EXPOSITION
From the sustenance of the priests (Ezekiel 44:29-31), the new Torah naturally passes in the present chapter to the maintenance of the temple service as a whole, setting forth in the first section of the chapter (Ezekiel 45:1-8) the portions of land that should be allotted respectively to the sanctuary, i.e. for the temple buildings, and the priests' and Levites' houses (Ezekiel 45:1-5), to the city and its inhabitants, that they might be able to discharge their religious and civil obligations on the one hand to the temple, and on the other hand to the state (Ezekiel 45:6), and to the prince to enable him to support himself and meet the charge of those public offerings which were required of him as the head of the community (Ezekiel 45:7, Ezekiel 45:8); in the second section (Ezekiel 45:9-17) dealing with the oblations the people should make to the prince for this purpose, reminding the prince, on the one hand, that these should not be levied from the people by extortion (Ezekiel 45:9), and the people, on the other, that these should be delivered to the prince with honesty (Ezekiel 45:10-16), and both that a certain part of the prince's revenue from the people's oblations should be devoted to the furnishing of offerings for the solemnities of the house of Israel (Ezekiel 45:17); and in the third section (Ezekiel 45:18-25) instituting a new feast-cycle, beginning with a Passover in the first (Ezekiel 45:18-24) and ending with a Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh (Ezekiel 45:25) month.