Ezekiel 41

Then the man brought me into the main hall of the temple. He measured the side pillars: six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide on the other. This matched the width of the tent.

1Afterward he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle.

Note"The man" is the guide with the appearance of bronze who has been measuring the temple since chapter 40; he carries a measuring line and a measuring rod. (A cubit was the distance from elbow to fingertip, roughly eighteen inches. The measurements in these chapters use the "long cubit," an ordinary cubit plus a handbreadth, about twenty and a half inches (see verse 8).) The temple building had three parts in a straight line: an entrance porch, a long "main hall" (the great room, sometimes called the nave or holy place), and beyond it a smaller square inner room. "The tent" is the tabernacle, the portable shrine Israel carried in the wilderness before there was a temple; the point is that the new building's proportions match the old one's.

2The entrance was ten cubits wide. The walls beside the entrance were five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other. He measured the hall itself: forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.

2And the breadth of the door was ten cubits; and the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits: and the breadth, twenty cubits.

3Then he went farther in and measured the side pillars at the entrance: two cubits. The entrance was six cubits, and its width was seven cubits.

3Then went he inward, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits.

NoteThe guide goes in alone. Ezekiel is not described as entering the innermost room, and the measuring inside it is reported to him rather than seen by him.

4He measured that inner room, past the main hall: twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He said to me, "This is the Most Holy Place."

4So he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place.

NoteThe "Most Holy Place" (literally "holy of holies") was the innermost, windowless room of the temple, kept empty of ordinary use and entered by the high priest only once a year. Twenty cubits square is about thirty-four feet each way.

5Next he measured the wall of the temple building: six cubits thick. Each side room around the building was four cubits wide, all the way around on every side.

5After he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side.

NoteThe "side rooms" were small chambers built in tiers against the outside of the temple walls, used for storage of equipment, supplies and donated goods rather than for worship.

6The side rooms were stacked three levels high, one above another, with thirty rooms on each level. Ledges ran around the temple wall to carry the side rooms, so that their beams did not have to be set into the temple wall itself.

6And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house.

7The side rooms grew wider at each higher level, because the structure around the temple stepped outward as it rose. So the building was wider higher up, and a person went up from the lowest level to the highest by way of the middle one.

7And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst.

8I also saw that the temple stood on a raised base that ran all around it. This base was the foundation of the side rooms, and it was a full measuring rod high, that is, six long cubits.

8I saw also the height of the house round about: the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six great cubits.

NoteA measuring rod was a standard surveying tool. Ezekiel 40:5 gives its length as six long cubits, each an ordinary cubit plus a handbreadth, roughly ten and a half feet in modern terms. This verse repeats that definition.

9The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick. The open space that was left over belonged to the side rooms of the temple.

9The thickness of the wall, which was for the side chamber without, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within.

10Between those side rooms and the outer chambers there was an open space twenty cubits wide, running all around the temple on every side.

10And between the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits round about the house on every side.

11The doors of the side rooms opened onto that open strip, one door on the north side and one door on the south side. The open strip was five cubits wide all the way around.

11And the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about.

12Now the building that stood facing the separate yard, at the west end, was seventy cubits wide. Its wall was five cubits thick all around, and the building was ninety cubits long.

12Now the building that was before the separate place at the end toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and the length thereof ninety cubits.

NoteThe "separate yard" (Hebrew *gizrah*, from a word meaning "cut off") was a restricted open area behind the temple, walled off from the rest of the courtyard. Nothing in the text says what it was used for.

13So he measured the temple building: a hundred cubits long. The separate yard, together with that building and its walls, was also a hundred cubits long.

13So he measured the house, an hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, an hundred cubits long;

NoteA hundred cubits is roughly 170 feet, or a little over fifty meters.

14The width across the front of the temple, together with the separate yard on the east side, was a hundred cubits.

14Also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, an hundred cubits.

15Then he measured the length of the building that faced the separate yard behind the temple, including its galleries on each side: a hundred cubits. He also measured the inner room and the porches facing the court.

15And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, an hundred cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the court;

Note"Galleries" translates a Hebrew word whose meaning is uncertain; it may mean balconies, colonnades, or stepped recesses in the wall. Ancient translators disagreed about it, and the rendering here keeps the traditional guess.

16The doorframes, the narrow windows, and the galleries that ran around all three levels facing the doorway were paneled with wood on every side. The wood ran from the floor up to the windows, and the windows were covered.

16The door posts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the door, cieled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered;

Note"Narrow windows" renders a Hebrew phrase usually understood as window openings cut wider on the inside than the outside, so the frame slopes, letting in light while keeping the opening small. That the windows were "covered" may mean latticed or shuttered; the word is unclear.

17The paneling reached the space above the doorway, and it went into the inner room, and outside as well. It covered every wall all the way around, inside and out, in measured sections.

17To that above the door, even unto the inner house, and without, and by all the wall round about within and without, by measure.

18The paneling was carved with cherubim and palm trees, with a palm tree between each cherub and the next. Each cherub had two faces.

18And it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces;

NoteCherubim (the plural of cherub) were winged composite figures, part human and part animal, familiar across the ancient Near East as guardian creatures flanking thrones and doorways. They are not the plump infants of later European art. In Ezekiel's opening vision each had four faces; the carvings here have two. Palm trees were a standard decorative motif in Near Eastern temple and palace panelling, often alternating with such figures.

19A man's face looked toward the palm tree on one side, and a young lion's face looked toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved this way all around the temple.

19So that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side: it was made through all the house round about.

20From the floor up to the space above the doorway, cherubim and palm trees were carved, and they were carved on the wall of the main hall.

20From the ground unto above the door were cherubims and palm trees made, and on the wall of the temple.

21The doorposts of the main hall were square. The front of the inner room looked the same as the front of the main hall.

21The posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other.

22There was an altar made of wood, three cubits high and two cubits across. Its corners, its length and its walls were all made of wood. The man said to me, "This is the table that stands before the LORD."

22The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD.

NoteThree cubits is about five feet high, two cubits about three and a half feet across. The guide calls the same object both an altar and a table; in the older temple a table stood in the main hall holding the loaves of bread set out before God, while altars were normally of stone or bronze and used for burning offerings. The text leaves the two descriptions side by side without explaining them.

23Both the main hall and the inner room had double doors.

23And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

24Each door had two panels that swung open, two panels for the one door and two panels for the other.

24And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door.

25Cherubim and palm trees were carved on the doors of the main hall, just like the ones carved on the walls. Outside, across the front of the porch, there was a thick wooden covering.

25And there were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubims and palm trees, like as were made upon the walls; and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without.

NoteThe "thick wooden covering" translates an obscure Hebrew word; it is variously taken to mean a canopy, an overhanging beam, or heavy planking across the porch front. The exact object is unknown.

26There were narrow windows and carved palm trees on both sides, along the side walls of the porch. The side rooms of the temple also had thick wooden coverings.

26And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.