Ezekiel 41 commentary

After the prophet had observed the courts, he was brought to the temple. If we attend to instructions in the plainer parts of religion, and profit by them, we shall be led further into an acquaintance with the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

CHAPTER 41

Eze 41:1-26. The Chambers and Ornaments of the Temple.

1. tabernacle--As in the measurement of the outer porch he had pointed to Solomon's temple, so here in the edifice itself, he points to the old tabernacle, which being eight boards in breadth (each one and a half cubits broad) would make in all twelve cubits, as here. On the interior it was only ten cubits.

2. length thereof--namely, of the holy place [Fairbairn].

3. inward--towards the most holy place.

4. thereof--of the holy of holies.

before the temple--that is, before, or in front of the most holy place (so "temple" is used in 1Ki 6:3). The angel went in and measured it, while Ezekiel stood in front, in the only part of the temple accessible to him. The dimensions of the two apartments are the same as in Solomon's temple, since being fixed originally by God, they are regarded as finally determined.

5. side chamber--the singular used collectively for the plural. These chambers were appendages attached to the outside of the temple, on the west, north, and south; for on the east side, the principal entrance, there were no chambers. The narrowness of the chambers was in order that the beams could be supported without needing pillars. The plan is similar to that of the hall at Koyunjik, a large central hall, called the oracle, with smaller rooms built round it.

6. might ... hold, but ... not hold in ... wall of the house--1Ki 6:6 tells us there were rests made in the walls of the temple for supports to the side chambers; but the temple walls did not thereby become part of this side building; they stood separate from it. "They entered," namely, the beams of the chambers, which were three-storied and thirty in consecutive order, entered into the wall, that is, were made to lean on rests projecting from the wall.

7. the breadth ... so increased from the lowest ... to the highest--that is, the breadth of the interior space above was greater than that below.

8. foundations ... six ... cubits--the substructure, on which the foundations rested, was a full reed of six cubits.

great--literally, "to the extremity" or root, namely, of the hand [Henderson]. "To the joining," or point, where the foundation of one chamber ceased and another began [Fairbairn].

9. that which was left--There was an unoccupied place within chambers that belonged to the house. The buildings in this unoccupied place, west of the temple, and so much resembling it in size, imply that no place was to be left which was to be held, as of old, not sacred. Manasseh (2Ki 23:11) had abused these "suburbs of the temple" to keeping horses sacred to the sun. All excuse for such abominations was henceforth to be taken away, the Lord claiming every space, and filling up this also with sacred erections [Fairbairn].

10. the chambers--that is, of the priests in the court: between these and the side chambers was the wideness, &c. While long details are given as to the chambers, &c., no mention is made of the ark of the covenant. Fairbairn thus interprets this: In future there was to be a perfect conformity to the divine idea, such as there had not been before. The dwellings of His people should all become true sanctuaries of piety. Jehovah Himself, in the full display of the divine Shekinah, shall come in the room of the ark of the covenant (Jr 3:16, 17). The interior of the temple stands empty, waiting for His entrance to fill it with His glory (Eze 43:1-12). It is the same temple, but the courts of it have become different to accommodate a more numerous people. The entire compass of the temple mount has become a holy of holies (Eze 43:12).

12-15. Sum of the measures of the temple, and of the buildings behind and on the side of it.

16. covered--being the highest windows they were "covered" from the view below. Or else "covered with lattice-work."

17. by measure--Measurements were taken [Fairbairn].

21. appearance of the one as the appearance of the other--The appearance of the sanctuary or holy of holies was similar to that of the temple. They differed only in magnitude.

22. table ... before the Lord--the altar of incense (Eze 44:16). At it, not at the table of showbread, the priests daily ministered. It stood in front of the veil, and is therefore said to be "before the Lord." It is called a table, as being that at which the Lord will take delight in His people, as at a feast. Hence its dimensions are larger than that of old--three cubits high, two broad, instead of two and one.

25. thick planks--a thick-plank work at the threshold.

To the temple - He had first described the courts and the porch. See chap. 40.

The breadth of the door - This was the door, or gate, of the sanctuary, (see gates 3, in the plan), and this doorway was filled up with folding gates. The measurements are exactly the same as those of Solomon's temple. See 1Kgs 6:2, 1Kgs 6:17.

The length thereof, twenty cubits - This is the measurement of the sanctuary, or holy of holies. See G in the plan. This also was the exact measurement of Solomon's temple, see 1Kgs 6:20. This, and the other resemblances here, sufficiently prove that Ezekiel's temple and that of Solomon were on the same plan; and that the latter temple was intended to be an exact resemblance of the former.

The side chambers were three - We find by Joseph. Antiq. 8:3, 2, that round Solomon's temple were chambers three stories high, each story consisting of thirty chambers. It is supposed that twelve were placed to the north of the temple, twelve to the south, and six to the east.

Entered into the wall - The beams were admitted into the outer wall, but they rested on projections of the inner wall.

An enlarging, and a winding about - Perhaps a winding staircase that-widened upward as the inner wall decreased in thickness; this wall being six cubits thick; as high as the first story, five from the floor of the second story to that of the third, and four from the floor to the ceiling of the third story: and thus there was a rest of one cubit in breadth to support the stories. - Newcome.

The thickness of the wall - See LLL in the plan.

The place of the side chambers - A walk, or gallery of communication along the chambers, five cubits broad, Eze 41:11.

And the doors - See the plan, aa. bb.

The length thereof ninety cubits - The temple, with the buildings which surrounded it, was eighty-one cubits long; add ten cubits for the vestibule, or five for the breadth of the separate place, and five for its wall; in all, ninety cubits. See the plan, LHIL. By the separate place I suppose the temple itself is meant.

So he measured the house - The temple, taken from the wall which encompassed it from the western side to the vestibule, was one hundred and one cubits; five for the separate place, nine for the wall and the chambers attached to the temple, sixty for the sanctuary and the holy place, ten for the vestibule, and twelve for the two great walls on the west and east of the temple; in all, one hundred and one cubits, See the plan, GHI.

The breadth of the face of the house - That is, the front. See the plan, FRR.

A palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub - That is, the palm trees and the cherubs were alternated; and each cherub had two faces, one of a lion and the other of a man; one of which was turned to the palm tree on the right, the other to the palm tree on the left.

From the ground unto above the door - The temple was thirty cubits high, 1Kgs 6:2, the gate was fourteen cubits, chap. Eze 40:48. The palm trees and the cherubim were the same height as the gate or door. The windows were above the door.

The altar of wood - This was the altar of incense, and was covered with plates of gold.

There were thick planks - The wood, or planks, were thick and strong; for the cherubim and palm trees were carved in relief out of their substance, and unless they had been of considerable thickness, this could not have been done.

The breadth - These walls in their thickness took up as much space as the whole breadth of Moses's tabernacle, Exod 26:16,22.

Went he - From the porch thro' the body of the temple, to the partition between the body of the temple and the holy of holies. Measured - Either the thickness of that partition wall, or of the pilasters, which stood one on the one side, and the other on the other side of the door. Of the door - Or entrance out of the temple into the oracle. And the door - This door was six cubits broad, and an upright bar or post on which the leaves met, and which was of one cubit's breadth, make out seven cubits.

Thereof - Of the holy of holies, which was an exact square. Before - Parallel with the breadth of the temple.

After - Having left the holy of holies, now he is come to take the measures of the outer wall. The house - The temple. Six cubits - Three yards thick was this wall from the ground to the first story of the side - chambers. Side - chamber - Of the lowest floor; for there were three stories of these, and they differed in their breadth, as the wall of the temple, on which they rested, abated of its thickness; for the middle chambers were broader than the lowest by a cubit, and the highest as much broader than the middle. Round about - On the north, south, and west parts, on each side of every one of these three gates.

They might - That the beams of the chambers might have good and firm resting - hold. Had not hold - The ends of the beams were not thrust into the main body of the wall of the temple.

An enlarging - Of the side chambers, so much of breadth added to the chamber, as was taken from the thickness of the wall; that is, two cubits in the uppermost, and one cubit in the middle - most, more than in the lowest chambers. A winding about - Winding stairs, which enlarged as the rooms did, and these run up between each two chambers from the bottom to the top; so there were two doors at the head of each pair of stairs, one door opening into one chamber, and the other into the opposite chamber. For the winding about - These stairs, as they rose in height, enlarged themselves too. Round about - On all sides of the house where these chambers were. The breadth - Of each chamber. Increased - Grew broader by one cubit in every upper chamber. From five in the lowest to six in the middle, and to seven in the highest chamber.

The foundations - The lowest chamber had properly a foundation laid on the earth, but the floor of the middle, and highest story must be accounted here a foundation; so from the ground to the ceiling of the first room, was six great cubits; from the first to the second, six great cubits; and from the third floor to the roof of the chamber, a like number; to which add we one cubit for thickness of each of the three floors, you have twenty - one cubits for height, ten yards and a half high.

The place - The walk and wall.

The doors - The doors of the lowest row opened into this void paved space.

The building - This is a new building not yet mentioned, but now measured by itself.

The house - The whole temple, oracle, sanctuary and porch, with the walls. The building - On both the north and south - side of the temple.

The breadth - The whole front of the house eastward.

Cherubim - Generally taken for the portrait of angels, or young men with wings: yet is the description of them very different in different places; in Ezekiel's vision, Eze 1:5 - 14 10:14, Isaiah's vision, Isa 6:2, John's vision, Rev 4:6 - 8, and in Solomon's temple, 1Kin 6:23 - 26.

Through all the house - And thus it was through the whole house round about.

The face - The door or gate of the temple was square, not arched. As the appearance - As was the form of the gate of the temple in its larger, so was the form of the gate of the oracle in its lesser dimensions.

The altar - Of incense. The corners - The horns framed out of the four posts at each angle on the top of the altar. The walls - The sides. Before the Lord - In the temple, not in the holy of holies.

Two doors - Each had one.

Them - The doors of both temple and oracle. The temple - Including the holy of holies also.

1 AFterward he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts , six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle .

After the measuring of the Courts, &c. now the Prophet is brought to see the Temple it self measured.

The thickness of the walls (called posts here as also chap. 40.48.) on the North-side, and on the South-side of the gate.

One whole reed in thickness.

These walls in their thickness took up as much space, as the whole breadth of Moses his Tabernacle, Exod. 26.22. where eight boards, each one Cubit and half broad, make just the breadth of the Tabernacle 12 Cubits.

2 And the breadth of the door was, ten cubits; and the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits; and the breadth twenty cubits.

Or the Aperture, the open space, which let in light, as well as men; properly the door of the Porch,

Between Post and Post, on which the folding doors did hang.

The space from the edge of the Wall by the Posts to the side Wall inward, was on each side five Cubits, on the North-side so many, and on the South so many, which make the content between Wall and Wall, as the verse hath it, twenty Cubits in breadth.

Of the Sanctuary from the Porch to the Partition between the Holy of Holies, and the inward Front of the Wall of the Sanctuary, was forty Cubits, unless we must take in the thickness of the Walls of both Sanctuary, and holy of holies, of which more may possibly be spoken.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word]

3 Then went he inward , and measured the post of the door , two cubits: and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits.

From the Porch thro' the body of the Temple, to the Partition between the body of the Temple and the holy of holies, or the Oracle,

Either the thickness of that Partition Wall, or of the Pylasters, which stood one on one side, and the other on the other side of the door

Or entrance out of the Temple into the Oracle.

This door was six cubits high, say some, but, more likely, 'twas six cubits broad, and an upright Bar or Post on which the leafes did meet, and which was of one Cubits breadth, make out the seven Cubits mention'd in the last words of this verse.

4 So he measured the length thereof , twenty cubits; and the breadth twenty cubits before the temple. And he said unto me, this is the most holy place.

Of the Oracle, or Holy of Holies.

It was an exact square, as was Solomons, 1 King. 6.20.

Parallel with the breadth of the Temple.

The Prophet was commanded to hear, and now he shews us his attention.

As having the tokens of Gods more especial presence, in that the Mercy-Seat and Propitiatory were there so called Num. 7.89. 'twas called also the Oracle, and 1 King. 6.16. the inner house, ver. 15, 17.

5 After he measured the wall of the house , six cubits ; and the breadth of every side chamber , four cubits, round about the house on every side .

Having left the Holy of Holies measured in the 3d. verse now he is come to take the measures of the outer Wall.

The Temple it self.

Three yards thick was this Wall from the ground to the first story of the side chambers.

Of the lowest floor; for there were three stories of these, and they differ'd in their breadth, as the Wall of the Temple, on which they rested abated of its thickness; for the middle Chambers were broader than the lowest by a Cubit, and highest as much broader than the middle.

On the North, South and West parts.

On each side of every one of these three gates. The East-gate, and buildings about that were not faced with such [illegible: 2 letters]cings.

6 And the side-chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order : And they entred into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house.

In three Stories high.

How these thirty in a row were distributed, is not said, some guess twelve on the North side, as many on the South-side, and six on the West; but, as this may be, so possibly it may not be; but we are sure the whole number is Thirty in a row on each story, i. e. 3 times 30 or 90 in all.

Not the five, or six Cubit Wall, which was the Wall of the house, but another Wall of one Cubit thickness, on the top whereof was a rest, or ledge of one Cubit breadth, on which the ends of the Cedar beams were fastned.

'Tis said this was built for the side-chambers, either from the foundation the Wall was made so thick, that at 5 Cubits from the ground they might rebate or draw in the thickness of the ascending Wall one Cubit , or else this Cubit-thick Wall was after added: but this, as not probable, I reject.

That the beams of the Chambers might have good, and firm resting hold

The ends of the Beams were not thrust into the main body of the Wall of the Temple, as we see beams laid into the body of the Walls of houses. But for each story a rebatement of one Cubit in the thickness of the Wall, so that six Cubits thick at the ground, up to the first floor, and five Cubits thick from that to the second floor, and four Cubits thick from the second to the third floor, so each floor rests on a ledge of one Cubit without the Wall, and each Story grows a Cubit broader than that is next lower.

Marginal references: Heb. side[illegible: 2 letters]mber over [illegible: 2 letters]-chamber.; Or, three and [illegible: 2 letters]rty times, or [illegible: 1 word].; Heb. be holden.

7 And there was an enlarging and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increas'd from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst .

Viz. of the side-chambers, so much of breadth added to the Chamber, as was taken from the thickness of the Wall; that is two cubits in the uppermost, and one Cubit in the middlemost, more than in the lowest Chambers.

Winding Stairs which enlarged as the Rooms did, and these run up between each two chambers, from the bottom to the top, so there were two doors at the head of each pair of Stairs, one door opening into one Chamber, and the other into the opposite Chamber; or else, you must make the chambers thorough fares, and suppose passages thro' all.

These Stairs, as they rose in height, enlarged themselves too.

i. e. On all sides of the house, where these chambers were, which, as observed, was on three sides of the house.

Of each Chamber.

Grew broader by one Cubit in every upper Room or Chamber.

From 5 in the lowest to 6 in the middle, and to 7 in the highest Chamber.

Marginal references: Heb. it was [illegible: 1 word] broader [illegible: 1 word] went round. [illegible: 1 word] Kin. 6.8.

8 I saw also the height of the house round about: the foundations of the side-chambers were a full reed of six great Cubits.

Of the Chambers, or the three stories of them, 'tis not the Temple.

The lowest chamber had properly a foundation laid on the Earth, but the floor of the middle, and highest story must be accounted here a foundation, so from the ground to the ceiling of the first room was 6 great Cubits, from the first Beams, Joices and Boards to the second, six great Cubits, and from the third floor to the roof of the Chamber, a like number, to which add we one Cubit for thickness of each of the three roofs or floors you have 21 Cubits for height, ten yards and half high.

Marginal references: chap. 40.[illegible: 1 letter].

9 The thickness of the wall which was for the side chamber without , was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within .

The outward Wall for these Chambers was five cubits in thickness, and was made of Stone, which added both beauty; and strength to the other part of the building, and served as Butteresses to the Temple-wall.

That space, which was left without this wall about five Cubits broad, and served for a walk before the chambers, or for a passage from one chamber to another.

The Walk and Wall.

10 And between the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits, round about the house on every side.

That on one side joined to the Temple, and were publick repositories for offerings, and tithes, &c. and those other chambers, which were built on the wall of this Inner Court, and were lodgings for the Priests, there was a void space, or Pavement in the open Air twenty Cubits broad, and these round about on all sides of the Court, and probably some Railes, or Ballisters, or low Wall round too before them enclosing this space.

11 And the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the South, and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about.

The doors of the lowest row opened into this void paved space.

Beside the particular doors to each chamber, there were two, one on the North, where was a fair Stair-case, which did lead up to every story, and above these to the top of the Temple. And so another like this on the South, excepting that this South Stair-case lead not up to the top of all, as that North Stair-case did.

12 Now the building that was before the separate place , at the end toward the west, was seventy cubits broad: and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and the length thereof ninety cubits.

This is a new building not yet mention'd, but now measured by it self.

Or over-against.

Either the Temple with all the appendant Treasury Chambers, or the Oracle, which was in the West end of the Temple, and separate from the rest of the Temple. Or that 20 Cubit space, which was cut off from the Chambers, and the five cubits space before them by a breast Wall, as some think.

Of either Temple, Oracle, or foresaid space, toward the West.

As men are not agreed about the Fabrick, and its dimensions here intended to be measured, so they are as little agreed how to compute the Measures, every one however makes out his account, whether the thing he measures be the right or mistaken. First, suppose the Temple and the West part of it from North to South, thus; 20 Cubits the Oracle, each side wall 6 cubits, breadth of Chambers on each side 4, the thickness of the out Walls of these chambers on both sides 5 Cubits each, a void space of 5 cubits compassing the whole, and then the low, or breast Wall that enclos'd this space 5 Cubits thick on each side making up the third 10, produce the 70 Cubits. But they that think of a distinct building on the West-end of the Temple, do also in their method make out the account.

This seems to countenance their opinion, who conceive a distinct building meant.

These proportions are easily laid together, which will make up the total, and agree with the Temple thus; Temple and Oracle with their Walls 70 cubits, Porch eleven, and Chambers, and Walls nine Cubits. And who will have such a new structure here measur'd (which is more than was in the first Temple Fabrick) will make all correspond to their hypothesis, and you may more easily object against anothers, then demonstrate your own guesse. The best is, the errour is not great if a man do erre here.

13 So he measured the house , an hundred cubits long; and the separate place , and the building , with the walls thereof, an hundred cubits long .

The whole Temple, Oracle, Sanctuary and Porch with the Walls.

From East to West thus. Stairs of the East Porch, or the thickness of the Wall 6 Cubits; the passage through the Porch 11, Wall of the Temple within the Porch 6 Cubits, the Temple it self 40 Cubits, Partition Wall two Cubits, the Oracle 20 Cub. West Wall thick 6 Cub. the chambers at bottom of the West Wall 4 Cubits, and the outer Wall of the Chambers 5 Cubits.

See ver. 12. let. a.

On both the North and South-side of the Temple.

Which is reckoned. The breadth of the Temple 20 Cubits, thickness of both Walls 12 Cubits, the bottom Chambers on both sides 8 Cubits, the outer Walls of these Chambers 5 Cubits a piece, the breadth of the place left out on each side 5, on both sides 10 (i. e. 5 each) and then the wideness between this on either side 20 Cubits.

14 Also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place, toward the east, an hundred cubits .

The whole Front of the house Eastward, the prospect of it being to the East.

This explains the other, say some, The house is the separate place, or else, as others, That other building on the West end of the Temple, which was of equal dimensions with the Temple.

Measuring from the North point along by the Eastern front to the South point, or corner of the buildings or Wall. The admeasuring the particulars I forbear, but since this side runs equal with the length of the whole from East to West, we need not doubt 'tis a hundred Cubits.

15 And he measured the length of the building over-against the separate place which was behind it , and the Galleries thereof on the one side, and on the other side, an hundred cubits, with the inner Temple , and the porches of the court t.

Possibly, that of the 12 and 13, or else the buildings of this Court next to the Temple, or else the West buildings behind the Oracle, or the buildings of the utter Court, of which in chap. 42.1, 3, 7, 8.

See ver. 12. let. [illegible: 1 letter].

The buildings, that were behind on the West side of that supposed range of buildings, or else behind the Temple.

Either Chambers, or Porches, or Belconies, places supported by Pylasters, made for Beauty and Delight.

According to the measures of the Temple, and its appendant buildings.

Marginal references: Or, several walks; or, walks with pillars.

16 The door posts , and the narrow windows , and the Galleries round about on their three stories , overagainst the door ceiled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered;

See chap. 40.48, 49. 'Tis likely, he means the door posts of every Gate, or Porch in every Court.

See chap. 40.16. let. g.

See ver. 15. let. q. and ver. 5. let▪ x

Vid. ver. 6, 7. Or parts, or buildings, Temple, separate place, and on the Court Walls.

The singular for the plural number, the Doors, which were Ceiled with Wood, were measured, this Ceiling was with choicest Wood.

The height of these Windows were taken too.

What are here recounted were all measured by the Angel, and with the same Reed, or Measure.

Had lids, or Curtains to cover them, and Lettices too, say some.

Marginal references: Heb. cieling of wood.; Or, and the ground unto the windows.

17 To that above the door , even unto the inner house and without, and by all the wall round about within and without, by measure.

In the 15th. ver. the Prophet began his Catalogue, and continueth it through this verse, in which, in the Gross, he tells us all above the Doors, in every Porch, and Gate to the very Inner house, and all without, the Buildings about the Walls, were measured exactly though we have neither the particular account of what these were, either things or measures.

Marginal references: Heb. measures.

18 And it was made with cherubims and palm trees , so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub: and every cherub had two faces ;

Beautified.

Generally taken for the Pourtraict of Angels, and framed to the beauty of young Men with Wings. Yet is the description of them very different in different places as the curious observe in Ezekiels Vision, chap. 1. Isaiahs Vision, chap. 6. Iohns Vision, Rev. 4. and in Solomons Temple.

A very beautiful, upright tree, from a strait well grown body, spreading its head with large boughs and branches, which were used on occasions of Joy, and were emblems of victory, Ioh. 12.13. and Rev. 7.9.

These were so engraven, that each Palm-tree was between two cherubs, and each cherub between two Palm-trees, and this ariseth from the different aspect, or numbring them.

Curiously wrought on the same head, somewhat like a Ianus Head, what these faces were the next verse tells us.

Now we are acquainted with the Ornaments, the beautiful carving, which in all parts mention'd, were to be seen.

19 So that the face of a man was toward the palm-tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm-tree on the other side: it was made through all the house round about.

This one face, the other of a young Lion. Now as to the aspect 'twas thus, the cherub between two Palm-trees, looked towards both trees, towards the one a mans face, towards the other, a young Lions face looked.

And thus it was through the whole house round about, and from bottom to top, as ver. 20.

20 From the ground unto above the door were cherubims, and palm-trees made, and on the wall of the temple.

Some think 'tis the great East Gate, I think rather, here is an enallage, or change of Number, Door for Doors, and that every Porch was so beautifi'd, See chap. 1.16, 22, 26, 34.

These beautiful Sculptures were round about the walls of the Temple, and Oracle too, tho' not exprest here.

21 The posts of the temple were squared , and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other.

On each side of the Gate or Door, both of Temple and Oracle.

Not round as some other were, and as the Posts of the door of the Tabernacle were, but of exact square.

The form of the door, or gate of the Temple was square, i. e. not arched, as the gates of our Churches ordinarily are, but with [illegible: 1 letter] flat beam, or upper Lintel laid on the top of the Posts, and so either made an aequilateral square, or an oblong square,

As was the form of the gate of the Temple in its larger, so was the form of the gate of the Oracle in its lesser dimensions.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word]

22 The altar of wood was three cubits high , and the length thereof two cubits: and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof were of wood, and he said unto me, This is the table , that is before the LORD .

Of Incense.

So the inward parts were made, and covered with Gold, Exod, 30.1.—11. 1. King 6.20, 22. and from this covering of Gold 'twas called the Golden Altar.

One cubit higher, than that in the Tabernacle of Moses, Exod. 30.2.

As long again as Moses Altar of Incense in the Tabernacle.

The Horns fram'd out of the four posts at each angle on top of the Altar.

The sides of this Altar, for it was made up on all sides, are here called the Walls thereof, made of wood, but covered with Gold.

Some say 'tis spoken of this Altar of Incense, others say, the Angel pointed him to the Tables of shew-bread, and spake of that.

In the Temple, not in the Oracle, or Holy of Holies, this Incense altar was placed without the Oracle, as appears from the Priests offering Incense at it by courses, whereas none but the High-Priest, might enter into the Holy of Holies.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]

23 And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

Each had one door, so there were two doors, and they were folding doors, or two leaved doors.

25 And there were made on them , on the doors of the temple , cherubims and palm-trees, like as were made upon the walls: and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without?

Carved.

The doors of both Temple and Oracle.

Including the Holy of Holies also.

Vid. ver. 10.

I suppose, these were boards of more, then ordinary thickness, which were fastned to the great Beams, whose ends came out beyond the wall of the Porch, and probably, were laid so, as to make a part of an arch over the entrance into the Gate, as we see over some houses, and as sometimes under the Belconies, and here also in these thicker planks, 'tis like, were some Ornaments.

Or above the front of the Porch.

On the Court side of the Porch, that part that look'd outward.

26 And there were narrow windows and palm-trees on the one side, and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks .

Vid. ver. 16. let. u.

See ver. 18. let. f.

On the North, and on the South side, as you enter in from East toward the West, thus the sides of the Porch outward were garnished.

Which were 30 in a row, and three stories high, vid. ver. 6.

Alike carved and beautified, and alike strengthning, and defending the places where they were used.

Eze 41:1-4

The Inner Space of the Temple (see Plate III B and C)

Eze 41:1. And he led me into the temple, and measured the pillars, six cubits breadth on this side and six cubits breadth on that side, with regard to the breadth of the tent. Eze 41:2. And the breadth of the door was ten cubits; and the shoulders of the door, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that: and he measured its length, forty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits. Eze 41:3. And he went within the measured the pillar of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits. Eze 41:4. And he measured its length, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, toward the temple; and said to me, This is the holy of holies. - Eze 41:1 and Eze 41:2 give the measurements of the holy place. היכל is used here in the more restricted sense for the nave of the temple, the holy place (B), without the porch and the holy of holies (cf. 1Ki 6:17). The measuring commences with the front (eastern) wall, in which there was the entrance door. This wall had pillars (e e) of six cubits breadth on either side (on the right hand and the left), and between the pillars a door (d) ten cubits broad, with door-shoulders (e e) of five cubits on this side and that (Eze 41:2). These measurements (6 + 6 + 10 + 5 + 5) yield for the front wall a total breadth of thirty-two cubits. This agrees with the measurements which follow: twenty cubits, the (internal) breadth of the holy place, and six cubits the thickness of the wall (e) on either side (Eze 41:5). The only remaining difficulty is in the very obscure words appended, רחב האהל, in which Ewald and Hitzig propose to alter האהל into האיל otni האהל re, because the lxx have substituted τοῦ αἰλάμ, but without making any improvement, as האיל is still more inexplicable. Kliefoth, after examining the various attempts to explain these words, comes to the conclusion that no other course is left than to take האהל as signifying the inner space of Ezekiel’s temple, consisting of the holy place and the holy of holies, which was the same in the entire building as the tabernacle had been, - viz. the tent of God’s meeting with His people, and which is designated as אהל to show the substantial identity of this space and the tabernacle. The clause רחב האהל is thus attached to the preceding double מפּה (i.e., to the measurement of the two pillars bounding the holy space), in an elliptical manner, in the following sense: “he measured the breadth of the pillars, on this side and that, which marked off the breadth of the tent, on the outside, that is to say, of the inner space of the holy place which resembled the tabernacle;” so that this clause formed a loose apposition, meaning, “with regard to the breath of the tent.” כּתפות הפּתח are the walls on both sides of the door (e e), between the door and the boundary pillars. - The internal length and breadth of the holy place are the same as in the holy place of Solomon’s temple (1Ki 6:2, 1Ki 6:17).

Eze 41:3 and Eze 41:4 refer to the holy of holies (c). “He went within.” We have וּבא (for ויּבוא) and not ויביאני (Eze 41:1), because the prophet was not allowed to tread the most holy place, and therefore the angel went in alone. פּנימה is defined in Eze 41:4 as the holy of holies. The measurements in Eze 41:3 refer to the partition wall between the holy place and the most holy (g). איל הפּתח, the pillar-work of the door, stands for the pillars on both sides of the door; and the measurement of two cubits no doubt applies to each pillar, denoting, not the thickness, but the breadth which it covered on the wall. There is a difficulty in the double measurement which follows: the door six cubits, and the breadth of the door seven cubits. As the latter is perfectly clear, and also apparently in accordance with the fact, and on measuring a door the height is the only thing which can come into consideration in addition to the breadth, we agree with Kliefoth in taking the six cubits as a statement of the height. The height of six cubits bears a fitting proportion to the breadth of seven cubits, if there were folding-doors; and the seven is significant in the case of the door to the holy of holies, the dwelling of God. The Seventy, however, did not know what to do with this text, and changed רחב הפּתח שׁבע אמּות into τὰς ἐπωμίδας τοῦ θυρώματος πηχῶν ἑπτὰ ἔνθεν καὶ ἔνθεν, in which they have been followed by Böttcher, Hitzig, and others. But it is obvious at once that the Seventy have simply derived these data from the measurements of the front of the holy place (Eze 41:2), and have overlooked the fact, that in the first place, beside the measure of the כּתפות הפּתח, i.e., ἐπωμίδες τοῦ πυλῶνος, the רחב הפּתח, or breadth of the door, is also expressly measured there, whereas here, on the contrary, it is preceded by הפּתח alone, without רחב; and secondly, as the measurement of the אילים given in Eze 41:1 indicates their breadth (from south to north), in the present instance also the measure ascribed to the איל הפּתח can only refer to the breadth of the איל, and not to its thickness (from east to west). But if we explain the first clause of Eze 41:3 in this manner, as both the language and the fact require, the reading of the lxx is proved to be a false correction, by the fact that it yields a breadth of twenty-two or twenty-four cubits (2 + 2 + 6 + 7 + 7), whereas the holy of holies, like the holy place, was only twenty cubits broad. The dimensions of the holy of holies also correspond to the space covered by the holy of holies in Solomon’s temple (1Ki 6:20). The expression אל־פּני ההיכל, “toward the holy place,” is to be explained by the supposition that the measuring angel, after he had proceeded to the western end of the holy of holies for the purpose of measuring the length, turned round again to measure the breadth, so that this breadth lay “toward the holy place.”

