Ezekiel 43
Everything in the long vision - the measuring line, the gates, the courts, the chambers (chs. 40-42) - has been building toward this. Ezekiel is brought back to the east gate, and there it comes: the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory (v. 2). The prophet knows this glory. He saw it by the river Chebar when he was first called (ch. 1); he saw it leave the temple by this very gate when Jerusalem was doomed (chs. 10-11). Now the same glory returns the same way, enters the house, and fills it. The empty temple is empty no longer.3
Then the LORD speaks from inside the house, and His words name what this return means: Son of man, 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 for ever (v. 7). This is the heart of the chapter. The God who departed has come back to dwell - and not provisionally, but for ever. The call that follows fits the gift: let Israel put away their whoredom and the defilements of the past, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever (v. 9). A holy Presence asks for a people who will keep the place holy.2
The chapter then turns, with the same careful exactness as the rest of the vision, to the great altar - its measures by the cubit, its base and settles and four horns, its stairs that look toward the east (vv. 13-17). And it ends with seven days of cleansing offerings to consecrate the altar, after which the LORD says the word the whole book has been moving toward: I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD (v. 27). The Presence has returned; the altar is hallowed; the people may draw near and be received. The God who left has come home, and made a way for His people to come home to Him.
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Ezekiel 43:1-12The Glory of the LORD Filled the House
1Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: 2And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. 3And 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. 4And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. 5So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house. 6And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. 7And he said unto me, Son of man, 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 for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. 8In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. 9Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever. 10Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. 11And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. 12This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
To feel the weight of this moment, you have to remember what Ezekiel had already seen. Chapters earlier the prophet watched the glory of God - the blazing presence that had filled the temple since Solomon's day - rise from the threshold, move to the east gate, and depart the city, settling on the mountain to the east (chs. 10-11). It was the most desolate thing in the whole book: not merely that Jerusalem would fall, but that God had left. Now Ezekiel is brought back to that same east gate, and the scene reverses: behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory (v. 2). The same glory, by the same gate, but now coming instead of going. The voice like a noise of many waters recalls his very first vision by the river Chebar (ch. 1); the earth itself catches fire with the brightness. And the prophet does the only thing a person can do in the presence of such glory: I fell upon my face (v. 3). The God who departed in judgment is returning in mercy, and creation lights up at His coming.3
Then comes the line the whole vision has been straining toward: And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east… and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house (vv. 4-5). The empty temple is empty no longer. This is the same thing that happened when the tabernacle was first raised in the wilderness - a cloud covered the tent… and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle - and when Solomon's temple was dedicated, when the glory so filled the house that the priests could not stand to minister. A dwelling place is not made holy by its measurements or its furniture, however exact. It becomes holy when God Himself fills it. All the careful work of the preceding chapters - the gates, the courts, the chambers measured to the cubit - was only ever the preparation of a place. What makes it the house of God is that the glory comes and dwells there. The Spirit lifts Ezekiel into the inner court so he can witness it: the Presence that left has come home, and home is full of light.
Now the LORD speaks from inside the filled house, and His first words declare what this place is and why He has come: Son of man, 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 for ever (v. 7). Two images press the same truth. It is the place of my throne - the seat of His rule, where the King sits enthroned among His people. And it is the place of the soles of my feet - the very ground He stands on, His footstool, the spot where heaven touches earth. Both say: God is not visiting from a distance. He is settling in. And the word that crowns it is for ever. The earlier glory could depart; this dwelling will not end. The God who once walked out by the east gate now declares He will stay. The longing that runs through all of Scripture - that God would dwell with His people and not abandon them - is here spoken aloud from the heart of the house: I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever.
The presence of a holy God carries a holy claim. The LORD recalls how the house was defiled in the past - by the people's whoredom, by their idolatry that set their threshold by my thresholds, the wall between the holy and the profane worn so thin that they have even defiled my holy name (vv. 7-8). That defilement is exactly why I have consumed them in mine anger. But the word now is not judgment; it is invitation: Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever (v. 9). Notice the order. God does not say, “clean yourselves up and then perhaps I will return.” The glory has already filled the house; the dwelling is offered freely. The call to put away defilement is the fitting response to a Presence that has already come, not the price of earning it. Where God dwells, the old idols cannot stay; His nearness asks His people to clear away whatever competes with Him. The God who comes to dwell forever asks for a people who will keep the place - and keep their hearts - for Him alone.
