Ezekiel 41

1 He brought me into the Temple itself and measured the doorposts on each side. Each was ten and a half feet thick.
2 The entrance was seventeen and a half feet wide. The walls on each side were eight and three-quarters feet thick. He also measured the Temple Sanctuary: seventy feet by thirty-five feet.
3 He went further in and measured the doorposts at the entrance: Each was three and a half feet thick. The entrance itself was ten and a half feet wide, and the entrance walls were twelve and a quarter feet thick.
4 He measured the inside Sanctuary, thirty-five feet square, set at the end of the main Sanctuary. He told me, "This is The Holy of Holies."
5 He measured the wall of the Temple. It was ten and a half feet thick. The side rooms around the Temple were seven feet wide.
6 There were three floors of these side rooms, thirty rooms on each of the three floors. There were supporting beams around the Temple wall to hold up the side rooms, but they were freestanding, not attached to the wall itself.
7 The side rooms around the Temple became wider from first floor to second floor to third floor. A staircase went from the bottom floor, through the middle, and then to the top floor.
8 I observed that the Temple had a ten-and-a-half-foot-thick raised base around it, which provided a foundation for the side rooms.
9 The outside walls of the side rooms were eight and three-quarters feet thick. The open area between the side rooms of the Temple
10 and the priests' rooms was a thirty-five-foot-wide strip all around the Temple.
11 There were two entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one placed on the north side, the other on the south. There were eight and three-quarters feet of open space all around.
12 The house that faced the Temple courtyard to the west was one hundred twenty-two and a half feet wide, with eight-and-three-quarters-foot-thick walls. The length of the wall and building was one hundred fifty-seven and a half feet.
13 He measured the Temple: one hundred seventy-five feet long. The Temple courtyard and the house, including its walls, measured a hundred seventy-five feet.
14 The breadth of the front of the Temple and the open area to the east was a hundred seventy-five feet.
15 He measured the length of the house facing the courtyard at the back of the Temple, including the shelters on each side: one hundred seventy-five feet. The main Sanctuary, the inner Sanctuary, and the vestibule facing the courtyard
16 were paneled with wood, and had window frames and door frames in all three sections. From floor to windows the walls were paneled.
17 Above the outside entrance to the inner Sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner Sanctuary and the main Sanctuary,
18 angel-cherubim and palm trees were carved in alternating sequence.
19 a human face toward the palm tree on the right and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the left. They were carved around the entire Temple.
20 The cherubimÐpalm tree motif was carved from floor to door height on the wall of the main Sanctuary.
21 The main Sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe. In front of the Holy Place was something that looked like
22 an altar of wood, five and a quarter feet high and three and a half feet square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. The man said to me, "This is the table that stands before God."
23 Both the main Sanctuary and the Holy Place had double doors.
24 Each door had two leaves: two hinged leaves for each door, one set swinging inward and the other set outward.
25 The doors of the main Sanctuary were carved with angel-cherubim and palm trees. There was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside.
26 There were narrow windows alternating with carved palm trees on both sides of the porch.

Ezekiel 41 Commentary

Chapter 41

- After the prophet had observed the courts, he was brought to the temple. If we attend to instructions in the plainer parts of religion, and profit by them, we shall be led further into an acquaintance with the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 41

In this chapter the divine and illustrious Person, the prophet's guide, brings him to the temple itself, and gives the dimensions of the posts and doors, both of the holy and the most holy place, Eze 41:1-4, then of the wall of the house, its side chambers, the winding about to them, and the doors of them, Eze 41:5-11, next of a building before the separate place, its doorposts, narrow windows, and galleries, Eze 41:12-17, after that each of the ornaments of the house are described, Eze 41:18-21, then the altar of incense, Eze 41:22, and the chapter is concluded with observing the decorations and lights on the doors, porch, and side chambers of the temple and sanctuary, Eze 41:23-26.

Ezekiel 41 Commentaries

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.