fiosition in both temples. Of other tables or of ampstands not a word is written. Nor is anything said about what the dSblr contained. This may, of course, be due to the brevity with which the house is treated ; but as a matter of fact we do not read of the ark after the destruction of Solomon's temple. i;
Ezekiel's altar is much more elaborate than that of Solomon's temple, and owing to the large num- ber of technical terms 0 and other difficulties it is harder to reconstruct.
The altar was in form as if made up of four square blocks of stone, the lowest being the largest, the next being smaller to the extent of one cubit
~io Cubits
0123436-38
no. 8. — AI.TAR or BUBNTK)FPERINO 15 KZKRIEL'B TRMrLB.1
being taken np by a wall. The chambers had 3 storeys, but no pillars supporting them, as the 30 cells of the outer court had. 'flie cells on the upper storey were narrower than the two below, so that in the direction of the house there was a balcony, or rather corridor. The entrance to the cells was at tlie E. end, and was apparently on lower ground than that on which the cells were.it Bertholet concludes from this that the entrance was thus on the outer court level.
The MT doea not say anything as to the number of cells there were, but the LXX (fives the number as 30 in its host copies (A, etc.) : i.e. Ifi N. and tlie wime nunil)er S., 10 in each full row and & In each half row. The total would, according to this, be Identical with the cells along the outer walL
• I.e. the walls enclosing the openings rendered 'openingi.* These walls were themselves covered with beams; cf. D'C~;f'
I K tv» : it was on these beams that the wood-car\'ing was done. Berth., on account of the difficulty of uiiiierstanding how windows could be covered with wood, rejects this clause ; yet
II is found in all the .M8S and versions.
3 ■ naileries' of MT must go — so LXX, Comlll, Davldwn. Other changes are necessary in 4118.
»• n^i? ; of. Neh 3'1- •»■ i. The LXX omit* the word.
i Not four faces, like the chenibitn of ch. 1. More tbao two bees could I )t be represented on a Hat surface.
1 tik 4U'«. ; 41M. , 41".
« OlItJH. / 41"> t2>'I'. > F.lk t».
each side, the third and fourth having a superficial area less than the block below also of one cubit each side. There was thus a ledge or margin k of one cubit in width at the basis of the three upper blocks (Fig. 8 dd', ee', g g'). On the outer hall of the lowest margin there was an upright parapet X (g h, g' h'), forming a kind of channel into which, according to tradition, the sacrificial blood fiowed, whence it was conducted by a subterranean passage to the Wady Kidron./x The altar was not made of solid stone ; its interior was of earth, f but this was covered with stones, just as the altar of Solomon's temple had a covering of bra.ss. The
• 41>>.
^ The breadth 1* Dot glveii In MT, but It Is supplied by the LXX.
y nH'ipO. I mifarm. i 4ia.
C Ezk 41W. , See Abi. » aj, ^133, p'n, mj!'.
. Ezk 43is«r..
m p'n. The majority of commentator* follow the Targum, and make this word stand for 'basement,' 33 being really the word used for this. Thus Oeson. (.The*.). Iliiv., Kell, Corn., Orelli, Bertholet. and Kraetzschmar. The view fovo\ired in the text al>ove is defended by Villalpando (HOOS) and other oldel commentators, and by Smond (see his Ezechitl, where the argu menta are ylvenX
*■ '?<3;. u Voma ill. 1. i K^ SC"
710
TEMPLE
TEMPLE
altar had, however, the appearance of three blocks of solid stone, with three successive terraces, the lowest of tlieni being bound by a para|)et half a cubit wide. The uppermost surface was a square of 1-2 cubits each way ; and as on this the sacnhces were offered, it is called, by way of pre-eminence, the altar.a
Kcil and ComiU maintain tliat the altar proper ™s ac"^, of 12 cubits a side, tlie rest of the structure (all except i/^t^) beinl' a Ided tor use or o.nament, but formn.g no part o t e altar; but in the text the ^voni 'altar' .s used of the en^n. structure ; (3 and this larger sense is defended by hJietotb, Ewaia, Emend, A. B. Davidson, and Bertholet. The 'arVely or altarhearth had four horns [ba, b'a'), each a cubit high, rising out of its four corners. S The uppermost surface was as stated a square of 12 cubits on each side. The higliest block (A) had a thickness of 4 cubits. The area of the next block (B) was a square of 2 cubits wore on each side ; that is, it was 14 cu^ s a side and it had a thickness of 4 cubits The thud block from the top (C) had for its surface a square of 16 cubits on each side, and a thickness of Z cubits. The lowest block, tlie back or base,e had for its upper surface a square of 18 cubits a side, and a thickness of one cubit. The hci;.ht of the upper surface of the whole was 12 cubits, as is seen from the following details :—