Ezekiel 43

set, and the social intercourse of Christians, should all be attended to in their places; in order to produce a ‘conversation becoming the Gospel of Christ.—When true religion shall diffuse its benign influence through the nations, and the churches of the saints shall be exceedingly multiplied, we may expect greater unity in judgment, worship, and practice, than ‘there is in the present low and divided state of vital godliness.—Whilst as spiritual priests we approach to the Lord through our anointed High-Priest, feed on the sacrifice that he hath offered, and appear before God clothed in his robe of spotless de aj Ho we should be careful to exemplify the efficacy of our principles in the holiness of our lives.

We should in every thing support the distinction between sacred and profane: the minister must not leave the sanctuary to pollute himself by sin, to involve himself in secular concerns, or to renounce his ministry. The man that ‘hath put his hand to the plough, and looketh back, is not fit for the kingdom of God: true believers continue to the end in the ways and service of the Lord; this is their privilege, their desire, and their practice. Sacred things must not be made subservient to secular interests: but these must be subordinated to the concerns of religion, and kept distinct from them, or rendered subservient to them. However the privileges and liberty of believers may be enlarged, or the boundaries of the church extended; a separation still subsists between the righteous and the wicked, which will be manifested, and made final and eternal, in the approaching day of righteous retribution.”— JT.

Scott. Chap. XLIII. Ver. 1—27. Another vision of the divine glory, with reproof and admonitions.—Part of this chapter evidently relates to the former temples that had been grossly polluted by idolatry, which, upon the return of the divine presence, they are warned against repeating. From what is said, (ver. 7 and 8.) it seems to be justly inferrible that some of their idolatrous kings had been buried within the precincts of the temple—monuments perhaps erected to them, (as in our churches,) and their effigies even idolized. Thus idolatry became practised under the same roof with the worship of Jehovah, with only an inner wall between the jealous God of Israel and the objects of his holy jealousy; and therefore was that glorious temple with all its treasures utterly destroyed.

They are now warned to consider this, before they attempt to build another temple on the model here before them; and they are admonished to remember that holiness was the law of the house through all its departments and appurtenances.

Notes on the verses

Ver. 2. Length of a hundred cubits.—(Perhaps this means, that the north door was 100 cubits from the entrance into the court; and that the door-way or portico, was 50 cubits in length; or, that it faced one of the cloisters, the length of which was 100 cubits, and its breadth 50, which was the proportion of all the cloisters. |—Bagster. Ver. 3. Over against, &c.—{One side of these buildings looked upon the void space about the temple of 20 cubits, and the other toward the pavement belonging to the outer court. |—Bagster. Ver. 4. Before the chambers.—|‘There seems to have been two rows of these chambers, and a walk between of ten cubits width; with an entrance into it from the chambers, of one cubit in width.

}—Bagster. Ver. 5. Upper chambers.—(The two upper stories had balconies or galleries, standing out from them, which were not supported by pillars on the outside of the walls, but merely by a breadth taken out of the wall itself; and therefore the chambers became narrower in the second story than in the first, and in the third than in the second. |—Bagster. |; Ver. 8. Before the temple.—(Passing from the north to the south side of the temple, (ver. 11, 12.) the prophet was shown that the space of ground, which was before the temple on the east, measured 100 cubits. |—Bagster. Ver. 10. Thickness of the wall.—[Rather, “the breadth of the wall,” that is, the breadth of ground which it enclosed. (Ezekiel 41:12).——Over against, &c.—These south chambers in situation with respect to the temple, the way that led to them, proportions, windows, doors, and passages belonging to them, were exactly like those on the north.]—Bagster. Ver. 16. Five hundred reeds.—Newcome and Boothroyd, following the LXX. and Arabic, read, “Cubits,” instead of reeds; the mountain itself, according to Josephus, not being large enough to admit the other measure. It may be recollected, however, that this temple was only seen in vision—[Estimating the reed at 10 1-2 feet, 500 reeds will be nearly equal to a mile; so that from this statement we find the temple, with its outbuildings, was built on a square, nearly an English mile on each side, and four miles in circumference.

This not only far exceeds the size of Solomon’s temple, or that after the captivity, which was only 500 cubits, or a furlong, on each side, (Talm. Middoth. Josephus, Ant.) and exactly half a mile in circuit; but is nearly equal to the whole extent of Jerusalem itself, which, when greatest, was but 33 furlongs in circumference, somewhat less than 4 1-2 miles. (Josephus.) This seems clearly to intimate, that the vision cannot be explained of any temple that has hitherto been built, or indeed of any literal temple, but figuratively and mystically of the spiritual temple, the church under the Gospel, and its spiritual glory.|—Bagster. Ver. 20. The profane place—i.e. the place for the common people.

Chap. XLII. Ver. 2. Glory of God.—{The glory of God was one of the five things which the Jews say were wanting in the second temple, and we must therefore look beyond that period for the accomplishment of these predictions. }—Bagster,: 909 Ver. 4. Glory of the Lord.—{Though the personal presence of Immanuel in “the second temple rendered it more glorious than that of Solomon, ((Haggai 2:5, 9).) yet this part of the vision rather relates to the times predicted in the whole of this description—those which shall succeed the conversion of the Jews, and their restoration to their own land. ]—Bagster. Ver. 7. By the carcasses of their kings.—Michaelis supposed that some of their idolatrous kings might have been buried in the precincts of Solomon’s temple, and perhaps afterwards idolized.

See (2 Kings 21:18-26).—[Probably the idols worshipped by the kings of Judah, which were as lifeless and as loathsome before God as dead putrid carcasses.]—Bagster. Ver. 8. Their thresholds, &c.—The thresholds of the idol temples are peculiarly sacred, and there they are wont to pay their humblest adorations. Orient. Cust. No. 327. See also (Ezekiel 46:2-3).——And the wall between, &c.—Newcome, ‘‘There was only a wall between me and them.” Ver. 9. Put away their whoredom.—(Rather, “Now shall they put away their whoredom and the carcasses of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.” It is a prediction and promise, and not an exhortation. |—Bagster. Ver. 10. Measure the pattern.—The original term means image, or model, according to Gesenius.

Ver. 13. Even the bottom.—Heb. “Bosom” (lip) round it. Ver. 14. Lower settle.—|“These settles, were ledges by which the altar was narrowed towards the top; and the whole of it may be thus computed:— Height: cubits. Breadth: cubits. To 1st ledge, v. 14. - + = - + 1| For higher ledge, v. 14. + + - = 2 To upper ledge, v. 14. - - - - 4] For lower ledge, v. 14. - - = 2 In all, 10 In all, 2) Hence the upper part of the altar was only 12 cubits square, (ver. 16.) the upper settle, or ledge, (being in all 14 cubits, ver. 17.) deducting 2 cubits from its dimensions, he 9 this altar was the same in height and breadth with that of Solomon, yet it differed materially from it in having settles or |; on which the priests walked round the altar, to officiate in offering sacrifices.

|—B. Ver. 15. So the altar.—{Heb. Harel, that is, the mountain of Gad—probably so called in opposition to the idolatrous high-places——From the altar.—Heb. Ariel, that is, the lion of God; rather, ‘the hearth of God,” from the Arabic, irat, or iryat, a hearth, and ail, God.|—Bagster. See notes on (Isaiah 29:1-2). Ver. 17. His stairs.—{Rather, “its ascents,” maalothehoo; probably an iny” this altar having a rim (Heb. clined plane; for the law ordained, that the priests should not ascend by stairs… —Bagster.