Yechezkel 42:5

5 Now the upper leshakhot were narrow; for the atikim took space from these, from the lower, and from the middlemost of the Binyan.

Yechezkel 42:5 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 42:5

Now the upper chambers were shorter
The chambers were in three stories, as in the following verse, one above another; the middlemost were shorter than the lowermost, and the upper shorter than either; just the reverse of the chambers in ( Ezekiel 41:7 ) , they were not so high from the floor to the ceiling, nor so broad from side to side. The reason follows: for the galleries were higher than these;
or, "ate out of these" ^F23, "than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building"; the meaning is, that the galleries or balconies in the middlemost and upper chambers were taken, out of them, and so made them lesser than the lower ones, and the upper ones lesser than either; or the posts or pillars, as the word may be rendered, see ( Ezekiel 42:3 ) , which supported the chambers, took more out of the uppermost than the others, and so made them shorter. This may signify the diversity of gifts and grace, of light and knowledge, and of liberty and comfort, in the churches; and that, as those that are uppermost have most light, they are usually the least, and fewest members in them; who are the few names in Sardis, ( Revelation 3:4 ) , and are generally more straitened, afflicted, reproached, and persecuted.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 (hnhm wlkwy) Keri, (wlkay) "comedebant ex ipsis", Mariana; "demordebant ab illis", Cocceius, Starckius.

Yechezkel 42:5 In-Context

3 Opposite the twenty cubits of the khatzer hapenimah, and opposite the ritzpah which was for the khatzer hakhitzonah, was atik (balcony) against atik in three stories.

4 And before the leshakhot was a mahalach (walkway) ten cubits in width leading inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors toward the north.

5 Now the upper leshakhot were narrow; for the atikim took space from these, from the lower, and from the middlemost of the Binyan.

6 For they were in three stories, but had not ammudim like the ammudim of the khatzerot; therefore they were set back from the ground more than the lowest and the middlemost.

7 And the wall that was outside over against the leshakhot, toward the khatzer hakhitzonah on the forepart of the leshakhot, the length thereof was fifty cubits.