Ezekiel 43:18 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 43:18
And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
man
אָדָם֙'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
saith
אָמַר֙'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Lord
אֲדֹנָ֣י'a.do.Nai
H136
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD
יְהוִ֔הYah.weh
H3069
YHWH · proper noun, a title
ordinances
חֻקּ֣וֹתchu.Kot
H2708
an enactment · noun, common feminine plural construct
altar
הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַha.miz.Be.ach
H4196
an altar · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
day
בְּי֖וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
make
הֵעָֽשׂוֹת֑וֹhe.'a.so.To
H6213
to do or make · verb, niphal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
offer
לְהַעֲל֤וֹתle.ha.'a.Lot
H5927
to ascend · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
offerings
עוֹלָ֔הo.Lah
H5930
a step or (collectively · noun, common feminine singular absolute
sprinkle
וְלִזְרֹ֥קve.liz.Rok
H2236
to sprinkle (fluid or solid particles) · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
blood
דָּֽםDam
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 40:29 And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering…
Leviticus 1:5-17 And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon…
Leviticus 8:18-21 And he brought the ram for the burnt offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.
Leviticus 16:19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children o…
Ezekiel 2:1 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
Ezekiel 45:18-19 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the…
Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
Hebrews 9:21-22 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 43:13–end
This relates to the altar in this mystical temple, and that is mystical too; for Christ is our altar. The Jews, after their return out of captivity, had an altar long before they had a temple, Ezr 3:3. But this was an altar in the temple. Now here we have,
I. The measures of the altar, Eze 43:13. It was six yards square at the top and seven yards square at the bottom; it was four yards and a half high; it had a lower bench or shelf, here called a settle, a yard from the ground, on which some of the priests stood to minister, and another two yards above that, on which others of them stood, and these were each of them half a yard broad, and had ledges on either side, that they might stand firm…
The sacrifices here are not mere commemorative, but propitiatory ones. The expressions, "blood" (Eze 43:18), and "for a sin offering (Eze 43:19, Eze 43:21-22), prove this. In the literal sense they can only apply to the second temple. Under the Christian dispensation they would directly oppose the doctrine taught in Heb. 10:1-18, namely, that Christ has by one offering for ever atoned for sin. However, it is possible that they might exist with a retrospective reference to Christ's sufferings, as the Levitical sacrifices had a prospective reference to them; not propitiatory in themselves, but memorials to keep up the remembrance of His propitiatory sufferings, which form the foundation of His…
And the settle - The ledge on which the priests walked round the altar, see Eze 43:14. By these settles or ledges the altar was narrowed towards the top. "The ascent shall look toward the east;" this ascent was an inclined plane. But these settles, or more properly ledges, as Bp. Newcome translates, may be thus computed. The altar itself was ten feet high and twenty broad; the same as that of Solomon, Ch2 4:1.
Height Cubits For the base, Eze 43:13, is in height 1 From the surface of the base to the first ledge, Eze 43:14 1 From the lower ledge to the upper, Eze 43:14 4 From the upper ledge to the ariel or hearth, Eze 43:15 4 In all 10 Breadth Cubits And as to the breadth, the upper ledge, E…
The Church Fathers
(Ver. 18 and following) And he said to me: Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are the rituals of the altar when it is made, to offer a burnt offering and pour out blood. And you shall give to the priests, the Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach me, says the Lord God: to offer to me a young bull from the herd as a sin offering. And you shall take some of its blood, and put it on the four horns and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around; and you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it. And you shall take the calf that was offered for sin and burn it in a separate place outside the sanctuary. And on the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish for sin, and they shall make atonement for the altar as they made atonement for the calf. LXX: And he said to me, Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are the statutes of the altar on the day it is made, upon which burnt offerings are offered and blood is poured out on it. And you shall give to the Levite priests who are of the seed of Sadduc, and who approach me, says the Lord God, to minister to me a calf from the cattle for a sin offering. And they shall take its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, and on its base all around, and they shall cleanse and make atonement for it. And they shall take the calf for a sin offering and burn it in a designated place outside the sanctuary of the house. And on the second day they shall take two male goats without blemish from the goats for a sin offering, and they shall make atonement for the altar as they made atonement with the calf. After the prophet showed the altar, and its cubit, which was two cubits, and again a cubit and four cubits, and a third cubit, as well as twelve cubits for the other twelve, and four horns of the altar: also twelve cubits for Ariel, by twelve cubits, and a ledge, that is, a mercy seat, of fourteen cubits, by fourteen cubits: also its crown, and a breast boundary of half a cubit and one cubit all around: and steps to the east, the number of which is uncertain, a man spoke, whose pen and cord were in his hand, and he instructed him how, with the work of the altar completed, the altar should be cleansed and consecrated. And first a victim is offered, and it is given to the priests of the tribe of Levi, who are from the descendants of Sadoc, whom the Seventy call Sadduc,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Blood · .Sprinkled on altar and people — .Sprinkled on altar and people
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And he said unto me, son of man, thus saith the Lord God,.... This is the voice of the Lord continued, speaking out of the house to the prophet; see Ezekiel 43:6,
these are the ordinances of the altar: not what go before, concerning the measures of it, but what follow, concerning the sacrifices to be offered on it:
in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and sprinkle blood thereon; this plainly shows that this altar is the altar of burnt offerings; such were to be offered on it, and the blood of them to be sprinkled thereon, as follows; that is, upon the horns, corners, and border of it, Ezekiel 43:20.
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 43:18–end
Consecration of the Altar
Eze 43:18. And he said to me, Son of man, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, These are the statutes of the altar in the day when it is erected, to offer burnt-offerings upon it, and to sprinkle blood thereon. Eze 43:19. Thou shalt give to the priests of the tribe of Levi who are of the seed of Zadok, who draw near to me, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, a bullock, a young ox, for a sin-offering. Eze 43:20. And thou shalt take of its blood, and put it upon is four horns, and upon the four corners of the enclosure, and upon the moulding round about; and so absolve and expiate it. Eze 43:21. And thou shalt take the bullock of the sin-offering, and burn it at the appointed…
The new altar had to be consecrated before it was used. • On the first day, the blood of a young bull was to be applied to the extremities of the altar, the horns and corners, as a sin offering. The body of the sin offering was then burnt outside the sacred area, as with the Tabernacle (cp. Lev 4:11-12).
Rashi on Ezekiel 43:17
And the ledge, fourteen [cubits in] length The top of the altar, including the area for the horns and including the area for the feet of the priests, was 28 by 28 [cubits], and the 14 mentioned here were measured from its center, as is explained by “to its four sides.”
and the boundary around it Jonathan renders: and the rim, but our Sages explained it as referring to the horns.
half a cubit He measures from its center; hence it was a cubit by a cubit.
and its base a cubit This is the recession of the base.
and its ascents will look towards the east The ramp upon which they ascended was in the south in order that the one who ascended it would face east, for all the [priests’] turns were…
