Ezekiel 41:7 Komentář

An account was given of the porch of the house in the close of the foregoing chapter; this brings us to the temple itself, the description of which here given creates much difficulty to the critical expositors and occasions differences among them. Those must consult them who are nice in their enquiries into the meaning of the particulars of this delineation; it shall suffice us to observe, I. The dimensions of the house, the posts of it (Eze 41:1), the door (Eze 41:2), the wall and the side-chambers (Eze 41:5, Eze 41:6), the foundations and wall of the chambers, their doors (Eze 41:8-11), and the house itself (Eze 41:13). II. The dimensions of the oracle, or most holy place (Eze 41:3, Eze 41:4). III. An account of another building over against the separate place (Eze 41:12-15). IV. The manner of the building of the house (Eze 41:7, Eze 41:16, Eze 41:17). V. The ornaments of the house (Eze 41:18-20). VI. The altar of incense and the table (Eze 41:22). VII. The doors between the temple and the oracle (Eze 41:23-26). There is so much difference both in the terms and in the rules of architecture between one age and another, one place and another, that it ought not to be any stumbling-block to us that there is so much in these descriptions dark and hard to be understood, about the meaning of which the learned are not agreed. To one not skilled in mathematics the mathematical description of a modern structure would be scarcely intelligible; and yet to a common carpenter or mason among the Jews at that time we may suppose that all this, in the literal sense of it, was easy enough.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 41 In this chapter the divine and illustrious Person, the prophet's guide, brings him to the temple itself, and gives the dimensions of the posts and doors, both of the holy and the most holy place, Eze 41:1, then of the wall of the house, its side chambers, the winding about to them, and the doors of them, Eze 41:5, next of a building before the separate place, its doorposts, narrow windows, and galleries, Eze 41:12, after that each of the ornaments of the house are described, Eze 41:18, then the altar of incense, Eze 41:22, and the chapter is concluded with observing the decorations and lights on the doors, porch, and side chambers of the temple and sanctuary, Eze 41:23.

And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers,.... These chambers, as they rose up in stories one above another, were larger and larger; those in the middlemost storey were larger than those in the lower storey by a cubit; so much being taken out of the thickness of the wall, to make the rests or rebatements for the beams of the floor to rest upon, by which so much was gained in breadth for the chambers; and those in the upper storey, for the same reason, were a cubit broader than those in the middle, and two cubits broader than the lowermost; the floor of the first and lower storey was four cubits broad, Eze 41:5 the floor of the second five cubits; and the floor of the third or uppermost six cubits. The wall of the temple at the bottom was six cubits thick, Eze 41:5, at the middlemost storey five cubits; and at the uppermost four: and all this may denote the enlargement of the church of Christ, as it comes nearer the heavenly state; the present state of the church may be signified by the lower storey, where the chambers are narrowest; the state of the church in the latter day glory, or spiritual reign of Christ, by the middlemost, when it will be enlarged; its converts being very numerous, Isa 49:19 and the New Jerusalem church state by the uppermost storey; which city or state will be very large, and next to heaven, or the ultimate glory; see Rev 21:16. The "winding" that went upwards to the side chambers were winding stairs, which went up from one storey to another, higher and higher; see Kg1 6:8. The Misnic doctors say (c), that in the second temple these winding stairs went from one side of the temple to the other, from the north east to the northwest; by which they went up to the roofs of these chambers and to the upper room over the sanctuary. These may signify the various afflictions and tribulations, trials and exercises, in which the Lord leads his people, and by which the churches of Christ pass from one state to another: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: not on the outside, but within; properly round about the chambers, which are here called the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward; became broader and broader, as it rose up higher and higher: and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst; from being only four cubits broad in the lowest storey, it became five cubits in the middlemost, and from thence six cubits in the highest. (c) Misn. Middot, c. 4. sect. 5.

(Vers. 5 seqq.) And the wall of the house was measured six cubits, and the width of each side was four cubits all around the house. The sides were side by side, thirty-three on each side, and there were projections that entered through the wall of the house on the sides all around, in order to contain them and not touch the wall of the temple. And there was a ascending courtyard: going up through a spiral staircase and leading to the upper room of the temple in a circular path. Therefore, the temple was broader in the higher parts, and thus one ascended from the lower parts to the higher in the middle, and from the middle to the narrow, and to Thrael. However, what is placed in the Septuagint, 'And from the middle to the narrow,' that is, to the three balconies, and to Thrael, is not found in Hebrew. For Thrael also (which I do not know what it signifies; since it is not found in Hebrew) is read by those of Urani (), which both we and others have translated, and I have seen, so that the order of the testimony may be followed.

In this chapter the prophet gives us a circumstantial account of the measures, parts, chambers, and ornaments of the temple, vv. 1-26.

An enlarging, and a winding about - Perhaps a winding staircase that-widened upward as the inner wall decreased in thickness; this wall being six cubits thick; as high as the first story, five from the floor of the second story to that of the third, and four from the floor to the ceiling of the third story: and thus there was a rest of one cubit in breadth to support the stories. - Newcome.

THE CHAMBERS AND ORNAMENTS OF THE TEMPLE. (Eze. 41:1-26) tabernacle--As in the measurement of the outer porch he had pointed to Solomon's temple, so here in the edifice itself, he points to the old tabernacle, which being eight boards in breadth (each one and a half cubits broad) would make in all twelve cubits, as here. On the interior it was only ten cubits.

the breadth . . . so increased from the lowest . . . to the highest--that is, the breadth of the interior space above was greater than that below.