Ezekiel 40:19

40:1-49 The Vision of the Temple. - Here is a vision, beginning at ch. 40, and continued to the end of the book, ch. 48, which is justly looked upon to be one of the most difficult portions in all the book of God. When we despair to be satisfied as to any difficulty we meet with, let us bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but that things necessary are plain enough; and let us wait till God shall reveal even this unto us. This chapter describes two outward courts of the temple. Whether the personage here mentioned was the Son of God, or a created angel, is not clear. But Christ is both our Altar and our Sacrifice, to whom we must look with faith in all approaches to God; and he is Salvation in the midst of the earth, Ps 74:12, to be looked unto from all quarters.

Then he measured the breadth from the fore front of the lower gate,.... That is, from the front of the inner eastern gate before mentioned, Ezekiel 40:7 , called the lower gate, in respect of the gate opposite to it, which led into the inner court, to which there was an ascent of eight steps; and which the Targum calls the middle gate, because it lay between the eastern outward gate, and the gate of the inward court. Now there were from hence, unto the fore front of the inner court without, an hundred cubits; to the outside of the gate was such a length, or fifty eight yards and one foot: eastward and northward; as so it was from east to west, so from north to south, and from south to north; there was just the same distance from the gate that led into the outward court to that which led into the inward court, on all sides; see Ezekiel 40:23 a man may be a long while an outward court worshipper before he is an inward court worshipper; the passage through the one to the other is long.

Ezekiel 40:19 . Then he measured the breadth, &c., a hundred cubits eastward and northward — He measured the whole space of ground between the west front of the lower gate, (namely, the gate at the east end of the outer court,) and the east front of the upper gate, which led into the inner court, and found it a hundred cubits; the same was the space between the south front and the north front: so the court was exactly square. The expression is elliptical; as if he had said, There were a hundred cubits from west to east, and from north to south. It must be observed, the gate at the east end of the outer court is called the lower gate, for the same reason as the pavement is called the lower pavement, Ezekiel 40:18 ; because there was still an ascent, as a person went from one court to the other.

(19) An hundred cubits eastward.— As the prophet is taken through the outer court its width is measured from the eastern gate, which he had already examined, and from the northern gate, to which he is next taken ( Ezekiel 40:20 ). Afterwards ( Ezekiel 40:27 ) the same measurement is made to the southern gate, and these all agree as 100 cubits each. The starting-point of the measurement is clearly defined as “from the forefront of the lower gate,” i.e., from the western or innermost extremity of the outer gate-building; but the final point, as given in this verse, “the forefront of the inner court,” leaves the question open, whether this was to the wall of the inner court itself, or only to the outer extremity of its gate. This doubt is removed in Ezekiel 40:23 ; Ezekiel 40:27 , which expressly say that the measurement was “from gate to gate,” i.e., between the nearest points of the gate-buildings. Ezekiel 40:20-23 describe the north gate, which was exactly like the east, already described. In Ezekiel 40:22 is the first mention of the number of steps leading up to the gates (see also Ezekiel 40:26), and in Ezekiel 40:23 the first mention of the gates of the inner court (see also Ezekiel 40:27). Ezekiel 40:24-27 describe the south gate, exactly like the other two and with the same dimensions. The space between the outer and inner gates has now been measured on the east (Ezekiel 40:19), on the north (Ezekiel 40:23), and on the south (Ezekiel 40:27), each being 100 cubits.

19. The “lower” gate is the outer gate (on Ezekiel 40:18 ). From the inner front of this gate to the outer front of the gate of the inner court facing it was 100 cubits. east ward and north ward] Or, on the east and on the north . The words are loosely appended, the points being stated from which the measurements were taken, viz. E. and N. ( Ezekiel 40:23 ). Ezekiel 40:19

He measured the breadth of the whole ground between the inner front of one gate and porch, to the outer front of the next gate more inward to the temple. The lower gate; called so in respect to the next gate, which was on the higher ground, and into which the entrance was by stairs or steps. So the first of the fabric was the lowest, the last was the highest, and the middle gates were the one higher than the other, as in all buildings that stand upon such ascents. Unto the forefront; to the outside front of the gate of the priests’ court, which was next to this gate now measured; that is, from the west front of the lower to the east front of the upper gate. This court was one hundred cubits in length from the west front of the lower gate to the east front of the gate of the inner court; and so was the space from the south front of the court to the north front: so the court was exactly square.

18. The higher pavement was level with the entrance of the gates, the lower was on either side of the raised pavement thus formed. Whereas Solomon's temple had an outer court open to alterations and even idolatrous innovations (2Ki 23:11, 12; 1Ch 20:5), in this there was to be no room for human corruptions. Its compass was exactly defined, one hundred cubits; and the fine pavement implied it was to be trodden only by clean feet (compare Isa 35:8).

The Outer Court Described and Measured Ezekiel 40:17. And he led me into the outer court, and behold there were cells and pavement made round the court; thirty cells on the pavement. Ezekiel 40:18. And the pavement was by the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates, (namely) the lower pavement. Ezekiel 40:19.

And he measured the breadth from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner court, about a hundred cubits on the east side and on the north side. - Ezekiel having been led through the eastern gate into the outer court, was able to survey it, not on the eastern side only, but also on the northern and southern sides; and there he perceived cells and רצפּה, pavimentum, mosaic pavement, or a floor paved with stones laid in mosaic form (2 Chronicles 7:3; Esther 1:6), made round the court; that is to say, according to the more precise description in v. 18, on both sides of the gate-buildings, of a breadth corresponding to their length, running along the inner side of the wall of the court, and consequently not covering the floor of the court in all its extent, but simply running along the inner side of the surrounding wall as a strip of about fifty cubits broad, and that not uniformly on all four sides, but simply on the eastern, southern, and northern sides, and at the north-west and south-west corners of the western side, so far, namely, as the outer court surrounded the inner court and temple (see Plate I b b b); for on the western side the intervening space from the inner court and temple-house to the surrounding wall of the outer court was filled by a special building of the separate place.