Ezekiel 40:42

And the four tables were of hewn stone,.... These are either the same tables as before, the four that were on one side, and the four that were on the other; they were all made of hewn stone: in the second temple they were made of marble; so it is said in the Misnah q,

"the marble tables were between the pillars;''

and they were made of marble, as the commentators r say, because that cools the flesh, and preserves it from corruption: they were both decent and durable; and may denote the continuance of the ordinance of the Lord's supper till his second coming; and which is a decent and becoming ordinance, as well as perpetual: or these were other four tables, as Cocceius thinks; and which he places without the porch, near the cell or chamber, where the burnt offering was washed, Ezekiel 40:38, and these are said to be for that, as follows,

for the burnt offering: and also for the sin offering, and for the trespass offering, though they are not mentioned:

of a cubit and an half long, and a cubit and an half broad; just a foursquare:

and one cubit high; these were the dimensions of each table:

whereupon also they laid the instruments wherewith they slew the burnt offering and the sacrifice: the knives with which they slew the creatures offered, and cut them to pieces, and the bowls and basins in which they received their blood; these were laid upon the tables, as the sacrifices were: and may signify, that in the ordinance of the Lord's supper are not only represented the sacrifice of Christ, but the means, instruments, causes, and occasion of it; the sins of his people, for which he was wounded and bruised in his body, and with which he was pierced in his soul; and here we may look on him whom we have thus pierced, and mourn; and yet rejoice that there is healing by his stripes, pardon by his blood, and atonement by his sacrifice.

q Tamid, c. 3. sect. 5. Middot, c. 3. sect. 5. r Maimon. Bartenora in ib.