Ezekiel 43:16

16 The altar hearth shall be square at its four corners, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide. [a]

Ezekiel 43:16 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 43:16

And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad
The length of it, from east to west, was twelve cubits; and the breadth, from north to south, was the same; so that it was a proper foursquare, as follows: Christ the altar, or the doctrine of his sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of men, is the doctrine of the twelve apostles of Christ, and embraced by the twelve times twelve, the 144,000 that belong unto him: square in the four squares thereof;
as the altar in the tabernacle, and Solomon's temple, were, ( Exodus 27:1 ) ( 2 Chronicles 4:1 ) , denoting the largeness of Christ's sacrifice, the perfection of it, and its stability and permanency, to take away the sin, of his people.

Ezekiel 43:16 In-Context

14 The space from the gutter on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the ledge one cubit wide. The space from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge shall be four cubits, and the ledge one cubit wide.
15 The altar hearth shall be four cubits high, and four horns shall project upward from the hearth.
16 The altar hearth shall be square at its four corners, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide.
17 The ledge shall also be square, fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, with a rim of half a cubit and a gutter of a cubit all around it. The steps of the altar shall face east.”
18 Then He said to me: “Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is constructed, so that burnt offerings may be sacrificed on it and blood may be splattered on it:

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. 12 (long) cubits is approximately 21 feet or 6.4 meters.
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