Ezekiel 41

Ezekiel 41:1

AFterward he brought me to the Temple] Having described the forme and fashion of the severall courts, and of the buildings in them, he cometh now to set out the very house or Temple it self: The going up to which building or face of it was thus: Before you come to the very body of the house, there was a cloyster on either hand, six cubits broad, the breadth being to be thus conceived, that it was from the wall of the house, out Eastward into the court: the length of either cloyster, was a cubit lesse then was the breadth: for whereas they were six cubits broad, they were but five cubits long.

The breadth of the Tabernacle] By the Tabernacle, is to be understood the holy place, distinct from the most holy, and this is also called the Temple, vers. 4. And so is the same place, in the fabricke made by Moses, called the tent, Exodus 20:36. and the first Tabernacle, Hebrews 9:2. contradistinguished from the second or most holy place, vers. 2. Now this place here spoken of, was fortie cubits long and twentie broad, and of such a proportion of measure, though not of the very same measure, was the holy place in the Tabernacle of Moses, namely, the length of it double to the breadth, it being ten yards long, and but five broad. The breadth of the Tabernacle here in hand, being twentie cubits, you are to conceive it, that the doore in the very middle of the East end, was ten cubits broad, and then from the doore cheeks, the wall to the South and North corners, was five cubits more on either side: and along these walls did the cloyster goe to those corners: and so is this verse to be understood: he measured the posts, or the cloysters standing upon posts six cubits broad on the one side, from the house toward the court, and six cubits broad on the other side, from the house toward the court, and they ran along the breadth of the house from the side of the doore to the corners of the house.

Ezekiel 41:2

doore] Or, entrance.

the length thereof fortie cubits, and the breadth twentie cubits] The measures of the whole Temple here, are the very same with the measures of Solomons Temple, if the cubit be but the same: for that whole fabricke was sixtie cubits long and twentie broad, and so is this: save that there was this difference, that in the Temple built by Solomon, there was but a veile of imbroidered worke, 2 Chronicles 3:14. that separated between the holy and most holy place, as it was also in the Tabernacle made by Moses, Exodus 26:31-33. Here there was a partition of another nature and manner, as it appeareth in the verse next following.

Ezekiel 41:3

Then went he inward] Forward beyond the holy place toward the Oracle.

and measured the post of the doore two cubits] A cloyster, or an entry which was betwixt the holy and most holy, of two cubits breadth. And here the manner of partition betwixt the holy and most holy place differeth from that in Solomons.

and the doore six cubits] That is, in height: for the breadth of it is set down to be seven cubits immediately after. And about this height there is discourse afterward: vers. 5. 17. 20. And here again the partition betwixt the holy and most holy differeth from Solomons.

Ezekiel 41:4

So he measured the length thereof twentie cubits, &c.] 1 Kings 6:20. Compare 2 Chron. 3. 8. The most holy place in Moses his Tabernacle was a perfect square every way, five yards long, and five yards broad, and five yards high: In Solomons Temple it was the like, twentie cubits every way, 1 Kings 6:20. and so is it to be supposed here though the height be not expressed.

the breadth twentie cubits before the Temple] That is, the breadth of it was just equall with the breadth of the Temple, and stood streight and even before it.

Ezekiel 41:5

After he measured the wall of the house six cubits] That is, from the ground upward: which space both in the Oracle and in the holy place was carved with Cherubims and Palmetrees, vers. 20.

and the breadth of every side chamber] As 1 Kings 6:5. There were chambers built round about the house, both Temple and Oracle, for the laying up of holy things: And these chambers were three stories high, or one over another: Now for the support or foundation of these, there ws a wall on the outside of the house, vers. 9. which was set as a border round about the house, so that the chambers rested not upon the wall of the house, but upon this, vers. 6. This wall and chambers were only upon the North and South sides, and at the West end, though it be said, that they were incompassing the Temple round about: for the East end had no such thing to stand before it, but stood cleare and open, save that the cloysters tooke up about one third part or something more of the height of the front.