Eze 41:5-11

The Wall and the Side-Building

Eze 41:5. And he measured the wall of the house six cubits, and the breadth of the side storey four cubits round the house round about. Eze 41:6. And of the side-rooms there were room upon room three, and that thirty times, and they came upon the wall, which the house had by the side-rooms round about, so that they were held, and yet they were not held in the wall of the house. Eze 41:7. And it spread out, and was surrounded upwards more and more to the side-rooms, for the enclosure of the house went upwards more and more round about the house; therefore the house received breadth upwards; and so the lower ascended to the upper after the proportion of the central one. Eze 41:8. And I saw in the house a height round about, with regard to the foundations of the side-rooms a full rod, six cubits to the joint. Eze 41:9. The breadth of the wall, which the side storey had on the outside, was five cubits, and so also what was left free was by the side-chamber building of the house. Eze 41:10. And between the cells was a breadth of twenty cubits round the house round about. Eze 41:11. And the door of the side-chamber building led toward what was left free, one door toward the north and one door toward the south, and the breadth of the space left free was five cubits round about. - From the interior of the sanctuary the measuring man turned to the outer work, and measured, first of all, the wall of the house (Eze 41:5), i.e., the wall commencing with the pillars in the front (Eze 41:1), which surrounded the holy place and the holy of holies on the north, the west, and the south (e). This was six cubits thick, He then measured the breadth of the צלע, i.e., of the building consisting of three storeys of side-rooms, which was erected against the north, west, and south sides of the sanctuary (h). For צלע signifies not only a single side-room, but collectively the whole range of these side-chambers, the entire building against the sides of the temple house, called יצוּע in 1Ki 6:5-6, with which הצּלע (Eze 41:8) is also used alternately there (see the comm. on 1Ki 6:5).; - The breadth of the side-building was four cubits in the clear, that is to say, the space from the temple wall to the outer wall of the side-building (f), which was five cubits thick (Eze 41:9), and that uniformly all round the temple. - The further particulars concerning the side-rooms in Eze 41:6 and Eze 41:7 are very obscure, so that they can only be made perfectly intelligible by comparing them with the description of the similar building in Solomon’s temple. According to this, Eze 41:6 is to be taken thus: “and as for the side-rooms, there were room upon room (אל for על) three, and (that) thirty times,” and understood as signifying that there were three side-rooms standing one above another, and that this occurred thirty times, so that the side-building had three storeys, each containing thirty rooms (chambers), so that there were thirty times three rooms standing one above another (h h h). There is no necessity, therefore, for the transposition of שׁלושׁ וּשׁלשׁים into שׁלשׁים ושׁלושׁ, which Böttcher, Hitzig, and Hävernick have adopted from the lxx, because of their having taken אל in the sense of against, room against room thirty, and that three times, which yields the same thought, no doubt, but not so clearly, inasmuch as it remains indefinite whether the three times thirty rooms were above one another or side by side. Nothing is said about the distribution of the thirty rooms in each storey; but it is very probable that the distribution was uniform, so that on each of the longer sides, i.e., against the northern and southern walls of the temple, there were twelve rooms, and six against the shorter western wall. The northern and southern walls were sixty cubits, plus six cubits the thickness of the wall, plus four cubits the breadth of the side building against the western wall (60 + 6 + 4), in all therefore seventy cubits, or, deducting five cubits for the thickness of the outer wall at the front of the building, sixty-five cubits long; and the western wall was 20 + 2 x 6 (the thickness of the side wall), i.e., thirty-two cubits long. If, therefore, we fix the length of each side-room at 4 1/2 cubits, there remain five cubits against the western wall for the seven party walls required, or five-sevenths of a cubit for each, and against the northern and southern walls eleven cubits for party walls and staircase, and reckoning the party walls at four-sevenths of a cubit in thickness, there are left four cubits and a seventh for the space of the stairs, quite a sufficient space for a winding staircase.

The clauses which follow relate to the connection between these side-rooms and the temple house. באות בּקּיר, they were coming (going) upon the wall. בּוא ב, generally intrare in locu, here, on account of what follows, to tread upon the wall; that is to say, they were built against the wall in such a manner that the beams of the floors of the three storeys rested on the temple wall on the inner side, i.e., were held or borne by it, but not so as to be inserted in the wall and held fast thereby. The only way in which this could be effected was by so constructing the temple wall that it had a ledge at every storey on which the beams of the side-storeys could rest, i.e., by making it recede half a cubit, or become so much thinner on the outer side, so that if the thickness of the wall at the bottom was six cubits, it would be five cubits and a half at the first storey, five cubits at the second, and four and a half at the third. In this way the side-rooms were supported by the temple wall, but not in such a manner that the beams laid hold of the walls of the sanctuary, or were dovetailed into them, which would have done violence to the sanctity of the temple house; and the side storeys appeared as, what they should be, an external building, which did not interfere with the integrity of the sanctuary. That this is the meaning of the words is rendered certain by a comparison with 1Ki 6:6, where the ledges on the temple wall are expressly mentioned, and the design of these is said to be  לבלתּי אחז בּקירות, that the beams might not be fastened in the walls of the house, to which the last words of our verse, ולא־יהיוּ אחוּזים בּקיר הבּית, refer. Kliefoth’s rendering of באות בּקּיר, “they went against the wall,” is grammatically untenable, as בּוא sa ,elba with ב does not mean to go against anything. אשׁר לבּית לצּלעות, which the (temple) house had toward the side-rooms. סביב סביב, round about, i.e., on all three sides of the temple. The peculiarity of the storeys, arising from this resting upon the temple, is described in Eze 41:7, of which different explanations have been given, but the general meaning of which is that it occasioned a widening of the side-rooms proceeding upwards from storey to storey, as is plainly stated in 1Ki 6:6. The words ורחבה ונסבה are not to be taken together, as expressing one idea, viz., “it spread round about” (De Wette), but contain two different assertions, which are more precisely defined in what follows by the substantives מוּסב and רחב. Neither קיר nor הצלע is to be taken as the subject; but the verbs are to be regarded as impersonal: “there spread out and surrounded,” i.e., a widening and a surrounding took place. The double למעלה has been correctly explained by Bochart, viz., “by continued ascending,” i.e., the higher one went the more extension and compass did one find, with regard to, i.e., according to the measure of, the side-rooms or side-storeys. לצּלעות belongs to למעלה, and is added for the purpose of defining more precisely how the widening took place, not gradually, but at each storey; for “these צלעות are the three rooms standing one above another, spoken of in Eze 41:6” (Kliefoth).

This statement is explained, and the reason assigned, in the clause introduced with כּי, the meaning of which depends upon the explanation of the word מוּסב. This word may mean a way round, and a surrounding. The Rabbins, whom Hävernick follows, understand by מוּסב a winding staircase, the לוּלים mentioned in 1Ki 6:8, which led from the lower storey to the upper ones. This is decidedly wrong; for apart from the question whether this meaning can be grammatically sustained, it is impossible to attach any rational meaning to the words, “a winding staircase of the house was upwards more and more round about the house,” since a winding staircase could never run round about a building seventy cubits long and forty cubits broad, but could only ascend at one spot, which would really give it the character of a winding staircase. Böttcher’s explanation is equally untenable: “for the winding round of the interior was upwards more and more round and round inwards.” For, in the first place, הבּית does not mean the interior, and לבּית does not mean inwards; and secondly, “winding round” is not equivalent to an alteration of form in the shape of the rooms, through which those in the bottom storey were oblongs running lengthwise, those in the central storey squares, and those in the third oblongs running inwards, which Böttcher imagines to have been the case. It would be much easier to adopt the explanation of Kliefoth and others, who take מוּסב in the sense of a way round, and regard it as signifying a passage running round the house in the form of a gallery, by which one could walk all round the house, and so reach the rooms in the upper storeys. This, as Kliefoth still further remarks, was the reason why the surrounding of (circuit round) the house was greater the higher one ascended, and also the reason why it became wider up above in the upper storeys, as the words, “therefore the breadth of the house increased upwards,” affirm. In these words Kliefoth finds a distinct assertion “that there is no foundation for the assumption that the widening upwards was occasioned by the receding of the temple walls; but that the widening of the building, which took place above, arose from the passages round that were attached to the second and third storeys, and that these passages ran round the building, and consequently were attached to the outside in the form of galleries.” But we are unable to see how this can be distinctly asserted in the words רחב לבּית למעלה. Even if הבּית, in connection with מוּסב, signified the side-building, including the temple house, the only thought contained in the words would be, that the side-building became broader at each storey as you ascended, i.e., that the breadth of the side-building increased with each storey. But even then it would not be stated in what manner the increase in breadth arose; whether in consequence of the receding of the temple wall at each storey, or from the fact that the side-rooms were built so as to project farther out, or that the side-storeys were widened by the addition of a passage in the form of a gallery. And the decision in favour of one or other of these possibilities could only be obtained from the preceding clause, where it is stated that מוּסב הבּית went round about the side-building, and that in favour of the last.

But, in the first place, the assumption that הבּית and לבּית denote the side-building, to the exclusion of the temple house, is extremely harsh, as throughout the whole section הבּית signifies the temple house; and in Eze 41:6 לבּית is used again in this sense. If we understand, however, by מוּסב הבּית a passage or a surrounding all round the temple house, the words by no means imply that there were outer galleries running round the side-rooms. In the second place, it is extremely harsh to take מוּסב in the sense of a passage round, if the preceding נסבה is to signify surrounded. As מוּסב takes up the word נסבד again, and “precisely the same thing is signified by the two verbs רחבה ונסבה as by the substantives רחב and מוּסב afterwards,” we cannot render נסבה by surrounded, and מוסב by a passage round. If, therefore, מוּסב signified a passage, a gallery running round the building, this would necessarily be expressed in the verb נסבה, which must be rendered, “there went round,” i.e., there was a passage round, more and more upwards, according to the measure of the storeys. But this would imply that the passage round existed in the case of the bottom storey also, and merely increased in breadth in the central and upper storeys. Now a gallery round the bottom storey is shown to be out of the question by the measurements which follow. From this we may see that the supposition that there were galleries on the outside round the second and third storeys is not required by the text, and possibly is irreconcilable with it; and there is not even a necessity to adduce the further argument, that Kliefoth’s idea, that the entire building of three storeys was simply upheld by the outer wall, without any support to the beams from the wall of the temple, is most improbable, as such a building would have been very insecure, and useless for the reception of any things of importance. We therefore take נסב and מוּסב in the sense of surrounded and surrounding. In this case, Eze 41:7 simply affirms that the surrounding of the house, i.e., the side-building round about the temple house, became broader toward the top, increasing (more and more) according to the measure of the storeys; for it increased the more in proportion to the height against the temple house, so that the house became broader as you ascended. To this there is appended by means of וכן the last statement of the verse: “and so the lower ascended to the upper after the measure of the central one.” This clause is taken by the majority of the commentators to mean: thus they ascended from the lower to the upper after the central one. But many have observed the folly of an arrangement by which they ascended a staircase on the outside from the lower storey to the upper, and went from that into the central one, and have therefore followed the lxx in changing וכן into וּמן and לתּיכונה into בּתּיכונה, “and from the lower (they ascended) to the upper through the central one.” But there is no apparent necessity for these alterations of the text, as the reading in the text yields a good sense, if we take התּחתּונה as the subject to יעלה: and thus the lower storey ascended to the upper after the measure of the central one, - a rendering to which no decisive objection can be urged on the ground of the difference of gender (the masc. יעלה). וכן affirms that the ascent took place according to the mode of widening already mentioned.

