Ezekiel 44:17 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 44:17
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.
a yard (as inclosed by a fence) · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
within
וָבָֽיְתָהva.Va.ye.tah
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute + directional suffix
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
Revelation 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Exodus 28:43 And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the…
Exodus 39:27-29 And they made coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron, and for his sons,
Exodus 28:39-40 And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the mitre of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework.
Leviticus 16:4 He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with…
Revelation 4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; an…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 44:17–end
God's priests must be regulars, not seculars; and therefore here are rules laid down for them to govern themselves by and due encouragement given them to live up to those rules. Directions are here given,
I. Concerning their clothes; they must wear linen garments when they went in to minister or do any service in the inner court, or in the sanctuary, and nothing that was woollen, because it would cause sweat, Eze 44:17, Eze 44:18. They must dress themselves cool, that they might go the more readily about their work; and they had the more need to do so because they were to attend the altars, which had constant fires upon them. And they must dress themselves clean and sweet, and avoid every th…
linen--symbolical of purity. Wool soon induces perspiration in the sultry East and so becomes uncleanly.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 44:17
No wool shall come upon them - The reason is plain; wool is more apt than linen to contract dirt and breed insects; linen breeds none; besides, this is a vegetable, and the other an animal substance. It was an ancient maxim, that whatever was taken from a dead body was impure in matters of religion, and should not be permitted to enter into the temple. The Egyptian priests always wore linen on their bodies, and shoes of matting or rushes on their feet. The Mohammedans never write the Koran upon vellum or skin of any kind, as they would consider that as a defilement.
John Gill on Ezekiel 44:17
And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court,.... The priests before described; when they enter the right way into a true Gospel church, consisting of such who are internally renewed, and have an inward work of grace upon their hearts, and are inward court worshippers; either as private Christians, to pray together, to praise the Lord, to hear his word, and sit down at his table; or as public ministers, to preach the Gospel, and administer ordinances:
they shall be clothed with linen garments; meaning not the outward conversation garments of the Lord's people; nor their inward garment of sanctification; but the robe of Christ's righteousness, and garmen…
The Church Fathers
(Verses 17 onwards) And when they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments (or robes); they shall not wear anything made of wool (or they shall not wear garments made of wool) when they minister at the gates of the inner court and inside. Linen turbans shall be on their heads (or they shall have linen turbans on their heads) and linen undergarments shall be around their waists, and they shall not be bound in sweat (or forced). And when they go out to the outer courtyard to the people, they shall take off their garments (or stoles) in which they ministered, and they shall put them in the treasury (or colonnades) of the sanctuary (or the holy place), and they shall put on other garments (or stoles), and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments (or stoles). But they shall not shave their heads, nor let their hair grow long, but they shall trim their hair (or shave their heads) without shaving the hair too close: they shall cover their heads. And not every priest shall drink wine when he is about to enter the inner court. First, the words of the story must be interpreted. Among other things that the sermon of the Lord commands to the priests, he also orders that they should be clothed in linen garments at the very gates of the inner court, that is, with linen stoles: and they should not use garments woven with gold either at the gates of the inner court or inside, that is, in the holy of holies; and linen turbans or headbands should be on their heads, and linen undergarments around their loins. And what follows according to the Septuagint: 'And they shall not gird themselves violently,' which Aquila and Symmachus translated as 'in sweat.' Theodotion, expressing the Hebrew word itself, rendered it as, 'in Jeze,' meaning that they should not be girded violently, tightly, like prisoners, so as not to become unfit for the priestly and Levitical duties, and be unable to hold and slaughter the victims, nor to draw and run around. And because he had previously commanded the priests what garments they should wear when they were inside the sanctuary, he now orders that when they go out into the treasuries or the holy places, they should take off their former garments and put on others. For if they had the holy garments, they would sanctify the people who were standing outside and had not yet been sanctified, nor had…
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
Breeches — (Ex. 28:42), rather linen drawers, reaching from the waist to a little above the knee, worn by the priests (Ezek. 44:17, 18).
Priest — The Heb. kohen, Gr. hierus, Lat. sacerdos, always denote one who offers sacrifices. At first every man was his own priest, and presented his own sacrifices before God. Afterwards that office devolved…
Priest · .Vestments of — .Vestments of
Wool · Used for clothing — Used for clothing
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).
Requisites for the Administration of the Priests' Office, and the Obligations and Privileges of that Office. - Eze 44:17. And it shall come to pass, when they go to the gates of the inner court, they shall put on linen clothes, and no wool shall lie upon them, when they serve in the gates of the inner court and serve toward the house. Eze 44:18. Linen turbans shall be upon their head, and linen drawers upon their hips; they shall not gird themselves in sweat. Eze 44:19. And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall take off their clothes in which they have ministered, and put them in the holy cells, and put on other clothes, that they may not sanct…
The privileged access of the priests carried heightened responsibilities for holiness. Their behavior was far more restricted than that of the people in general. They had to wear linen rather than wool so that their bodies would not be defiled by sweat (see study note on 36:17), and they were to maintain a separate wardrobe of sacred garments. • endanger . . . by transmitting holiness to them: Holiness was a contagious quality that could be conveyed to anything with which it came into contact. The problem with this is that if a sacred object transmitted holiness to a profane object or person, there could be fatal consequences (cp. Lev 10:1-3; 1 Sam 6:19; 2 Sam 6:6-7).
Rashi on Ezekiel 44:17
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.
