Ezekiel 18:5-9 | The Righteous Man

Tribe	Scripture
Judah	12 Ezekiel 18:5-6 ⁵But if a man be righteous and do justice and righteousness, ⁶and has not eaten the meat sacrificed to idols on the mountains, nor has lifted up his eyes to the idols and the altars of the house of Israel, nor has defiled his neighbor's wife, nor has come near a menstruous woman,
Reuben
Gad
Asher	12 Ezekiel 18:7 ⁷nor has oppressed any man, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, and has given bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment,
Naphtali
Manasseh
Simeon
Levi	12 Ezekiel 18:8 ⁸nor has lent money with usury, nor has loaned with a discount, and has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, and has executed true judgment between man and man,
Issachar
Zebulun
Joseph
Benjamin	12 Ezekiel 18:9 ⁹and has walked in my commandments, and has kept my judgments, and has done justice; he who does this is a righteous man and will surely live says Master Yahvah.
Dan

Notes

Some of the alignments in this list do not have precedence from better known lists. Either there's more to learn about these tribes, which is easy to accept, or possibly there's slop in the word choices in the translation, obscuring the meaning. This list is included as reference while the study continues.

Not sure why Judah relates to meat sacrificed to idols on mountains.

Reuben is either looking at idols or defiling his neighbor's wife, or both. Either is a working match to Reuben.

I don't have any precedence for Gad relating to the concept of a menstrous woman.

Asher has a theme of boasting. In this case he's aligning with oppressing. Given that there could be a better English word, the idea of oppressing is like an opposite of boasting. It's wrong to exagerate and it's wrong to diminish, or oppress, something. So the wording is odd, but the general concept space works well with Asher.

Naphtali relates to the pledge because a pledge is a word or sense or scent for the real thing, the asset, and basically anything in this concept space is always a Naphtali thing.

Manasseh lands on giving bread to the hungry, which works fine given that Manasseh has a material blessing and thus can afford to take care of the poor.

Not sure why Simeon would relate to covering someone with a garment.

Levi is not to lend with usury. I can imagine the scenario is someone is unable to pay their tithe, so the levite gives them time, but with interest, to pay it back.

Not sure why Issachar would relate to giving a discount. He is the hard worker. Perhaps not valued highly enough for the burden he bears, even in his own mind, and too willing to give a discount when he should not. This could be a really meaningful fit, but needs more thought.

Zebulun is the "withdrawn hand from iniquity." Elsewhere in the grid Zebulun is seen as striking with his hand, so this may be a good match.

Joseph is to make true judgment between people. This fits nicely with Joseph, a community of nations, whose commandment is to not give false testimony.

Benjamin lands on the idea of walking in Yahvah's judgments. Doctrine is usually a subject for Benjamin, and he normally is said to have bad doctrine, but strengths and weaknesses are always the same, so this alignment may be saying that Benjamin can walk in Yahvah's judgments well. Needs more thought.

Dan is to keep Yahvah's judgments and/or do justice, both of which work fine for the judge.

Given the way the passage paces across the tribes so nicely, and that most make perfect sense given what's already known about the tribes, it's easy to see that this list works even if some parts need more thought.

By Ryan Eaton
Posted Wednesday, Asher 21, 13002