Ezekiel 40:8

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.

He measured also the porch of the gate within, one reed. This was either the measure of the breadth of the porch between the opposite chambers on both sides; or rather of the length of that space, which was between the third little chamber and the last gate; and such a space must be supposed to be between the first gate and the first little chamber, which space were three yards and a half; which shows how spacious the churches of Christ will be, and how exactly measured.

Verses 8, 9. - The divergent measurements of this porch, which are given in these verses, led the LXX. and the Vulgate to reject ver. 8 as spurious, and it is certainly wanting in some Hebrew manuscripts. Hitzig, Ewald, and Smend have accordingly expunged it from the text - an altogether unnecessary proceeding. The seeming discrepancy may be removed by supposing either, with Kliefoth, that ver. 8 furnishes the measurement of the porch from east to west, and ver. 9 its measurement from north to south, with the measurements in addition of the posts ( אֵלִים , from אַיִל , "a ram," hence anything curved or twisted), i.e. pillars or jambs; or, with Keil, that ver. 8 states the depth from east to west, and ver. 9 the length from north to south. The "posts," which were sixty cubits high (ver. 14), were two cubits square at the base. Ezekiel 40:8

8, 9 . These verses should read: And he measured the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof , &c—the words “within ( Ezekiel 40:8 ) … gate” ( Ezekiel 40:9 ) being omitted. The copyist’s eye when he came to the word gate Ezekiel 40:8 went back to the same word Ezekiel 40:7 , the clause following which he repeated. Some MSS. and all the ancient Versions, except Targ., omit. Fig. 1, mn . the posts thereof ] Possibly: the post —sing used collectively. The posts are the projecting wall-fronts or jambs on either side of the exit or door from the porch into the outer court, Fig. 1, no . The thickness of this jamb was two cubits. was inward ] Or, toward the inside ( Ezekiel 40:7 ), i.e. on the end of the gateway building toward the interior, and looking into the outer court. This is specially mentioned because in the inner gateway buildings the porch was on the side away from the house.

Every little chamber - The guard-chambers (a) for the use of the Levites who kept watch in the temple. The threshold of the gate by the porch - The second threshold in the easternmost gate-way (c). Porch - Hebrew אולם 'ûlâm; the Septuagint: αἰλάμ ailam; Vulgate: vestibulum. The word probably means porch or portico, connected with "ail" post or pillar.

The porch; the posts, which were joined together at the top by an arch, and so made the portico, say some. The open space under the arch between the posts, or the ally which leads from the gate into the more inward parts of the house, or to the inmost. So the French version, puis apres il mesura d’ une eanne l’ alle qui menait a la porte la plus en dedans .

The Buildings of the East Gate (See Plate II 1). - Ezekiel 40:6. And he went to the gate, the direction of which was toward the east, and ascended the steps thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate one rod broad, namely, the first threshold one rod broad, Ezekiel 40:7. And the guard-room one rod long and one rod broad, and between the guard-rooms five cubits, and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate from the temple hither one rod. Ezekiel 40:8. And he measured the porch of the gate from the temple hither one rod. Ezekiel 40:9. And he measured the porch of the gate eight cubits, and its pillars two cubits; and the porch of the gate was from the temple hither. Ezekiel 40:10. And of the guard-rooms of the gate toward the east there were three on this side and three on that side; all three had one measure, and the pillars also one measure on this side and on that. Ezekiel 40:11. And he measured the breadth of the opening of the gate ten cubits, the length of the gate thirteen cubits. Ezekiel 40:12. And there was a boundary fence before the guard-rooms of one cubit, and a cubit was the boundary fence on that side, and the guard-rooms were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side. Ezekiel 40:13. And he measured the gate from the roof of the guard-rooms to the roof of them five and twenty cubits broad, door against door. Ezekiel 40:14. And he fixed the pillars at sixty cubits, and the court round about the gate reached to the pillars. Ezekiel 40:15.

And the front of the entrance gate to the front of the porch of the inner gate was fifty cubits. Ezekiel 40:16. And there were closed windows in the guard-rooms, and in their pillars on the inner side of the gate round about, and so also in the projections of the walls; there were windows round about on the inner side, and palms on the pillars. - ויּבוא אל שׁער is not to be rendered, "he went in at the gate." For although this would be grammatically admissible, it is not in harmony with what follows, according to which the man first of all ascended the steps, and then commenced the measuring of the gate-buildings with the threshold of the gate. The steps (B in the illustration) are not to be thought of as in the surrounding wall, but as being outside in front of them; but in the description which follows they are not included in the length of the gate-buildings. The number of steps is not give here, but they have no doubt been fixed correctly by the lxx at seven, as that is the number given in Ezekiel 40:22 and Ezekiel 40:26 in connection with both the northern and southern gates.