Ezekiel 48:32, commentary and pictures

The east side measures four thousand and five hundred reeds and holds three gates named for Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan. It belongs to the pattern of sanctuary, city, and divided land shown to captive Israel fourteen years after the sanctuary was destroyed. The sanctuary, city, and restoration from Babylon were offered to literal Israel on condition of shame for sin, repentance, and full surrender to God, but Israel failed to meet the terms so the temple and city were never built as described. The vision cannot describe the immortal state or a temple yet to be built, because it centers on a mortal prince who offers sin-offerings for himself and on circumcision, clean and unclean meats, and bull and goat offerings replaced by Christ. Its unfulfilled promises are faint types of greater things God will accomplish through Christ for His true Israel, when the holy city comes down from heaven with twelve gates bearing the names of the twelve tribes, though those who held it distinct taught that Ezekiel's city and sanctuary are not the New Jerusalem and its offered restoration was forfeited.

Vision Setting and Details

The east side measures four thousand and five hundred reeds and holds three gates, one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, and one gate of Dan. Those three names place tribal gates on the east of the restored city in the temple prophecy, with the gates of the city named after the tribes of Israel. The verse belongs to the apportionment of the earth to the twelve tribes, describing the land divided among the tribes northward and southward and eastward and westward from the city.

It stands in Ezekiel 40-48, the pattern of another sanctuary and another city and divided land shown to the house of Israel in captivity fourteen years after the sanctuary was destroyed. Like the tabernacle and the temple, this building consisted of two holy places, and its most holy place was the same size as that in Solomon's temple. The word sanctuary is applied to this building, including in chapter 48. It was a prophecy and promise of a new and larger city and temple than the children of Israel had yet known, set forth in great detail with its sanctuary to be built and the wonderful glory of God to be manifest in connection with it.

The vision is of a measured, orderly, restored Jerusalem with tribal gates and a glorious temple at its center declaring that Jehovah is there, where God's presence dwells among His people in overpowering glory. Where God dwells His presence heals all barren land and all salt marshes and all impure waters and gives life to all. The promise held out unsurpassable glory with lengthened life, a true-hearted people, and the constant manifest presence of God in His holy mountain, with the land divided on a different plan.

Conditional Offer Never Built

Ezekiel 48:32 belongs to the pattern of another sanctuary, city, and new division of the land shown to the house of Israel in captivity fourteen years after the sanctuary was destroyed, during the seventy years captivity in Babylon. Like the tabernacle and the temple this building had two holy places, its most holy place was the same size as that in Solomon's temple, and the word sanctuary is applied to it, including in chapter 48. It was offered to literal Israel on condition that they be ashamed of their iniquities, repent, put away sin, and yield fully to God, turning from wickedness and returning to Him. If they did this God would cause the building to be established and would cause the twelve tribes to return with abundant blessing.

Had ancient Israel met those conditions, the detailed description of the city, including the east side measuring four thousand and five hundred with its three gates of Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan, would have been fulfilled literally and in fullest detail as a city that could have been built. The prophecy of Ezekiel 36 to the close of the book was conditioned on the faith and obedience of ancient Israel, and its temple and attendant sacrifices would then have been realized as offered. Because Israel did not meet these conditions, the promised temple, city, and land arrangement were not realized as described and will never now be fulfilled as offered.

When the decree for restoration went forth all Israel could go up, but the ten tribes slighted the offer and the promised blessings, and only Judah and Benjamin with a portion of Levi and a few others went up, only about forty thousand returning. The house of Israel was not ashamed of its iniquities, did not respond as required, and did not yield all to God, so He could not come in and dwell among them and could not build a temple for His name for a half-hearted people to dishonor. Thus this sanctuary was never erected as described, Jerusalem was never thus restored, and that temple was never built and never will be built as offered. If Israel had been ashamed for their ways, been cleansed from sin, been brought back to the mountains of Israel to be made great, seen the resurrection of Ezekiel 37 and the destruction of the enemies from the north of Ezekiel 38-39 by plagues, they would have built that marvelous sanctuary with its measurements and gates, the presence of God would have dwelt among them in overpowering glory, and the name of the city would have been Jehovah Is There.

What was built at the restoration from Babylon by Zerubbabel, Ezra and others was only a lesser shadow and an inferior sanctuary falling far short of Ezekiel's pattern. Because the people continued in apostasy the sanctuary and its promises were only weakly realized and fulfilled only in small part. That restoration temple never saw the glory of Solomon's temple except in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the temple-keepers rejected. If all God's people with all their hearts had returned at that time, and if Israel had heeded God, the temple Ezekiel described would have been built in its full glory and Israel would have been a light to the world.

The vision cannot describe the future immortal state, because that state has only one Prince and King over Israel, Jesus, while this vision has a poor, frail mortal prince who must offer sin-offerings and all kinds of offerings for himself, who takes away exactions, who has sons and servants to whom he may give an inheritance, and who must be forbidden to oppress the people. It cannot describe the gospel and Christian dispensation, and is not a sanctuary yet to be built, because it belongs to the time while literal circumcision was in force, while divorce was permitted, while distinction between clean and unclean meats was recognized, while burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of bulls and goats were in force, and while the Levitical priesthood existed. Christ's priesthood replaced the Levitical priesthood, and no further sacrifice can be offered without nullifying and denying the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, so that sanctuary will never be built and the prophecy does not belong to the future reign of Christ and His saints.

The closing vision predicts the building of a greater temple, fulfilled in Herod's restoration of the temple as a monument of his repentance, though the prophecy does not reveal the process or circumstances by which the work would be done.

Future Hope and Inheritance

Ezekiel 48:32 belongs to a conditional prophecy of a new division of the land, a restored temple, city and tribal inheritance offered to Israel on condition of turning from wickedness, being ashamed of iniquities, and fully repenting and yielding to God, which was not realized as described because the people did not meet those conditions. Its unfulfilled promises are faint types pointing generally, not in literal detail, to greater spiritual things God will accomplish for His people through Christ, for His true Israel at the second coming and in the new heavens and new earth. The measured, orderly restored Jerusalem with its tribal gates described a future for earthly Jerusalem that was forfeited, and its purposes will instead be realized in the New City with the New Jerusalem as capital, in the future glory and the fullest measure of the immortal inheritance given to the faithful. There the earth made new becomes a more glorious inheritance, with absolute joy, peace and harmony.

The east side of the city with its three gates named for Joseph, Benjamin and Dan shows gates named after the tribes of Israel, matching the holy city coming down from God out of heaven with twelve gates bearing the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. The verse belongs to the vision of the apportionment of the earth to the twelve tribes, describing the new earth where the land is divided among the tribes northward and southward and eastward and westward from the city. Yet the vision of Ezekiel's city and sanctuary is distinct from the New Jerusalem, and its promised restoration as offered was conditional on Israel's repentance and was forfeited.

Ezekiel's detailed vision of a grand temple at Jerusalem is ultimately described as a house of prayer for all nations. Its sanctuary would have been built as God's kingdom was established on earth if His people had met the conditions, and though that kingdom was not fulfilled in this way, its peace will be realized more gloriously in the new earth. The allotment of the land in Ezekiel 48 was temporary in its historical form, but it was designed to teach God's purpose for the future world. That purpose is that the redeemed will receive an individual, lasting inheritance forever, pictured by the plan for apportioning the promised land among Israel's families.