Bible Commentaries

Ezekiel 46:21. In every corner of the court there was a court. The LXX read aule micra, a little court, which relieves the idea, by defining the nature of the courts. These courts were open to the heavens, having no roof.

REFLECTIONS.

The gate of the inner court being opened on the sabbath, shows the peculiar sanctity of that day as high and holy; and that it is of everlasting obligation till the heavenly sabbath shall commence. It is therefore lamentable that any modern christians who pretend to have the highest veneration for the bible, should in so gross a manner despise the glory of the day. They may by their profanations provoke the Lord to exclude them from his heavenly rest.

The sabbath is not only holy, but all ranks of men are bound to attend religious worship on that day. The prince is here named in particular, as required to set a high example of decency and devotion before his people. The poor cannot be less obliged to the duty; for religion is their peculiar support and comfort. When the French infidels abolished the sabbath, Mons. Neckar remarked, that the poor were peculiarly called upon to support the sanctity of the day, as the pressure of circumstances would soon compel them to labour seven days in the week as hard as they now do the six. This thought is strikingly just, yet the salvation of the soul ought to be a weightier argument with conscientious men.

We learn from this and the preseding chapters, that men are not only obliged to attend religious worship, but also to support it in an adequate way. A grand scale of obligations is here prescribed, as becoming the courts and worship of the Lord. Here the poor as well as the rich must contribute; and though the levitical law often allowed of doves instead of beasts for the poor, the spirit in which the poor man offered his gift, rendered it as pleasing to God as a hundred bulls of a prince.

In the house of God, strict attention is paid to the work and duty of servants; for the temporal food of the church was in their hands. The Lord therefore expects diligence and fidelity in the humblest ministers of his house: and who can tell but they may he among the first of servants in the life to come. In the outward court were four ranges of boilers, placed in the four corners. Thus in one part of the house was food for the body, and in another food for the soul. In this point of view, heaven shall greatly exceed earth, for there we shall not need the bread that perisheth. He that eateth of the tree of life shall live for ever. In thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.