Ezekiel 40:6-16

The east gate-building. See Plan III.

Ezekiel 40:6

Stairs - Seven in number Ezekiel 40:22. Each threshold of the gate (was) one reed broad (or 9 ft.). The measurements are being taken from East to west, i. e., in depth.

Ezekiel 40:7

Every little chamber - The guard-chambers (a) for the use of the Levites who kept watch in the temple.

The threshold of the gate by the porch - The second threshold in the easternmost gate-way (c).

Porch - Hebrew אולם 'ûlâm; the Septuagint: αἰλάμ ailam; Vulgate: vestibulum. The word probably means porch or portico, connected with “ail” post or pillar.

Ezekiel 40:9

The porch is now measured from north to south in “wide.” “The breadth of the entry of the gate” was “ten cubits,” made up of the “eight cubits,” with “a cubit” for “a post” or pillar on each side Ezekiel 40:11.

Posts - A projection like a ram’s horn; in architecture, a column projecting from the wall with its base, shaft, and capital, or it may be the “base” only Ezekiel 40:16, Ezekiel 40:49. Here “post” represents the lower part of the column. and the dimensions given are those of the section of the base.

Ezekiel 40:10

In front of each guard-chamber were columns, whose “posts” (bases) were each one cubit square.

Ezekiel 40:11

The length of the gate - The length of the gateway (including the porch, E.) from the court to the uncovered space. The threshold was “six cubits,” and the porch “six.” In addition one cubit was probably allowed in front of the porch, as before the porch of the temple itself Ezekiel 40:49.

Ezekiel 40:13

This measurement is across the gate-building from north to south. The breadth of the gate-building was exactly half its length Ezekiel 40:15.

Ezekiel 40:14

Posts of threescore cubits - Sixty cubits were the length of a series of columns. This gives us another feature of the gate-building. Between the porch (E) and the two most western guard-chambers was a space of five cubits (through which the road passed), forming a kind of hall with columns along the sides. This hall is called the “arches” Ezekiel 40:16. A hall of the same dimensions was between the boundary wall and eastern guard-chambers Ezekiel 40:31. It is probable that in one of these halls (that of the eastern gateway of the inner court) the prince “ate bread” on solemn festivals Ezekiel 44:3.

Unto the post of the court round about the gate - This hall or colonnade extended the whole breadth of the building to the pavement (Ezekiel 40:18, H, Plan II). Outside the building on the pavement was a series of pillars.

Ezekiel 40:15

The whole length of the gate-building was thus made up:

Ezekiel 40:16

The “narrow” (closed and (?)latticed “windows” lit up both the guard-chambers and the hall. On the square base of the “post” stood the shaft in the form of a palm-tree, as we see in ancient buildings in the east.