Ezekiel 6:4-5

6:4 Your altars will be ruined and your incense altars will be broken. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. ¹  6:5 I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, ²  and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

Ezekiel 43:26

43:26 For seven days they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, so they will consecrate it. ³ 

Ezekiel 43:13

The Altar

43:13 “And these are the measurements of the altar: ⁴  Its base ⁵  is 1¾ feet ⁶  high, ⁷  and 1¾ feet ⁸  wide, and its border nine inches ⁹  on its edge. This is to be the height ¹⁰  of the altar.

Ezekiel 6:6

6:6 In all your dwellings, the cities will be laid waste and the high places ruined so that your altars will be laid waste and ruined, your idols will be shattered and demolished, your incense altars will be broken down, and your works wiped out. ¹¹ 

Ezekiel 40:46-47

40:46 and the chamber which faces north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the descendants of Zadok, from the descendants of Levi, who may approach the Lord to minister to him.” 40:47 He measured the court as a square 175 feet long and 175 feet wide; ¹²  the altar was in front of the temple.

Ezekiel 43:22

43:22 “On the second day, you will offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. They will purify the altar just as they purified it with the bull.

Ezekiel 45:19

45:19 The priest will take some of the blood of the sin offering and place it on the doorpost of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorpost of the gate of the inner court.

Ezekiel 8:5

8:5 He said to me, “Son of man, look up toward ¹³  the north.” So I looked up toward the north, and I noticed to the north of the altar gate was this statue of jealousy at the entrance.

Ezekiel 8:16

8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there ¹⁴  at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, ¹⁵  were about twenty-five ¹⁶  men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, ¹⁷  facing east – they were worshiping the sun ¹⁸  toward the east!

Ezekiel 9:2

9:2 Next, I noticed ¹⁹  six men ²⁰  coming from the direction of the upper gate ²¹  which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit ²²  at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

Ezekiel 41:22

41:22 The altar was of wood, 5¼ feet ²³  high, with its length 3½ feet; ²⁴  its corners, its length, ²⁵  and its walls were of wood. He said to me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.”

Ezekiel 43:18

43:18 Then he said to me: “Son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says: These are the statutes of the altar: On the day it is built to offer up burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it, ²⁶ 

Ezekiel 43:27

43:27 When the prescribed period is over, ²⁷  on the eighth day and thereafter the priests will offer up on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings; ²⁸  I will accept you, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Ezekiel 47:1

Water from the Temple

47:1 Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple. I noticed ²⁹  that water was flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from under the right side of the temple, from south of the altar.

Ezekiel 6:13

6:13 Then you will know that I am the Lord – when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, ³⁰  the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

[6:4]  ¹ tn Thirty-nine of the forty-eight biblical occurrences of this Hebrew word are found in the book of Ezekiel.

[6:5]  ² tc This first sentence, which explains the meaning of the last sentence of the previous verse, does not appear in the LXX and may be an instance of a marginal explanatory note making its way into the text.

[43:26]  ³ tn Heb “fill its hands.”

[43:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “the measurements of the altar by cubits, the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth.” The measuring units here and in the remainder of this section are the Hebrew “long” cubit, consisting of a cubit (about 18 inches or 45 cm) and a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), for a total of 21 inches (52.5 cm). Because modern readers are not familiar with the cubit as a unit of measurement, and due to the additional complication of the “long” cubit as opposed to the regular cubit, all measurements have been converted to American standard feet and inches, with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes. On the altar see Ezek 40:47.

[43:13]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term normally means “bosom.” Here it refers to a hollow in the ground.

[43:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm).

[43:13]  ⁷ tn The word “high” is not in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[43:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “one cubit” (i.e., 52.5 cm).

[43:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “one span.” A span was three handbreadths, or about nine inches (i.e., 22.5 cm).

[43:13]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “bulge, protuberance, mound.” The translation follows the LXX.

[6:6]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb translated “wiped out” is used to describe the judgment of the Flood (Gen 6:7; 7:4, 23).

[40:47]  ⁶ tn Heb “one hundred cubits long and one hundred cubits wide, a square” (i.e., 52.5 meters by 52.5 meters).

[8:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “lift your eyes (to) the way of.”

[8:16]  ⁸ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.

[8:16]  ⁹ sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).

[8:16]  ¹⁰ tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.

[8:16]  ¹¹ sn The temple faced east.

[8:16]  ¹² tn Or “the sun god.”

[9:2]  ⁹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[9:2]  ¹⁰ sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.

[9:2]  ¹¹ sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).

[9:2]  ¹² tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.

[41:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “three cubits” (i.e., 1.575 meters).

[41:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).

[41:22]  ¹² tc So the Masoretic text. The LXX reads “base.”

[43:18]  ¹¹ sn For the “sprinkling of blood,” see Lev 1:5, 11; 8:19; 9:12.

[43:27]  ¹² tn Heb “and they will complete the days.”

[43:27]  ¹³ sn The people also could partake of the food of the peace offering (Lev 3).

[47:1]  ¹³ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[6:13]  ¹⁴ sn By referring to every high hill…all the mountaintops…under every green tree and every leafy oak Ezekiel may be expanding on the phraseology of Deut 12:2 (see 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 16:4; 17:10; Jer 2:20; 3:6, 13; 2 Chr 28:4).