Ezekiel 46:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 46:1
Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
a yard (as inclosed by a fence) · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
looketh
הַפֹּנֶ֣הha.po.Neh
H6437
to turn · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
east
קָדִ֔יםka.Dim
H6921
the fore or front part · noun, common masculine singular absolute
shut
סָג֔וּרsa.Gur
H5462
to shut up · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
six
שֵׁ֖שֶׁתShe.shet
H8337
six (as an overplus beyond five or the fingers of the h… · cardinal number, both genders singular construct
working
הַֽמַּעֲשֶׂ֑הha.ma.'a.Seh
H4639
an action (good or bad) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
days
יְמֵ֣יye.Mei
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural construct
sabbath
הַשַּׁבָּת֙ha.sha.Bat
H7676
intermission · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
opened
יִפָּתֵ֔חַyi.pa.Te.ach
H6605
to open wide (literally or figuratively) · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
day
וּבְי֤וֹםu.ve.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
moon
הַחֹ֖דֶשׁha.Cho.desh
H2320
the new moon · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
opened
יִפָּתֵֽחַyi.pa.Te.ach
H6605
to open wide (literally or figuratively) · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, sa…
Ezekiel 44:1-2 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.
Exodus 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Ezekiel 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the al…
Ezekiel 45:17-19 And it shall be the prince’s part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and…
Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto…
Ezekiel 46:6 And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.
Luke 13:14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 46:1-15
Whether the rules for public worship here laid down were designed to be observed, even in those things wherein they differed from the law of Moses, and were so observed under the second temple, is not certain; we find not in the history of that latter part of the Jewish church that they governed themselves in their worship by these ordinances, as one would think they should have done, but only by law of Moses, looking upon this then in the next age after as mystical, and not literal. We may observe, in these verses,
I. That the place of worship was fixed, and rules were given concerning that, both to prince and people.
1. The east gate, which was kept shut at other times, was to be opened on…
Thus saith the Lord God,.... Which is premised, to raise the greater attention to what is about to be said: the gate of the inner court that looketh towards the east; the eastern gate of the inner court; the court of the priests, where stood the altar of burnt offerings, and where they offered the sacrifices for atonement; and seems, in the mystical sense, to design the ministry of the Gospel, which is a ministry of reconciliation; which holds forth Christ as the altar saints have a right to eat of; and who is the sacrifice for sin, and has made reconciliation for it; and, where this is preached, he, the angel descending from the east, comes; here appears the rising sun, the sun of righteous…
Ezekiel continued to outline the responsibilities of the prince at the special celebrations by specifying his duties on Sabbath days and at new moon celebrations. The prince would be the representative worshiper on behalf of the people. He would pass through the Temple in procession with them, and he would also be uniquely able to approach the realm of the sacred on their behalf.
46:1 The east gateway between the inner and outer courtyards would open once a week for the Sabbath, once a month for new moon celebrations, and when the prince offered voluntary burnt offerings or peace offerings (46:12). The east gate between the outer courtyard and the outside world was never to be opened again…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 46—Verses 1 onwards). Thus says the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that faces east will be closed for six days, during which work is being done; but on the Sabbath day it will be opened, and also on the day of the new moon it will be opened. And the prince shall enter through the vestibule of the outer gate, and shall stand at the threshold of the gate. The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate and then leave. But the gate shall not be closed until evening. And the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of that gate on the Sabbaths and on the new moons before the Lord. The prince shall offer on the Sabbaths, as a burnt offering to the Lord, six unblemished lambs and an unblemished ram, and a grain offering of an ephah for the ram. And for the lambs, whatever his hand gives as a sacrifice, and a hin of oil for each ephah. On the new moons, he shall offer an unblemished bull from the herd, and six lambs and rams shall be unblemished. And one ephah for a young bull, and one ephah for a ram shall he make a sacrifice: and with every ephah there shall be a hin of oil. Where we have translated ephah, which is a tenth part of an ephah, they have rendered it πέμμα, which in our language means a measure of volume. And where we have said sacrifice, they have used the Hebrew word Manaa, which Aquila translated as gift or sacrifice, and Theodotion translated as sacrifice. And meanwhile, before we discuss what these things mean, the very words of Scripture must be explained paraphrastically. 'The gate,' it says, 'of the inner court shall be closed for six days, as it is written: Six days you shall work and do all your works (Exod. XXIII, 12); and it shall not be any gate, but the one facing the East, where the sun of justice rises. Moreover, on the Sabbath day, that is, on the seventh day, which is a day of rest, it shall be opened each week, and again, when thirty days are complete, which is the end of one month and the beginning of another, that is, on the day of the calends, it shall be opened, so that what the seventh day has as a privilege in the week, the beginning of the month may have as a privilege as well.' But why it is opened on the seventh day, and on the first day of the month, the inner gate of the atrium facing the East will be explained in the following…
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
Day · Six working days ordaine — Six working days ordaine
Feast Of The New Moon, The · A season for: Worship in God’s house — A season for: Worship in God’s house
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 gate of the Inner Court that faces toward the east, etc. Our Rabbis learned in Tractate Middoth (4:2): The gate of the Heichal had two wickets, one in the south and one in the north. Concerning the one in the south it is explained in the post Mosaic Scriptures (above 44:2): “and no man shall come through it... and it shall be closed.”
