Ezekiel 45:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

When ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance The land was first divided by lot under Joshua, a particular share of which was to be God's portion, as an acknowledgment of his sovereign dominion: see Leviticus 25:23. It is therefore here called תרומה, an oblation. The word properly signifies the offering made to God out of the first-fruits and other increase of the ground, (see Ezekiel 44:30; Numbers 18:24,) because this was a sort of first-fruits of the land or soil itself, Ezekiel 48:14. The length shall be five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth ten thousand The Hebrew does not express either reeds or cubits: our translation supplies the word reeds, but Houbigant, Waterland, Newcome, and many other interpreters, read cubits, which sense they think is plainly determined by Ezekiel 45:3, where it is said, Of this measure (namely, the cubit measure mentioned in the preceding clause, Eze 45:2) shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, &c. According to this measure, the portion here set apart will be almost seven miles square; whereas if we measure by reeds it will arise to six times as much, and can only be understood in a mystical sense. Mr. Scott, however, with some others, is of opinion, “that our translators did right in adding the word reeds to the numbers mentioned in this admeasurement; referring to the reed that was in the hand of Ezekiel's divine conductor, because the length and breadth of the sanctuary are stated the same as before: (see Ezekiel 42:16-19:) so that,” they think, “unless the text be there totally changed, without any authority, this passage as well as that must be understood of reeds.” They acknowledge, indeed, “that the land of Canaan could by no means admit of so large a proportion being allotted to the sanctuary, with the priests and Levites,” &c.; but they think “this was intended to intimate the immensely large extent of the Christian Church above that of Israel; especially in those glorious times, which are doubtless emblematically predicted.”