Ezekiel 48:35

My Notes

What Does Ezekiel 48:35 Mean?

Ezekiel 48:35 is the final verse of Ezekiel's entire prophecy — the last word of a book that began with the glory of God departing from the temple (chapters 8-11) and ends with the glory returning permanently. The closing statement: "The name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there." The Hebrew Yahweh Shammah — Jehovah-Shammah. The LORD is there.

The verse is the resolution of the book's central crisis. In Ezekiel 10:18-19, the glory of the LORD departed from the temple — left the building, rose above the city, and withdrew to the east. The departure was the most devastating event in Israel's spiritual history: God left. His presence — the thing that made Israel Israel, the thing that made the temple sacred, the thing that distinguished this people from every other — was gone. And now, forty-eight chapters later, the last line of the book says: He's back. The LORD is there. The departure has been reversed. The presence has returned. And this time, the name of the city itself is changed to reflect the permanent reality: God is here.

The eighteen thousand measures (approximately six miles) of the city's circumference are noted just before the name is given — the city is measured, specific, real. This isn't ethereal or metaphorical. It's a city with dimensions, and its name is a theological fact: Yahweh Shammah. The LORD is there. The entire book of Ezekiel — the visions, the judgments, the dry bones, the new temple — has been building toward these two words. He's there. That's the ending. That's enough.

Reflection Questions

• 1.The book begins with God's glory departing and ends with 'the LORD is there.' What has 'departed' from your life that you're waiting to see return?
• 2.The city is named for God's presence, not its architecture. What would your life be named for if it were defined by what's most present in it?
• 3.Yahweh Shammah — the LORD is there. Two words as the resolution of forty-eight chapters. How does the simplicity of God's presence being 'enough' challenge the complexity you bring to your spiritual life?
• 4.The glory left in chapter 10 and returned by chapter 48. If you're living in the 'departed' chapter, how does knowing the book ends with 'He's there' change how you wait?

Devotional

The last two words of Ezekiel: the LORD is there. After forty-eight chapters of exile, judgment, dry bones, and restoration visions — after watching God's glory leave the temple, rise above the city, and disappear toward the east — the final sentence of the book is: He came back. He's there. The city isn't named for its walls, its beauty, or its king. It's named for the presence inside it. Yahweh Shammah. The LORD is there.

Everything in Ezekiel has been building toward this moment. The glory left in chapter 10, and the entire book is the story of how it returns. The judgments are what cleared the ground. The dry bones are what rebuilt the people. The new temple is what prepared the dwelling. And the name of the city — the permanent, identity-defining name — is the simplest possible statement: God is here. Not was here. Not visits here. Is here. Present tense. Permanent tense.

If you've ever experienced God's departure — the season where His presence felt withdrawn, where the temple of your life felt empty, where the glory that once filled the room was gone — this verse is the promise that the departure isn't the last word. The book doesn't end in chapter 10 with the glory leaving. It ends in chapter 48 with the glory's address permanently changed. God comes back. And when He does, the very name of the place is changed to reflect His presence. Whatever you're waiting for — whatever restoration, whatever return of something sacred that was lost — the last word of the story is always the same: the LORD is there.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture