1In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was captured, on the very same day the hand of Jehovah was upon me; and He brought me there. 2In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and rested me on a very high mountain; on which toward the south was something like the structure of a city. 3He brought me there, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze. He had a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand, and he stood in the gate. 4And the man said to me, Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you; for you were brought here so that I might show them to you. Declare to the house of Israel everything you see. 5Now there was a wall all around the outside of the house. In the man's hand was a measuring rod six cubits long, each being a cubit and a handbreadth; and he measured the width of the structure, one rod; and the height, one rod. 6Then he went to the gate which faced east; and he went up its stairs and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one rod wide, and the other threshold was one rod wide. 7Each guardroom was one rod long and one rod wide; between the guardrooms was a space of five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the inside gate was one rod. 8He also measured the porch of the inside gate, one rod. 9Then he measured the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the pillars, two cubits. The porch of the gate was on the inside. 10And in the eastward gate were three guardrooms on one side and three on the other; the three were all the same size; also the pillars were of the same size on this side and that side. 11He measured the width of the entrance to the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits. 12And the space in front of the guardrooms was one cubit on this side and one cubit on that side; the guardrooms were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side. 13Then he measured the gate from the roof of one guardroom to the roof of the other; the width was twenty-five cubits, as door faces door. 14He measured the pillars, sixty cubits high, and the court all around the gate extended to the pillar. 15From the front of the entrance gate to the front of the porch of the inner gate was fifty cubits. 16And there were shuttered windows in the guardrooms and in their pillars on the inside of the gate all around, and likewise in the arches. There were windows all around on the inside. And on each pillar were palm trees. 17Then he brought me into the outer court; and there were rooms and a pavement made all around the court; thirty rooms faced the pavement. 18The pavement was by the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates; this was the lower pavement. 19Then he measured the width from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner court exterior, one hundred cubits toward the east and the north. 20On the outer court was also a gate facing north, and he measured its length and its width. 21Its guardrooms, three on this side and three on that side, its pillars and its arches, had the same measurements as the first gate; its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty-five cubits. 22Its windows and those of its porches, and also its palm trees, had the same measurements as the gate facing east; they went up to it by seven steps, and its arches were in front of it. 23And the gate of the inner court was opposite the northern gate, just as the eastern gate; and he measured from gate to gate, one hundred cubits. 24After that he brought me toward the south, and there a gate was facing south; and he measured its pillars and arches according to these same measurements. 25There were windows in it and its arches all around like those windows; its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty-five cubits. 26Seven steps led up to it, and its arches were in front of them; and it had palm trees on its pillars, one on this side and one on that side. 27There was also a gate on the inner court, facing south; and he measured from gate to gate toward the south, one hundred cubits. 28Then he brought me to the inner court through the southern gate; and he measured the southern gate according to these same measurements. 29And its guardrooms, its pillars, and its arches were according to these same measurements; there were windows in it and in its arches all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 30There were arches all around, twenty-five cubits long and five cubits wide. 31And its arches faced the outer court, palm trees were on its pillars, and going up to it were eight steps. 32And he brought me into the inner court facing east; he measured the gate according to these same measurements. 33Also its guardrooms, its pillars, and its arches were according to these same measurements; and there were windows in it and in its arches all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34Its arches faced the outer court, and palm trees were on its pillars on this side and on that side; and going up to it were eight steps. 35And he brought me to the north gate and measured it according to these same measurements; 36also its guardrooms, its pillars, and its arches. It had windows all around; its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty-five cubits. 37Its pillars faced the outer court, palm trees were on its pillars on this side and on that side, and going up to it were eight steps. 38There was a room and its entrance by the pillars of the gate, where they washed the burnt offering. 39In the porch of the gate were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which to slay the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. 40At the outer side of the porch, as one goes up to the entrance of the northern gate, were two tables; and on the other side of the porch of the gate were two tables. 41Four tables were on this side and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate, eight tables on which they slaughtered the sacrifices. 42There were also four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, one cubit and a half long, one cubit and a half wide, and one cubit high; on these they laid the instruments with which they slaughtered the burnt offering and the sacrifice. 43Inside were hooks, a handbreadth wide, fastened all around; and the flesh of the sacrifices was on the tables. 44Outside the inner gate were the rooms for the singers in the inner court, one facing south beside the northern gate, and the other facing north beside the southern gate. 45Then he said to me, This room which faces south is for the priests who have charge of the house. 46The room which faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar; these are the sons of Zadok, from the sons of Levi, who come near Jehovah to serve Him. 47And he measured the court, one hundred cubits long and one hundred cubits wide, foursquare. And the altar was in front of the house. 48And he brought me to the porch of the house and measured the pillars of the porch, five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side; and the width of the gate was three cubits on this side and three cubits on that side. 49The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the width eleven cubits; and by the steps which led up to it there were columns by the pillars, one on this side and another on that side.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 THE REMAINING CHAPTERS, THE FORTIETH THROUGH FORTY-EIGHTH, GIVE AN IDEAL PICTURE OF THE RESTORED JEWISH TEMPLE. (Eze. 40:1-49)
beginning of the year--the ecclesiastical year, the first month of which was Nisan.
the city . . . thither--Jerusalem, the center to which all the prophet's thoughts tended.
2 visions of God--divinely sent visions.
very high mountain--Moriah, very high, as compared with the plains of Babylon, still more so as to its moral elevation (
Ezek 17:22;
Ezek 20:40).
by which--Ezekiel coming from the north is set down at (as the Hebrew for "upon" may be translated) Mount Moriah, and sees the city-like frame of the temple stretching southward. In
Ezek 40:3, "God brings him thither," that is, close up to it, so as to inspect it minutely (compare
Rev 21:10). In this closing vision, as in the opening one of the book, the divine hand is laid on the prophet, and he is borne away in the visions of God. But the scene there was by the Chebar, Jehovah having forsaken Jerusalem; now it is the mountain of God, Jehovah having returned thither; there, the vision was calculated to inspire terror; here, hope and assurance.
3 man--The Old Testament manifestations of heavenly beings as men prepared men's minds for the coming incarnation.
brass--resplendent.
line--used for longer measurements (
Zech 2:1).
reed--used in measuring houses (
Rev 21:15). It marked the straightness of the walls.
5 Measures were mostly taken from the human body. The greater cubit, the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, a little more than two feet: exceeding the ordinary cubit (from the elbow to the wrist) by an hand-breadth, that is, twenty-one inches in all. Compare
Ezek 43:13, with
Ezek 40:5. The palm was the full breadth of the hand, three and a half inches.
breadth of the building--that is, the boundary wall. The imperfections in the old temple's boundary wall were to have no place here. The buildings attached to it had been sometimes turned to common uses; for example, Jeremiah was imprisoned in one (
Jer 20:2;
Jer 29:26). But now all these were to be holy to the Lord. The gates and doorways to the city of God were to be imprinted in their architecture with the idea of the exclusion of everything defiled (
Rev 21:27). The east gate was to be especially sacred, as it was through it the glory of God had departed (
Ezek 11:23), and through it the glory was to return (
Ezek 43:1-
Ezek 43:2;
Ezek 44:2-
Ezek 44:3).
6 the stairs--seven in number (
Ezek 40:26).
threshold--the sill [FAIRBAIRN].
other threshold--FAIRBAIRN considers there is but one threshold, and translates, "even the one threshold, one rod broad." But there is another threshold mentioned in
Ezek 40:7. The two thresholds here seem to be the upper and the lower.
7 chamber--These chambers were for the use of the Levites who watched at the temple gates; guard-chambers (
2Kgs 22:4;
1Chr 9:26-27); also used for storing utensils and musical instruments.
9 posts--projecting column-faced fronts of the sides of the doorway, opposite to one another.
12 space--rather, "the boundary."
16 narrow--latticed [HENDERSON]. The ancients had no glass, so they had them latticed, narrow in the interior of the walls, and widening at the exterior. "Made fast," or "firmly fixed in the chambers" [MAURER].
arches--rather, "porches."
17 pavement--tesselated mosaic (
Esth 1:6).
chambers--serving as lodgings for the priests on duty in the temple, and as receptacles of the tithes of salt, wine, and oil.
18 The higher pavement was level with the entrance of the gates, the lower was on either side of the raised pavement thus formed. Whereas Solomon's temple had an outer court open to alterations and even idolatrous innovations (
2Kgs 23:11-12;
1Chr 20:5), in this there was to be no room for human corruptions. Its compass was exactly defined, one hundred cubits; and the fine pavement implied it was to be trodden only by clean feet (compare
Isa 35:8).
20 The different approaches corresponded in plan. In the case of these two other gates, however, no mention is made of a building with thirty chambers such as was found on the east side. Only one was needed, and it was assigned to the east as being the sacred quarter, and that most conveniently situated for the officiating priests.
23 and toward the east--an elliptical expression for "The gate of the inner court was over against the (outer) gate toward the north (just as the inner gate was over against the outer gate) toward the east."
28 The inner court and its gates.
according to these measures--namely, the measures of the outer gate. The figure and proportions of the inner answered to the outer.
30 This verse is omitted in the Septuagint, the Vatican manuscript, and others. The dimensions here of the inner gate do not correspond to the outer, though
Ezek 40:28 asserts that they do. HAVERNICK, retaining the verse, understands it of another porch looking inwards toward the temple.
arches--the porch [FAIRBAIRN]; the columns on which the arches rest [HENDERSON].
31 eight steps--The outer porch had only seven (
Ezek 40:26).
37 posts--the Septuagint and Vulgate read, "the porch," which answers better to
Ezek 40:31-
Ezek 40:34. "The arches" or "porch" [MAURER].
38 chambers . . . entries--literally, "a chamber and its door."
by the posts--that is, at or close by the posts or columns.
where they washed the burnt offering--This does not apply to all the gates but only to the north gate. For
Lev 1:11 directs the sacrifices to be killed north of the altar; and
Ezek 8:5 calls the north gate, "the gate of the altar." And
Ezek 40:40 particularly mentions the north gate.
43 hooks--cooking apparatus for cooking the flesh of the sacrifices that fell to the priests. The hooks were "fastened" in the walls within the apartment, to hang the meat from, so as to roast it. The Hebrew comes from a root "fixed" or "placed."
44 the chambers of the singers--two in number, as proved by what follows: "and their prospect (that is, the prospect of one) was toward the south, (and) one toward the north." So the Septuagint.
46 Zadok--lineally descended from Aaron. He had the high priesthood conferred on him by Solomon, who had set aside the family of Ithamar because of the part which Abiathar had taken in the rebellion of Adonijah (
1Kgs 1:7;
1Kgs 2:26-27).
47 court, an hundred cubits . . . foursquare--not to be confounded with the inner court, or court of Israel, which was open to all who had sacrifices to bring, and went round the three sides of the sacred territory, one hundred cubits broad. This court was one hundred cubits square, and had the altar in it, in front of the temple. It was the court of the priests, and hence is connected with those who had charge of the altar and the music. The description here is brief, as the things connected with this portion were from the first divinely regulated.
48 These two verses belong to the forty-first chapter, which treats of the temple itself.
49 twenty . . . eleven cubits--in Solomon's temple (
1Kgs 6:3) "twenty . . . ten cubits." The breadth perhaps was ten and a half;
1Kgs 6:3 designates the number by the lesser next round number, "ten"; Ezekiel here, by the larger number, "eleven" [MENOCHIUS]. The Septuagint reads "twelve."
he brought me by the steps--They were ten in number [Septuagint].