Thus saith the Lord. The usual formula introducing a new Divine enactment (comp. Ezekiel 43:18; Ezekiel 44:9; Ezekiel 45:9, Ezekiel 45:18; Ezekiel 46:1, Ezekiel 46:16). This. גֵה is obviously a copyist's error for זֶה, which the LXX; the Vulgate, and the Targum have substituted for it; the change seems demanded by the complete untranslatability of גֵה, and by the fact that וְזֶה גְּבוּל recurs in Ezekiel 47:15.
The border, whereby ye shall inherit the land; or, divide the land for inheritance (Revised Version). The term גְּבוּל, applied in Ezekiel 43:13, Ezekiel 43:17 to the border of the altar here signifies the boundary or limit of the land.
(For the verb, comp. Numbers 32:18; Numbers 34:13; Isaiah 14:2.) According to the twelve tribes. This presupposed that at least representatives of the twelve tribes would return from exile; but it is doubtful if this can be proved from Scripture to have taken place, which once more shows that a literal interpretation of this temple-vision cannot be consistently carried through.
Smend observes that the word commonly employed in the priest-cede to denote "tribes" is מַטּוֹת (Numbers 26:55; Numbers 30:1; Numbers 31:4; Numbers 33:54; Joshua 14:1; Joshua 21:1; Joshua 22:14), which is never used by Ezekiel, who habitually selects, as here, the term שְׁבָטִים (Ezekiel 37:19; Ezekiel 45:8; Ezekiel 48:1), which also was not unknown to the priest-cede (Exodus 39:14; Numbers 18:2; Joshua 13:29; Joshua 21:16; Joshua 22:9, Joshua 22:10, Joshua 22:11, Joshua 22:13).
That is to say, if the priest-cede existed before Ezekiel, he had the choice of both terms, and selected shebhet; whereas if Ezekiel existed before the priest-cede, and prepared the way for it, the author of the latter rejected Ezekiel's word shebhet, and adopted another perfectly unknown to the prophet.
This fact appears to point to a dependence of Ezekiel on the priest-cede rather than of the priest-cede on Ezekiel. Joseph shall have two portions; rather, Joseph portions, as חֲבָלִיםis not dual. Yet that two were intended is undoubted (see Genesis 48:22; Joshua 17:14, Joshua 17:17).