Ezekiel 42:1-14

CHAPTER 42.

CHAMBERS OF THE TEMPLE AND ITS BOUNDARY WALLS.

Ezekiel 42:1. And he brought me forth into the outer court, the way toward the north, and he brought me to the chamber which is over against the separate place, and which is over against the building toward the north.

Ezekiel 42:2. Before the length of the hundred cubits (those, namely, of the separate place, mentioned in Ezekiel 41:13 ) was the north door, and the breadth fifty cubits (occupying half the space).

Ezekiel 42:3. Over against the twenty (i.e. probably the twenty cubits spoken of in Ezekiel 41:10 ) which belonged to the inner court, and over against the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery on gallery threefold.

Ezekiel 42:4. And before the chamber was a walk ten cubits broad; into the interior (namely, of the chamber) a way of one cubit: and their doors toward the north.

Ezekiel 42:5. And the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away (room) from them, above the lower and the middle parts of the building.

Ezekiel 42:6. For they were threefold, but they had not pillars as the pillars of the courts; therefore was it straitened more than the lowermost and the middle part from the ground.

Ezekiel 42:7. And the wall which was without over against the chambers, toward the outer court, in front of the chambers, its length was fifty cubits.

Ezekiel 42:8. For the length of the chambers which belonged to the inner court was fifty cubits; and lo, before the temple were an hundred cubits.

Ezekiel 42:9. And from below these chambers was the entrance on the east, when one goes to them from the outer court.

Ezekiel 42:10. The chambers were of the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place and over against the building.

Ezekiel 42:11. And the way (or direction) before them was like the appearance of the chambers which were on the north side, as long as they, as broad as they; and all their outgoings, and according to their plans, and according to their doors (was all made).

Ezekiel 42:12. And according to the doors of the chambers, which were toward the south, there was a door by the head of the way, the way directly before the wall toward the east, where one enters in.

Ezekiel 42:13. And he said to me, The apartments on the north and the apartments on the south, which are before the separate place, these are the sacred dwellings, wherein the priests, that draw near to the Lord, shall eat the most holy things; there shall they lay the most holy- things, and the meat-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; for the place is holy.

Ezekiel 42:14. When the priests enter in, then they shall not go out from the holy place into the outer court; and there shall they lay their garments wherein they minister, for they are holy; they shall put on other garments, and shall approach to what is of the people.

THIS part of Ezekiel 42 is taken up with describing the apartments, or chambers, which were reserved for the officiating priests. That this was their particular destination, is expressly stated in the two last verses. The aim and object of the buildings, therefore, is quite accurately denned; they were for the priests, that these might be able in their ministrations to treat with due solemnity the sacred things of the Lord, and keep broad the distinction between the holy and the corrupt, the Divine and the human; so that the particularizing here is in perfect accordance with the great design of the prophet, in exhibiting a restored community and worship purified from the corruptions which had hitherto cleaved to them. And as he had before (chap. Ezekiel 40:44-46) spoken of apartments on the north and south gates of the inner court for the officiating priests, it seems quite necessary to understand what is said here of the same; the prophet merely returns, after having seen and described what belonged to the temple, to take a second and more exact view of these sacerdotal chambers. But why they should be said to stand over against the separate place and the building belonging to it rather than the temple itself (Ezekiel 42:1-10), does not appear. Nor is the description generally of such a kind that we could hope to make it more intelligible to an English reader by any lengthened observations. It seems impossible to ascertain distinctly the pattern, without either making considerable alterations in the text or filling up many blanks from imagination. It is enough for us to know that the prophet saw in vision all the subordinate provisions made which were necessary to the full and efficient discharge of the duties of the priesthood. He thus obtained for the Church the assurance that the service of God would yet be performed so as to meet God's perfect approval. We therefore pass on to the closing verses, which give the dimensions of the boundary wall.