EXPOSITION. OHAPTER XLL in itself be unobjectionable, only no such device is required to render the clause The present chapter continues the de- intelligible. It is sufficient to understand ami.ption of "the house," and falls into four the phrase e.s signifying that the measure- subdivisions. (1) The interior of the ments noted he.d a special relation to the entire breadth of the temple, here styled temple, or the holy e.nd most holy places " tabernacle," or " tent," to indicate the (vers. 1-4); (2) the we.II e.nd the side covered portion of the edifice1 which, in this buildings (vers. 5-11); (3) the gizrah, or respect, 11,ud in respect of its being the place separate place (vere. 12-H); (4) the pro- of meeting between Jehovah and Isra.el, resembled the ancient ea.nctuary of the jecting portions of the temple building wilderness. (v~s. 15-26). Ver. 2.-The breadth of the door, i.e. of Vere. 1-4.-The interior of the temple. the opening from the poroh, was ten. oubits j Ver. 1.-The temple. ',;;ro;:i, frequently whereas the door into the poroh was eleven applied to the whole building (2 Kings cubits (eh. xl. 49). This would have the xriv. 13; 2 Chron. iii. 17; Jer. 1. 28; Hag. effect of rendering the door into the holy iL 15; Zech. vi. 14, 15), is here need of the place more conspicuous. The Bides (or, nave of the temple, the holy pla.ce, a.s ahou"lders) of the door-o.ccording to Klie- dieLinguisbed from the holy of holies (comp. foth, " the side we.Us," from the door to the 1 Kings vi. 5, 17; vii. 50). Schroder a.lone corner pillars ; according to Keil, • the of commentators holdB by the extended shoulders lay behind the pillars-were five meaning. The measuring began from the cubits on the one Bide, e.nd five cubits on the east wall of the holy place. The posts other; i.e. were e.s broad e.s the posts of the (D'~'l!), e.e in eh. xl. 9, the corner pillars on porch. The length of the holy place, forty cubita, e.nd the breadth, twenty, were the each side of the entrance, measured six ea.me as in the Solomonio structure. The cubits broad, whereas those of the porch entire frontage of the holy place we.a 20 mee.sured only five (eh. xl. 48). The phrase, cubits of interior breadth + 12 (2 X 6) The breadth of the tabernaole; or, the tent cubits, e.s breadth of pillars = 82 cubits; or, (½H:;i), has occasioned dif:I:lculty. Hitzig, otherwise, 6 + 6, for the two pille.n, 5 + 5 Ewald, and Smend propose to substitute for for the eidea, and 10 for the door opening = ',~k::, the word ":1$:;i (" poet"), which might 32 oubitB in e.ll. cm. x1.1. 1-26.J THE BOOI{ OF TliE PROPITl~T EZEKI:reL. 343
Ver. 3.-Then went he inward; i.e. into temple (see Josephus, • Ant.,' viii. 3. 2). It the most holy place. As this could not bo is not needful to alter the text, as Bottcher, entered even by e. priest, but only by the Hitzig, Havemick, and Ewald propose to high priest once e. year (Exod. xxx. 10; do, in order to make it read, with the LXX., Lev. xvL 17 ; Heb. ix. 7), Ezekiel was left "chamber against chamber, thirty and (this) without, while " the man" announced to three times,'' on the ground that 'I!! and not him in succession the measurements of the ',p is the preposition, because in Ezekiel ,~ adytum, as these were to.ken. First, that of the post of the door (the singular for the often stands for 'll (eh. xviii. 6 ; xxxi. 12 ·; plural, meaning the post on either side of xl. 2). How the chambers were arran,,.ed the doorway) two cubits. Next, that of the a_long the three sides is not stated ; bnt ~ost door itself, which is given :first e.s six and likely there were twel"-: threes on each of second Bi seven cubits. Kliefoth and Keil the longer sides, the -10\ih and the south take the six as the height a.ud the seven as and six threes on the 8'wrter or western side'. the breadth of the entrance into the holy of Like the chambers in Solomon's temple holies; but a.a no other mea.surement of (l Kings vi. 6), those in Ezekiel's were not height occurs throughout this description, fastened to "the waU of the house," i.e. of Dr. Currey regards " six" a.a the distance the temple proper; the only question is from ••post" to "post," and "seven" as the whether they were built age.inst the temple actue.1 width of the door, ea.eh poet project- wall, as Kliefoth, Keil, Smend, and Schro- ing be.If a. cubit beyond the binge of the der suppose, or, as Ewald and Dr. Currey door, which opened inward. Ewe.Id and seem to think, against another wall, five Villa.lpa.ndns, e.fter the LXX., read, " the cubits thick (ver. 9), which ran parallel to entrance six cubits and the flanks of the THE TEMPLE. entrance seven cubits;" and these figures, 7 + 6 + 7, certainly make up the breadth p of the interior; only it is impossible to 'l extract this meaning from the Hebrew s without tampering with the text. Ver. 4.-The holy of holies was an exact square of twenty cubits, 118 in the temple of Solomon (1 Kings vi. 20), and to the m011suring-man, who had turned himself round, lay along the whole breadth of the temple or holy ple.ce. 8 Vere. 5-11.-The wall and side buildings. Ver. 5.-The measuring commenced with the wall of the house, i.e. with the outer we.11, whioh, beginning at the pillars (ver. 1), enclosed the temple on its south, west, and north sides. Its great thickness, six cubits, corresponded with and even sur- passed tbe colossal proportions of archi- tecture in the ancient East. The walls of Solomon's temple, though not mentioned in either Kings or Chronicles, could hardly have been lees tbe.n four cubits thiok (see I Kings vi. 6), and wore probably more 5c.AL£ 01 cuami (Sohiirer). Like the Solomonic (l Kings 1•20"°"°"' vi. 5-10), the Ezekelian temrle had side ohambers, which, like those o the earlier A, porch or temple; u, holy place, ~o X ,o building, served as storehouses for priests' cubits; o, holy or holies. 20 X 20 cubits; E, wall clothing, temple utensils, and templo of house, 8 cubits; F, aide chambers, 4 cubits i o, wall of chambers, 6 cubits; n, light passage, 6 treasures (1 Kings vii. 51 ; 2 Kings xi. 2; cubits (In other plaus, this light passage runs In 2 Chron. v. 1), and measured four cubits front of the chambers); p, q, r, ,, templo area, 100 broad in the clear. cubits square; s, e, s, free space, 20 cubits broad; <J, altar of Incense In the ho))' place ; d, d, doors Ver. 6.-The siJe ohambers were three, of •Ide ch11mbers. one over another, and thirty in order; lite- rally, Bide chambeT over side chamber, three the temple wall, and which, having been and thirty times; which means that they built expreasly for tho support of the siJe were rongecl in three stories of thirty eo.ch ; chambers, might properly enough be said in this, ago.in, agreeing, e.s to number and to be " of the house," i.e. belonging to it. position, with the chambers in Solomon's In the former case the chambers would THE IlOOK OF THE PROPilET EZEKIEL. [err. xtI. 1-26.