Ezekiel 40:3

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.

Ezekiel 40:3-5 . Behold, there was a man — The same no doubt that appeared to the prophet, Ezekiel 1:20 , (where see the note,) whose name is the Branch, and who builds the temple of the Lord, Zechariah 6:12-13 ; whose appearance was like the appearance of brass — Bright and sparkling, Revelation 1:15 . With a line of flax in his hand — The use of the line was to measure the land of Israel, and of the reed to take the dimensions of the buildings in and about the temple; as also to set out several portions of land belonging to the sanctuary and city, to the prince and people: see the margin. And he stood in the gate — Probably the north gate, being the first entrance the prophet may be supposed to have arrived at, as he came from Chaldea, which lay northward of Judea. Song of Solomon of man, behold, &c., and hear — Take notice of what thou seest, so that thou mayest afterward tell it to thy people. And, behold, a wall on the outside — A wall went round the whole compass, or square, of the holy mountain, whereon the temple was situate, to separate the holy ground from that which was common: see Ezekiel 42:20 . And in the man’s hand a measuring-reed of six cubits long, &c. — Here is explained what sort of a cubit is meant in the following delineation of the temple, namely, one that consisted of six hand-breadths, or one hand-breadth over the cubit used in Chaldea, where he now lived.

This is the measure of a Scripture cubit, generally agreed to be equivalent to eighteen inches, or a foot and a half of our measure. See Bishop Cumberland, Of Scripture Weights and Measures, p. 36, &c. According to Michaelis, the Hebrew measures are, 1. The finger’s-breadth: 2. Four fingers, or a hand-breadth: 3. The ell; the smaller of five hand-breadths, the larger of six: 4. The rod, of six ells. He also allows the rabbinical account, that a finger is equal to the length of six barley grains. So he measured the breadth of the building — That is, of the outward wall, which was three yards high, and three yards broad. This wall surrounded a part which corresponded to the court of the Gentiles, and served as a security against the precipices of the mount on which the temple stood.

Verse 3. - The word "thither" carries the thought back to ver. 1. When the prophet had been brought into the land of Israel, to the mountain and to the building, he perceived a man, whoso appearance was like the appearance of brass , or, according to the LXX., "shining or polished brass," χαλκοῦ στίλβοντος , as in Ezekiel 1:7 - a description recalling those of the likeness of Jehovah in Ezekiel 1:26, 27 , of the angel who appeared to Daniel ( Daniel 10:6 ), and of the glorified Christ ( Revelation 1:15 ), and suggesting ideas of strength, beauty, and durability. In his hand he carried a line of flax and a measuring-reed ( kaneh hammidah , or "reed of measuring," reed having been the customary material out of which such rods were made; compare the Assyrian for a measuring-reed qanu , the Greek κανών , and the Latin canna). Possibly he carried these as "emblems of building activity" (Hengstenberg), and because "he had many and different things to measure" (Kliefoth); but most likely the line was meant to measure large dimensions (comp. Ezekiel 47:3 ) and such as could not be taken by a straight stick, as e.g. , the girth of pillars, and the rod to measure smaller dimensions, like those of the gates and walls of the temple.

Hitzig's conjecture, that the line was linen because the place to be measured was the sanctuary, whose priests were obliged to clothe themselves in linen, Kliefoth rightly pronounces artificial and inaccurate, since the line was made, not of manufactured flax, or linen, but of the raw material. That the "man" was Jehovah or the Angel of the Presence (comp. Ezekiel 9:2 ) the analogy of Amos 8:7, 8 and the statement of Ezekiel in Ezekiel 44:2, 5 would seem to suggest; only it is not certain in the last of these passages that the speaker was "the man" and not rather "the God of Israel," who had already taken possession of the house (see Ezekiel 43:2 ), and whose voice is once at least distinguished from that of the man (see Ezekiel 43:6 ). Accordingly, Kliefoth, Smend, and others identify the "man" with the ordinary angelus interpres (cf. Revelation 21:9 ). The gate in which he stood "waiting for the new comer" was manifestly the north gate, since Ezekiel came from the north, though Havernick and Smend put in a plea for the east gate, on the grounds that it was the principal entrance to the sanctuary, and the distance between it and the north gate, five hundred cubits, was too great to be passed over so slightly as in ver. 6. Ezekiel 40:3

3 . there was a man ] The “man” is not to be identified with Jehovah himself, who brought the prophet to him. It is scarcely necessary to enquire who the man is. He is a creation of the prophet’s own mind, a living symbol of the revelation of God. This revelation personified has the attributes of Jehovah himself; hence the man is like bright brass ( Ezekiel 1:7 ), and speaks with authority ( Ezekiel 40:4 ). Cf. Ezekiel 44:2 ; Ezekiel 44:5 . a line of flax ] For measuring greater dimensions ( Ezekiel 47:3 ), as the reed usually for smaller. in the gate ] Or, at . The east gateway is meant, Ezekiel 40:6 .

The appearance of brass - Brightly shining. A line of flax - For measuring the ground plan. A measuring reed - For the walls (compare Jeremiah 31:38-39). To measure implied a separation for sacred purposes. The measurements are: (1) exact, to show that the promise is certain; (2) equal, to denote harmony; (3) vast, to mark majesty and grandeur.

He brought me; the Lord by his Spirit, as Ezekiel 40:1 . Thither: see Ezekiel 40:1 . A man; the same, no doubt, which appeared to the prophet, Ezekiel 1:26 , whose name is The Branch, and who builds the temple, Zechariah 6:12,13 . Whose appearance, whose fashion and colour, was like burnished brass; so Revelation 1:15 ; much like to that Ezekiel 1:27 ; and speaks glory and strength. A line of flax; a plumbline, a mason’s line, to discover the rectitude of the building, or its defects. In the gate; not in the east gate, but in the north gate next toward the east.