The LORD then turns Ezekiel back toward the exiles with a purpose for everything he has seen: shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern (v. 10). The vision is not given merely to comfort; it is given to convict - the sheer holiness and order of God's dwelling is meant to make a wayward people ashamed, to bring them to the sorrow that turns. And if shame gives way to repentance - if they be ashamed of all that they have done - then Ezekiel is to teach them every form and ordinance and law of the house, that they may keep the whole form thereof… and do them (v. 11). The vision is to be written down and obeyed, not just admired. Then comes the summary that gathers it all: This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy (v. 12). The whole area, the entire enclosure on the mountain, is most holy. Where once only the innermost room bore that title, now the holiness of God's presence spreads to fill the whole place. The dwelling of God makes everything around it holy.
Ezekiel 43:13-17The Measures of the Altar
13And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth; even the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span: and this shall be the higher place of the altar. 14And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser settle even to the greater settle shall be four cubits, and the breadth one cubit. 15So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four horns. 16And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof. 17And the settle shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in the four squares thereof; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward the east.
The vision turns now from the glory to the altar, and the change of subject is itself instructive. The first thing described in detail after God takes up His dwelling is not a treasure or a throne but the altar. And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth (v. 13). The measuring continues with the same exactness that ran through the whole vision - the long cubit (a standard cubit plus a handbreadth) is named so there can be no mistaking the dimensions. The altar is built up in tiers: a base on the ground, a lower settle, a greater settle, each measured in cubits, rising step by step (vv. 13-14). This is no rough heap of stones but a carefully proportioned structure, central to the courtyard and central to the worship that will happen there. The detail is not tedium; it is reverence. When God gives His people the place where they will meet Him in sacrifice, nothing is left to guesswork. The altar where atonement is made is laid out as deliberately as the house the glory fills - because the two belong together. A dwelling Presence and an altar of approach are given in the same vision.3
Two details in the altar's design carry meaning that runs all through Scripture. So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four horns (v. 15). The horns at the four corners of the altar were no mere ornament. Throughout the law, the blood of the sin offering was put upon the horns of the altar - the horns were where atonement was visibly applied, the point of the altar most associated with cleansing and with mercy. They were also the place a person in danger could grasp for refuge, laying hold of the horns of the altar and pleading for his life. So the altar that stands at the heart of this restored worship has built into its very corners the marks of atonement and of refuge. And the altar is twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof (v. 16) - a perfect square, and twelve, the number woven through the people of God, the tribes of Israel. The place of sacrifice is shaped for all the people, balanced and whole, with mercy at its corners. Every dimension preaches: here, in the presence of the God who has come to dwell, a way is made for sinful people to draw near and be cleansed.
One last detail closes the description and quietly ties this section back to the first: his stairs shall look toward the east (v. 17). The approach to the altar - the steps by which the priest ascends to minister - faces east. And east is the direction that has governed this whole chapter. The glory departed by the east gate (chs. 10-11); the glory returned from the way of the east (v. 2) and entered by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east (v. 4). Now the very stairs of the altar look east, toward the gate of the glory's coming. The geography is not accidental. The place where the people ascend to offer and to be cleansed faces the place where God's presence comes in. Worship and Presence are oriented toward each other. The altar does not stand off in a corner of its own; it is set facing the direction of the glory, so that the act of drawing near in sacrifice and the coming of God to dwell are turned, as it were, toward one another. Approach and Presence meet on the same axis.
Ezekiel 43:18-27I Will Accept You
18And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon. 19And thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a sin offering. 20And thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it. 21Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, without the sanctuary. 22And on the second day thou shalt offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bullock. 23When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish. 24And thou shalt offer them before the LORD, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the LORD. 25Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bullock, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish. 26Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves. 27And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD.
