Ezekiel 41:6

6 The rooms were arranged on three different stories. There were 30 rooms on each story. These rooms had supports all the way around the temple wall, but these supports were not fastened to the temple wall.

Ezekiel 41:6 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 41:6

And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty
in order
There were three stories of them, and thirty in every storey, in all ninety; there were such chambers round about Solomon's temple, and so many stories of them, though their number is not expressed, ( 1 Kings 6:5 1 Kings 6:6 ) , but Josephus ^F26 says they were thirty, and one above another, three stories of them, as here. Some think twelve were on the north side, twelve on the south, and six on the west; or fifteen on the north, and fifteen on the south. The Misnic doctors ^F1 say there were thirty eight in the second temple, fifteen on the north side, fifteen on the south, and eight on the west. The Targum is,

``the chambers were chamber over chamber thirty three, eleven in a row;''

and so some ^F2 understand it, that they were in all but thirty three, eleven in the first storey, as many in the second, and the same number in the third; and place them four in the north, four in the south, and three in the west, so Starckius; but the first account seems best. This denotes the number of churches in Gospel times, especially in the latter day; when there will be large conversions, and room enough for all the converts: and as there are many mansions in heaven for all the saints; so there will be room enough in the New Jerusalem, the more perfect state of the church on earth, to hold the whole palm bearing company, whose number no man can number; and all the nations of them that are saved, who will walk in the light of it, ( Revelation 7:9 ) ( 21:24 ) : and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the
side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not
hold in the wall of the house;
the beams of the floors of those side chambers rested indeed upon the wall of the house which was built for them; but were not inserted into it, or laid in it, as we see in some buildings; but there were projections or buttresses in the wall, or what are called narrowed rests, ( 1 Kings 6:6 ) or rebatements of the breadth of a cubit, on which they were laid and rested; and so it was in the upper stories, as in the lowermost; there being an abatement of a cubit in the thickness of the wall in each storey, as in the following verse. This shows the firmness of this spiritual building resting upon such a wall and such buttresses as God himself is to it; (See Gill on Ezekiel 41:5).

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect. 2.
F1 Misn. Middot, c. 4. sect. 3.
F2 Lipman. Tzurath Beth Hamikdash, sect. 69. fol. 10. 1.

Ezekiel 41:6 In-Context

4 Then he measured the room at the end of the holy place. It was 35 feet long and 35 feet wide. The man said to me, "This is the most holy place."

5 Next, the man measured the temple wall. It was 10½ feet wide. The width of each side room around the temple was 7 feet.

6 The rooms were arranged on three different stories. There were 30 rooms on each story. These rooms had supports all the way around the temple wall, but these supports were not fastened to the temple wall.

7 The side rooms grew wider all the way around as they went up, story after story. The surrounding structure went from story to story all around the temple. The structure grew wider as it went higher. A stairway went from the first story through the second story to the third story.

8 I also saw a raised base all around the temple. This base was the foundation for the side rooms. It measured the full length of the measuring rod, 10½ feet.