Ezekiel 47:13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

This shall be the border, &c. The borders described in the following part of this chapter shall be the limits or boundaries of your country; whereby ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel By the several captivities both of Israel and Judah, the several limits or borders, belonging to the inheritance of each tribe, were obliterated and forgotten; whereupon a new boundary and division are here made of the holy land. “The allotment of the land,” says Grotius, “made here, and in the next chapter, would have taken place, had the ten tribes in general, as well as Judah and Benjamin, turned themselves to the worship of the true God: for if so, they, as well as Judah and Benjamin, would have obtained a restoration. But only some part of them returned with Judah and Benjamin, with whom they settled in common in the land of Judea.” This may, perhaps, be the literal sense of the following part of the prophecy; but, without question, a mystical sense is implied under this literal description, as well as in all the preceding parts of the vision. Joseph shall have two portions Upon Reuben's forfeiting his birthright, the double portion, belonging to the firstborn, accrued to Joseph and his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, according to Jacob's own appointment.