The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 316

Yors. 35-37.-The ,wrfh gate of the inner looked towards the north and south. The cot1rt. The same minute specification of third quaternion of tnbles appears to have the guard-rooms, the pillars, w&ll-projec- been planted at the steps, presumably two ~ions, windows, steps, is ng&in repeated, as on each side, i.e. if with Kliefoth, Keil, and 1f to show tho.t e.ll parts in this divinely Schroder,;,~\))~ be translated" at the ascent" fashioned edifice were of equal moment. or "going Tup," i.e. e.t the staircase (com~. Vere. 88-43.-'l'he arrangements for ver. 26). If, however, with the Authorized 1acriflc6- Three things demand a tten- and Revised Versions, Ewald, Hengsten- tion-the aells for washing, the tables for berg, Smend, and others, ;,7,y7 be read elaughtering, and the hooks. "for the burnt offering," then the exact position of the tnhles is left undetermined Ver. SS.-The chambers. As the verse though in any case they must have bee~ explains, these were different from the nea.r the slaughtering-tables. As they were guard-rooms in the gates (vere. 7, 21) e.nd designed for heavy instruments, they were the chambers on the pavement (ver. 17), constructed of hewn stones a cubit and e. although the ea.me Hebrew word is employed half long, e. cubit and a he.If broad, and one to designate the latter. The oells under cubit high; from which it may he arcrued consideration were expressly designed for the eight previously mentioned were ;;'.iade washing "the inwards and the legs" of the of wood. victims brought for sacrifice (Lev. i. 9). Ver. 43.-The hooks. The word c•r-i!l:,I° Whether such a. cell stood at each of the occurs again only in Ps. lxviii. 13, whe;;:, • it three gates, as the plnral seems to indi- signifies "sheepfolds," or "stalls;" its oate, although described only in connection older form (c:JJ~t?r;i) appearing in Gen. xlix. with the north (Keil, Kliefoth, Pluruptre), or merely e.t one gate, and that the north- 14 and Judg. v." 16. As this sense is un- beca.nse, according to the Law (Lev. i. 11 ; suitable, recourse moat be had to its deriva- vi. 18; vii. 2), on the north side of the altar tion (from n~~. "to put, set, or fix"), which burnt, sin, and trespass offerings were to be so~gests as its import hereeither,as Ewald, killed (Havemick, Hengstenberg)-or the Kliefoth, Hengstenberg, Hii.vemick, and ee.st, which is alluded to in vere. 39, 40 Smend, following the LXX. and Vulgate, (Hitzig, Ewald, Smend), is controverted, prefer, "ledges,'' or "border guards,'' on the though the former view seems the prefer- edge of the tables, to keep the instruments able, seeing tha.t, according to eh. xlvi. 1, 2, or flesh from falling off; or, as Kimchi the priests were to prepare burnt offerings Gesenius, Fiirst, Keil, Schroder, and Plump= and pea.ea offerings for the prince at the tre, after the Chaldean paraphrast, explain, posl:II of the east gate. The situation of the "pegs" fastened in the wall for hanging cells is stated to have been by (or, beaide) the the slaughtered carcases before they were posts of (i.e. at) the gates (see on ver. 14), flayed. In favour of the first meaning but on which side of the gates, whether near stand the facts that the second clause of the right or left pillar, no information is this verse speaks of" tables,'' not of" walls," furnished. Keil and Kliefoth place those and that the measure of the ,1-.ephataim at the south and north gates on the west is one of breadth rather than of length ; side ; that at the east gate Keil locates on against it are the considerations that the its north side, KJiefoth placing one in the doa.l form, shephataim, fits better to e. forked side wall at each side of the ga.te. peg than to a double border, and that the · Vere. 39-42.-The tables. These were ehephataim nre stated to ha.ve been fn~tened twelve in nnmbr.r, of which eight were used "in the house" (ba-baith), which ogain suits for sla.ughtering purposes, i.e. either for the idea of a peg fastened in the outer wall slaying the sacrifices or for laying upon of the porch, rather than of a border fixed them the carcases of the slaughtered victims; upon a. table. The last clause of this verse and the remaining fonr for depositing there- is rendered by Ewald, after the LXX.," and on [he instruments employed in killing the over the tables" ( obviously those standing animals. Of the eight, fonr stood within outside of the porch) " were covers to pro- the porch of the gate, two on ea.eh side, and tect them from rain and from drought; " .four without-two on the aide as one goeth and it is conceivable that coverings might up to the entry of the north gate ; re.tLer, have been advantageous for both the woollen at the a1wtdder to one going up to the gate tables and the officiating priests; only the opening towards the Mrfh, Le. on the out- Hebrew must be changed before it ce.n yield side of the porch north wall; and two on the this rendering. other side or shoulder, i.e. on the outside of Vers. 44-46.-'l'he chamber, of the Binger& the porch sooth wall. '!'Lis determines the gate in question to have been, not the north According to nr. 44, these, of which tl1e pte, as the Authorized Version has con- number is not recorded, were situoted in the Jeetured, but the east gate, whose Bide walla inner court, outside of the inner gu.te, at on. XL. 1-49.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 327