Ezekiel 41:1--42:20

The Inner Temple

41:1 Then he brought me to the outer sanctuary, and measured the jambs; the jambs were 10½ feet ¹  wide on each side. 41:2 The width of the entrance was 17½ feet, ²  and the sides ³  of the entrance were 8¾ feet ⁴  on each side. He measured the length of the outer sanctuary as 70 feet, ⁵  and its width as 35 feet. ⁶ 

41:3 Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance as 3½ feet, ⁷  the entrance as 10½ feet, ⁸  and the width of the entrance as 12¼ feet ⁹  41:4 Then he measured its length as 35 feet, ¹⁰  and its width as 35 feet, ¹¹  before the outer sanctuary. He said to me, “This is the most holy place.”

41:5 Then he measured the wall of the temple ¹²  as 10½ feet, ¹³  and the width of the side chambers as 7 feet, ¹⁴  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; ¹⁵  for the structure ¹⁶  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 ¹⁷  of 10½ feet ¹⁸  high. 41:9 The width of the outer wall of the side chambers was 8¾ feet, ¹⁹  and the open area between the side chambers of the temple 41:10 and the chambers of the court was 35 feet ²⁰  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 ²¹  all around.

41:12 The building that was facing the temple courtyard at the west side was 122½ feet ²²  wide; the wall of the building was 8¾ feet ²³  all around, and its length 157½ feet. ²⁴ 

41:13 Then he measured the temple as 175 feet ²⁵  long, the courtyard of the temple and the building and its walls as 175 feet ²⁶  long, 41:14 and also the width of the front of the temple and the courtyard on the east as 175 feet. ²⁷ 

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. ²⁸ 

The interior of the outer sanctuary and the porch of the court, ²⁹  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. ³⁰  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. 41:22 The altar was of wood, 5¼ feet ³¹  high, with its length 3½ feet; ³²  its corners, its length, ³³  and its walls were of wood. He said to me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.” 41:23 The outer sanctuary and the inner sanctuary each had a double door. 41:24 Each of the doors had two leaves, two swinging ³⁴  leaves; two leaves for one door and two leaves for the other. 41:25 On the doors of the outer sanctuary were carved cherubim and palm trees, like those carved on the walls, and there was a canopy ³⁵  of wood on the front of the outside porch. 41:26 There were narrow windows and decorative palm trees on either side of the side walls of the porch; this is what the side chambers of the temple and the canopies were like.

Chambers for the Temple

42:1 Then he led me out to the outer court, toward the north, and brought me to the chamber which was opposite the courtyard and opposite the building on the north. 42:2 Its length was 175 feet ³⁶  on the north side, ³⁷  and its width 87½ feet. ³⁸  42:3 Opposite the 35 feet ³⁹  that belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement which belonged to the outer court, gallery faced gallery in the three stories. 42:4 In front of the chambers was a walkway on the inner side, 17½ feet ⁴⁰  wide at a distance of 1¾ feet, ⁴¹  and their entrances were on the north. 42:5 Now the upper chambers were narrower, because the galleries took more space from them than from the lower and middle chambers of the building. 42:6 For they were in three stories and had no pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper chambers ⁴²  were set back from the ground more than the lower and upper ones. 42:7 As for the outer wall by the side of the chambers, toward the outer court facing the chambers, it was 87½ feet ⁴³  long. 42:8 For the chambers on the outer court were 87½ feet ⁴⁴  long, while those facing the temple were 175 feet ⁴⁵  long. 42:9 Below these chambers was a passage on the east side as one enters from the outer court.

42:10 At the beginning ⁴⁶  of the wall of the court toward the south, ⁴⁷  facing the courtyard and the building, were chambers 42:11 with a passage in front of them. They looked like the chambers on the north. Of the same length and width, and all their exits according to their arrangements and entrances 42:12 were the chambers ⁴⁸  which were toward the south. There was an opening at the head of the passage, the passage in front of the corresponding wall toward the east when one enters.

42:13 Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers which face the courtyard are holy chambers where the priests ⁴⁹  who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings – the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, because the place is holy. 42:14 When the priests enter, then they will not go out from the sanctuary to the outer court without taking off their garments in which they minister, for these are holy; they will put on other garments, then they will go near the places where the people are.”

42:15 Now when he had finished measuring the interior of the temple, he led me out by the gate which faces east and measured all around. 42:16 He measured the east side with the measuring stick ⁵⁰  as 875 feet ⁵¹  by the measuring stick. 42:17 He measured the north side as 875 feet by the measuring stick. 42:18 He measured the south side as 875 feet by the measuring stick. 42:19 He turned to the west side and measured 875 feet by the measuring stick. 42:20 He measured it on all four sides. It had a wall around it, 875 feet long and 875 feet wide, to separate the holy and common places.

[41:1]  ¹ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[41:2]  ² tn Heb “ten cubits” (i.e., 5.25 meters).

[41:2]  ³ tc The translation follows the LXX. The MT reads “the width of the gate was three cubits,” the omission due to haplography.

[41:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

[41:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “forty cubits” (i.e., 21 meters).

[41:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[41:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).

[41:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[41:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “seven cubits” (i.e., 3.675 meters).

[41:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[41:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[41:5]  ¹² tn Heb “house” throughout Ezek 41.

[41:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[41:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “four cubits” (2.1 meters).

[41:7]  ¹⁵ 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.

[41:7]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

[41:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “reed.”

[41:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[41:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

[41:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[41:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

[41:12]  ²² tn Heb “seventy cubits” (36.75 meters).

[41:12]  ²³ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

[41:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “ninety cubits” (i.e., 47.25 meters).

[41:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[41:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[41:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[41:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[41:15]  ²⁹ tc Some Hebrew mss read “and its outer court.”

[41:17]  ³⁰ 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.

[41:22]  ³¹ tn Heb “three cubits” (i.e., 1.575 meters).

[41:22]  ³² tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).

[41:22]  ³³ tc So the Masoretic text. The LXX reads “base.”

[41:24]  ³⁴ tn Heb “turning” leaves.

[41:25]  ³⁵ tn Or “railings.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:218.

[42:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[42:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the door of the north.”

[42:2]  ³⁸ tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).

[42:3]  ³⁹ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[42:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “ten cubits” (i.e., 5.25 meters).

[42:4]  ⁴¹ tc Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm). The LXX and the Syriac read “one hundred cubits” (= 175 feet).

[42:6]  ⁴² tn The phrase “upper chambers” is not in the Hebrew text but is supplied from the context.

[42:7]  ⁴³ tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).

[42:8]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).

[42:8]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[42:10]  ⁴⁶ tc The reading is supported by the LXX.

[42:10]  ⁴⁷ tc This reading is supported by the LXX; the MT reads “east.”

[42:12]  ⁴⁸ tc The MT apparently evidences dittography, repeating most of the last word of the previous verse: “and like the openings of.”

[42:13]  ⁴⁹ sn The priests are from the Zadokite family (Ezek 40:6; 44:15).

[42:16]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “reed” (also in the following verses).

[42:16]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “five hundred cubits” (i.e., 262.5 meters).