Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezekiel 45:9

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Ezekiel 45:9. Take away your exactions from my people — This is the voice of God to all the rulers of the earth.

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

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Land for priests, Levites and king (45:1-12)

Clearly the division of the land described here was symbolic and stylized. Straight lines can easily be drawn on a flat sheet of paper, but a land of hills, valleys and streams, such as Palestine, could not be divided in this way. Ezekiel’s division emphasized the important issues to be considered in the ideal division of the land.
Following the principle that operated in the offering of tithes and firstfruits to God, a section of the land was first set apart as God’s portion. This was an acknowledgment that all the land was really his. Within this portion was the temple, surrounded by an open space to emphasize the separation of the holy things of God from the unclean things of everyday life outside. Priests and Levites were given first consideration in the resettlement arrangements, so that they could be near the temple. The portion of land in which the temple was situated was given to the priests, and a portion of the same size adjoining it given to the Levites (45:1-5). On the other side of the priests’ land was land for the city (6).
Extending out to the Mediterranean Sea in the west and to the Jordan River in the east was land for the king. The king was to be satisfied with this generous allotment and was not to seize land that belonged to common people in other parts of the country (7-8).
While on the subject of taking advantage of others, Ezekiel adds further warnings. Rulers were not to use their positions of power for their own benefit, and merchants were not to cheat their customers. All weights and measures had to be exact (9-12).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto Jehovah, a holy portion of the land; the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand: it shall be holy in all the border thereof round about. Of this there shall be for the holy place five hundred in length by five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits for the suburbs thereof round about. And of this measure shalt thou measure a length of five and twenty thousand, and a breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary, which is most holy. It is a holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, that come near to minister unto Jehovah; and it shall be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the sanctuary. And five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth, shall be unto the Levites, the ministers of the house, for a possession unto themselves, for twenty chambers. And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, side by side with the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel. And whatsoever is for the prince shall be on the one side and on the other side of the holy oblation and of the possession of the city, in front of the holy oblation and in front of the possession of the city, on the west side westward, and on the east side eastward; and in length answerable unto one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border. In the land it shall be to him for a possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my people; but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute justice and righteousness; take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord Jehovah. Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. This is the oblation that ye shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of wheat; and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of barley; and the set portion of oil, of the bath of oil, the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is ten baths, even a homer (for ten baths are a homer); and one lamb of the flock, out of two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel;—for a meal-offering, and for a burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement for them, saith the Lord Jehovah. All the people of the land shall give unto this oblation for the prince in Israel. And it shall be the prince’s part to give the burnt-offerings, and the meal-offerings, and the drink-offerings, in the feasts, and on the new moons, and on the sabbaths, in all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin-offering, and the meal-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish; and thou shalt cleanse the sanctuary. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering, and put it upon the door-posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court. And so thou shalt do on the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye make atonement for the house. In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin-offering. And the seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt-offering to Jehovah, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a he-goat daily for a sin-offering. And he shall prepare a meal-offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil to an ephah. In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, in the feast, shall he do the like the seven days; according to the sin-offering, according to the burnt-offering, and according to the meal-offering, and according to the oil.”

This gives instructions for the provision of land for the sanctuary and temple grounds, and then for dividing up the remainder of the Holy Land to the Twelve Tribes of Israel. An appeal is made for the kings of Israel to refrain from violence and from false trading. Specifications for certain animal sacrifices are also made.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The princes are exhorted to execute judgment, and abstain from “exaction” (literally “ejection”) such as that of Naboth by Ahab 1 Kings 21:19.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 45

Now in chapter 45 he describes here the length and all of the city, of the land itself. And it is described here as being,

in length twenty-five thousand reeds, and in breadth ten thousand reeds. And then the sanctuary five hundred in length, five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits around that for the suburbs. And of this measure thou shalt measure the length twenty-five thousand, the breadth ten thousand: it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place. The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests and the ministers ( Ezekiel 45:1-4 ),

So this is the area that God has set aside for those priests and those ministers in the land, the holy place for the sanctuary.

And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and twenty-five thousand long, over against the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel. Now the portion for the prince one side of the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, the possession of the city, before the oblation to the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, from the east side eastward: the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west ( Ezekiel 45:6-7 )

And you see why I haven't gone through the whole thing? I get lost in this to tell you the truth. And so there's a lot of this that I just file and say, "All right, Lord, one day when I see it maybe I'll understand it. But I just don't get it now." And that's just the way it is.

Now the Lord commands the princes in verse Ezekiel 45:9 to,

remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD ( Ezekiel 45:9 ).

In other words, quit taxing the people. That's an interesting thing.

And ye shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a bath. An ephah and a bath shall be of one measure ( Ezekiel 45:10-11 ),

Now, many times those merchants in those days had weights to sell with and weights to buy. And you can see what could happen with that. One set of weights to buy from you and another set of weights to sell to you. And so these measurements are to equal those that you buy with and those that you sell with. One. And he goes ahead and tells the measurements and the size of the measurements and so forth that will be in those days, things that we cannot really relate to now.

The cleansing of the sanctuary is spoken of in verse Ezekiel 45:18 , with a bullock without blemish, and how that the priests are to take the blood of it and put it upon the posts of the house and upon the four corners and upon the posts of the gates in the inner court.