In the Eze 41:8 we have a further statement concerning the side-rooms, as we may see from the middle clause; but it has also been explained in various ways. Böttcher, for example, renders the first clause thus: “and I saw what the height round about was in an inwardly direction;” but this is both grammatically false and senseless, as לבּית does not mean inwardly, and “in an inwardly direction” yields no conceivable sense. Kliefoth adopts the rendering: “I fixed my eyes upon the height round about to the house;” but this is also untenable, as ראה does not mean to fix the eyes upon, in the sense of measuring with the eyes, and in this case also the article could hardly be omitted in the case of גּבהּ. The words run simply thus: “I saw in the house a height” = an elevation round about. What this means is shown in the following words: the side-rooms had foundations a full rod, i.e., the foundation of the rooms was a full rod (six cubits) high. מיסדות is not a substantive מיסדות, but a participle Pual מיסּדות; and the Keri is substantially correct, though an unnecessary correction; מלו for מלוא (compare Eze 28:16, מלוּ for מלאוּ). The side-building did not stand on level ground, therefore, but had a foundation six cubits high. This is in harmony with the statement in Eze 40:49, that they ascended by steps to the temple porch, so that the temple house with its front porch was raised above the inner court. As this elevation was a full rod or six cubits, not merely for the side-building, but also for the temple porch, we may assume that there were twelve steps, and not ten after the lxx of Eze 40:49, as half a cubit of Ezekiel’s measurement was a considerable height for steps. - The expression which follows, “six cubits אצּילה,” is obscure, on account of the various ways in which אצילה may be understood. So much, however, is beyond all doubt, that the words cannot contain merely an explanation of the length of the rod measure: “six cubits (measured) to the wrist,” because the length of the rod has already been fixed in Eze 40:5, and therefore a fresh definition would be superfluous, and the one given here would contradict that of Eze 40:5. אצּיל signifies connection or joint, and when applied to a building can hardly mean anything else than the point at which one portion of the building joins on to the other. Hävernick and Kliefoth therefore understand by אצּיל the point at which one storey ends and another begins, the connecting line of the rooms standing one above another; and Hävernick takes the clause to be a more precise definition of מיסדות הץ', understanding by מיסדות the foundations of the rooms, i.e., the floors. Kliefoth, on the other hand, regards the clause as containing fresh information, namely, concerning the height of the storeys, so that according to the statement in this verse the side-building had a foundation of six cubits in height, and each of the storeys had also a height of six cubits, and consequently the whole building was twenty-four cubits high, reckoning from the ground. So much is clear, that מיסדות does not signify the floors of the rooms, so that Hävernick’s explanation falls to the ground. And Kliefoth’s view is also open to this objection, that if the words gave the height of the storeys, and therefore supplied a second measurement, the copula ו could hardly fail to stand before them. The absence of this copula evidently leads to the conclusion that the “six cubits” אצּילה are merely intended to furnish a further substantial explanation as to the foundation, which was a full rod high, the meaning of which has not yet been satisfactorily cleared up, as all the explanations given elsewhere are still further from the mark.

In Eze 41:9 there follow two further particulars with reference to the side-building. The wall of it without, i.e., on the outside (f), was five cubits thick or broad, and therefore one cubit thinner than the temple wall. The מנּח in the side-building was just the same breadth. In the clause beginning with ואשׁר the measure (five cubits) given in the first clause is to be repeated, so that we may render ו by “and also,” and must take the words in the sense of “just as broad.” מנּח, the Hophal participle of הנּיח, to let alone, in the case of a building, is that portion of the building space which is not built upon like the rest; and in Eze 41:11, there it is used as a substantive, it signifies the space left open by the sides of the building (Plate I i). The Chaldee rendering is אתר, locus relictus. בּית צלעות is an adverbial or locative accusative: against the house of side-chambers, or all along it; and אשׁר לבּית is an appositional explanation: “which was to the temple,” i.e., belonged to it, was built round about it. - Consequently there is no necessity for any alteration of the text, not even for changing בּית into בּין in order to connect together Eze 41:9 and Eze 41:10 as one clause, as Böttcher and Hitzig propose; though all that they gain thereby is the discrepancy that in Eze 41:9 and Eze 41:10 the space left open between the side-rooms against the temple house and between the cells against the wall of the court is said to have been twenty cubits broad, whereas in Eze 41:12 the breadth of this munnâch is set down as five cubits. - There follows next in Eze 41:10 the account of the breadth between the temple-building and the cells against the wall of the inner court, and then in Eze 41:11 we have further particulars concerning the side-building and the space left open. הלשׁכות (Eze 41:10) are the cell buildings, more fully described in Eze 42:1., which stood along the wall dividing the inner court from the outer on the west of the north and south gates of the inner court, and therefore opposite to the temple house (Plate I L L). To the expression, “and between the cells there was a breadth,” there has to be supplied the correlative term from the context, namely, the space between the מנּח and the לשׁכות had a breadth of twenty cubits round about the house, i.e., on the north, west, and south sides of the temple house. - The description of this space closes in Eze 41:11 with an account of the entrances to the side-building. It had a door toward the space left open, i.e., leading out into this space, one to the north and one to the south (Plate III i i), and the space left open was five cubits broad round about, i.e., on the north, west, and south sides of the temple-building. מקום , the place of that which remained open, i.e., the space left open.

If, then, in conclusion, we gather together all the measurements of the temple house and its immediate surroundings, we obtain (as is shown in Plate I) a square of a hundred cubits in breadth and a hundred cubits in length, exclusive of the porch. The temple (G) was twenty cubits broad in the inside (Eze 41:2); the wall surrounding the sanctuary was six cubits (Eze 41:5), or (for the two walls) 2 x 6 = 12 cubits. The side-buildings being four cubits broad in the clear on each side (Eze 41:5), make 2 x 4 = 8 cubits. The outside walls of these buildings, five cubits on each side (Eze 41:9), make 2 x 5 = 10 cubits. The מנּח (i), five cubits round about (Eze 41:11), makes 2 x 5 = 10 cubits. And the space between this and the cells standing by the wall of the court (e-g-h-f), twenty cubits round about (Eze 41:10), makes 2 x 20 = 40 cubits. The sum total therefore is 20 + 12 + 8 + 10 + 10 + 40 = 100 cubits, in perfect harmony with the breadth of the inner court given in Eze 40:47. The length was as follows: forty cubits the holy place, and twenty cubits the holy of holies (Eze 41:2 and Eze 41:4); the western wall, six cubits; the side-rooms on the west, four cubits; and their wall, five cubits; the מנּח, on the west, five cubits; and the space to the cells, twenty cubits; in all, 40 + 20 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 20 = 100 cubits, as stated in Eze 41:13. The porch and thickness both of the party-wall between the holy place and the most holy, and also of the front (eastern) wall of the holy place, are not taken into calculation here. The porch is not included, because the ground which it covered belonged to the space of the inner court into which it projected. The party-wall is not reckoned, because it was merely a thin wooden partition, and therefore occupied no space worth notice. But it is difficult to say why the front wall of the holy place is not included. As there was no room for it in the square of a hundred cubits, Kliefoth assumes that there was no wall whatever on the western side of the holy place, and supposes that the back wall (i.e., the western wall) of the porch supplied its place. But this is inadmissible, for the simple reason that the porch was certainly not of the same height as the holy place, and according to Eze 40:48 it had only sixteen cubits of external breadth; so that there would not only have been an open space left in the upper portion of the front, but also an open space of two cubits in breadth on either side, if the holy place had had no wall of its own. Moreover, the measurement both of the pillars on both sides of the front of the היכל (Eze 41:1), and of the shoulders on both sides of the door (Eze 41:2), presupposes a wall or partition on the eastern side of the holy place, which cannot be supposed to have been thinner than the side-walls, that is to say, not less than six cubits in thickness. We are shut up, therefore, to the conjecture that the forty cubits’ length of the holy place was measured from the door-line, which was ten cubits broad, and that the thickness of the door-shoulders on the two sides is included in these forty cubits, or, what is the same thing, that they were not taken into account in the measurement. The objection raised to this, namely, that the space within the holy place would thereby have lost a considerable portion of its significant length of forty cubits, cannot have much weight, as the door-shoulders, the thickness of which is not reckoned, were only five cubits broad on each side, and for the central portion of the holy place, which was occupied by the door, and was ten cubits broad, the length of forty cubits suffered no perceptible diminution. Just as the pillars of the door of the holy of holies with the party-wall are reckoned in the 40 + 20 cubits’ length of the sanctuary, and are not taken into consideration; so may this also have been the case with the thickness of wall of the door-shoulders of the holy place. The measurements of the space occupied by the holy place and holy of holies, which have a symbolical significance, cannot be measured with mathematical scrupulosity.

Eze 41:12-14

The Separate Place, and the External Dimensions of the Temple

Eze 41:12. And the building at the front of the separate place was seventy cubits broad on the side turned toward the west, and the wall of the building five cubits broad round about, and its length ninety cubits. Eze 41:13. And he measured the (temple) house: the length a hundred cubits; and the separate place, and its building, and its walls: the length a hundred cubits. Eze 41:14. And the breadth of the face of the (temple) house, and of the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits. - The explanation of these verses depends upon the meaning of the word גּזרה. According to its derivation from גּזר, to cut, to separate, גּזרה means that which is cut off, or separated. Thus ארץ גּזרה is the land cut off, the desert, which is not connected by roads with the inhabited country. In the passage before us, גּזרה signifies a place on the western side of the temple, i.e., behind the temple, which was separated from the sanctuary (Plate I J), and on which a building stood, but concerning the purpose of which nothing more definite is stated than we are able to gather, partly from the name and situation of the place in question, and partly from such passages as 1Ch 26:18 and 2Ki 23:11, according to which, even in Solomon’s temple, there was a similar space at the back of the temple house with buildings upon it, which had a separate way out, the gate שׁלּכת, namely, that “this space,with its buildings, was to be used for the reception of all refuse, sweepings, all kinds of rubbish, - in brief, of everything that was separated or rejected when the holy service was performed in the temple, - and that this was the reason why it received the name of the separate place” (Kliefoth). The building upon this space was situated אל־פּני־הגּזרה, in the front of the gizrah (that is to say, as one approached it from the temple); and that פּאת דּרך־היּם, on the side of the way to the sea, i.e., on the western side, sc. of the temple, and had a breadth of seventy cubits (from north to south), with a wall round about, which was five cubits broad (thick), and a length of ninety cubits. As the thickness of the wall is specially mentioned in connection with the breadth, we must add it both to the breadth and to the length of the building as given here; so that, when looked at from the outside, the building was eighty cubits broad and a hundred cubits long. In Eze 41:13 this length is expressly attributed to the separate place, and (i.e., along with) its building, and the walls thereof. But the length of the temple house has also been previously stated as a hundred cubits. In Eze 41:14 the breadth of both is also stated to have been a hundred cubits - namely, the breadth of the outer front, or front face of the temple, was a hundred cubits; and the breadth of the separate place לקּדים toward the east, i.e., the breadth which it showed to the person measuring on the eastern side, was the same. If, them, the building on the separate place was only eighty cubits broad, according to Eze 41:12, including the walls, whilst the separate place itself was a hundred cubits broad, there remains a space of twenty cubits in breadth not covered by the building; that is to say, as we need not hesitate to put the building in the centre, open spaces of ten cubits each on the northern and southern sides were left as approaches to the building on both sides (K), whereas the entire length of the separate place (from east to west) was covered by the building. - All these measurements are in perfect harmony. As the inner court formed a square of a hundred cubits in length (Eze 40:47), the temple house, which joined it on the west, extended with its appurtenances to a similar length; and the separate place behind the temple also covered a space of equal size. These three squares, therefore, had a length from east to west of three hundred cubits. If we add to this the length of the buildings of the east gates of the inner and outer courts, namely fifty cubits for each (Eze 40:15, Eze 40:21, Eze 40:25, Eze 40:29, Eze 40:33, Eze 40:36), and the length of the outer court from gate to gate a hundred cubits (Eze 40:19, Eze 40:23, Eze 40:27), we obtain for the whole of the temple building the length of five hundred cubits. If, again, we add to the breadth of the inner court or temple house, which was one hundred cubits, the breadths of the outer court, with the outer and inner gate-buildings, viz., two hundred cubits on both the north and south sides, we obtain a total breadth of 100 + 200 + 200 = 500 (say five hundred) cubits; so that the whole building covered a space of five hundred cubits square, in harmony with the calculation already made (at Eze 40:24-27) of the size of the surrounding wall.

