Reuben will have one portion bordering the territory of Ephraim from east to west.
The oblation that ye shall offer to the Lord,.... That which belonged to the sanctuary, and to the priests, which was taken and separated for that use; which here, and in the following verses, is particularly and separately considered: shall be of five and twenty thousand in length; that is, five and twenty thousand reeds from east to west: and of ten thousand in breadth...
Reuben--doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel" (Gen 49:4). So no distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from it. Of it were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the mutineers. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked it and Gad (Jdg 5:16).
The division begins in the north and proceeds southward through the tribes in order, with the sanctuary, priesthood, Levites, city, and prince's land fixed at the center, and the remaining five tribes distributed from that point to the southern boundary.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 48:1-29