And thou shalt do this the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house ( Ezekiel 45:20 ).

And the Feast of the Passover is to be re-instituted, and that should be extremely interesting when, again, they have the Feast of the Passover as they had celebrated in so many times in their history fantastic, glorious events in the celebration of the Feast of the Passover. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Lord next commanded the leaders of the Israelites to stop destroying the people, treating them violently, and appropriating their possessions for themselves. This is a common cry in the Bible (cf. Leviticus 19; Leviticus 25; Numbers 35; Deuteronomy 25:13-16; Proverbs 11:1; Amos 8:5; Micah 6:10-12; Matthew 5:23-24). Rather they should treat them fairly and do what was right.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

An exhortation to Israel’s leaders 45:9-12

Mention of the proper leadership of the Israelites in the Millennium led to an exhortation to Israel’s leaders to practice justice and righteousness in the present and in the future.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Thus saith the Lord, let it suffice you, O princes of Israel,.... Christian kings and princes, for such there shall be in those times; and who will have large and ample salaries provided for them, as they should have to support their dignity; and with which they should be content, as they will be, and not encroach upon the properties of their subjects:

remove violence and spoil; from your administration; the sense is, do not use violence, and exercise rapine and spoil, let these be far from you; seize not on the goods of your subjects, or spoil them of them by heavy taxes and impositions, or by vexatious lawsuits, and unjust sentences:

and execute judgment and justice; between men; let everyone enjoy his own property; and when any matter of controversy arises about it, fairly hear and examine the case, and do justice:

take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord; such as had been exacted of them in former times by tyrannical and unjust princes: or, "your expulsions" b; driving them from their houses, estates, fields, and vineyards; either by taking them away from them, and annexing them to their own, as Ahab did; or by levying such taxes upon them they could not pay, and so were obliged to leave their inheritances and possessions. This, and some following verses, contain rules for regulating the civil state of the people of God in the latter day; which did not take place upon the Jews' return from Babylon, as appears from Nehemiah 5:15 but will be strictly observed by Christian princes in the latter day glory; see Isaiah 40:17.

b גרושתיכם "delulsiones vestras", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus "expulsiones vestras", Cocceius, Starckius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.   10 Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.   11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.   12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.

      We have here some general rules of justice laid down both for prince and people, the rules of distributive and commutative justice; for godliness without honesty is but a form of godliness, will neither please God nor avail to the benefit of any people. Be it therefore enacted, by the authority of the church's King and God, 1. That princes do not oppress their subjects, but duly and faithfully administer justice among them (Ezekiel 45:9; Ezekiel 45:9): "Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel! that you have been oppressive to the people and have enriched yourselves by spoil and violence, that you have so long fleeced the flock instead of feeding them, and henceforward do so no more." Note, Even princes and great men that have long done amiss must at length think it time, high time, to reform and amend; for no prescription will justify a wrong. Instead of saying that they have been long accustomed to oppress, and therefore may persist in it, for the custom will bear them out, they should say that they have been long accustomed to it and therefore, as here, Let the time pass suffice, and let them now remove violence and spoil; let them drop wrongful demands, cancel wrongful usages, and turn out those from employments under them that do violence. Let them take away their exactions, ease their subjects of those taxes which they find lie heavily upon them, and let them execute judgment and justice according to the law, as the duty of their place requires. Note, All princes, but especially the princes of Israel, are concerned to do justice; for of their people God says, They are my people, and they in a special manner rule for God. 2. That one neighbour do not cheat another in commerce (Ezekiel 45:10; Ezekiel 45:10): You shall have just balances, in which to weigh both money and goods, a just ephah for dry measure of corn and flour, a just bath for the measure of liquids, wine, and oil; and the ephah and bath shall be one measure, the tenth part of a chomer, or cor,Ezekiel 45:11; Ezekiel 45:11. So that the ephah and bath contained (as the learned Dr. Cumberland has computed) seven wine gallons and four pints, and something more. An omer was but the tenth part of an ephah (Exodus 16:36) and the one hundredth part of a chomer, or homer, and contained about six pints. The shekel is here settled (Ezekiel 45:13; Ezekiel 45:13); it is twenty jerahs, just half a Roman ounce, in our money 2s. 4 1/4d. and almost the eighth part of a farthing, as the aforesaid learned man exactly computes it. By the shekels the maneh, or pound, was reckoned, which, when it was set for a mere weight (says bishop Cumberland), without respect to coinage, contained just 100 shekels, as appears by comparing 1 Kings 10:17, where it is said three manehs, or pounds, of gold, went to one shield, with the parallel place, 2 Chronicles 9:16, where it is said 300 shekels of gold went to one shield. But when the maneh is set for a sum of money or coin it contains but sixty shekels, as appears here, where twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels, which in all make sixty, shall be the maneh. But it is thus reckoned because they had one piece of money that weighed twenty shekels, another twenty-five, another fifteen, all of which made up one pound, as a learned writer here observes. Note, It concerns God's Israel to be very honest and just in all their dealings, very punctual and exact in rendering to all their due, and very cautious to do wrong to none, because otherwise they spoil the acceptableness of their profession with God and the reputation of it before men.