Eze 41:15-21

Summary Account of the Measurement, the Character, and the Significant Ornaments of the Projecting Portions of the Temple Building. - Eze 41:15. And thus he measured the length of the building in the front of the separate place which was at the back thereof, and its galleries on this side and that side, a hundred cubits, and the inner sanctuary, and the porches of the court; Eze 41:16. The thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries round about all three - opposite to the thresholds was wainscoting wood round about, and the ground up to the windows; but the windows were covered - Eze 41:17. (The space) above the doors, both to the inner temple and outside, and on all the wall round about, within and without, had its measures. Eze 41:18. And cherubs and palms were made, a palm between every two cherubs; and the cherub had two faces; Eze 41:19. A man’s face toward the palm on this side, and a lion’s face toward the palm on that side: thus was it made round about the whole house. Eze 41:20. From the floor to above the doors were the cherubs and palms made, and that on the wall of the sanctuary. Eze 41:21. The sanctuary had square door-posts, and the front of the holy of holies had the same form. Eze 41:22. The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits; and it had its corner-pieces and its stand, and its walls were of wood: and he said to me, This is the table which stands before Jehovah. Eze 41:23. And the holy place and the holy of holies had two doors. Eze 41:24. And the doors had two wings, two turning leaves; the one door two, and the other two leaves. Eze 41:25. And there were made upon them, upon the doors of the sanctuary, cherubs and palms, as they were made upon the walls; and a moulding of wood was on the front of the porch outside. Eze 41:26. And there were closed windows and palms on this side and on that, on the side-walls of the porch, and the side-rooms of the house, and the beams. - Eze 41:15 is the commencement of a comprehensive enumeration of particular features in the building, the greater part of which have not been mentioned before; so that וּמדד (for ויּמד) is to be rendered, “and thus he measured.” The circumstance that another measurement follows in Eze 41:15, whereas no further numbers are given from Eze 41:15 onwards, does not warrant us in assuming that Eze 41:15 is to be joined on to Eze 41:14, and Eze 41:15 to be taken in connection with Eze 41:16. The absence of the cop. ו before הסּפּים in Eze 41:16 is sufficient to preclude the latter, showing as it does that הסּפּים commences a fresh statement; and the words 'וההיכל וגו in Eze 41:15 are still governed by the verb וּמדד in Eze 41:15. The contents of Eze 41:15 are also decisive against the separation mentioned. If, for instance, we connect Eze 41:15 with Eze 41:14, the first clause contains a pure tautology, as the length of the building has been already measured, and the result is given in Eze 41:13. The tautology does not exist, if the summary statements of the measurement of different portions of the whole temple building commence with Eze 41:15; and in connection with these a supplementary account is given of various details not mentioned before.

The contents of the second clause, namely, what is stated concerning the אתּיקים, belong directly to the latter. The building in front of the separate place, which was measured by the man, is more precisely defined, so far as its situation is concerned, by the words אשׁר על־אחריה. The feminine suffix in אחריה points back to הגּזרה; consequently אשׁר can only refer to הבּנין: “the building...which was at the back of the gizrah.” This is not at variance with the situation indicated in אל־פּני הגּזרה, but serves as a more exact definition of this statement, showing that the building which stood at the front of the gizrah occupied the hinder part of it, i.e., extended in length from the front of the gizrah to the back. - The meaning of אתּוּקים or אתּיקים, here (Keri) and in Eze 41:16; Eze 42:3 and Eze 42:5, the only other passages in which it occurs, is involved in obscurity. Even Raschi confesses that he does not know what it means, and the older translators have simply resorted to vague conjectures for their renderings; the lxx here, ἀπόλοιπα, in Eze 42:3 and Eze 42:5 περίστυλον and στοαί; the Vulgate, here, ethecas (the Hebrew word Latinized), in Ezekiel 42 porticus; Targum, in the London Polyglot, Eze 41:15, זיויתהא; Eze 41:16, אתּיקיּא; Eze 42:3, זוי; and Eze 42:5, זיזיּא. There is no root אתק in Hebrew; and the derivation of the word from עתק is not only uncertain, but furnishes us with nothing that can be used for tracing the architectural signification of the word. Even the context in Eze 41:15 and Eze 41:16 of this chapter supplies nothing, for in both verses the meaning of the clauses in which אתיקים stands is a matter of dispute. It is only in Eze 42:3 and Eze 42:5 that we find any clue. According to Eze 42:3, in the three-storied cell-building there was אתּיק אל־פּני on the third storey; and according to Eze 41:5 the cells of the upper storey in this building were shorter than those of the lower and central storey, because אתּיקים took space away from them; and the reason for this, again, was, that the three-storied cells had no pillars. From this we may infer with certainty that the אתּיקים were galleries or passages running along the outer walls of the building, which were not supported by pillars, and therefore necessarily rested upon ledges obtained by the receding of the rooms of the upper storey. This meaning also suits the present chapter. The suffix in אתּוּקיהא (an Aramaic form for אתּיקיה) points back, not to בּנין, but to הבּניה in Eze 41:13; for the words, “and its galleries on this side and on that,” i.e., on the north and south sides of the building, are not dependent upon ארך הבּנין, in the sense of “the length of the building, with its galleries on this side and on that,” as ואתוקיהא is too widely separated from 'ארך הב for this. ואתוקיהא is rather a second object to מדד: he measured (1) the length of the building; (2) its galleries on this side and that - a hundred cubits; (3) the inner temple, etc. The hundred cubits do not refer to the length of the building, but to the galleries on both sides, which were of the same length as the building, and therefore ran along its entire length, - a fact which it was not superfluous to mention, as they might possibly have been shorter. ההיכל הפּנימי is the temple house, with the buildings against it, within the inner court. In addition to these, there are also mentioned the porches of the court, i.e., at the gate-buildings of the inner and outer courts, as the projecting portions of these buildings. These three works mentioned in Eze 41:15 comprise the whole of the buildings, the measurements of which have been mentioned in the previous description - viz. the building to the west of the temple, in Eze 41:12-14; the inner temple, in Eze 41:1-11; the porches of the courts, to which the temple porch in front of the holy place is to be added, as having been reckoned in the measurement as belonging to the inner court, in Ezekiel 41. - Thus the contents of our verse (Eze 41:15) plainly show that it not only is an indivisible whole, but forms a conclusion in which the foregoing measurements are all summed up, and which serves as an introduction, in accordance with this, to the following summary of various additional features in the temple buildings which are also worthy of mention.

In this summary there are five points noticed: (a) the fact that all parts of the buildings had their measurements (Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17); (b) the significant ornamentation of the inner walls of the sanctuary (Eze 41:18-21); (c) the altar in the holy place (Eze 41:22); (d) the character and decoration of the doors of the sanctuary (Eze 41:23-25); (e) the style of the porch and of the side-buildings against the temple (Eze 41:25, Eze 41:26). - Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17 form one period, enlarged by the parenthetical insertion of explanatory statements, similar to the construction in Eze 41:18 and Eze 41:19. The predicate to the three subjects - the thresholds, the closed windows, and the galleries - is not to be sought for either in סביב  or in 'הסּף שׁחיף וגו. The latter construction, adopted by Böttcher and Hävernick, yields the unmeaning assertion that the thresholds lay across in front of the threshold. The former gives the apparently bald thought, that thresholds, windows, and galleries were round about; in which the use of the article, the thresholds, the windows, is exceedingly strange. The predicate to 'הסּפּים וגו is מדּות at the end of Eze 41:17 : the thresholds, etc., had measurements; and the construction is so far anakolouthistic, that the predicate מדּות, strictly speaking, belongs to the things mentioned in Eze 41:17 alone, and the subjects mentioned in Eze 41:16 are to be regarded as absolute nominatives. The words סביב לשׁלשׁתּם belong to the three preceding subjects, as a further definition, the thresholds, windows, and galleries (which were) against these three round about. The suffix to שׁלשׁתּם, “their triad,” refers to the three buildings mentioned in Eze 41:15 : the one upon the separate place, the temple building, and the porches of the court; and the appositional סביב is not to be so pressed as to lead to the conclusion that all three buildings, and therefore the porches of the court also, had אתּיקים round about. As the סביב לשׁלשׁתם is affirmed of the thresholds, and the windows, and the galleries, and these three objects are introduced by the article, as well known, i.e., as already mentioned and described in the preceding verses, the more precise definition (resp. limitation) of the apposition, “round about these three,” is to be taken from the preceding description of these three buildings, and we are simply to assume the existence of thresholds, windows, and galleries in these buildings in those cases in which they have been mentioned in that description; so that the only place in which there were galleries was the building upon the separate place. But before the intended information is given concerning the thresholds, etc., a remark is introduced, with the words from נגד הסּף to סביב, as to the construction of the thresholds: viz., that opposite to the threshold (הסּף being used in a general sense for every threshold) there was שׁחיף עץ, a thin covering of wood, or wainscoting. נגד does not mean across the front (Böttcher), but “opposite;” and the part opposite to the threshold of a door is, strictly speaking, the lintel. Here, however, the word is probably used in the broader sense for the framework of the door, above and on the two sides, as is shown by סביב סביב which follows. With הארץ a fresh object is introduced. הארץ is a nominative, like הסּפּים, etc.; and the thought of supplying מן gniylppus, “from the ground,” has originated in a faulty interpretation of the words. The idea is this: as the thresholds, the windows, etc., so also the ground up to the windows, i.e., the space between the ground and the windows, had measurements. The allusion to the windows is followed by the remark, in the form of a circumstantial clause, that “the windows were covered.” מכסּות is apparently only a substantial explanation of אטמות (see the comm. on Eze 40:16).

