Ezekiel 43

This chapter belongs to the new temple vision of Ezekiel 40–48. After the measurement of the temple's gates, courts, and chambers through Ezekiel 42, this chapter describes the glory of the LORD entering that temple.

Outline

• Verses 1–5 When Ezekiel comes to the east gate, the glory of the God of Israel comes from the east. Its appearance is like the vision he saw by the river Chebar. The glory enters the temple by the east gate and fills it.
• Verses 6–9 A voice speaks from the temple. It declares that this is the place of God's throne and the place of the soles of His feet, where He will dwell forever, and that Israel and their kings will no longer defile His holy name by their whoredom or by the carcasses of their kings.
• Verses 10–12 Ezekiel is commanded to show the house of Israel the form and ordinances of the temple and to write them down, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. "The law of the house" is that the whole area surrounding the top of the mountain is most holy.
• Verses 13–17 The measurements of the altar of burnt offering are given. The cubit is the length from the elbow to the fingertips plus a handbreadth. The altar consists of a base, a lower ledge, and an upper ledge; the hearth on which burnt offerings are made is twelve cubits square and has four horns. Its steps face east.
• Verses 18–27 The regulations for consecrating the altar follow. On the first day the priests descended from Zadok put the blood of a young bullock on the altar to cleanse it, and on the second day they do the same with a male goat. Burnt offerings with salt cast upon them are added, and the altar is purified for seven days. From the eighth day onward, burnt offerings and peace offerings are offered.

Key Verses

• Ezekiel 43:2 "His voice was like a noise of many waters" — central to the scene of the glory's return.
• Ezekiel 43:5 "The glory of the LORD filled the house" — the glory that departed from the temple in Ezekiel 10 and Ezekiel 11 returns.
• Ezekiel 43:7 "Where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever" — reveals the purpose of the restoration vision.

People and Places

• Ezekiel: The prophet of priestly descent who sees the vision. God addresses him as son of man.
• The descendants of Zadok: Presented as the priestly family who come near to God to minister to Him.
• The river Chebar: The river in the land of Babylon where Ezekiel first saw a vision in Ezekiel 1.
• Altar of burnt offering: The subject of the measurements and consecration regulations in verses 13–27.

Points for Reflection

• The pattern of the glory departing toward the east and returning from the east is read alongside the scenes of the glory filling the tabernacle and Solomon's temple (Exodus 40:34–35; 1 Kings 8).
• Interpretations of this temple differ. Dispensationalism regards it as a temple that will literally be built during the millennial kingdom and interprets the restored sacrifices as memorial in nature. Reformed and many evangelical commentators read it as a symbolic vision pointing to Christ, the church, and the new creation. Some scholars see it as portraying the ideal that the community returning from exile was to embrace.
• One point of discussion is how the renewed offering of sacrifices can be reconciled with Hebrews 10, which speaks of Christ's once-for-all sacrifice.
• The voice "like a noise of many waters" also appears in Revelation 1:15, describing the voice of the risen Christ. The chapter is also sometimes read in comparison with Revelation 21, where there is no temple because God and the Lamb are its temple.