28 And on the limit of Gad, on the south side and to the south of it, the limit will be from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream, to the Great Sea.
And they came to Jehoshaphat with the news, saying, A great army is moving against you from Edom across the sea; and now they are in Hazazon-tamar (which is En-gedi).
And this is to be the limit of the land: on the north side, from the Great Sea, in the direction of Hethlon, as far as the way into Hamath;
And the south side to the south will be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream of Egypt, to the Great Sea. This is the south side, on the south. And the west side will be the Great Sea, from the limit on the south to a point opposite the way into Hamath. This is the west side.
Then they came back to En-mishpat (which is Kadesh), making waste all the country of the Amalekites and of the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar.
In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel went against the Lord, and they saw that he was holy among them.
And from Azmon it will go round to the stream of Egypt as far as the sea.
From the Shihor, which is before Egypt, to the edge of Ekron to the north, which is taken to be Canaanite property: the five chiefs of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites, as well as the Avvim;
They made God angry again at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled because of them;
And it will be in that day that the Lord will get together his grain, from the River to the stream of Egypt, and you will be got together with care, O children of Israel.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Ezekiel 48
Commentary on Ezekiel 48 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 48
Eze 48:1-35. Allotment of the Land to the Several Tribes.
1. Dan—The lands are divided into portions of ideal exactness, running alongside of each other, the whole breadth from west to east, standing in a common relation to the temple in the center: seven tribes' portions on the north, five in the smaller division in the south. The portions of the city, the temple, the prince, and the priesthood, are in the middle, not within the boundaries of any tribe, all alike having a common interest in them. Judah has the place of honor next the center on the north, Benjamin the corresponding place of honor next the center on the south; because of the adherence of these two to the temple ordinances and to the house of David for so long, when the others deserted them. Dan, on the contrary, so long locally and morally semi-heathen (Jud 18:1-31), is to have the least honorable place, at the extreme north. For the same reason, St. John (Re 7:5-8) omits Dan altogether.
3. Asher—a tribe of which no one of note is mentioned in the Old Testament. In the New Testament one is singled out of it, the prophetess Anna.
4. Manasseh—The intercourse and unity between the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan, and the nine and a half west of it, had been much kept up by the splitting of Manasseh, causing the visits of kinsmen one to the other from both sides of the Jordan. There shall be no need for this in the new order of things.
5. Ephraim—This tribe, within its two dependent tribes, Manasseh and Benjamin, for upwards of four hundred years under the judges held the pre-eminence.
6. Reuben—doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel" (Ge 49:4). So no distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from it. Of it were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the mutineers. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked it and Gad (Jud 5:16).
15-17. The five thousand rods, apportioned to the city out of the twenty-five thousand square, are to be laid off in a square of four thousand five hundred, with the two hundred fifty all around for suburbs.
profane—that is, not strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular uses.
24. Benjamin—Compare Jacob's prophecy (Ge 49:27; De 33:12). It alone with Judah had been throughout loyal to the house of David, so its prowess at the "night" of the national history was celebrated as well as in the "morning."
25. Simeon—omitted in the blessing of Moses in De 33:1-29, perhaps because of the Simeonite "prince," who at Baal-peor led the Israelites in their idolatrous whoredoms with Midian (Nu 25:14).
26. Issachar—Its ancient portion had been on the plain of Esdraelon. Compared (Ge 49:14) to "a strong ass crouching between two burdens," that is, tribute and tillage; never meddling with wars except in self-defense.
31. gates—(Re 21:12, &c.). The twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes to imply that all are regarded as having an interest in it.
35. Lord is there—Jehovah-Shammah. Not that the city will be called so in mere name, but that the reality will be best expressed by this descriptive title (Jer 3:17; 33:16; Zec 2:10; Re 21:3; 22:3).