Ezekiel 42

Then the man led me out into the outer court, going toward the north. He brought me to the block of rooms that faced the open space beside the temple, across from the building on the north side.

1Then he brought me forth into the utter court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate place, and which was before the building toward the north.

NoteThe chapter continues a single long vision that runs from chapter 40 to chapter 48: a guide, described only as "the man," walks Ezekiel through a temple complex and measures it piece by piece. The complex is laid out as two nested courtyards, an outer court open to worshipers, and an inner court around the temple building itself, where the priests served. "The open space beside the temple" translates a Hebrew word (gizrah) for a restricted yard separating the temple building from the buildings behind and beside it; its exact extent is not certain.

2The building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide.

2Before the length of an hundred cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits.

NoteA cubit was the distance from elbow to fingertip, roughly eighteen inches or forty-five centimetres. Ezekiel measures with a longer unit, a cubit plus a handbreadth, about twenty-one inches or fifty-three centimetres (40:5). A hundred cubits is therefore something like 175 feet or 53 meters, and fifty cubits about half that.

3It stood across from the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court, and across from the paved area that belonged to the outer court. Gallery faced gallery, on three levels.

3Over against the twenty cubits which were for the inner court, and over against the pavement which was for the utter court, was gallery against gallery in three stories.

Note"Gallery" renders a Hebrew word whose meaning is uncertain; it is usually taken as an open balcony or walkway running along the front of each story, or possibly a terrace formed where each floor is set back from the one below. The twenty cubits and the paved area are landmarks in the courtyards already described in chapter 40.

4In front of the rooms was an inside walkway ten cubits wide, and a passage one cubit across. Their doors faced north.

4And before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits breadth inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors toward the north.

NoteThe Hebrew here reads "a way of one cubit," a passage barely eighteen inches wide, which is hard to picture; the ancient Greek and Syriac versions read "a hundred cubits," making the walkway run the full length of the block. The rendering keeps the Hebrew.

5The rooms on the top floor were smaller, because the galleries took up more space from them than they did from the rooms on the lower and middle floors of the building.

5Now the upper chambers were shorter: for the galleries were higher than these, than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building.

6The rooms were built in three stories, and unlike the courts they had no pillars holding them up. So the upper level was set back farther from the ground than the lowest and the middle levels.

6For they were in three stories, but had not pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore the building was straitened more than the lowest and the middlemost from the ground.

NoteThe point is structural: without pillars to carry the upper floors out over the lower ones, each story had to sit back on the walls beneath it, so the top floor covered less ground than the ones below.

7There was an outer wall running alongside the rooms, on the side toward the outer court, in front of the rooms. It was fifty cubits long.

7And the wall that was without over against the chambers, toward the utter court on the forepart of the chambers, the length thereof was fifty cubits.

8The rooms along the outer court were fifty cubits long, while the rooms facing the temple were a hundred cubits long.

8For the length of the chambers that were in the utter court was fifty cubits: and, lo, before the temple were an hundred cubits.

9Below these rooms was the entrance on the east side, the way a person comes into them from the outer court.

9And from under these chambers was the entry on the east side, as one goeth into them from the utter court.

10There were rooms along the thickness of the court wall toward the east, facing the open space beside the temple and facing the building.

10The chambers were in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place, and over against the building.

NoteThe Hebrew text says "toward the east" here, but the description that follows (and verse 12) concerns the south side, and most translations read "south." The rendering leaves the direction open.

11In front of them was a walkway. These rooms looked just like the rooms on the north side, the same length and the same width. Their exits matched in layout and in doorways.

11And the way before them was like the appearance of the chambers which were toward the north, as long as they, and as broad as they: and all their goings out were both according to their fashions, and according to their doors.

12Matching the doors of the rooms on the south side, there was a door at the head of the walkway, the walkway that ran alongside the wall going east, where a person enters the rooms.

12And according to the doors of the chambers that were toward the south was a door in the head of the way, even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one entereth into them.

13Then the man said to me, "The north rooms and the south rooms that face the open space beside the temple are holy rooms. There the priests who come near to the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will set down the most holy offerings, the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, because the place is holy.

13Then said he unto me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they be holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy.

NoteThe priests were the men, drawn from one family line, authorised to serve at the altar on behalf of everyone else. "Most holy" offerings were the portions of certain sacrifices assigned to the priests as food; the rules required them to be eaten inside the sacred precinct rather than taken home. The grain offering (the King James "meat offering", in 1611 "meat" meant food of any kind) was flour and oil; the sin offering and the guilt offering were sacrifices made to put right ritual defilement and specific wrongs, and their meat went to the priests.

14Once the priests have gone in, they must not go out from the holy place into the outer court until they leave behind the clothes they serve in, because those clothes are holy. They must put on other clothes before they go near the areas that are for the people."

14When the priests enter therein, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the utter court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy; and shall put on other garments, and shall approach to those things which are for the people.

NotePriests wore special clothing while serving. The concern here is that holiness attached to those garments could be transmitted by contact to ordinary people and ordinary things, so the clothes had to be left behind before the priest re-entered the public court.

15When the man had finished measuring the inside of the temple area, he led me out through the gate that faces east, and he measured the area all around.

15Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about.

Note"The inside of the temple area" means the whole walled precinct measured up to this point, not the interior of the temple building alone. From here the guide steps outside and measures the perimeter.

16He measured the east side with the measuring rod: five hundred rods, measured all along with the rod.

16He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.

NoteThe measuring rod is defined in 40:5 as six long cubits, about ten and a half feet or a little over three meters. The Hebrew here says five hundred rods on each side, which would make the precinct roughly a mile square, far larger than the courts just described. Many ancient copies and translations read five hundred cubits instead, about a thousand feet or 300 meters, which fits the measurements given earlier. The rendering keeps "rods"; the discrepancy is a genuine problem in the text.

17He measured the north side: five hundred rods, measured all along with the rod.

17He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.

18He measured the south side: five hundred rods, using the measuring rod.

18He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.

19He turned to the west side and measured five hundred rods with the measuring rod.

19He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

20He measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall all the way around it, five hundred long and five hundred wide, to keep the holy area separate from the common ground.

20He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.

Note"Profane" in the King James does not mean corrupt or blasphemous. It means ordinary, common, everyday, the opposite of set apart. The wall marks where the reserved ground ends and normal ground begins.