Matthew Poole and continuators on Ezekiel 43:17

17 And the settle shall be fourteen cubits long, and fourteen broad in the four squares thereof, and the border about it shall be half a cubit , and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about, and his stairs shall look toward the east .

So call'd now, since the uppermost carrieth the name of Altar, proper to it self.

As said in the former verse, nor can it be otherwise, since 'tis one cubit on each side broader then the Altar, which was 12 cubits square.

Or a border, or ledge, fastned to the edge of the outside of this bench, that goes round about the settle.

About eleven inches, being the hal of this great cubit, now this border was for security to the Priests in their going round the Altar, that if a foot slipt, this border might stay it.

The superficies, on which the Priest treads, when he is doing any thing on the Altar, or the breadth of this bench within the border, a cubit.

Or steps, for such they needed, and probably each stair about one fourth of a cubit, to carry them up to the first and second settles.

These stairs placed Eastward, that who went up should have his face to the West, his back to the East, his face toward God, not toward the rising Sun, as they, who made the Sun their Idol.