The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 343

that the second "over against" points to xv. II. 5) and probo.bly also the Solomonie that which fo.ccd the chambors on the temple (Acts iii. 11); and hence the eecond north, viz. the pavement, ae the first marked and third stories required to recede in order their boundary on the south. Gallery to find supports for their respective galleries. against gallery (see on eh. xii. 15). In Ver. 7.-Thewall; or,fenr,e-the Hebrew three stories ; or, in the third story (R&- term being not ~M, as in nh. xl. 5, or ,•P., vised V crsion). Whether these galleries as in eh. xii. 5, botb of which signify the existed in ea.eh of three stories of the hnild- wall of a city or a building, but iJ/ (or i:;ri,, ing, or only in the third, cannot be de- e.s in ver. 10), which means n. fence or termined. If c•iii,w:;i, "in the thirds" occurs hedge, as in eh. xiii. 5-without, over elsewhere only i~' Gen. vi. 16, to denote against-or, by the Bide of (Revised Ver- the chambers or rooms of the third story sion) - the chambers, toward the outer in the ark, as Smend observes, " the ex- court, cannot have been a rampart along pres.ion might also quite naturally signify the north Bide of the chambers, since this three stories, one above another." was a hundred cubits long, but must have Ver. 4.-:Before the ohambers a walk. been a wall upon the side of the chambers Whether thia walk ran along the longer, (east or west) fencing off the outer court i.e. northern, or in front of the eastern side from the pas8age which led down by the of the chambers, and how it stood related Bide of the chambers. That this fence was to the way, which is likewise mentioned in on the east side is rendered probable by connection with the chambers, are litigated the circumstance that the sacrificial kitchen questions. The LXX. identifies the two, and lay upon tho west (see eh. xlvi. 19, 20), and understands a way in front of the chnmbers by the statements which follow in vers. 8 of ten cubits broad and a hundred oubits and 9. The fence was doubtless intended long. Ewald and Keil so far agree with to screen the side windows of the lower the LXX. a.s to change the one-cubit way cho.mbers from public gnze, since these were into a hundxed-cnbit way; but whereas to be occupied o.s robing o.nd disrobing Ewald thinks of a passage ten oubits broad rooms for the priests who should officiate nnd a hundred onbits long, running from in the temple (see ver. H; and eh. xliv. west to east between two sets of chambers, 19). Keil speaks of a walk of ten cubits broad Ver. 8.-Accord.ing to the st.ntement con- and a hundred cubits long in front of the tained in this verse, the chambers that were cells, extending into a way of equal breadth in the outer oonrt, i.e. the chambers whose and length. leading westward into the inner windows looked into the outer court, pro- court. Hiivernick's, Hengstenberg's, and jected fifty cubits into the outer court; i.e. Kliefoth's idea., favoured by Schroder, thia was their breo.dth or depth from north and probably the best, is that of a walk to south; whereo.s those before the temple of ten cubits in front of the cells. and a were an hundred cubits; i.e. the cha.mbers way of one cubit leading into them from whose windows fronted the temple, were the walk. Dr. :Currey reverses this, and a hundxed cubits from east to west. makes a wall, of ten cubits leading inward, Ver. 9.-The chambers were approached and a way, or kerb, of one cubit in front. by an entry (in the text the entry, this Plnmptre egrees that the passage leading being a well-known o.nd recognized part into the chambers was ton cubits broad, of the structure) which ru.n o.long the east but regards the one onbit ns denoting the side of the building, and led from the outer thickness of the wall sepnrating the wall, to the templo court. As this (the outer) from the interior of the chambers. court was higher than tho.t (the temple), Ver. 5.-The rendering of the Revised and could only be reached by steps, the V nsion sufficiently explains this otherwise "entry" is represented ns lying under the obscure verse, "Now the upper chambers chambers. It we.a manifestly this "entry" were shorter," or narrower, "for the gal- that was soreened by the fence mentioned leries took away from these;" literally, in ver. 7. did eat of them, " more than from the lower Vere. 10-12.-A similo.r auite of cham- e.nd the middlemost in the building." In bers, corresponding in every detail, is de- other words, the chambers rose in terrace picted as having stood upon the south side form, each of the upper stories receding of the temple o.nd in front of the gizru.h. from that below it, as was customary in The only question among interpreters is Babylonian architecture. whether ver. 10 relates to the north or Ver. 6 supplies the reason for this short- south suite, or to an east suite. Sohroder ening of the upper stories. The chambers and Ourrey see in ver. 10 a repetition, from had not pillars (see on oh. xl. 49) as the another point of view, of what has already courts had. Though it is not otherwise been stated about the north chambers, viz. stated, these appea.r to ho.ve had oolonnadea that, viewed from the outer court, they like those in the Herodian(Josephus, •Ant.,' appea.red in the thickness or breadth of th41j 35G THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [cu. XLII, 1-20.