Ezekiel 41:12

Now the building that was before the separate place,.... The "separate place" is the holy of holies, which was separated by a vail under the second temple, and by a wall as in this, and the first from the holy place: "before or over against" which was a building, as it is rendered, Ezekiel 41:15 , a new building, not before taken notice of: and it was situated at the end toward the west: or "sea" (e), the Mediterranean sea, which lay west to the land of Canaan. The meaning is, that this building was to the west of the temple, at which end stood the holy of holies, and this near to that: what building is here meant is not easy to say, there being nothing in the first or second temple which answered to it: it seems to be a new building; and what the mystical sense of it is cannot be easily guessed at.

Ezekiel 41:12-14 . Now the building, &c. — This seems to be another building not before mentioned, but now measured by itself. So he measured the house — The whole temple, oracle, sanctuary, and porch, with the walls, which were in length a hundred cubits from east to west, which may be thus computed: CUBITS. The thickness of the wall of the east porch 5 The passage through the porch 11 The wall between the porch and the temple 6 The outward sanctuary 40 The partition wall 2 The holy of holies 20 The thickness of the west wall 6 The side-chambers at the west end 5 The outer wall of those chambers 5 Also the breadth of the face of the house — The front of the temple eastward was a hundred cubits.

(12) The separate place.— This is the space at the west end of the Temple (20 cubits broad) before coming to another building. Nothing is here said of the purposes of this other building; but it is probably “the appointed place” ( Ezekiel 43:21 ) for the burning of the sin-offering, and also of any remains of other sacrifices which required to be consumed by fire, and of any other refuse from the Temple. Its total width of 80 cubits (70 cubits + 2 walls of 5 cubits each) leaves a passage-way of 10 cubits on each side; while its length (90 cubits + two walls of 5 cubits each—100 cubits) Just fills the space from “the separate place” to the wall of the court. (See plan II., G. [ Ezekiel 40:44-49 ]) The sum-total of the exterior measurements is given in Ezekiel 41:13-14 .

Verses 12-14. - The separate place . Verse 12. - The building that was before the separate place. The word הַגּזְרָה , occurring only in this chapter, and translated "separate place," is derived from a root signifying to "cut off ," and here denotes a space behind the temple on the west, which was marked off from the rest of the ground on which the temple with its courts and chambers stood, and devoted most likely to less sacred purposes. Behind Solomon's temple lay a similar space ( 2 Kings 23:11 ; 1 Chronicles 26:18 ), with buildings upon it and a separate way out; and as the name gizrah appears to convey the notion of something that required to be kept apart and removed from the sacred precincts, the opinion of Kliefoth is probably correct that "this space with its buildings was to be used for the reception of all refuse, sweepings, all kinds of rubbish - in brief, of everything that was separated or rejected when the holy service was performed in the temple, and that this was the reason why it received the name of 'the separate place.' The dimensions of this building were (1) the breadth, seventy cubits; (2) the length, ninety cubits; (3) the thickness of the wall, five cubits round about. Vers. 13, 14. - Thus the whole breadth of this erection was seventy plus ten, or eighty cubits; which, with ten cubits of free space on the north and south sides, make a hundred cubits in all. Its whole length was ninety plus ten, or a hundred cubits.

The entire area was thus once more a hundred cubits square. At this point, again, a convenient estimate of the whole dimensions of the temple area may be made. I. The breadth of the area from west to east - 1. The separate place (including walls) 100 cubits 2. The "house" (with free space behind) 100 cubits 3. The inner court 100 cubits 4. The outer court (the two gates with space between them) 200 cubits Total ... 500 cubits II. The length of the area from north to south - 1. The outer court (the two northern gates with spaces between them) 200 cubits 2. The "house" (with free space on both sides) 100 cubits 3. The outer court (the two southern gates with distance between them) ... 200 cubits Total - 500 cubits Vers. 15-26. - The projecting portions of the temple building. Ezekiel 41:12

12 . The building behind the house on the west, Fig. 3, K To the west of the house proper, but divided from it by the 20 cubits of the “separate place” (Fig. 3, H), was a large building, 70 cubits broad (E. to W. Fig. 3, rp, sq ), and 90 long (N. to S. Fig. 3, rs, pq )—breadth being the smaller and length the larger dimension here. The wall of the building all round was 5 cubits thick. The measurements 70 and 90 are inside. The uses which this building served are not specified, they were probably general. before the separate place ] i.e. the court of 20 cubits broad (Fig. 3, H), which ran round the house. “Before” is opposite to or facing.

The separate place - See F, Plan II. The word occurs only in this chapter. The name, which seems one of discredit, has led to the conjecture that the purpose of this place and its building was to receive the offal of the sacrifices and sweepings of the courts, to be carried thence by a postern gate (compare Ezekiel 43:21 ). The building itself was, we are told, seventy cubits wide, with walls five cubits thick (eighty cubits in all), leaving ten cubits on each side to make up the 100 cubits from north to south. The length was ninety cubits, which, adding as before the thickness of the walls, gives 100 cubits in length. The whole temple-building was 500 cubits from west to east, and from north to south, 500 cubits.

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’ space which was cut off from the chambers, an& the five cubits’ space before them by a breast wall, as some think. At the end of either temple, oracle, or foresaid space, toward the west, was seventy cubits broad: as men are not agreed about the fabric, and its dimensions, here intended to be measured, so they are as little agreed how to compute the measures; every one however makes out his account, whether the thing he measures be the right or mistaken. First, suppose the temple and the west part of it from north to south, thus: Twenty cubits the oracle, each side wall six cubits, breadth of chambers on each side four, the thickness of the out-walls of these chambers on both sides five cubits each, a void space of five cubits compassing the whole, and then the low or breast wall that enclosed this space five cubits thick on each side, making up the third ten, produce the seventy cubits. But they that think of a distinct building on the west end of the temple, do also in their method make out the account. The wall of the building was five cubits thick: this seems to countenance their opinion who conceive a distinct building meant.

The length thereof ninety cubits: these proportions are easily laid together, which will make up the total, and agree with the temple, thus: Temple and oracle with their walls seventy cubits, porch eleven, and chambers and walls nine cubits. And who will have such a new structure here measured (which is more than was in the first temple fabric) will make all correspond to their hypothesis, and you may more easily object against another’s than demonstrate your own guess. The best is, the error is not great if a man do err here.