Ezekiel 44:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 44:22
Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
wives
לְנָשִׁ֑יםle.na.Shim
H802
a woman · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
widow
וְאַלְמָנָה֙ve.'al.ma.Nah
H490
a widow · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
away
וּגְרוּשָׁ֔הu.ge.ru.Shah
H1644
to drive out from a possession · conjunction + verb, qal passive participle, feminine singular absolute
take
יִקָּֽחוּyi.Ka.chu
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
maidens
בְּתוּלֹ֗תbe.tu.Lot
H1330
a virgin (from her privacy) · noun, common feminine plural absolute
seed
מִזֶּ֙רַע֙mi.Ze.ra'
H2233
seed · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
house
בֵּ֣יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
widow
וְהָֽאַלְמָנָה֙ve.ha.'al.ma.Nah
H490
a widow · conjunction + definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
priest
מִכֹּהֵ֖ןmi.ko.Hen
H3548
literally one officiating · preposition + 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
Leviticus 21:7 They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his G…
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanne…
1 Timothy 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
1 Timothy 3:4-5 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
1 Timothy 3:11-12 Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.
Titus 1:6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
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…
Neither . . . wine--lest the holy enthusiasm of their devotion should be mistaken for inebriation, as in Peter's case (Act 2:13, Act 2:15, Act 2:18).
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 44:22
Neither shall they take for their wives a widow - This was prohibited to the high priest only, by Moses, Lev 21:13, Lev 21:14.
John Gill on Ezekiel 44:22
Neither shall they take for their wives a widow,.... Who has been not only another man's, but at her own will, and done her own pleasure, and been her own mistress, and so not easily brought into subjection, and to behave as becoming her station:
or her that is put away; or, "thrust forth" (q); out of doors; whose husband has given her a bill of divorce; since she may be suspected of having done some ill thing:
but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel; virgins, and not of the families of unconverted persons, who have been brought up in an irreligious way, but of godly families, and who have had a religious education:
or a widow that had a priest before: and so used t…
(Vers. 22) Widows and divorced (or expelled) women will not marry, but only a virgin from the seed of the house of Israel. But they will accept a widow who was married to a priest. This place contains the instructions of the priests, who, after many things that we have explained above, are commanded not to take widows, divorced women, or expelled women as wives. The widow and the divorced woman are the synagogue, that is, the congregation of the Jews, which did not receive the Lord. Therefore, it is rightly called the expelled woman, or the widow synagogue. The expelled woman also refers to the crowd of heretics who departed from us because they were not of us. But he says, 'I want to present you all as a holy virgin to Christ,' speaking also of the woman from the seed of the house of Israel who was nourished in the house of God, in the law and the prophets, about whom the Apostle also speaks (2 Corinthians 11:2). This is the virgin about whom the divine word speaks elsewhere: Love her, and she will keep you: surround her, and she will exalt you: honor her, so that she may embrace you (Prov. IV, 8). But whoever reads it will know what kind of virgin should be loved and how she should keep her lover: I loved her and sought her from my youth, and I sought to take her as my spouse, and I became a lover of her beauty (Wisdom VIII, 2). And again: And the Lord loved her above all. Not only, however, should priests marry virgins, but also widows, who were, nevertheless, the wives of another priest; that is, the knowledge that another worshipper of God has found. For we must not only be satisfied with new doctrine, but also cultivate the old and join it to our company, if she has been educated in sacred worship.
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
Priest · .Marriage of — .Marriage of
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 44:17–end
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 priests were to avoid contact with death, either by being in the presence of a dead person or through the ritual mourning practices in which they would shave their heads or let their hair grow completely free. They must not drink wine before entering the inner courtyard to avoid the risk of potentially fatal alcohol-induced errors (see Lev 10:9). The priests were restricted in marriage to virgins of Israel or to widows of the priests to ensure the continuing purity of the priestly line. In all of these ways, the priests were to model the radical distinction between holy and common and between the ceremonially clean and unclean for the people.
Rashi on Ezekiel 44:22
but...virgins may the High Priests take. But there are some priests who may take a widow, namely, the ordinary ones, and this is the meaning of “some of the priests may marry”; there are some priests who are permitted to marry a widow.
who is only a widow A real [widow], excluding a divorcee and a woman upon whom the rite of chalitzah was performed; although she is unmarried, she is forbidden even for an ordinary [priest].
