Ezekiel 48 is the forty-eighth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 40-48 give the ideal picture of a new temple. The Jerusalem Bible refers to this section as "the Torah of Ezekiel". This chapter contains Ezekiel's vision of the land allocated to the twelve tribes, the sanctuary, the city and its suburbs, the prince and the dimensions and gates of the city. The vision was given on the 25th anniversary of Ezekiel's exile, "April 28, 573 BCE", 14 years after the fall of Jerusalem and 12 years after the last messages of hope in chapter 39.
This section deals with the allotments of the land north of Jerusalem, as the land is divided by borders running east to west into parallel strips of unspecified width.. The distribution is different from the earlier portions of the tribes of Israel, which were named after the sons of Jacob and his two grandsons, the sons of Joseph.
Verse 1
Hethlon has been identified as modern Heitela in Syria, although theologian Tremper Longman claimed recently that its exact location is still unknown. The tribe of Joseph receives two portions, while the priestly tribe of Levi receives none, maintaining a total allotment of twelve.
The central strip (48:8–22)
This part gives more details on the piece of land described in, which consists of the sacred reserve, the city reserve and the prince's allotment.
The southern tribes (48:23–29)
The distribution of the land follows the style of verses 1–7 for the areas south of the central strip, with the tribe of Gad receiving the southernmost allotment, whereas formerly only the portions of the tribes of Judah and Simeon lay south of Jerusalem. The section has a proper conclusion in verse 29.
The last section of the book records the vision of the "structure like a city" seen by Ezekiel in. These verses apparently are added from a different source, focusing the city gates on each of the four sides, and each gate is named after a certain tribe to complete 'a picture of perfect order and harmony'. This new city is different from the Jerusalem in history, because the gates of the post-exilic Jerusalem in Nehemiah time were carefully noted, yet none was named after the tribes, although in the pre-exilic period there were a Benjamin gate and an Ephraim gate, but both were on the north side, not the east side, of the city. Also, in the new city, Levi stands as one of the twelve tribes with its own gate, whereas Ephraim and Manasseh are represented by a single "Joseph" gate. The order of gate naming seems to have its own logic, with the children of Leah on the north and south sides, the children of Rachel on the east side and the remaining children of the concubines grouped together on the west. The arrangement recalls the order of tribal camps surrounding the tabernacle, three on each of the four sides, that brings the clear idea of "diverse but united people organized around a sacred point of reference," that is "the divine presence in its midst".
