The City Whose Final Name Is Presence

“These are the names” are the opening words of Exodus, whose Hebrew title, Shemot, comes from them. Dan takes the far north, where the tribe had moved in Judges 18, founding the city of Dan at the old northern limit, “from Dan even to Beersheba”; its first allotment had been in the south-west.

Asher’s historical land was the northern coast, and Judges 1:31–32 says it never drove out the people of Accho and Zidon. In Ezekiel’s map every tribe receives a full band running “from the east side unto the west side”, so Asher reaches the Jordan as well as the sea.

Naphtali’s old land lay west of the Sea of Galilee, and it was among the first carried off, by Tiglath-pileser in 2 Kings 15:29. Isaiah 9:1 promised that “the land of Naphtali” would see a great light. Here it is simply placed again, a band between Asher and Manasseh.

Manasseh had been divided, half in the hills west of the Jordan and half in Gilead and Bashan to the east (Joshua 13:29–31; 17:1–2). Since Ezekiel’s land ends at the Jordan, the split tribe is given a single band of its own.

Ephraim’s name had stood for the whole northern kingdom, especially in Hosea: “Ephraim is joined to idols” (Hosea 4:17). In 37:16 it was the stick joined to Judah’s. Here it is one band among twelve, no larger than any other.

Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn but lost the firstborn’s rank for his sin (Genesis 49:3–4; 1 Chronicles 5:1). His tribe had settled east of the Jordan (Numbers 32). With Transjordan left out, Reuben is brought west for the first time.

Judah’s historical land lay south of Jerusalem, around Hebron and Bethlehem. In Ezekiel’s map it is moved to the north of the central portion, a sharp break from the old geography that places the royal tribe on the opposite side of the sanctuary from where it once lived.

The central offering runs the full width of the land like every tribal band, “as one of the other parts”, from the Jordan to the sea. It is twenty-five thousand deep from north to south. The sanctuary stands “in the midst of it”.

The Hebrew gives no unit. If the figure is cubits, twenty-five thousand is about thirteen kilometres; if reeds, as the King James supplies, nearer eighty, a large share of the whole land from north to south. The first reading fits a land of twelve bands far better.

In 44:28 the LORD said, “ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.” The priests still live on land here, but it is called “this holy oblation”, a strip given to the LORD in which they dwell, not a tribal holding they own.

This is the fourth time the book explains why the sons of Zadok serve at the altar (40:46; 43:19; 44:15; 48:11). “Sanctified” is a passive participle: they are made holy, set apart by another. The contrast with the Levites who went astray is restated even in the final chapter.

“A thing most holy” renders terumiyyah, a unique form of terumah, the word for offering: roughly, “an offering from the offering”. The priests’ strip is set apart within the land already set apart, bordering the Levites’ strip.

The Levites receive a strip of exactly the same size as the priests’: twenty-five thousand by ten thousand, stated twice in one verse. Their office was reduced in 44:10–14, but their land is not.

Leviticus 25:34 said the pasture fields of Levitical cities “may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession”. “Firstfruits” is reshit, the first and best portion. Neither sale, nor exchange, nor transfer is allowed: the three verbs close every legal route by which land could pass away.

The city strip is five thousand deep, half the width of the priests’ strip. Most reconstructions set it at the southern edge of the central square, so the city stands some distance from the sanctuary. In Solomon’s Jerusalem the temple rose within the city’s walls; here the two are kept apart.

Four thousand five hundred on each side make the city a perfect square. In the Hebrew of this verse the word “five” is written twice in the south-side figure, and the scribes marked the second as written but not to be read, one of a handful of such cases in the Hebrew Bible.

Two hundred and fifty on each side makes the city and its open belt exactly five thousand square: four thousand five hundred plus two hundred and fifty twice. The city fills the width of its strip, fitted into the plan to the last unit.

Ten thousand to the east and ten thousand to the west of the city is farmland. “The increase thereof” means its produce, grown to feed “them that serve the city”, who work its fields and keep it running.

After the exile Nehemiah 11:1 records the people casting lots to bring one family in ten to live in Jerusalem, because the city was underpopulated. Ezekiel’s city is staffed from every tribe, so that no one tribe owns it.

Ten thousand for the priests, ten thousand for the Levites and five thousand for the city make twenty-five thousand. The whole central portion is a square, “foursquare”, the same shape as the sanctuary, the inner court and the altar hearth.

The phrase “in the midst thereof” is used of the sanctuary for the third time in the chapter (verses 8, 10 and 21). The prince’s lands run from the central square to the Jordan on one side and the sea on the other, filling the rest of the central band.

The central band lies “between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin”. Jerusalem had stood on that very line: Joshua 18:16 and 28 run Benjamin’s border past the Jebusite city and count it as Benjamin’s. The old seam between the two tribes becomes the site of the offering.

Benjamin had lived north of Judah, around Gibeah and Bethel. Ezekiel places it south of the centre instead, the only tribe besides Judah to lie beside the holy portion. Benjamin was born on the road to Bethlehem, where Rachel died (Genesis 35:16–19).

Simeon never had a territory of its own: its towns lay “within the inheritance of the children of Judah” (Joshua 19:1, 9), and the tribe faded from view. Here, for the first time, Simeon receives a full band.

Issachar had held the fertile Jezreel valley in the north (Joshua 19:17–23). Genesis 49:15 says he “saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant”. In Ezekiel’s map he is moved far into the south, among the last three bands.

Zebulun’s old land lay in lower Galilee; Genesis 49:13 said he “shall dwell at the haven of the sea”. Since every band runs from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, Zebulun still has its coast, though far to the south of where it once was.

Gad had lived east of the Jordan in Gilead (Numbers 32). Now it is the southernmost tribe. The four tribes descended from the handmaids, Dan and Naphtali from Bilhah, Gad and Asher from Zilpah, are all placed at the far ends, north and south, farthest from the centre.

“At the south side southward” uses two Hebrew words for south: negev, the dry country, and teman, the right hand, since south lies on the right of one facing east. The line repeats the southern border of 47:19 point for point.

“Saith the Lord GOD” occurs here for the last time in the book; the formula has been used over a hundred times since chapter 2. The land division that began in 45:1 and 47:13 is complete.

“Goings out” is totsa’ot, exits. The gates of the city are named first as ways out, as the gates of 46:9 were given as routes through. “Measures” is supplied by the King James; the Hebrew simply gives the number.

The north gates carry three sons of Leah: Reuben the firstborn, Judah the royal tribe and Levi the priestly tribe. The north side faces the sanctuary, so these three gates look toward the holy portion.

The east gates are all of Rachel’s line: Joseph and Benjamin, her two sons, and Dan, the son of her maid Bilhah, whom Rachel herself named (Genesis 30:6). Joseph is one gate here, not two as Ephraim and Manasseh in the land.

The south gates carry the remaining three sons of Leah: Simeon, Issachar and Zebulun. Leah’s six sons thus hold the north and south sides between them, facing each other across the city.

The west gates carry Gad, Asher and Naphtali, sons of the two maids, Zilpah and Bilhah. The twelve gates are grouped by mother, so the city’s walls recall the household of Jacob in Genesis 29 and 30.

The name Jerusalem does not appear anywhere in chapters 40 to 48. Eighteen thousand is four times four thousand five hundred. Jeremiah 33:16 gave the city the name “The LORD our righteousness”; Ezekiel’s last words give it another, YHWH shammah, “The LORD is there”.