Ezekiel — Chapter 48
The final chapter assigns the sacred territory among the twelve tribes in equal horizontal bands, with the central sacred portion, and ends with the dimensions of the holy city whose name is 'The Lord is There' (Dominus ibi). Lapide reads the entire chapter eschatologically as a description of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Verse 1
These are the names of the tribes: from the north end, one portion for Dan: Lapide notes that the allocation ignores the historical tribal boundaries and distributions, making a perfectly symmetrical division — evidence that this is not a literal land grant but an image of the perfect equity of heavenly reward. Each soul receives its proper 'portion' according to its unique vocation and fidelity.
Verse 10
The holy portion for the priests shall be 25,000 cubits in length on the north and south: Lapide reads the exact measurements as emphasizing the perfect proportionality and justice of the divine ordering of sacred space. He applies this to the Church's canon law, which orders the various states of life (clergy, religious, laity) in proper relationship to the divine center.
Verse 35
'Et nomen civitatis ex illa die: Dominus ibi' — and the name of the city from that day shall be: The Lord is There: Lapide calls this the crowning verse of all Ezekiel's prophecy. 'Dominus ibi' names not a geographical place but the presence of God — the beatific vision in which the redeemed dwell in God and God in them. He connects to Apoc. 21:22 ('the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple') and Augustine's De Civitate Dei (Book 22, ch. 30: 'God will be all in all').