Ezek. 41 The measures, parts, chambers, and ornaments of the temple. After the measuring of the courts, &c., now the prophet is brought to see the temple itself measured. The posts; the thickness of the walls (called posts here, as also Ezek.

The door; or the aperture, the open space which let in light, as well as men; properly the door of the porch. Ten cubits, between post and post, on which the folding doors did hang.

Inward; from the porch through the body of the temple, to the partition between the body of the temple and the holy of holies, or the oracle. The post; either the thickness of that partition wall, or of the pilasters, which stood one on one side and the other on the other side of the door.

The length thereof; of the oracle, or holy of holies. It was an exact square, as was Solomon’s, 1 Kings 6:20. Before the temple; parallel with the breadth of the temple. He said unto me; the prophet was commanded to hear, and now he shows us his attention.

Having left the holy of holies measured in the 3rd verse, now he is come to take the measures of the outer wall. The house; the temple itself, Six cubits; three yards thick was this wall from the ground to the first story of the side chambers.

One over another; in three stories high. Thirty in order: how these thirty in a row were distributed is not said, some guess twelve on the north side, as many on the south side, and six on the west; but as this may be, so possibly it may not be; but we are sure the whole number is thirty in a row…

An enlarging, viz. of the side chambers, so much of breadth added to the chamber as was taken from the thickness of the wall; that is, two cubits in the uppermost, and one cubit in the middlemost, more than in the lowest chambers.

Of the house; of the chambers, or the three stories of them; it is not the temple. The lowest chamber had properly a foundation laid on the earth, but the floor of the middle and highest story must be accounted here a foundation; so from the ground to the ceiling of the first room was six great…

The outward wall for these chambers was five cubits in thickness, and was made of stone, which added both beauty and strength to the other part of the building, and served as buttresses to the temple wall.

Between the chambers that on one side joined to the temple, and were public repositories for offerings, and tithes, &c., and those other chambers, which were built on the wall of this inner court, and were lodgings for the priests, there was a void space, or pavement, in the open air, twenty cubits…

The doors of the lowest row opened into this void paved space. Beside the particular doors to each chamber, there were two, one on the north, where was a fair staircase, which did lead up to every story, and above these to the top of the temple.

This is a new building not yet mentioned, but now measured by itself. Before, or over against, the separate place; either the temple, with all the appendant treasury chambers; or the oracle, which was in the west end of the temple, and separate from the rest of the temple; or that twenty cubits’…

The house; the whole temple, oracle, sanctuary, and porch, with the walls. An hundred cubits long, from east to west, thus: Stairs of the east porch or the thickness of the wall six cubits, the passage through the porch eleven, wall of the temple within the porch six cubits, the temple itself forty…

Of the face; the whole front of the house eastward, the prospect of it being to the east. Of the separate place: this explains the other, say some, the house is the separate place; or else, as others, that other building on the west end of the temple, which was of equal dimensions with the temple.

The building, possibly that of Ezek. 41:12–13, or else the buildings of this court next to the temple, or else the west buildings behind the oracle, or the buildings of the utter court, of which in Ezek. 42:1, Ezek. 42:3, Ezek. 42:7–8. The separate place: see Ezek. 41:12.

What are here recounted were all measured by the angel, and with the same reed or measure. The door posts: see Ezek. 40:48–49. It is likely he means the door posts of every gate, or porch in every court. Windows: see Ezek. 40:16. Galleries: see Ezek. 41:5, Ezek. 41:15. Three stories; see Ezek.

In the 15th verse the prophet began his catalogue, and continueth it through this verse, in which, in the gross, he tells us all above the doors, in every porch and gate to the very inner house, and all without, the buildings about the walls, were measured exactly, though we have neither the…

Now we are acquainted with the ornaments, the beautiful carving, which in all parts mentioned were to be seen. Made; beautified. Cherubims; generally taken for the portrait of angels, and framed to the beauty of young men with wings.

The face of a man, this one face, the other of a young lion. Now as to the aspect, it was thus; the cherub between two palm trees looked towards both trees, towards the one a man’s face, towards the other a young lion’s face, looked.

The door: some think it is the great east gate; I think rather here, is an enallage, or change of number, door for doors, and that every porch was so beautified: see Ezek. 40:16, Ezek. 40:22, Ezek. 40:26, Ezek. 40:34.

The posts on each side of the gate or door, both of temple and oracle, were squared; not round, as some other were, and as the posts of the door of the tabernacle were, but of exact square. The face, the form of the door, or gate of the temple, was square, i.e.

The altar of incense. Of wood; so the inward parts were made, and covered with gold, Ex. 30:1–10, 1 Kings 6:20, 1 Kings 6:22; and from this covering of gold it was called the golden altar. Three cubits high; one cubit higher than that in the tabernacle of Moses, Ex. 30:2.

Each had one door, so there were two doors, and they were folding doors, or two-leaved doors.

Made; carved. On them; the doors of both temple and oracle. The temple; including the holy of holies also. Cherubims: see Ezek. 41:18. Thick planks; I suppose these were boards of more than ordinary thickness, which were fastened to the great beams, whose ends came out beyond the wall of the porch,…

Narrow windows: see Ezek. 41:16. Palm trees: see Ezek. 41:18. On the one side and on the other side; on the north and on the south side, as you enter in from east toward the west; thus the sides of the porch outward were garnished.