Text -- Ezekiel 41:1-21 (NET)

The Inner Temple

41:1 Then he brought me to the outer sanctuary, and measured the jambs; the jambs were 10½ feet wide on each side. 41:2 The width of the entrance was 17½ feet, and the sides of the entrance were 8¾ feet on each side. He measured the length of the outer sanctuary as 70 feet, and its width as 35 feet. 41:3 Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance as 3½ feet, the entrance as 10½ feet, and the width of the entrance as 12¼ feet 41:4 Then he measured its length as 35 feet, and its width as 35 feet, before the outer sanctuary. He said to me, “This is the most holy place.” 41:5 Then he measured the wall of the temple as 10½ feet, and the width of the side chambers as 7 feet, all around the temple. 41:6 The side chambers were in three stories, one above the other, thirty in each story. There were offsets in the wall all around to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that the supports were not in the wall of the temple. 41:7 The side chambers surrounding the temple were wider at each successive story; for the structure surrounding the temple went up story by story all around the temple. For this reason the width of the temple increased as it went up, and one went up from the lowest story to the highest by the way of the middle story. 41:8 I saw that the temple had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full measuring stick of 10½ feet high. 41:9 The width of the outer wall of the side chambers was 8¾ feet, and the open area between the side chambers of the temple 41:10 and the chambers of the court was 35 feet in width all around the temple on every side. 41:11 There were entrances from the side chambers toward the open area, one entrance toward the north, and another entrance toward the south; the width of the open area was 8¾ feet all around. 41:12 The building that was facing the temple courtyard at the west side was 122½ feet wide; the wall of the building was 8¾ feet all around, and its length 157½ feet. 41:13 Then he measured the temple as 175 feet long, the courtyard of the temple and the building and its walls as 175 feet long, 41:14 and also the width of the front of the temple and the courtyard on the east as 175 feet. 41:15 Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, with its galleries on either side as 175 feet. The interior of the outer sanctuary and the porch of the court, 41:16 as well as the thresholds, narrow windows and galleries all around on three sides facing the threshold were paneled with wood all around, from the ground up to the windows (now the windows were covered), 41:17 to the space above the entrance, to the inner room, and on the outside, and on all the walls in the inner room and outside, by measurement. 41:18 It was made with cherubim and decorative palm trees, with a palm tree between each cherub. Each cherub had two faces: 41:19 a human face toward the palm tree on one side and a lion’s face toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple all around; 41:20 from the ground to the area above the entrance, cherubim and decorative palm trees were carved on the wall of the outer sanctuary. 41:21 The doorposts of the outer sanctuary were square. In front of the sanctuary one doorpost looked just like the other.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Eze 41:1

¹ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:2

¹ tn Heb “ten cubits” (i.e., 5.25 meters).

² tc The translation follows the LXX. The MT reads “the width of the gate was three cubits,” the omission due to haplography.

tn Or “sidewalls.”

³ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

⁴ tn Heb “forty cubits” (i.e., 21 meters).

⁵ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:3

¹ tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).

² tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

³ tn Heb “seven cubits” (i.e., 3.675 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:4

¹ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

² tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:5

¹ tn Heb “house” throughout Ezek 41.

² tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

³ tn Heb “four cubits” (2.1 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:7

¹ tc The Hebrew is difficult here. The Targum envisions a winding ramp or set of stairs, which entails reading the first word as a noun rather than a verb and reading the second word also not as a verb, supposing that an initial mem has been read as vav and nun. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:549.

² tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

NET Notes: Eze 41:8

¹ tn Heb “reed.”

² tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:9

¹ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:10

¹ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:11

¹ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:12

¹ tn Heb “seventy cubits” (36.75 meters).

² tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

³ tn Heb “ninety cubits” (i.e., 47.25 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:13

¹ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

² tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:14

¹ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

NET Notes: Eze 41:15

¹ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

² tc Some Hebrew mss read “and its outer court.”

NET Notes: Eze 41:17

¹ tc The LXX does not have the word “by measurements.” The word may be a technical term referring to carpentry technique, the exact meaning of which is unclear.