Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 40:5

"And, behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man`s hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a handbreadth each: so he measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed." — Ezekiel 40:5 (ASV)

The boundary wall of the temple courts. See Plan II.

A wall on the outside of the house - The wall enclosing the courts in which were the entrance gates.

By the cubit and an hand breadth - The Jews first used a cubit of fifteen inches, applying it principally to the vessels and furniture of the temple; next a cubit of eighteen inches (“a hand-breadth” longer than the former cubit); and lastly, after the captivity, the Babylonian cubit of twenty-one inches (a “hand-breadth” more). In the temple measurements they used only the cubit of eighteen inches; hence, the “cubit and hand-breadth” is the cubit of eighteen inches.