Ezekiel 44:25 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 44:25
And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves.
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
dead
מֵ֣תmet
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
person
אָדָ֔ם'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
defile
לְטָמְאָ֑הle.ta.me.'Ah
H2930
to be foul · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
father
לְאָ֡בle.'Av
H1
father · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
mother
וּ֠לְאֵםU.le.'em
H517
a mother (as the bond of the family) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
son
וּלְבֵ֨ןu.le.Ven
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
daughter
וּלְבַ֜תu.le.Vat
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
brother
לְאָ֗חle.'Ach
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sister
וּלְאָח֛וֹתu.le.'a.Chot
H269
a sister (used very widely (like brother) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
husband
לְאִ֖ישׁle.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
defile
יִטַּמָּֽאוּyi.ta.Ma.'u
H2930
to be foul · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
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 22:4 What man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a running issue; he shall not eat of the holy things, until he be clean. And whoso…
Leviticus 21:1-6 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among hi…
Matthew 8:21-22 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Luke 9:59-60 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
2 Corinthians 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no mor…
1 Thessalonians 4:13-15 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
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 44:25
And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves - Touching the dead defiles a Hindoo now, as it formerly did a Jew; and they must bathe to become clean again.
John Gill on Ezekiel 44:25
And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves,.... Shall not come into places where they are, nor touch them, nor attend their funerals, Leviticus 21:1, that their work might not be interrupted, or they through grief and sorrow be made unfit for it, Matthew 8:22, this, in a spiritual sense, may signify, that they should have no conversation or fellowship with men dead in trespasses and sins; and should abstain from all dead works, as all sinful ones are:
but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves; by coming near them, touching them, at least attending their funerals, because of thei…
(Verse 25) And they shall not go unto a dead person, lest they be defiled (for the Septuagint translated it as, and they shall not go upon the soul of a dead person, lest they be defiled): except for father and mother, he said, and son and daughter, brother and sister who has no husband, they shall be defiled. And what follows: They shall not enter the place where the dead person is, lest they be polluted. It is the proper office of the priesthood not to touch anything connected with death, so that the one who prays for the sins of others may approach the altar in a state of purity. Our Savior also speaks of these dead in the Gospel: Let the dead bury their own dead (Matthew 8:22). They are polluted by their dead father when they abandon their Creator, and by their dead mother when they depart from the Church. Likewise, by their son and daughter, for there is a distinction between thoughts and actions, which is more expressively stated in Greek as τὰ νοητὰ καὶ αἰσθητά. Also, if a brother and sister, who have been born of the same spirit, mistakenly believe that one of them has died, they become contaminated by this belief. However, this only applies if the sister remains a virgin and has not been defiled by any man. From this, we understand the virgin privilege, which is taken away by the touch of any man, thereby removing perfect purity. Whether this is said correctly or incorrectly, we leave it to the judgment of the reader. Furthermore, this is supported by the natural affection in the order of charity, as it is written: 'Set me as a seal upon your heart' (Song of Solomon 2:4). After God, the parent of all things, let the father and mother of the flesh also be loved and respected, as well as the son and daughter, and the brother and sister. However, this only applies if they have not left the household nor come under the authority of another.
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
Purification — The process by which a person unclean, according to the Levitical law, and thereby cut off from the sanctuary and the festivals, was restored to the enjoyment of all these privileges. The great…
Dead, The · A priest not to mourn for, except when near of kin — A priest not to mourn for, except when near of kin
Defilement · Of priests — Of priests
Priest · . — .
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].
