Ezekiel 45:2

Eze 45:2 Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred [in length], with five hundred [in breadth], square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.

Ver. 2. For the suburbs.] Which hath its name in Hebrew from its being severed from the city, and, as it were, cast out of it. It is better rendered, as in the margin, void places.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 45:2-5. Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, &c. — If we understand these dimensions of cubits, it exactly agrees with the opinion of the Jews, that the temple stood in an area of five hundred cubits square. And fifty cubits for the suburbs — This likewise bears a suitable proportion to the contents of a square of five hundred cubits. And in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place — Both the outward sanctuary and the inward oracle, or holy of holies, together with the courts adjoining, shall be placed in the centre or middle of it: see Eze 48:10. And it shall be a place for their houses — The priests were divided into twenty-four courses, (1 Chronicles 24.,) who performed the public worship by turns: so the houses were for them to live in who were not in their course of waiting. And the five and twenty thousand of length, &c. — The French translation renders the sense plainer, thus: There shall be other five and twenty thousand, &c: see Eze 48:13. This appears to be the true sense of the place, because otherwise there will be wanting ten thousand in breadth to make an exact square of twenty-five thousand: see the following verse. The Levites, being very numerous, (they were reckoned at thirty-eight thousand in David’s time, 1Ch 23:3,) had as large a piece of ground allotted to them as belonged to the temple and the whole priestly order. For twenty chambers — Most commentators understand this of several rows of chambers, or ranges of building. The LXX. read, πολεις του κατοικειν, cities to inhabit: such cities as were allotted to them by Moses, Num 35:2.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 2. Of this there shall be for the sanctuary] See the plan, A. See Clarke on Eze 48:35.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) Fifty cubits round about.—In Eze_42:16-20 the space of 500 reeds square is described, which was “for,” or belonged to, the sanctuary, to guard it from any profanation; but here we have, still farther, a narrow strip of 50 cubits wide (about 83 feet) of open space outside the wall to prevent the priests’ houses being built too close to the sacred precincts. The word suburbs is better rendered in the margin, void or open place. The situation of the sanctuary and its surroundings within the priests’ portion is more definitely fixed in Eze_48:10 as “in the midst thereof.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. In this sacred territory, more particularly, in the half of it assigned to the priests (Eze_45:3-4), shall the sanctuary be situated, a square of 500, surrounded by a free space of 50 cubits on all sides. The 500 are certainly cubits, cf. Eze_42:20.

the suburbs thereof] What the “suburbs” are appears from Num_35:4; it is an open space around the walls of an enclosure, a city or building, held to belong to the building or city, but not occupied by it. It is the liberties of a city or the precincts of an edifice, Eze_48:15; Eze_48:17.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of this there shall be for the sanctuary,.... Or temple, the house before described in the preceding chapters:

five hundred in length, and five hundred in breadth, square round about: that is, five hundred reeds square, as is manifest from Eze 42:16, and this denotes the largeness, perfection, and stability of the church of Christ, which the sanctuary was a type of:

and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof; which were a void place of fifty cubits round about the sanctuary, measuring from the wall to that; this was done in reverence to the holy place, and to show that we should not rush hastily into the house of God, and church of Christ, but first pass through the suburbs or open place. Cubits being here mentioned, show that reeds are to be understood where the kind of measure is not expressed.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The “sanctuary” here probably means the whole temple precincts.

Suburbs - literally, as margin. To mark out more distinctly the sacred precincts, a vacant space of fifty cubits was left on all sides.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Suburbs. Hebrew also, "vacant spaces."

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Of this whole consecrate portion of twenty-five thousand cubits long, or twelve miles and half, and ten thousand broad, or five miles and little more.

For the sanctuary; for a platform for the sanctuary, both house and courts.

Five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth; five hundred cubits square, which is about one-fourth of a mile square.

Fifty cubits; which amount to twenty-nine yards and half a foot. This bears some proportion to the contents of that square, which is one quarter of a mile in each side; but fifty cubits suburb to that square, that should be supposed to have sides each a mile, a half, and half quarter long.

The suburbs thereof: place round about this the five hundred cubits square mountain of the house.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Of this district, either of 25, 000 10, 000, or 25, 000 20, 000 reeds, according to the view taken of ver. 1, there should be measured off for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth. The supplement here also, Keil, Kliefoth, Plumptre, and others consider to be "reeds," since obviously the whole temple with its precincts is intended, (Eze_42:16-20) though Hengstenberg and Schroder prefer "cubits," holding the sanctuary to be the temple buildings enclosed within the outer court well. (Eze 40) The free space of fifty cubits round about for the suburbs (or, open places) thereof seems to indicate that the larger area was that alluded to by the prophet. That the term vdgmi occurs more frequently in the so-called priest-code (Lev_25:34; Num_35:2, Num_35:3, Num_35:4, Num_35:5, Num_35:7; Jos_14:4 Jos_21:2, Jos_21:3, Jos_21:8, Jos_21:11, Jos_21:13, etc.) and in the Chronicles. (1Ch_5:16 1Ch_6:35, 37 13:2; 2Ch_11:14 2Ch_31:19) than in Ezekiel. (see Eze_27:28 Eze_48:15, Eze_48:17) is a fact; but on this fact cannot be founded an argument for the priority of Ezekiel, since it rather points to Ezekiel"s acquaintance with such "suburbs" in connection with priestly and Levitical cities.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of this - Whole portion of twenty five thousand cubits long, or twelve miles and half, and ten thousand broad, or five miles and a little more. For the sanctuary - For a platform for the sanctuary, both house and court.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

From this shall be From this offering, there shall be for the needs of the Sanctuary: five hundred rods for the Temple Mount and the rest shall be for houses for the priests, as is delineated at the end of the Book.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.