Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 41
Albert Barnes Commentary
Ezekiel 41
Albert Barnes Commentary
Ezekiel 41
"And he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle." — Ezekiel 41:1 (ASV)
The Temple - Properly the holy place (a), as distinguished from the porch (G) and the holy of holies (B) (1 Kings 6:17; 1 Kings 7:50).
The posts - The outer wall of the temple was six cubits thick (Ezekiel 41:5). The eastern posts of this wall, forming part of the front of the temple, were ornamented with pillars, six cubits on each side.
He measured the breadth - This breadth was twenty cubits (Ezekiel 41:2). “Tabernacle” is here the interior (the covered portion) of the temple.
"And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits." — Ezekiel 41:2 (ASV)
The measurements are internal, the same as in the Temple of Solomon.
"Then went he inward, and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the breadth of the entrance, seven cubits." — Ezekiel 41:3 (ASV)
He went inward - Toward the holy of holies. It is not said, “he brought me in,” but “he went in,” because the holy of holies was not to be entered even by a priest like Ezekiel, but only by the high priest once a year. So the “angel” enters and announces: the measurements.
The post of the door - On either side of the entrance was a pillar, the two together making up two cubits. The first measurement of the door was from “post to post,” six cubits; and the second measurement, the “breadth of the door,” was the breadth of the actual doors that shut off the holy of holies (Ezekiel 41:23), and which may have been so hung that each of the “posts” projected half a cubit beyond the hinge of the door (which opened inward), to secure the complete closure of the holy of holies.
"And he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place." — Ezekiel 41:4 (ASV)
The Temple - this is the holy place, as distinguished from the most holy, “the Oracle,” which is “before” the holy place, further inward.
"Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side-chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side." — Ezekiel 41:5 (ASV)
The wall of the house - This was the outer wall of the temple itself. Its thickness of six cubits corresponds with the colossal proportions of the architecture of the east.
Every side chamber - the side-chambers (D). These were a marked feature in Solomon’s Temple, and were probably used as storehouses for the furniture and property of the temple. The arrangement of these side-chambers differed in some respects from that of Solomon’s Temple, the object of Ezekiel’s vision being throughout to bring all things to a more exact proportion.
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