This shall be for the consecrated priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept my charge, who did not go astray when the people of Israel went astray, as the Levites did.
The five thousand cubits left in the breadth beyond the Levites' portion becomes a profane place, common to all Israel, where the city and its suburbs are built. This city signifies the Gospel church itself, compact and well-founded on Christ the Rock, inhabited by Christians of every nation, rank, age, and sex, knit together in love and lively stones, dwelling in wholesome spiritual air by the river of life.
AI summary
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