Ezekiel 43

Ezekiel 43 is the forty-third chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.^[1][2] This book contains the prophecies spoken by the prophet Ezekiel, and is a part of the Books of the Prophets.^[3][4] Chapters 40-48 give the ideal picture of a new temple. This chapter contains Ezekiel's vision of the glory of God returning into the temple, Ezekiel 43:1-6; God promises to dwell there, if the people will put away their sins, Ezekiel 43:7-9; to incite them to repentance, the prophet shows them the model and law of the house, Ezekiel 43:10-12; the measures of the altar, Ezekiel 43:13-17; the ordinances thereof, Ezekiel 43:18-27.^[5]

Text

• The original text is written in Hebrew language.
• This chapter is divided into 27 verses.

Textual versions

The visionary Ezekiel Temple plan drawn by the 19th-century French architect and Bible scholar Charles Chipiez

Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew language:

• Masoretic Text (10th century)

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

• Septuagint (3rd century BC)
• Theodotion version (~AD 180)

Structure

NKJV groups this chapter into:

• Ezekiel 43:1-12 = The Temple, the Lord’s Dwelling Place
• Ezekiel 43:13-17 = Dimensions of the Altar
• Ezekiel 43:18-27 = Consecrating the Altar

Verse 3

And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw,

even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city:

and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar;

and I fell upon my face. (KJV)^[6]

• "River Chebar": is generally identified as the "Kebar Canal", near Nippur in what is now Iraq. It was part of a complex network of irrigation and transport canals that also included the Shatt el-Nil, a silted up canal toward the east of Babylon.^[7][8]

Verse 7

And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places. (NKJV)^[9]

• The vision was given on the 25th anniversary of Ezekiel's exile, "April 28, 573 BCE";^[10] 14 years after the fall of Jerusalem and 12 years after the last messages of hope in chapter 39.^[11]
• "Son of man" (Hebrew: בן־אדם ḇen-’ā-ḏām): this phrase is used 93 times to address Ezekiel,^[12] differing the creator God from His creatures, and to put Ezekiel as a "representative member of the human race."^[13]

Verse 13

These are the measurements of the altar in cubits (the cubit is one cubit and a handbreadth): the base one cubit high and one cubit wide, with a rim all around its edge of one span. This is the height of the altar: (NKJV)^[14]

• "Cubit": here is a "long cubit", about 21 inches (53 cm), a sum of "short cubit" and "a handbreadth" as defined in Ezekiel 40:5.^[11]

See also

• Related Bible parts: 1 Kings 6, 2 Chronicles 3, Isaiah 2, Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel 40, Ezekiel 41, Ezekiel 42, Revelation 21

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1995). International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: vol. iv, Q-Z. Eerdmans. 
• Brown, Francis; Briggs, Charles A.; Driver, S. R. (1994). The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (reprint ed.). Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 978-1565632066. 
• Clements, Ronald E (1996). Ezekiel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664252724. 
• Gesenius, H. W. F. (1979). Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures: Numerically Coded to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, with an English Index. Translated by Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux (7th ed.). Baker Book House. 
• Joyce, Paul M. (2009). Ezekiel: A Commentary. Continuum. ISBN 9780567483614. 
• The Nelson Study Bible. Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1997. ISBN 9780840715999. 

External links

Jewish

• Ezekiel 43 Hebrew with Parallel English
• Ezekiel 43 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary

Christian

• Ezekiel 43 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate