And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof.
Those who serve the city, whether magistrates or ministers of the Word, must be true Israelites drawn from all the tribes; each tribe contributes men to labor for and honor the interests of Christ's church. All genuine Israelites shall bear the work of service as much as lies within them.
AI summary
The five thousand rods, apportioned to the city out of the twenty-five thousand square, are to be laid off in a square of four thousand five hundred, with the two hundred fifty all around for suburbs. profane--that is, not strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular uses.
The five thousand cubits form a second city or suburbs where laymen employed by the priests and Levites might dwell, while another thousand cubits stretching north to south provided fields and gardens for their sustenance. A careful division: no cultivated land lay between the Levites' portion and the prince's, only on the east and west.
AI summary