In Eze 41:17 two further objects are mentioned as having measurements; not, however, in the logical position of subjects, but with prepositions על and אל: upon that which was above the opening of the door...and (what was) on all the walls, i.e., the space above the doors and on all the walls. To this periphrasis of the subject, through על and אל, there is attached the predicate מדּות, which belongs to all the subjects of Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17, in the sense of, “on all the walls there were measures.” The meaning is, that all the parts of the building which have been named had their definite measurements, were carefully measured off. In order to express this thought in as general and comprehensive a manner as possible, the ideas contained in the subjects in Eze 41:17 are expanded by means of appositions: that of the space above, over the entrance door, by ולחוּץ 'ועד הבּית הף (both ו-ו = et-et) into the inner temple, i.e., both the inside of the temple throughout, and also to the outside. The idea of the whole wall is expressed by “round about, in the inside and on the outside.” - Thus everything in Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17 is clear, and in accordance with fact; and there is no necessity either for the critical scissors of Ewald and Hitzig, who cut out all that they do not understand as glosses, or for the mal-emendation of Böttcher, who changes מדּות into מקלעות (1Ki 6:18), and thus finds it good to ornament the temple with sculptures, even on the outsides of all the walls.

Eze 41:18-21 treat of the ornamenting of the inside of the sanctuary, i.e., of the holy place and the holy of holies. Eze 41:18 and Eze 41:19 form, like Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17, a period extended by parentheses. The predicate עשׂוּי, standing at the beginning of Eze 41:18, is resumed in Eze 41:19, and completed by ס' 'אל־כּל־הבּית ס. That the cherubim and palms were executed in sculpture or carving, is evident from the resemblance to Solomon’s temple. They were so distributed that a cherub was followed by a palm, and this by a cherub again, so that the palm stood between the two cherubim, and the cherub turned one of its two faces to the palm on this side, and the other to the palm upon that side. In sculpture only two faces could be shown, and consequently these cherubic figures had only two faces, and not four, like those in the vision. This sculpture was placed round about the whole house, and that, as is added in Eze 41:20 by way of explanation, from the ground even to up above the door, namely, on the inner wall of the sanctuary (ההיכל). כּל־הבּית is hereby limited to the היכל, the holy place and the holy of holies. וקיר is a local accusative. To this there is appended the further notice in Eze 41:21, that the sanctuary had door-posts in a square form. The loose arrangement of the words, “the sanctuary post work of square form,” is a concise form of expression after the manner of brief topographical notices. מזוּזה invariably signifies, wherever it occurs, the door-posts, i.e., the projecting framework of the entrances. רבוּע, “foured,” does not mean four-cornered merely, but really square (Exo 27:1 and Exo 28:16). Consequently the words, “the door-posts of the holy place were of a square shape,” might be understood as signifying not merely that the door-posts were beams cut square, but, as Kliefoth supposes, that the post work surrounding the door was made of a square form, that is to say, was of the same height as breadth, which would be quite in keeping with the predominance of the square shape, with its symbolical significance, in this picture of a temple. But the statement in the second half of the verse can hardly be reconciled with this; for whatever diversity there may be in the interpretation of this verse in particular points, it is certain that it does contain the general assertion that the doorway of the holy of holies was also shaped in the same way. But the door of the holy of holies, instead of being square, was (according to Eze 41:3) six cubits high and seven cubits broad. הקּודשׁ, as distinguished from ההיכל, is the holy of holies, which Eze 41:23 places beyond all doubt (for this use of הקּדשׁ, see Lev 16:2-3, Lev 16:16). פּני־הקּדשׁ, the face of the holy of holies, the front which met the eye of a person entering the holy place. המּראה כּמּראה is the predicate, which is attached as loosely as in the first hemistich. The front of the holy of holies had the appearance like the appearance (just described), i.e., like the appearance of the היכל; in fact, it had also a doorway with four-cornered posts. J. F. Starch has already given this explanation of the words: Eadem facies et aspectus erat utriusque portae templi et adyti, utraque quadrata et quadratis postibus conspicua erat. The proposal of Ewald, on the other hand, to connect כּמּראה with the following word המּזבּח, “in front of the holy of holies there was something to be seen like the shape of the altar” (lxx, Syr.), has the article in המּראה against it (Böttcher).

Eze 41:22-26

The Altar of Burnt-Offering in the holy place (see Plate III n). “The abrupt style of writing is still continued.” The altar wood for the altar was of wood three cubits high; its length, i.e., the expanse of the wall from one corner to the other, was two cubits; the breadth (thickness), which is not expressly mentioned, was the same, because the square form is presupposed from the shape of this altar in the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. Under the term מקצעותיו, its corner-pieces, the horns projecting at the corners, or the horn-shaped points, are probably included, as the simple mention of the corners appears superfluous, and the horns, which were symbolically significant features in the altar, would certainly not have been wanting. There is something strange in the occurrence of וארכוּ before and along with קירות, as the length is already included in the walls, and it would not be appropriately said of the length that it was of wood. ארכוּ is therefore certainly a copyist’s error for אדנוּ, ἡ βάσις αὐτοῦ (lxx), its stand or pedestal. The angel describes this altar as the “table which stands before Jehovah” - in perfect harmony with the epithet already applied to the sacrifices in the Pentateuch, the “bread (לחם) of God,” though not “because the altar table was intended to combine the old table of shewbread and the altar of incense” (Böttcher). The table of shewbread is not mentioned any more than the candlestick and other portions of the temple furniture. - The altar of burnt-offering stood before Jehovah, i.e., before the entrance into the holy of holies. This leads in Eze 41:23. to the notice of the doors of the sanctuary, the character of which is also described as simply openings (פּתח), since the doorway had been mentioned before. delet דּלת signifies a moveable door, and the plural דּלתות, doors, whether they consist of one leaf or two, i.e., whether they are single or folding doors. Here the דּלתות in Eze 41:23 and Eze 41:24 (לדלתות) are folding doors; on the other hand, the first דּלתות in Eze 41:24 and דּלת ibid. are used for the wings of the door, and מוּסבּות for the swinging portions (leaves) of the separate wings. The meaning is this: the holy place (היכל) and the holy of holies (הקּדשׁ) had two folding doors (i.e., each of these rooms had one). These doors had two wings, and each of these wings, in the one door and in the other, had two reversible door-leaves, so that when going in and out there was no necessity to throw open on every occasion the whole of the wing, which was at least three or four cubits broad. There is no foundation for the objection raised by Kliefoth to the interpretation of להיכל ולקּדשׁ as signifying the holy place and the holy of holies; since he cannot deny that the two words are so used, היכל in 1Ki 6:5, 1Ki 6:17, 1Ki 6:31, 1Ki 6:33, and קדשׁ in Lev 16:2-3, etc. And the artificial explanation, “to the temple space, and indeed to the holy place,” not only passes without notice the agreement between our verses and 1Ki 6:31-34, but gains nothing further than a side door, which does violence to the dignity of the sanctuary, a passage from the side chambers into the holy place, with which Böttcher has presented Solomon’s temple. - These doors were ornamented, like the walls, with figures of cherubim and palms. - Other remarks are added in vv. 25 b and 26 concerning the porch in front of the holy place. The first is, that on the front of the porch outside there was עב אץ. The only other passage in which the word עב occurs in a similar connection is 1Ki 7:6, where it refers to wood-work in front of the Ulam of Solomon’s porch of pillars; and it cannot be determined whether it signifies threshold, or moulding, or threshold-mouldings. On the shoulders, i.e., on the right and left side walls of the front porch, there were closed windows and figures of palms. The cherubim were omitted here. - The last words of Eze 41:26 are very obscure. וצלעות הבּ may be taken in connection with the preceding clause, “and on the side-rooms of the temple,” as there is no necessity to repeat the preposition in the case of closely continuous clauses (vid., Ewald, §351 a); and the side-rooms not only must have had windows, but might also be ornamented with figures of palms. But if the words be taken in this sense, the עבּים must also signify something which presented, like the walls of the porch and of the side chambers, a considerable extent of surface capable of receiving a similar decoration; although nothing definite has hitherto been ascertained with regard to the meaning of the word, and our rendering “beams” makes no pretension to correctness.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

1 Afterward he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle. 2 And the breadth of the door was ten cubits; and the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits: and the breadth, twenty cubits. 3 Then went he inward, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits. 4 So he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place. 5 After he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side. 6 And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house. 7 And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst. 8 I saw also the height of the house round about: the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six great cubits. 9 The thickness of the wall, which was for the side chamber without, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within. 10 And between the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits round about the house on every side. 11 And the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about.

We are still attending a prophet that is under the guidance of an angel, and therefore attend with reverence, though we are often at a loss to know both what this is and what it is to us. Observe here, 1. After the prophet had observed the courts he was at length brought to the temple, v. 1. If we diligently attend to the instructions given us in the plainer parts of religion, and profit by them, we shall be led further into an acquaintance with the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Those that are willing to dwell in God's courts shall at length be brought into his temple. Ezekiel was himself a priest, but by the iniquity and calamity of the times was cut short of his birthright privilege of ministering in the temple; but God makes up the loss to him by introducing him into this prophetical, evangelical, celestial temple, and employing him to transmit a description of it to the church, in which he was dignified above all the rest of his order. 2. When our Lord Jesus spoke of the destroying of this temple, which his hearers understood of this second temple of Jerusalem, he spoke of the temple of his body (John ii. 19, 21); and with good reason might he speak so ambiguously when Ezekiel's vision had a joint respect to them both together, including also his mystical body the church, which is called the house of God (1 Tim. iii. 15), and all the members of that body, which are living temples, in which the Spirit dwells. 3. The very posts of this temple, the door-posts, were as far one from the other, and consequently the door was as wide, as the whole breadth of the tabernacle of Moses (v. 1), namely, twelve cubits, Exod. xxvi. 16, 22, 25. In comparison with what had been under the law we may say, Wide is the gate which leads into the church, the ceremonial law, that wall of partition which had so much straitened the gate, being taken down. 4. The most holy place was an exact square, twenty cubits each way, v. 4. For the new Jerusalem is exactly square (Rev. xxi. 16), denoting its stability; for we look for a city that cannot be moved. 5. The upper stories were larger than the lower, v. 7. The walls of the temple were six cubits thick at the bottom, five in the middle story, and four in the highest, which gave room to enlarge the chambers the higher they went; but care was taken that the timber might have fast hold (though God builds high, he builds firmly), yet so as not to weaken one part for the strengthening of another; they had hold, but not in the wall of the house. By this spreading gradually, the side-chambers that were on the height of the house (in the uppermost story of all) were six cubits, whereas the lowest were but four; they gained a cubit every story. The higher we build up ourselves in our most holy faith the more should our hearts, those living temples, be enlarged.

The Vision of the Temple. (b. c. 574.)

12 Now the building that was before the separate place at the end toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and the length thereof ninety cubits. 13 So he measured the house, a hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, an hundred cubits long; 14 Also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits. 15 And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, a hundred cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the court; 16 The door posts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the door, cieled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered; 17 To that above the door, even unto the inner house, and without, and by all the wall round about within and without, by measure. 18 And it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces; 19 So that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side: it was made through all the house round about. 20 From the ground unto above the door were cherubims and palm trees made, and on the wall of the temple. 21 The posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other. 22 The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the Lord . 23 And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors. 24 And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door. 25 And there were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubims and palm trees, like as were made upon the walls; and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without. 26 And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.

