SCALE IN CU BITS. 0 6 10 2_0 30 ,o. t., stair of •even steps; T, tbreebold of 8 x 10 cubits; c, chambers of _6 cubits square; s, spnc~s be&ween tbe c.bambere; r, porch of gate, 6 x 6 cubits; o, outer wall, 6 X 6 cubits; w, wall of gate, 6 x 6 cubits; oo, vi, thickne,s of chamber wall, It cubit; f,J, barrier• or fence before chambers, 8 X 1 cubl18; I, I, lines to which covering of way reached; E, gate pillars, 2 cubits square and 60 cubits high; e, 11, walls of threshold and porch, 14 x 6 cubits; b, b, chamber■ for waahlng; c, c, tables for slaughtering; d, d, table for knives, elc.; e, c, tables for laying flesh; ,1,.', stair of eigbt •teps. tions of pe.lm branches or pe.lm trees (Keil, into the outward court, i.e. the nrea surround. Ewe.Id, Kliefoth). Hengstenberg's idea, ing the temple buildings. There the firat that "whole palms beside the pille.rs are thing observed was that ohambera and a meant," is favoured by Smead, who cites, in pavement re.n round the court. The addition to ver. 26, eh. xli. 18, etc., and 1 chambers were cells, or rooms - n\:lr(? Kings vi 29; vii. 36. always signifying single rooms in a build- . Vere. 17-19.-The outer court. Emerg- ing(eee eh. xiii. I; I Cbron. ix. 26)-whose mg from the doorway inwards, the prophet, dimensions, exe.ct sites, and uses are not leeoI:lpe.nied by his celestial guide, stepped specified, though, as they were thirty in llll. XL, 1-49.] TRE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 825
number, it is probable they were arranged reverse order, beginning with the three on the east, north, and south sides of the " chambers," or lodges, on each side of the oourt, five upon each side of the gate, and footway (ver. 21), going on to the "posts," standing somewhat ap11rt from each other; "arches," and "windows," and ending that they were large enough to couto.in 11s with the outside steps, seven in number many as thirty persons (see 1 Sam. ix. 22; (ver. 22), which are here first mentioned and comp. Jer. xxxv. 2); and that they were in connection with the gates. Its dimensions designed for sacrificial meals and such-like were the same as those of the " first " gate, purposes (see eh. xliv. 1, etc.). In pre-exilic fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits times snch halls had been occnpied by dis- brood. It stood exactly in front of a tingnished persons connected with thetemplo corresponding gate into lhe inner coart, service (see eh. viii. 8-12; 2 Kings xxiii. 11 ; and the distance between the two gates was, Jer. xxxv. 4, etc.; :uxvi. 10; Ezra x. 6). The ae before, a handred cubits. pavement was a tesselated floor (comp. Vera. 2!--27.-Thesouth gate. Here again Esth. i. 6; 2 Chron. vii. 3), which ran round the same details recur as to the structure of the court and was named the lower pave- the gate, its dimensions, and distance from ment, to distinguish it from that laid in the the gate which led into the inner court. inner court which stood at a higher elevation Vera. 28-47.-The inner court, with its than the outer. As another note of position, it is stated to have been by the aide gates, chambers and slaughtering-tables: (literally, shovJder) of the gates over against (1) the south gate ( vers. 28-31) ; (2) the -or, answerable to (Revised Version)-the eost gate (vers. 32-34); (3) the north gate length of the gates. This can only mean (vere, 35-37); (4) the arrELngements for thnt the breadth of the pavement was fifty sacrifice (vers. 38-43) ; and (5) the cubits (the length of the gates, ver. 15) lees chambers for the officiating priests (vers. six cubits (the thickness of the wall, ver. 5), or forty-four cubits, and thnt it ro.n along 44-47). the inner length of the wall on either side Vere. 28-31.-771e south gate of th6 innet' of the gates. The breadth of the court from court. The construction and measurements the forefront of the lower gate, i.e. from the of this corresponded with those of the gates inner end of the east gate or the edge of the in the outer court, with only two points of pavement, Ulltotheforafront of the inner court difference, viz. that it possessed a flight of without was an h1llldred oubite. Whether eight steps instead of seven, and that the the measurement was up to the wall of the arohes, or wall-projections, were toward the inner court, within which, on this hypothesis, outer oourt. The difference in the number its gate must have wholly lain, or only up of the steps was doubtless of symbolio to the door of the inner court, which, on this signi.ficanoe, and pointed not only to the understanding, must have projected beyond higher sanctity in geneml which attached its wall, is obscure. The first interpretation to the inuer court, but to tile truth that, derives support from the circumstance that as one approaohed the dwelling-place of the terminU8 ad quem of the measurement is Jehovah, an inoreaeing meo.sure and degree said to have been, not the inner gate, but the of holiuoss weredemanded-who.t Plumptre inner court; while the second finds counte- styles "an ever-ascending sursum corda." nance in the use of the preposition y,m;i, which The seven steps of the outer door added to seems to indicate that the measuring pro- the eight steps of this amount to fifteen, ceeded from the western extremity of the with which corresponds the number of the outer gate to the eastern extremity of the pilgrim-pso.lms (Ps. oxx.-oxxxiv.), which inner gate, and appears to be confirmed by are supposed to bo.ve been sung, one upon vers. 23 and 27, as well as by the considera- each step, by the ohoir of Levites as they tion that in this way the symmetry of the ascended first into the outer and then into building would be better preserved than the inner court. The statement that tho by muking the outer go.le project into the wall-projeotiona were towards the outer court and the inner gate lie wholly within court showed that, in walking through the the inner wall. In this way the hundred inner gateway, one would reverse the ordor cubits ma!'ked the distance between the of the outer gate, i.e. would first po.ss extremities of the gates, the whole breadth through the poroh, then cross the threshold of tho court befog two hundred cubits, i.e. to the guo.rd-rooms, next step upon the a hundred cubits between the gates, with second threshold, and finally en tor the two gates' lengths of fifty oubits eELch added. inner court. The same measurements applied to the Vere. 32-34.-The east gate of the inner north gate, which the seer next o.pproaohed. court. The same resemblllnce to the outor Vere. 20-23.-Tlie north gate. This wo.e gates are noted in oonnection with this door- In all respeots simile.r to the.i upon the east, way, e.nd the same two point11 of distinction though its desoription prooeeds in the jWii commented ou.. 326 TRE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, [cu. ::tL. 1-49.