Ezekiel 42:1

1 Then he led me into the outer courtyard - the route went north - and brought me to the [block of] rooms opposite the separated yard and opposite the building to the north.

Ezekiel 42:1 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 42:1

Then he brought me forth into the utter court, the way toward
the north
After the dimensions of the gates and courts of this building had been shown, and that of itself, the holy and most holy place, with the ornaments thereof; the prophet is brought by his guide into the outward court, which encompassed the building to the north part of it; probably he came out of the north gate of the house into it. So the Targum renders it,

``by the way of the gate which is open to the way of the north:''

and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate
place;
or holy of holies; see ( Ezekiel 41:12 ) , over against or before this, to the north of it, were a chamber or chambers; the singular being put for the plural; whither the prophet was brought to take a view of, being a new and distinct building from all others he had seen before; unto one of them, or to the place of them, as Jarchi, where they stood: there were two rows of them opposite to each other, and a walk between them; they are afterwards called the north and south chambers, ( Ezekiel 42:13 ) : and which was before the building toward the north;
this chamber or chambers were over against or before the whole fabric, to the north of it. The Jews here confess their ignorance, there being nothing in the first or second temple answerable to these. Lipman ^F19 expressly says these chambers were not in the second temple; perhaps they may design the Protestant reformed churches in the northern parts of the world; the religion of Protestants is by the Papists called the northern heresy: and if our northern churches are here pointed at and described, it is a great honour that is done them, to have a particular apartment allotted them in this wonderful building; compare ( Psalms 48:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Tzurath Beth Hamikdash, sect. 71.

Ezekiel 42:1 In-Context

1 Then he led me into the outer courtyard - the route went north - and brought me to the [block of] rooms opposite the separated yard and opposite the building to the north.

2 The length of the front was 175 feet on the north side, where the door was; the width was eighty-seven-and-a-half feet.

3 It was located between the inner courtyard, which was thirty-five feet wide, and the flooring of the outer courtyard. It had galleries, one above the other, on three floors.

4 In front of the [block of] rooms was a walkway seventeen-and-a-half feet wide and a path twenty-one inches [wide]; their doors faced north.

5 The upper rooms were shorter, because the galleries took up some of their space, more than from the [rooms on the] lower and middle [floors] of the building.