---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 54 of 769
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/54/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 54. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/54/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2.

## 54. Ezekiel · 45 of 47

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/54/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/54/#p-N

### Verse 9

[¶1] Take away your exactions from my people - This is the voice of God to all the rulers of the earth.

[¶2] Take away your exactions; do not oppress the people; they are mine. Abolish all oppressive taxes.

### Verse 10

[¶4] Ye shall have just balances - This appreciation of weights, measures, and money was intended to show them that they must not introduce those to which they had been accustomed in the captivity, but those which God had prescribed to their forefathers. See the notes on the parallel places.

### Verse 16

[¶6] All - this oblation for the prince - A present or offering to the prince.

### Verse 18

[¶8] Thou shalt take a young bullock - and cleanse the sanctuary - There is nothing of this in the Mosaic law; it seems to have been a new ceremony. An annual purification of the sanctuary may be intended.

### Verse 20

[¶10] For him that is simple - That wants understanding to conduct himself properly.

### Verse 25

[¶12] In the seventh month - He shall do at the feast of tabernacles the same things that he was desired to do on the passover. The prince should offer the same number of victims, of the same quality, and with the same ceremonies, as during the above seven days. The offerings were, sin-offerings, burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings.

### Introduction

[¶14] Ordinances of worship prescribed for the prince and for the people, [Eze 46:1-15]; and the gifts he may bestow on his sons and servants, [Eze 46:16-18]. A description of the courts appointed for boiling or baking any part of the holy oblations, [Eze 46:19-24].

### Verse 4

[¶16] The burnt-offerings that the prince shall offer - The chief magistrate was always obliged to attend the public worship of God, as well as the priest, to show that the civil and ecclesiastical states were both under the same government of the Lord; and that no one was capable of being prince or priest, who did not acknowledge God in all his ways. It is no wonder that those lands mourn, where neither the established priest nor the civil magistrate either fear or love God. Ungodly priests and profligate magistrates are a curse to any land. In no country have I found both so exemplary for uprightness, as in Britain.

### Verse 7

[¶18] According as his hand shall attain unto - According to his ability, to what the providence of God has put in his hand, i.e., his power. This proportion of offerings is different from that prescribed by the Mosaic law, [Num 15:4-12].

### Verse 9

[¶20] He that entereth in by the way of the north, etc. - As the north and the south gates were opposite to each other, he that came in at the north must go out at the south; he that came in at the south must go out at the north. No person was to come in at the east gate, because there was no gate at the west; and the people were not permitted to turn round and go out at the same place by which they came in; for this was like turning their backs on God, and the decorum and reverence with which public worship was to be conducted would not admit of this. Besides, returning by the same way must have occasioned a great deal of confusion, where so many people must have jostled each other, in their meetings in different parts of this space.

### Verse 10

[¶22] And the prince in the midst of them - Even he shall act in the same way: he must also go straight forward, and never turn his back to go out at the same gate by which he entered. The prince and the people were to begin and end their worship at the same time.

### Verse 13

[¶24] Thou shalt prepare it every morning - The evening offering is entirely omitted, which makes an important difference between this and the old laws. See Exodus 29:31-46.

### Verse 17

[¶26] To the year of liberty - That is, to the year of jubilee, called the year of liberty, because there was then a general release. All servants had their liberty, and all alienated estates returned to their former owners.

### Verse 19

[¶28] He brought me thorough the entry - The prophet had entered by the north gate of the court of the priests, where he had seen, a little before, the glory of the Lord, and where he had received all those directions from [Eze 44:4], [Eze 44:5], to this chapter. From that gate, (see plan Q.) he entered the vestibule by a gate which was by the side of the apartments of the priests, which were along this aisle, (see S.) to the right of the vestibule towards the west. At the extremity of a row of chambers, he remarked, at the west, the place where they boiled the flesh of the sin-offerings, (see T.) They did not boil there the flesh of all sorts of victims, there were other kitchens appointed for that, (see PP): but that only which could not be eaten but in the outer court, and by the priests which were sanctified; such were the parts of the offerings for sins of commission and ignorance, and the offerings of flour with which they were accompanied.

### Verse 20

[¶30] The trespass-offering - Part of this, and of the sin-offering, and the flour-offering was the portion of the priests. See [Num 18:9], [Num 18:10].

### Verse 23

[¶32] It was made with boiling places - These were uncovered apartments, where they kept fires for dressing those parts of the peace-offerings, which were made in the temple by individuals through a principle of devotion. On these their families and their friends feasted; and portions were sent to the poor, the widows, and the orphans. And thus the spirit of devotion was the means of preserving the spirit of mercy, charity, and benevolence in the land. How true is that word, "Godliness is profitable for all things."

### Introduction

[¶34] The vision of the holy waters issuing out of the temple, and their virtue; an emblem of the power of God's grace under the Gospel, capable of healing all but the incorrigibly impenitent, represented by the marshy ground that cannot be healed, [Eze 47:1-12]. Also a description of the several divisions of the Holy Land indiscriminately shared betwixt Jews and proselytes; to denote that in after times the privileges now enjoyed by the Jews should be also extended to the Gentiles, [Eze 47:13-23].

### Verse 1

[¶36] Behold, waters issued out from under the threshold - Ezekiel, after having made the whole compass of the court of the people, is brought back by the north gate into the courts of the priests; and, having reached the gate of the temple, he saw waters which had their spring under the threshold of that gate, that looked towards the east; and which passing to the south of the altar of burnt-offerings on the right of the temple, ran from the west to the east, that they might fall into the brook Kidron, and thence be carried into the Dead Sea. Literally, no such waters were ever in the temple; and because there were none, Solomon had what is called the brazen sea made, which held water for the use of the temple. It is true that the water which supplied this sea might have been brought by pipes to the place: but a fountain producing abundance of water was not there, and could not be there, on the top of such a hill; and consequently these waters, as well as those spoken of in [Joe 3:18], and in [Zac 14:8], are to be understood spiritually or typically; and indeed the whole complexion of the place here shows, that they are thus to be understood. Taken in this view, I shall proceed to apply the whole of this vision to the effusion of light and salvation by the outpouring of the Spirit of God under the Gospel dispensation, by which the knowledge of the true God was multiplied in the earth; and have only one previous remark to make, that the farther the waters flowed from the temple, the deeper they grew.

[¶37] With respect to the phraseology of this chapter, it may be said that St. John had it particularly in view while he wrote his celebrated description of the paradise of God, Revelation 22. The prophet may therefore be referring to the same thing which the apostle describes, viz., the grace of the Gospel, and its effects in the world.

### Verse 2

[¶39] There ran out waters - מים מפכים mayim mephaccim, the waters seem to have been at first in small quantity; for the words imply that they oozed or dropped out. They were at first so small that they came guttatim, drop by drop; but they increased so, that they became a river in which one could swim.

### Verse 3

[¶41] He measured a thousand cubits - the waters were to the Ankles; a thousand more, - the waters were to the Knees; a thousand more, - they became a River that could not be forded. The waters were risen, and they were waters to Swim in.

[¶42] I. This may be applied to the gradual discoveries of the plan of salvation, -

[¶43] 1. In the patriarchal ages.

[¶44] 2. In the giving of the law.

[¶45] 3. In the ministry of John the Baptist. And,