The altar, once built, must be made fit for use, and the LORD gives the ordinances for it: thus saith the Lord GOD; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon (v. 18). The work begins with a sin offering - a young bullock - whose blood is put on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about, with the purpose stated plainly: thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it (v. 20). There is a striking idea here worth pausing over. The altar itself must be cleansed before it can be used. The very place where atonement will be made must first be atoned for. Nothing connected with the worship of a holy God is assumed to be clean of itself; even the instrument of cleansing is consecrated by blood. The blood touches the horns - the points of mercy - and the corners and the border, marking the whole altar as set apart and purified. Before a single ordinary offering can rise from it, the altar is hallowed by the very thing it exists to apply. Holiness, in the presence of God, reaches all the way down.
The cleansing is not a single act but a sustained one: Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering, along with a bullock and a ram without blemish (v. 25); Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves (v. 26). Seven days - the number of fullness and completion that runs from the seven days of creation onward. The consecration is to be thorough and complete, lacking nothing. And the offerings must be without blemish: the salt cast upon the burnt offerings (v. 24) was the salt of the covenant, the sign of a bond that does not spoil. Day after day, for the full span of seven, the priests offer and purge and set apart, until the altar and they themselves are wholly consecrated to the LORD. There is patience in this. The restoration of true worship is not rushed; it is done fully, day by day, until the work is complete. A holy God who has come to dwell forever is worth a consecration that is total, and He provides exactly that - a sevenfold cleansing that leaves nothing half-done before His people draw near.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Ezekiel 43 with Rashi, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for kevod YHWH (vv. 2, 4, 5, the “glory of the LORD”), for the verb behind where I will dwell (v. 7, the root shakan), and for the altar's measures and the seven-day consecration in verses 13-27.
- Ezekiel 43 ↔ John 1 · Revelation 21 · Exodus 40 · Hebrews 13Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Ezekiel 43 to the rest of Scripture - the glory filling the house (vv. 4-5) read alongside the glory that filled the tabernacle (Exod. 40:34-35) and the Word who dwelt among us (John 1:14); the promise to dwell… for ever (v. 7) beside the tabernacle of God is with men (Rev. 21:3); and the consecrated altar (vv. 18-27) beside we have an altar (Heb. 13:10).
- Ezekiel 43 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Ezekiel 43 - the return of the glory from the east (vv. 1-5), the link back to the departure of the glory in chapters 10-11, the difficult phrase the carcases of their kings in verses 7-9, and the measures and consecration of the altar in verses 13-27.
Where this echoes in Scripture
The Glory of the LORD Filled the House
- Ezekiel 10:18-19Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house... and stood over the cherubims.The departure this chapter reverses - the glory leaving by the east gate, now returning by the same way (vv. 2-4).
- Exodus 40:34-35Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.The same event at the first tabernacle - the glory filling the house as in verses 4-5.
- John 1:14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,).The glory come to dwell among men - the verb meaning to pitch a tent, set beside God’s promise to dwell in verse 7.
- Matthew 1:23they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.The Presence come near - God with us, the heart of the dwelling promised in verse 7.
- Revelation 21:3Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.The final form of verse 7’s promise - God dwelling with His people for ever.
The Measures of the Altar
- Exodus 27:1-2And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood... and thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof.The pattern of the altar with its four horns - the same design measured here in verses 13-15.
- Leviticus 4:7the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar... before the LORD.The horns of verse 15 as the place atonement was applied - where the blood of the sin offering was put.
- 1 Kings 1:50And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.The horns (v. 15) as a place of refuge - grasped by one who pleaded for his life.
- Ezekiel 43:2the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east.The east that governs the whole chapter - toward which the altar’s stairs look in verse 17.
- Psalm 43:4Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.The altar as the place of drawing near to God - the approach oriented toward His presence (v. 17).
I Will Accept You
- Hebrews 13:10-12We have an altar... Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.The altar and the blood that cleanses (vv. 18-20) - the way of approach to God made sure.
- Hebrews 10:19-22Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus... let us draw near.The acceptance promised at the altar (v. 27) - the worshiper brought near with confidence.
- Ephesians 1:6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.The word of verse 27 - the people accepted, received by the God they draw near to.
- Leviticus 8:33-35for seven days shall he consecrate you... that ye die not: for so I am commanded.The seven days of consecration (vv. 25-26) - the same complete, sustained setting-apart for service.
- Romans 12:1present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.The offering God accepts (v. 27) - worship received at the altar, now the offering of a life.