Ezekiel 40:44-47

Ezekiel 40:44. And outside the inner gate were apartments for the singers in the inner court, which were alongside the north gate, and looking toward the south; and one alongside the east gate, looking toward the north.

Ezekiel 40:45. And he said to me, This apartment which looks towards the south, is for the priests who keep the charge of the house.

Ezekiel 40:46. And the apartment that looks toward the north, is for the priests who keep the charge of the altar; these are the sons of Zadok, who draw near of the children of Levi to minister to the Lord.

Ezekiel 40:47. And he measured the court, an hundred cubits long, and an hundred cubits broad, a square; and the altar was before the house.

The two remaining verses properly belong to the next chapter, which treats of the temple itself; with which, therefore, we shall couple them. The court mentioned in the last verse, which measured an hundred cubits square, must not be confounded with what in the preceding verses is called the inner court. The inner court was the court of Israel, which was open to all who had sacrifices and offerings to bring; and it went round the three sides of the sacred territory, of the breadth of an hundred cubits, or two hundred feet. But this court was precisely an hundred cubits square, and had the altar standing in it, in front of the temple. It was the court of the priests; and hence is mentioned in connection with those who had charge of the house, the altar, and the sacred music. The description here is more brief, as the things connected with this portion had from the first been made matter of Divine regulation.