Ezekiel 44:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 44:9
Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.
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
יְהוִה֒Yah.weh
H3069
YHWH · proper noun, a title
stranger
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
uncircumcised
עֶ֤רֶל'E.rel
H6189
uncircumcised (i.e. still having the prepuce uncurtaile… · adjective, masculine singular construct
heart
לֵב֙lev
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular absolute
uncircumcised
וְעֶ֣רֶלve.'E.rel
H6189
uncircumcised (i.e. still having the prepuce uncurtaile… · conjunction + adjective, masculine singular construct
flesh
בָּשָׂ֔רba.Sar
H1320
flesh (from its freshness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
enter
יָב֖וֹאya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
sanctuary
מִקְדָּשִׁ֑יmik.da.Shi
H4720
a consecrated thing or place · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
among
בְּת֖וֹךְbe.Tokh
H8432
a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
children
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵֽלYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
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
Joel 3:17 So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers…
Zechariah 14:21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them,…
Ezekiel 44:7 In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute i…
Mark 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
John 3:3-5 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Psalms 50:16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
Psalms 93:5 Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever.
Titus 1:5-9 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 44:4-9
This is much to the same purport with what we had in the beginning of ch. 43. As the prophet must look again upon what he had before seen, so he must be told again what he had before heard. Here, as before, he sees the house filled with the glory of the Lord, which strikes an awe upon him, so that he falls prostrate at the sight, the humblest posture of adoration and the expression of a holy awe: I fell upon my face, Eze 44:4. Note, The more we see of the glory of God the more low we shall lie in our own eyes. Now here,
I. God charges the prophet to take a very particular notice of all he saw, and all that was said to him (Eze 44:5): "Behold with thy eyes what is shown thee, particularly the…
keepers . . . for yourselves--such as you yourselves thought fit, not such as I approve of. Or else, "Ye have not yourselves kept the charge of My holy things, but have set others as keepers of My charge in My sanctuary for yourselves" [MAURER].
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 44:7
The fat and the blood - These never went into common use; they were wholly offered to God. The blood was poured out; the fat consumed.
Because of all your abominations - Several MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's read their abominations, referring to the strangers mentioned before.
John Gill on Ezekiel 44:9
Thus saith the Lord God,.... This that follows is the law and rule to be observed, and which will be observed by the churches in the latter day, though so little regarded now:
no stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary; of these See Gill on Ezekiel 44:7 unregenerate men may not be admitted members of a Gospel church; for that is holy, and holiness becomes it; but they are unholy, and as unfit to be received as swine into a king's palace; saints and they cannot talk together, their language being different, they are barbarians to one another; nor can they walk together, being not agreed in sentiment and practice; besides, such persons disqui…
The Church Fathers
But also he who holds heretical thoughts in his mind and arranges blasphemous assertions against the knowledge of Christ in his heart, this man is "uncircumcised" in "heart." But he who guards a pure faith in the sincerity of conscience, he is circumcised in heart; of whom it can be said: "blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."
When the mind is longingly involved with one of these stirrings—this depends on the urgency of the matter at the time of supplication and is the result of great eagerness—the gaze of its stirring is drawn by the eye of faith inside the veil of the heart, and the entries of the soul are fenced off, keeping out alien thoughts, which are called "strangers," who are not permitted by the law to enter inside the tent of witness. This is what they describe as "an acceptable sacrifice of the heart" and "pure prayer." Prayer's boundaries reach this point: afterwards it is not to be named prayer.
(Verse 9 and following) Thus says the Lord God: Every uncircumcised foreigner in heart and in flesh shall not enter my sanctuary, every foreign son who is among the sons of Israel. But the Levites who went far away from me in the error of the sons of Israel, and who went astray after their idols, shall bear their iniquity, those who were in my sanctuary, the ministers of the gates of the house, and the ministers of the house; they themselves slaughtered the burnt offerings and the sacrifices of the people, and there they stood before them to minister for them. Therefore, because they ministered to them in the presence of their idols, and the house of Israel became a stumbling block of iniquity, therefore I have lifted my hand against them, says the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity. And they shall not approach me to serve as priests, nor come near to any of my sanctuaries, according to the most holy things; but they shall bear their shame and the sins they have committed. And I will give them custodians of the house in all its ministry, and for all that is done in it. But the Levite priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the ceremonial duties of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me; and they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. They shall enter my sanctuary; and they shall come near to my table to minister to me, and they shall keep my ceremonies. LXX: Therefore thus says the Lord: Every uncircumcised foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall not enter my sanctuary, among all the foreign-born children of Israel. But the Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray, following their own imaginations and carrying their own sins, shall serve in my sanctuary, guarding the gates of the temple and ministering in the house. They shall offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to the people, and they shall stand before the people to minister to them. Because they ministered to them before their idols, and the house of Israel became a stumbling block of iniquity, therefore I have stretched out my hand over them, says the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity and shall not come near me to serve as priests to me, nor to offer to all the holy things of the children of Israel, nor to the most holy things of my sanctuary, but…
Dictionary and topics
Church Of Israel · Persons excluded from — Persons excluded from
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).
The Position of Foreigners, Levites, and Priests in Relation to the Temple and the Temple Service. - The further precepts concerning the approach to the sanctuary, and the worship to be presented there, are introduced with a fresh exhortation to observe with exactness all the statutes and laws, in order that the desecration of the sanctuary which had formerly taken place might not be repeated, and are delivered to the prophet at the north gate in front of the manifestation of the glory of God (Eze 44:4-8). - Eze 44:4. And he brought me by the way of the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah, and I fell down upon my fac…
No foreigners: This was not a blanket prohibition against non-Israelite access to the sanctuary. It only affected those who had not been circumcised and have not surrendered themselves to the Lord. Genuine converts could be part of the new Israel (see 47:22-23).
Rashi on Ezekiel 44:8
And you appointed keepers of My watch in My Sanctuary You knowingly appointed in My Sanctuary, people who are not fit to be keepers of My watch.
