= Ezekiel 44 * Please see [[nsv:license|License]] for Copyright notice and Licensing information. * [ [[Ezekiel_43|Previous]] | [[Ezekiel_45|Next]] ] == Ezekiel 44 1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut. 2 Then said the Lord unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. 3 It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. 4 Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord: and I fell upon my face. 5 And the Lord said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary. 6 And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, 7 In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. 8 And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves. 9 Thus saith the Lord God; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel. 10 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. 11 Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. 12 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity. 13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. 14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein. 15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God: 16 They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. 17 And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. 18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat. 19 And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments. 20 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads. 21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court. 22 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before. 23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths. 25 And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves. 26 And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days. 27 And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord God. 28 And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession. 29 They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering: and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. 30 And the first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house. 31 The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast. == Notes == Cross Reference == Commentary == Rashi ==== Verse 2 shall be closed Our Rabbis interpreted this verse as referring to the southern wicket, for the gate of the Heichal had a wicket, a small entrance. So we learned in Tractate Middoth (4:2): The Great Gate had two wickets, one in the south and one in the north. No one ever entered the one in the south, of which Ezekiel says, “This gate shall be closed.” comes through it in the future. ==== Verse 3 The prince [I permit]; he is a prince, etc. The prince I give permission. He is a prince, and is esteemed, and it is not fitting for him to sit and eat with the rest of the priests in the chambers. he shall sit therein in its space. by way of the hall of the gate he shall come When he enters the Inner Court in order to enter this small gate to eat therein, he shall enter by way of the hall of the Court’s eastern gate and leave the same way. Now since it states below (46:9), concerning: “But when the people of the land come before the Lord on the Festivals, he who enters by way of, etc.” Scripture commanded making the Court a shortcut since that entry was [made] for the sake of appearing [before God]. He must therefore be well seen [i.e., throughout the entire Court]. It was necessary to specify here concerning visits during the rest of the year that he should not make it a shortcut because this visit is not for the sake of appearing, as is that of the Pilgrimage Festivals. This matter is corroborated many more times in this account. The prince The High Priest is a prince, and because of his importance he will be permitted to eat the meat and bread of hallowed status in that gate, which is opened for him at the time of his eating. by way of the hall of the gate he shall come By way of the hall of the Eastern Gate he shall enter the Court and come up to that wicket to eat his bread therein. and by the same way he shall leave For this is not fit for a shortcut, as are the rest of the gates. Throughout the day, when not during the time of the prince’s eating, it shall be closed. ==== Verse 7 aliens [lit. sons of an alien.] [Sons of] one whose deeds have become alienated from his Father in Heaven; this is an apostate who worships idols. They are the ones “of uncircumcised heart.” and of uncircumcised flesh [a] priest whose brothers died because of circumcision. ==== Verse 8 And you appointed keepers of My watch in My Sanctuary You knowingly appointed in My Sanctuary, people who are not fit to be keepers of My watch. ==== Verse 10 Only the Levites who distanced themselves Only thus shall you do to the Levites who distanced [themselves] from Me and became idolatrous priests and have now repented... and they shall bear their iniquity from ever approaching My altar again, but they may be appointed to the gates of the House (comandises in Old French, orders). They shall be watchmen and gatekeepers. ==== Verse 11 they shall slaughter the burnt offering a service that is valid [if performed] by non priests, slaves, or women. ==== Verse 12 as a stumbling block of iniquity priests of idolatry, attracting them to it. ==== Verse 15 But the priests, the Levites [i.e., the priests, who are] of the tribe of Levi. the sons of Zadok Since he was the High Priest who served as the first one in the Sanctuary of Solomon’s days, they are called by his name. when...went astray [Heb. בִּתְעוֹת,] quand ils erraient, in Fr., when they strayed. ==== Verse 17 when they enter the gates of the Inner Court the Inner Sanctum on the Day of Atonement. and no wool shall be upon them They shall not wear the blue wool that was in the robe and girdle on the Day of Atonement during the service in the Inner Court. ==== Verse 18 they shall not gird themselves in a place that sweats We learned in a baraitha (Zeb. 18b, 19a): They do not gird themselves in a place where they sweat, neither above their elbows nor below their loins, which is a place of sweat, en la suor in O.F., on (whatever causes) sweat. Another explanation: The Torah prohibited the priests from wearing woolen raiment because wool causes the body to sweat (not found in some editions). hats [Heb. פַאֲרֵי.] c(h)apelas in O.F., hats, head dress. ==== Verse 19 into the Outer Court, into the Outer Court Since he was speaking of the Heichal and the Inner Sanctum, and he called them the “Inner Court,” and in relation to them, he should call the Israelites’ Court an “Outer Court,” he therefore had to double it twice to say that he is speaking of the Men’s Court, the area that all Israel enter. and place them in chambers belonging to the Sanctuary as stated by our master Moses, may he rest in peace (Lev. 16:23): “after that, he shall take off the linen garments which he had put on, etc., and he shall leave them there.” and they shall not sanctify the people [Heb. וְלֹא יְקַדְשׁוּ אֶתהָעָם, lit. they shall not sanctify the people.] Jonathan renders: and they shall not mingle with the people in their garments, [i.e.,] they shall not touch the people with their holy garments, for ordinary garments are not ritually clean as regards [contaminating] holy garments. ==== Verse 20 And [the hair of] their heads they are not to shave to remove all the hair. but also not to let it grow wild They may not let their hair grow very long. they must be careful to trim [Heb. כָּסוּם יִכְסְמוּ, (to cut the hair so that it appears)] like spelt (כֻּסֶמֶת), which is arranged on the ear [with] the end of one beside the root of another. So I heard in the name of Rabbi Menahem of blessed memory. It is possible to explain it as an expression for a measure of a medium thing, neither shearing [all the hair of] the head nor letting the hair grow long, but a medium amount, amo(d)ler in O.F., to cut to medium length. ==== Verse 21 when they come into the Inner Court to the Heichal. ==== Verse 22 but...virgins may the High Priests take. But there are some priests who may take a widow, namely, the ordinary ones, and this is the meaning of “some of the priests may marry”; there are some priests who are permitted to marry a widow. who is only a widow A real [widow], excluding a divorcee and a woman upon whom the rite of chalitzah was performed; although she is unmarried, she is forbidden even for an ordinary [priest]. ==== Verse 26 And after his purification and after he has separated from the corpse. So was it taught in Moed Katan (15b). ==== Verse 27 And on the day that he enters into the Sanctuary for the first time to initiate himself into the service, he shall offer up his sin-offering; this is his one tenth of an ephah [of flour]. In Moed Katan (16a) the following is taught: the regular priest requires one tenth of an ephah on the day of his initiation, as it is stated (Lev. 6:13): “This is the offering of Aaron and his sons, etc.” and as is explained in Tractate Menachoth (51b). ==== Verse 28 It shall be to them the priesthood, for an inheritance. ==== Verse 29 and everything that is holy [Heb. חֶרֶם,] an expression of sanctity, and so is every expression of חֶרֶם [when used] in the context of hallowed things. ==== Verse 30 to bring enduring blessings into your home [Heb. לְהָנִיחַ,] aposer on O.F., (to cause) to rest, settle, as in (Exod. 10:14): “and it rested (וֳיָנָח) throughout all the borders of Egypt.” ==== Verse 31 Anything that has died of itself or is fatally wounded, etc. Since nipping the neck of the bird sin- offering was permitted, which is [tantamount to] an animal that died of itself or was fatally wounded [since it is not the normal method of slaughter], he had to warn them concerning [eating] other creatures that died of themselves or were fatally wounded. So our Sages explain.