program to be implemented by God’s people to bring about heaven on earth, after their return from exile. The land they are to seek is a heavenly land, which they are to pursue by faith, just as did their ancestor Abraham (Heb. 11:8–10).
We then, as Christians, look upward and onward to our Promised Land, just as Ezekiel did. We look forward to a future city with foundations, a place where God will dwell in our midst and will wipe away all of our tears. We look forward to a place where suffering and sin will be no more, where all of God’s children will be arrayed around the throne, inheriting the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ.
Danger! The danger for Israel throughout the Old Testament was that they would become more attached to the earth than to the land, more interested in settling down and owning property than in seeking after God. That danger applies similarly to us, for we too can become more interested in possessing the earth, or at least a little part of it, than in inheriting the land. We long more for a rich, comfortable, easy life than for a dynamic spiritual walk with the Lord and a powerful witness to his glory and grace. As pastors, we want to build large, successful churches that will free us from the messiness of one-on-one pastoral ministry and enable us to bask in our achievements.
But that is not the way it should be for Christians! “Here we do not have an enduring city” (Heb. 13:14). This world is not our home; we are simply exiles here, resident aliens, whose hearts are elsewhere. This world’s judgment on us is not what counts. What counts is God’s judgment on us and the glorious inheritance that he in his mercy and grace has stored up for us.
As we wait, we are to live lives completely centered on the new covenant temple, Jesus himself (Heb. 12:22–28). Such lives revolve around the powerful worship of the awe-inspiring God, the living presence in our hearts of Jesus Christ our King, and the life-giving activity of his Spirit in our lives. So nourished, we are empowered to take the gospel out to all the nations of the earth. The inheritance that is ours in Christ is offered not simply to the twelve historic tribes of Israel, nor even to those who are resident aliens in their midst, but to all to whom the Word of God comes. As Peter put it on the day of Pentecost: “The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39).
Thus, the nations will be brought in from the north and south and east and west and will sit down to feast with one another in the heavenly city, and the Lord of hosts and the Lamb will be there in their midst. Then indeed the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, will fittingly bear the name that Ezekiel ascribed to it, yahweh šāmmâ, “THE LORD IS THERE.”