Now these chambers were so distributed about the building, that on either side of the house there were four ranks of them, of three stories in every rank, and two such ranks at the West end, thirtie chambers in the whole summe.

Ezekiel 41:6

one over another] Heb. side-chamber over side chamber.

thirtie in order] Or, three and thirtie times, or foot.

have hold] Heb. be holden.

Ezekiel 41:7

there was an enlarging and a winding about] Heb. it was made broader and went round. As 1 Kings 6:6. The chambers were jutted out one more then another, the second story over the first, and the third over the second and so the highest was broadest, and therefore the breadth of the house is said to be above.

and a winding about still upward] As 1 Kings 6:8. By winding staires they went out of the lowest chamber into the middle, and out of the middle into the highest. And indeed this winding was double, for it wound not only from one chamber up into another, but from one chamber into another, on the same floore there was a winding round about the house. For since two maine doores served for the generall entrance into all these chambers, one on the North side, and another on the South, and none on the West end, vers. 11. it was the artificialnesse of the building, to have a winding passage round about the whole fabricke in every story: much like the passage above staires about the royall Exchange London, save that in this there was the difference, that the chambers had partitions one from another which that passage hath not, and that there was not an incompassing cleane about the square of the Temple, as there is about that, for the East end was excepted.

Ezekiel 41:8

I saw also the height of the house] Now he cometh to summe or speake of the house upwards, as he had done the compasse of it about, as it stood backed with these buildings: And the height of it was thus. First, from the ground, sixe great cubits, or sixe yards and an halfe upward, was the wall that was the foundation and supporter of these chambers, just the height of the doore at the East end, and of the cloisters on either side it: and of the wall of the house which he measured, vers. 5. and which was carved with Cherubims and Palme-trees, vers. 20. Then the three stories of the chambers built upon this foundation, were foure cubits, an halfe, and sixe or eight inches, or thereabout, high a piece, or foureteene great cubits divided into three equall portions: Now betweene this wall that supported the outmost sides of the chambers toward the Court, and betweene the Temple wall, there was a voyd space about five cubits broad, which was as a close cloister, on the North, South, and West parts of the Temple, as there was an open one at the East end: And this helpeth to understand vers. 9. 11.

a full reed of six great cubits] Chap. 40. 5.

Ezekiel 41:9

The breadth of the wall which was for the side-chambers without, was five cubits] Not that the wall was so thick, but that it stood so much breadth from the wall of the house.

and that which was left] Or the void space between, was the place of the chambers standing inward toward the house. And the doores of the side-chambers were in the place that was left: That is, there was a doore on either side of the house made through this wall, to passe into this cloister or void place, and then the winding staires began, and rose up into the first story, and so into the rest.

Ezekiel 41:10

And between the chambers] Not these chambers that stood close to the Temple, but other chambers that stood out further in the Court, facing these at twenty cubits distance, onely there was not so much distance at the West end: Those chambers joyning to the Temple were for the laying up of the holy things; these spoken of now, were for the lodgings of the Priests.

Ezekiel 41:12

Now the building that was before the separate place, at the end toward the west, &c.] The separate place is the space of ground that lay next without the chambers joyning to the Temple, or betweene them and the Chambers of the Priests which stood facing them at some seventeene cubits distance. Now these buildings of the Priests chambers at the West end were exceeding great, being seventy cubits broad, and ninety long: A figure of the numerous and great multitudes of the people that should be of the Church in the West, of the Gentiles: and behind these buildings was a wall of five cubits thick, a type of Gods protection and defence about his people.

