We are not told the size of these cells, nor how they were distributed. A stone pavement extended from the outer wall to a distance corresponding to the guLeways, i.e. 44 cubits, which with the width of the wall (0 cubits) made 60 cubits. The cells are said to have been * upon the pavement,* which seems to mean that they had the pavement for floor. But the preposition rendered ' upon ' means prevailingly ' to,' S and the Hebrew permits the translation : ' the cells were attached to the pavement,' i.e. they were placed at the termination of the pavement without being on it. But the analogy of other cells makes it practically certain that these were attAched to the boundary wall. Taking this for granted, the prophet is quite silent as to how they were arranged.
Most authorities— Stade, I Benzinger,C Nowacktj (both the latter follow Stade closely), Davidson, Perrot and Chipiez, Keil. etc. — place 10 cells on the_ north, east, and south sides, leaving the west side for the binyan i (Fig. 6, B). Five are supposed to be on each side of the respective outer gates. This answers well to the symmetry so characteristic of Kzekiel's temple. Orelli and Bertholet — the latter treads closely in the footsteps of his Basel colleague — allocate six of these ceils to the west side, 3 on each side of the binyan (B). There are then 8 on each of the remaining 3 sides, 4 on one side of each gate and 4 on the other. The binyan occupying but a small part of the western wall, leaves room enough for 3 cells on each side of it. The words 'chambers and a pavement' made for the court row nrf abmU,i support the plan of putting cells on each of the 4 Bides, unless, indeed, with Kliefoth and Cornill, we limit the words ' round about ' to the pavement.
Opinions are divided also as to the way in which the cells stood in relation to one another. Keil>^ maintains that the cells on each side of the north, east, and south gates were but rooms in one building, like the rooms of a house. He has there- fore on his plan but 6 buildings for the 30 cells, 6 cells in each. But in that case we should have expected to read of ti build- ings, and not merely of 30 cells. Davidson separates the cells by an intervening space.x Stade, Benz., Now., Orelli, Berth., and Perrot and Chipiez join the cells, putting a mere wall between them ; and this is the likeliest view, for on Davidson's conception there would be a considerable wast« of labour and materials in the extra walls required.
Pavement. — The pavement already spoken of is called the ' lower pavement,V from which one would infer that the inner and upper courts was also paved. Smend concludes from 2 Ch V and Aris- teas' letter that the whole of the inner court was paved. Cornill rejects the words as an interpola- tion, though on purely subjective grounds.
Kitchen.^. — In each of the four corners of the outer court there was a kitchen in which the sacri- ficial meals were got ready,^ the size of each being 40 cubits long by 30 broad. The ' ministers of tlie house ' 0 boiled in them what the people brought to be sacrificed.
The Inner Court.— The inner court was for the priests alone ; and its being thus exclusively used, and there being more than one court at all, marks a new step in the religion of Israel. As compared with the outer and larger court, the inner was crowded with buildings having to do with the temple service, particulars of whicli will be found below. From the external margin of the outer walls to the walls of the inner court there was a distance of 150 cubits. The entrance to the inner
« For the sake of distinctness we use ' cell * for nj-.f'^, * piard- room' (or Nn, and 'chamber' for JJ^'J. Indian, Egj-ptian, etc., ^mples, as is well known, contained also, within their courts dwelhngs for priests, besides kitchens, refectories, etc. See Bealc's Oi/Wf to Architecture, p. 34.
0 Ezk 4017^0 42ifr. ; cf. 1 Ch O^, Ezr 10«, Neh IS"-.
)- 1 S 922 ; cf. je, 3J4 sgio. ,1,^
> OmcA. ii. 61. { lleb. Arch. , jja,. Arch
e Ezk 41". , Ezk 40" 3'59 3-39.
M Com. p. 8S3, pi. 1. A Com. p. 299 u. tOi».
» 4021. { 4621 'il.
• i-t. the aubordiDBte officials ; cf. Ezk 44>0'i<.
court was by means of 3 gates opposite to the 3 outer gates and of the same construction, only tliat the parts — threshold to porch — occurred in reverse order ; the porcli of the inner gate being next the steps, and not farthest away, as in the outer gate, etc. There were 8, not 7 steps between the two courts — a sign perhaps of the increased progress in holiness as compared with the passage from the outside to the first court.
Sacrificial cell and tables about the porch of the inner Nortliem {or Eastern?) Gate. — On one side of the inner northern gateway, joining tlie porch, and with a passage into the porch, there was a cell, not further described as to structure, size, or position. Smend a represents it as on the south side of the porch, having the same length and a third of its breadth. This cell was used for washing the burnt-otlerings./3