Here is, 1. An account of a building that was before the separate place (that is, before the temple), at the end towards the west (v. 12), which is here measured, and compared (v. 13) with the measure of the house, and appears to be of equal dimensions with it. This stood in a court by itself, which is measured (v. 15) and its galleries, or chambers belonging to it, its posts and windows, and the ornaments of them, v. 15-17. But what use was to be made of this other building we are not told; perhaps, in this vision, it signified the setting up of a church among the Gentiles not inferior to the Jewish temple, but of quite another nature, and which should soon supersede it. 2. A description of the ornaments of the temple, and the other building. The walls on the inside from top to bottom were adorned with cherubim and palm-trees, placed alternately, as in Solomon's temple, 1 Kings vi. 29. Each cherub is here said to have two faces, the face of a man towards the palm tree on one side and the face of a young lion towards the palm-tree on the other side, v. 19. These seem to represent the angels, who have more than the wisdom of a man and the courage of a lion; and in both they have an eye to the palms of victory and triumph which are set before them, and which they are sure of in all their conflicts with the powers of darkness. And in the assemblies of the saints angels are in a special manner present, 1 Cor. xi. 10. 3. A description of the posts of the doors both of the temple and of the sanctuary; they were squared (v. 21), not round like pillars; and the appearance of the one was as the appearance of the other. In the tabernacle, and in Solomon's temple, the door of the sanctuary, or most holy, was narrower than that of the temple, but here it was fully as broad; for in gospel-times the way into the holiest of all is made more manifest than it was under the Old Testament (Heb. ix. 8) and therefore the door is wider. These doors are described, v. 23, 24. The temple and the sanctuary had each of them its door, and they were two-leaved, folding doors. 4. We have here the description of the altar of incense, here said to be an altar of wood, v. 22. No mention is made of its being over-laid with gold; but surely it was intended to be so, else it would not bear the fire with which the incense was to be burned, unless we will suppose that it served only to put the censers upon. Or else it intimates that the incense to be offered in the gospel-temple shall be purely spiritual, and the fire spiritual, which will not consume an altar of wood. Therefore this altar is called a table. This is the table that is before the Lord. Here, as before, we find the altar turned into a table; for, the great sacrifice being now offered, that which we have to do is to feast upon the sacrifice at the Lord's table. 5. Here is the adorning of the doors and windows with palm-trees, that they might be of a piece with the walls of the house, v. 25, 26. Thus the living temples are adorned, not with gold, or silver, or costly array, but with the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible.

CHAP. XLI.

Ver. 1. AFterward] This Chapter is no leſſe dark and difficult then was the former: which made Hierom ready to deſiſt and give over commenting, but that he thought it better to ſay ſomething then nothing, and was brought to know and ſay that the greateſt part of thoſe things he knew, were but the leaſt part of that he knew not. What I do underſtand is good; ſo I think, is that I underſtand not, ſaid Socrates once of a certain dark Author. We may be ſure it is ſo here, and muſt mirari potius quàm rimari: waiting for more light, and praying to that purpoſe, as Epheſ. 1.17, 18.

He brought me to the Temple] Who had hitherto been held in the Porch. There was a new Church to be now erected by the preaching of the Goſpel: and this, the meaſuring of the houſe, chap. 40. of the Temple, 41. of the courts, 42. and of all the parts, noteth.

And meaſured the poſts] Or Fronts, or Frontispiece, as the Vulgar hath it.

Which was the bredth of the Tabernacle] Made of old by Moſes.

Ver. 2. And he meaſured the length there of] i. e. Not of the door, as Hierom would have it: but of the Temple, the body and Baſilike thereof, called the firſt Sanctuary, Heb. 9.2.

Fourty cubits] This noteth, ſay ſome, the long-ſuffering and patience of the Saints: like as the bredth twenty cubits, doth their charity.

Ver. 3. Then went he inward] Toward the Holy of Holyes.

And the door] Which in the ſecond Temple was but a veil, and rent at Chriſts Paſſion.

Ver. 4. And the breadth thereof twenty cubits] So it was a juſt ſquare, intimating the ſtability of the Kingdom of Heaven, a Kingdom that cannot be ſhaken, Heb. 12.28.

This is the moſt holy place] The Holy of Holyes, the Oracle, the houſe of the ſoul wherein the only firm hope of Iſrael reſteth (ſo the Jews called it) the Adytum or inacceſſible place, whither none might come but the High Prieſt only, and that but once a year. Pompy and Heliodorus, for preſuming to preſſe into it, were heavily plagued.

Ver. 5. He meaſured the wall] With the counter-forts added to it for ſtrength, and ornament: theſe are commonly called Pilaſters.

Six cubits] ſc. In bredth.

Ver. 6. And the ſide-chambers were three one over another, Subſtructiones. Polan. Coſtae. Vatab. and thirty in order] i. e. Three ſtories, and thirty in each ſtory. Semblably, there is a threefold rank or order of the members of the Church; there are lowermoſt, midlemoſt and uppermoſt: theſe, as they have their ſeveral offices and gifts accordingly, ſo they muſt keep to their own ſtations, do their own buſineſſe, live in love, and wait till called unto an higher room.

Ver. 7. And there was an enlarging and a winding about ſtill upward] This might inmind Gods people of heavenly-mindedneſſe, whereby their hearts will be enlarged when got once above the world, as birds ſing ſweetly, when got aloft into the aire.

Went ſtill upward] Let there be continual aſcenſions in our hearts: Surſum corda.

Ver. 8. The foundations] Plus rei quam oſtentationis habebant: Oecol. The good ſoul rather ſeeks to be good, then ſeems to be ſo.

Ver. 9. And that which was left] Area pura, the void place.Piſcat.

Ver. 10. And between the chambers] Vulg. the treaſuries] In the Church much more rome is taken up by ſuch as are void of the treaſure of Gods grace, then by better men, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom of Chriſt.

Ver. 11. Toward the place that was le[illegible: 1 letter]t] Which ſerved the faithful, ſaith Hierom, for an Oratory, whither they went to pray.

Ver. 12. The ſeparate place] The Temple, or, at leaſt, ſome part of it.

Ver. 13. An hundred cubits] The Temple of Epheſus was 245 foot long, and 220 foot broad. Howbeit for ſpiritual employment, myſtical ſignification, none ever came near this edifice.

Ver. 14. Alſo the bredth—an hundred cubits] Whereas Solomon's Temple was but twenty cubits broad.

Ver. 15. An hundred cubits] See on ver. 13.

With the inner temple and the porches thereof] Summa & infima juxtà curat, Oecol. nihil aſpernatur.

Ver. 16. And the narrow windows — and the windows were covered] Here Hierom cryes out O the depth of the Wiſdom and Knowledge of God! Here be windows, but narrow and covered: which ſhews that we ſee not yet, nor can ſee into heavenly things, but obſcurely and obliquely. How little a thing doth man underſtand of God? The holy Place was without windows,Job. 26.14. only there burned lights perpetually: but in the moſt holy Place there was no light at all.

Ver. 17. By meaſure] Heb. meaſure. See on chap. 40.47.Preſſa ſub ingenti ceu pondere palma vireſcit: Sub crucefic florent dedita corda Deo. Plin. l. 13. c. 4.

Ver. 18. And it was made with Cherubims and palm-trees] Viz. Upon the partition-walls. This was to teach Chriſtians, who are the Temples of God, 1. To live like Angels for holineſſe. 2. To ſuffer as Palm-trees, any preſſures or pains for his ſake with invincible patience. By their piety in their lives, and patience at their death, the Primitive Chriſtians won much upon their their Perſecutors.

Ver. 19. So that the face of a man] See chap. 1.10.

And the face of a young Lion towards the Palm-tree] The Palm-tree as it grew beſt in Judaea, ſo it is probable that from the Temple at Jeruſalem it came at firſt, that the Heathens put the Palm for a ſign of victory, and that the picture of Victory amongſt them had in the one hand a Palm, and in the other an Olive branch. Wiſdom, (the praiſe of a man) and courage (the property of a Lion) zeal and diſcretion, as they make a good mixture, ſo they conquer and carry it.

Ver. 20. And on the wall of the Temple] Yet this is no warrant for the uſe of Pictures in our Churches; whether for worſhip as Papiſts, or for ornaments only as Lutherans. Mr. Burr. on Hoſ. vol. 1. pag. 465. At a conſultation held not many years ſince at Hamborough by Lutheran Miniſters concerning the cauſe and cure of Germanies calamities, they concluded it was becauſe their images were not adorned enough; which therefore they would procure done. A ſad buſineſſe!

Ver. 21. The Poſts of the Temple] i. e. Of the doors of the Temple, were not round or arched, but ſquare: as are at this day the doors of the Pantheon in Rome, ſaith Vilalpandus, built of old in honour of all Gods: and now conſecrated by the Pope to the honour of all Saints, with like ſuperſtition.

The largeneſs of this Altar above that of old ſheweth that the Saints under the Goſpel would make much more improvement of the Lord Jeſus in prayer, and make uſe of his mediation and interceſſion by Faith in their heavenly ſublimated ſupplications, then the Saints of old were ordinarily wont to do. Cobbet of Prayer. pag. 235.Ver. 22. The Altar] ſc. That for incenſe, whereof ſee Exod. 30.6. but here of a much larger ſize: See on chap. 40.1. This altar of wood and fourſquare was a Type of Chriſt (not of the Croſſe as Vilalpand doteth) in whom our prayers come before God as incenſe, and He is the propitiation for our ſins, 1 Joh. 2.2. See Exod. 30 1. Pſal. 141.2. Rev. 5.8.

This is the Table] One and the ſame Chriſt is All in All to his people, an Altar to ſanctify them and their offerings: a Table alſo to feed and feaſt them with the moſt precious proviſions: See Pſal. 23.5, 6. & 36.9 & 65.5. Prov. 9.1, 2. Iſa. 25.6, 7, 8.

Ver. 23. Had two doors] Underſtand hereby the Means of Grace, and Miniſters diſpenſing the ſame, whereby ſouls are brough home to Chriſt.

Ver. 24. Two leaves] There are variety of Ordinances.

Ver. 25. Cherubimes and Palm trees] Let Miniſters reſemble Angels, and they ſhall be victorious, and well rewarded. The Palm is a ſymbol of conſtancy, and of a crown.

Ver. 26. And thick Planks] i. e. The heads or ends of thick beam[illegible: 1 letter] or joyſes, ſupporting the rafters. We ſee what uſe there is of Architecture (among other Arts) in expounding Scripture. Vilalpand ſaith he beſtowed two and twenty years ſtudy upon this fabrike of the Temple here deſcribed.