The Glory of the LORD Returns to the Temple
Ezekiel is brought back to the east gate and sees the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east, radiant and thunderous like many waters. The vision recalls earlier revelations of divine judgment, and Ezekiel falls facedown as the glory enters through the eastern gate. Then the Spirit lifts him into the inner court, where he sees the temple filled with the LORD's glory.
T1hen the man brought me back to the gate that faces east, 2and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory. 3The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the River Kebar. I fell facedown, 4and the glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. 5Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
While the guide remains beside him, Ezekiel hears the LORD speaking from inside the temple and declaring it to be the place of His throne and feet. The LORD recalls how Israel and its kings defiled His name by idolatry and by violating the boundary between the holy and the profane. He now calls them to put those corruptions far away so that He may dwell among them forever.
6While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple, 7and He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile My holy name — neither they nor their kings — by their prostitution and by the funeral offerings for their kings at their deaths. 8When they placed their threshold next to My threshold and their doorposts beside My doorposts, with only a wall between Me and them, they defiled My holy name by the abominations they committed. Therefore I have consumed them in My anger. 9Now let them remove far from Me their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings, and I will dwell among them forever.
The LORD commands Ezekiel to describe the temple to the house of Israel so that shame for sin may drive them to study its pattern. If they are ashamed, Ezekiel is to make known the arrangement, entrances, exits, statutes, forms, and laws of the whole house. The section closes by declaring that all the territory around the mount is most holy: this is the law of the temple.
10As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure the plan, 11and if they are ashamed of all they have done, then make known to them the design of the temple— its arrangement and its exits and entrances— its whole design along with all its statutes, forms, and laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its complete design and all its statutes and may carry them out. 12This is the law of the temple: All its surrounding territory on top of the mountain will be most holy. Yes, this is the law of the temple.