Chapter 48
(See note on assignment of land in Isa 40)
Then each tribe, by name, is assigned an area within the outline laid out in 47. 6 tribes have their portions north of the middle, with Joseph receiving a double portion as Ephraim and Manasseh. The Lord's portion is in the center, and contains the Temple area, and the prince's area, and the Levites are here - so 7. Then there are five tribes to the south of the Temple area.
In the center area, a portion is also provided for the city. To me, this implies that the Temple in the vision is not inside Jerusalem at all. It is on another hill, outside the city. No part of the city is in the allotment for the Temple area, which is surrounded by the area for the Zadokian priests. The area provided for the city is 4500 cubits square. That is 4500*21", or 7,875'. Square. Slightly under 1.5 miles square. Not a really huge city. How big is Jerusalem today? But...the area outside this square, going east and west from the coast to the eastern border, is for common use - one of which uses is for dwellings. So the central city - downtown if you will, is a mile and a half square. Each wall of the city will have three gates, each named after a specific tribe of Israel. My guess is they will be laid out as the plan of encampment was in the desert in Exodus.
2020-These last verses are a description of the nearby city, not further description of the temple. It describes gates, and gives the 12 gates names. Jerusalem doesn't have this many gates. And the gates of Jerusalem already have names. This is sort of the final argument that the city is not Jerusalem of today, the mountain is not Zion, and the Temple is not a rebuilt temple but a new temple entirely. The old temple was profoundly desecrated by the people of Israel with their paintings of animals, with the secret room they built to worship idols and with their sun worship. The 70 AD temple was built by Herod, and I have always assumed it was on the same spot as the original, where the dome of the rock now stands. One possible explanation of all this description in Ezekiel is that the Temple will be relocated to ground that has not been desecrated. I kind of like the way this goes...
2025 - Twelve gates, each named after a tribe of Israel. As here:
30 "These shall be the exits of the city: On the north side, which is to be 4,500 cubits by measure, 31 three gates, the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah, and the gate of Levi, the gates of the city being named after the tribes of Israel. [Eze 48:30-31 ESV]. There are two other places where the tribes are "laid out". First, around the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and then the pearly gates of the city that comes down from heaven. Are they all arranged the same?
25 "On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan by their companies, the chief of the people of Dan being Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, ... 27 And those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher, the chief of the people of Asher being Pagiel the son of Ochran, ... 29 Then the tribe of Naphtali, the chief of the people of Naphtali being Ahira the son of Enan, [Num 2:25, 27, 29 ESV]. So not even an overlap, much less the same.
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, ... 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed-- [Rev 21:10, 12 ESV]. None of these gates are named, and there is an angel standing at each gate. We can surmise that these twelve gates will be named just as those in Ezekiel are named. What we don't know is why the encampment around the Tabernacle would have been different?
Then the last verse of the last chapter of Ezekiel:
35 The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD Is There." [Eze 48:35 ESV] This would be Adonai Shamah, per the Jewish Study Bible. This name is a far cry from Jerusalem, which means "In Awe of Peace" or "Teaching Peace". A totally different name for a totally different place?
So...Isaiah, then Jeremiah and his Lamentations, and then Ezekiel. All building, all talking about the fall of Israel and Judah, culmination with the fall of Jerusalem - or the "falls" of Jerusalem. Ezekiel though goes much further into the future, and spends much time on the restoration. However, these last 9 chapters of Ezekiel kind of "beat me to death". It is difficult going through all those measurements. Especially when you don't know what this Temple is about or when it might be, if ever. Makes you glad to get to the end, after these huge books about Israel's history.
I think there might be some help in doing a study of the conditional covenant that God makes in Ezekiel. This was in Chapter 43 - AFTER the description of the Temple was begun.