Ezekiel 40:42

42 And there were also four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high, on which the instruments were to be laid with which the burnt offerings and the sacrifices were slaughtered.

Ezekiel 40:42 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 40:42

And the four tables were of hewn stone
These are either the same tables as before, the four that were on one side, and the four that were on the other; they were all made of hewn stone: in the second temple they were made of marble; so it is said in the Misnah ^F17,

``the marble tables were between the pillars;''

and they were made of marble, as the commentators ^F18 say, because that cools the flesh, and preserves it from corruption: they were both decent and durable; and may denote the continuance of the ordinance of the Lord's supper till his second coming; and which is a decent and becoming ordinance, as well as perpetual: or these were other four tables, as Cocceius thinks; and which he places without the porch, near the cell or chamber, where the burnt offering was washed, ( Ezekiel 40:38 ) , and these are said to be for that, as follows, for the burnt offering:
and also for the sin offering, and for the trespass offering, though they are not mentioned: of a cubit and an half long, and a cubit and an half broad;
just a foursquare: and one cubit high;
these were the dimensions of each table: whereupon also they laid the instruments wherewith they slew the
burnt offering and the sacrifice:
the knives with which they slew the creatures offered, and cut them to pieces, and the bowls and basins in which they received their blood; these were laid upon the tables, as the sacrifices were: and may signify, that in the ordinance of the Lord's supper are not only represented the sacrifice of Christ, but the means, instruments, causes, and occasion of it; the sins of his people, for which he was wounded and bruised in his body, and with which he was pierced in his soul; and here we may look on him whom we have thus pierced, and mourn; and yet rejoice that there is healing by his stripes, pardon by his blood, and atonement by his sacrifice.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 Tamid, c. 3. sect. 5. & Middot, c. 3. sect. 5.
F18 Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Ezekiel 40:42 In-Context

40 And on the outside of the vestibule at the entrance of the north gate were two tables; and on the other side of the vestibule of the gate were two tables.

41 Four tables were on the inside, and four tables on the outside of the side of the gate, eight tables, on which the sacrifices were to be slaughtered.

42 And there were also four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high, on which the instruments were to be laid with which the burnt offerings and the sacrifices were slaughtered.

43 And hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened round about within. And on the tables the flesh of the offering was to be laid.

44 Then he brought me from without into the inner court, and behold, there were two chambers in the inner court, one at the side of the north gate facing south, the other at the side of the south gate facing north.