30 “These shall be the exits of the city: On the north side, which is to be 4,500 cubits by measure, 31 three gates, the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah, and the gate of Levi, the gates of the city being named after the tribes of Israel. 32 On the east side, which is to be 4,500 cubits, three gates, the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin, and the gate of Dan. 33 On the south side, which is to be 4,500 cubits by measure, three gates, the gate of Simeon, the gate of Issachar, and the gate of Zebulun. 34 On the west side, which is to be 4,500 cubits, three gates, the gate of Gad, the gate of Asher, and the gate of Naphtali. 35 The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord Is There.”
We should compare these last verses of the prophecy with Revelation 21:9-16 to see the use that John makes of Ezekiel's vision, and to note that the names of the twelve tribes are linked with those of the twelve apostles, uniting the old and new in the unity of the Spirit. The closing passage of the Tyndale Commentary on Ezekiel provides a fitting end to our study of this great prophecy: 'Ezekiel's closing words gave to the city its new name: Yahweh Shammah, The Lord is there (35). This was a grand Finale to his book and to his ministry. In his twenty-five years of exile and in the forty-eight chapters of his book, Ezekiel had seen the Lord withdraw from His temple because of the sins that were being committed there, he had met with Him by the waters of Babylon in the vision of the chariot-throne, he had promised the exiles that there would be a new covenant when God would be with His people as their God for ever, he had seen in symbolic vision the temple and the Israel of the future. Now at last the Lord would be there, with His people, forever. For Ezekiel, the climax had been reached: but it was still only a vision. John, the exile in Patmos, who saw Ezekiel's words fulfilled in the coming of Christ as Emmanuel, God with us, also looked forward to the day when a great voice would be heard from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people" (Revelation 21:3). The glory of heaven is the ultimate fulfilment of it all. 'It is to that great culmination that all Ezekiel's readers should be led.'