EZEKIEL, XL. PRELIMINARY NOTE ON Chapter S 40-48. These closing Chapter s of Ezekiel form one continuous prophecy of a distinctly marked character. They present a vision of the Temple in minute detail, with careful measurements of its parts; various ordinances for the Temple, for the Levites, and th... [ Continue Reading ]
XLII. This chapter describes what is not only new in this vision, but also unknown in either the former or the later Temple. Ezekiel 42:1 are occupied with the account of certain chambers for the priests adjoining the inner court, but actually within the area of the outer. From Ezekiel 42:14 it is... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE THE LENGTH. — This verse is still a part of the same sentence, and means, “he brought me before the long side of 100 cubits with the door toward the north, and the breadth 50 cubits.” The entrance being on the north was necessarily in the outer court, and the whole description requires that t... [ Continue Reading ]
OVER AGAINST THE TWENTY. — See under Ezekiel 42:1. This was the space of twenty cubits (I [Ezekiel 40:44]) to the west of the western Temple chambers. THE PAVEMENT. — There is but one pavement mentioned in the outer court, that which ran along the inside of the wall. The chamber in question was opp... [ Continue Reading ]
A WALK OF TEN CUBITS BREADTH INWARD. — The meaning of this clause depends upon that of the next, “a way of one cubit.” There is every reason _to_ suppose here an error of the text, and that _one cubit_ should be _one hundred,_ as it reads in the Greek. The change requires only a transposition of the... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE GALLERIES WERE HIGHER THAN THESE. — Translate this verse, _And the upper chambers were shortened, because the galleries took off from them_ (literally, _eat of them_)_ in comparison with the lower and the middle_ [_chambers_]_ of the building._ The building was in three storeys (Ezekiel 42:6... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE PILLARS OF THE COURTS. — This statement is introduced to show that as there was no external support for the galleries, they must have been taken from the width of the chambers; but it gives incidentally the interesting information that there were pillars in the courts. These could not have be... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WALL THAT WAS WITHOUT. — We have two indications of what wall is here meant. In the first place, the word itself is neither of those which have been hitherto used, but one signifying a _fence-wall,_ and is translated in Ezekiel 13:5; Ezekiel 22:30, _hedge;_ and in Numbers 22:24, a vineyard wall.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LENGTH OF THE CHAMBERS. — We should say the breadth, since a longer measurement the other way immediately follows; but the word is used in connection with, and as a reason for, the length of the wall mentioned in Ezekiel 42:7, as if it were said, “The wall was fifty cubits long, because this sid... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM UNDER THESE CHAMBERS. — This verse as it stands in our version is scarcely intelligible. Translate: _And from underneath it_ (_i.e._, the wall just spoken of) _these chambers._ The wall screened the lower part of the chambers so that to one looking from the east they appeared to rise out of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
“And a way in front of them like the chambers which were towards the north; as long as these and as broad as these, and [like] all their goings out, and their arrangements, and their doors.”... [ Continue Reading ]
“So were the doors of the chambers which were toward the south, a door at the head of the way, the way over against the corresponding (?) wall, the way as one enters from the east.” The word here translated _corresponding_ occurs only in this place, and is of doubtful signification; but the word for... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL EAT THE MOST HOLY THINGS. — In the next clause it is said, “There shall they lay the most holy things,” both clauses referring to the priests’ portion of the sacrifices. We cannot think of their laying the uncooked flesh of the sacrifice in the same room where they ate (the cooking was done in... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE THEY SHALL LAY THEIR GARMENTS. — It was apparently the requirement of the law that the priests should wear their official garments only when engaged in priestly duties within the tabernacle; this is not expressly stated in general terms, but it is said that they were to wear them when engaged... [ Continue Reading ]
THE INNER HOUSE. — This expression is here evidently used neither of the Holy of Holies, nor of the whole Temple building exclusively, but of all that had been measured, all that was included within the wall of the outer court. The prophet is led out from this by the eastern gate to measure a much l... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH THE MEASURING REED. — According to Ezekiel 40:5 the reed was six cubits long; 500 reeds therefore, the measure of each side of the square, was 3,000 cubits, or about 5,000 feet = nearly a mile. Of course such a space, quite as large as was ever enclosed by the walls of ancient Jerusalem, would... [ Continue Reading ]
IT HAD A WALL. — Around this vast enclosure on all sides was a wall, not of the slight character of that in Ezekiel 42:7; but the same word is used as in Ezekiel 40:5, of the massive wall surrounding the outer court. The object of this enclosure was to protect the sanctity of the Temple and its cour... [ Continue Reading ]