Ezekiel 41:13-14

So he measured the house, &c.] The buildings being thus platformed, he now cometh to take their measure, which he casteth into a square, though there was some difference in the posture of the buildings and face of the floore of the Close or inner Court: For first, he beginneth from the porch which stood before the house, and measureth the breadth of that eleven cubits, then sixe cubits cloister betwixt that and the holy place: fourty cubits the length of the holy place: twenty the length of the most holy place, about a cubit the breadth of the wall that went up as a rib to carry the sides of the chambers towards the Temple, and five cubits to the further sides of the chambers toward the separate place, and the separate place it selfe at the West end about seventeene cubits, in all an hundred: these measures he measured along the walls of the building that stood joyned to the Temple. Then laid he his measure to the chambers that stood outfacing these at twentie cubits distance on the North, and South sides, and measured just the same length from the first building that stood most East to the East point of the buildings the chambers of the Priests that stood behind the Oracle. So that would you walk about the Temple before you entred into it, take in on the right hand, or on the South side, and there was a faire walke betwixt goodly buildings or chambers of twenty cubits broad: after eighty three, or eighty foure cubits walking you might turne into another walke on the left hand, or at the West end of seventeene cubits broad: There, after you had paced thirty or two and thirty cubits, you might turne on your left hand againe, into a walke on the North side just proportionable and agreeable to that where you began on the South.

Now at the East end, betwixt the buildings of the East gate and the front of the porch of the Temple, there was an empty place of what space in breadth it is uncertaine, but most likely of the same with the separate place at the West end of seventeene cubits: but the length of it, viz. from North to South, was an hundred cubits, which were taken up thus: twenty in the breadth of the house, twenty on either side the house in the separate place, and twenty in the thicknesse of the buildings on either side of the separate place. So that this space at the East end was an hundred cubits long, and seventeene cubits broad, a plaine flat, or floore before you came to any of the buildings either of the house it selfe, or of the chambers.

Ezekiel 41:15

And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it] The buildings which ran on the outside of the separate place North and South, did not reach cleane up to the building that stood crosse to them at the West end, but brake off just against the sides of the chambers at that end of the house, and so there was a space to passe between the North and the West buildings, and between the South and the West buildings of seventeene cubits broad. And thus the separate place at that end was just equall in length to that at the East end, of an hundred cubits long.

galleries] Or, severall walkes, or, walks with pillars.

Ezekiel 41:16

And the doore posts] Or the thresholds in the porch, and doore of either house.

and narrow windowes] Either the small windowes in the arches of the cloysters, or the windows narrow without to receive the light, and broad within to dilate and disperse it, as 1 Kings 6:4.

ver against the door cieled with wood] Or, cieling of wood. Or before the threshold overlaid with boards, which the Chaldee determineth boards of Cedars: this threshold seemeth to be that, that was as the halfe pace or bottome of the turning stairs that led into the chambers.

and from the ground up to the windows] Or, and the ground unto the windows. All these particulars mentioned had coverings, penthouses, or weatherboards over them to keep off the raine from the walls, and from the thresholds. The side buildings had so at their severall stories, the windowes had so over them, and so likewise under them or at their stooles, to keep the wall betwixt that and the ground unbeaten of the weather.

Ezekiel 41:17-18

To that above the doore, &c. within and without, by measure] Heb. measures. That is, the wall both within and without, in either house, and in the front of the building, was drawne out into spaces or borders, to above the height of the doore of the house: and in those spaces were wrought Palmetrees and Cherubims.

and every cherub had two faces] Chap. 1. 10.

Ezekiel 41:21

The posts of the Temple were squared, &c.] Heb. post. Viz. The posts of the doores of the Temple were not round like pillars, as was the entrance of the Tabernacle, but square like other buildings.

and the appearance of the one, &c.] Both the doores and posts of the holy and most holy place, were of one fashion and appearance.

Ezekiel 41:22

And the Altar of wood, &c.] This was the Altar of incense that stood before the Oracle, made of wood, and overlaid with gold.

and he said unto me] Chap. 40. 3.

the table that is] Malachi 1:7. 12.

Ezekiel 41:23-24

two doores. And the doores had two leaves] Both the holy and the most holy place was double doored, as it is common with us in our buildings, one doore of thick boards or plankes, and another within of wainscot or cieling: and either of these doores in either house was double leaved: and a wicket in those folding leaves, to go in and out by, when the great gates or doores needed not to be opened.

the side-chambers] Chap. 40. 26.