Ezekiel 40 Study Notes

40:1-4 This is the introduction to the vision.

40:1 This date (in the twenty-fifth year of our exile) is the thirteenth and final date formula in Ezekiel. This was April 573 BC. This was twelve years after the oracle in 32:1, fourteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and twenty years after Ezekiel’s first vision of the temple (8:1). The tenth day of the first month marked the beginning of the Passover that was celebrated four days later. Moreover, the twenty-fifth year was the halfway point to the next Jubilee Year when freedom and release would be observed (Lv 25). Jubilee is mentioned in Ezk 46:17 in reference to the return of the prince’s inheritance. But the number twenty-five has another significance in this vision. The dimensions of the temple are dominated by multiples of five, with the number twenty-five being most prominent. Whereas the opening vision of the heavenly King on his throne had been dated from the exile of the earthly king—Jehoiachin—this vision of the heavenly city is dated from the destruction of the earthly city, Jerusalem.

40:2 This vision provides a literary and conceptual envelope for the entire book. It complements especially the visions of God’s departure and the temple’s destruction in chaps. 9-11. This vision is the longest vision in the Bible apart from the book of Revelation. As Ezekiel received legislation for the new age upon this high mountain, it is natural to compare the experience of Moses receiving the law on Mount Sinai. Indeed, Ezekiel is the only person in the OT except Moses who transmitted legislation that he received directly from God. As Ezekiel’s vision was a vision of the city of Jerusalem, it is likely that this “very high mountain” is a reference to Mount Zion, often cited in the OT for its great height (17:22; Is 2:2; Mc 4:1; see Zch 14:10).

40:3 The measuring rod was used for short measurements. It was about ten feet four inches in length.

40:4 This shows the importance of this final revelation of the book.

40:5-16 Ezekiel’s angelic tour guide begins his tour outside the temple (see Lamar Cooper, Ezekiel, NAC).

40:5 The dimensions of the temple and the city are dominated by multiples of five. The gate structure measured twenty-five by fifty cubits; the temple house with its adjoining structures, fifty by a hundred cubits; the inner court and the quadrangles of the temple area, a hundred by a hundred cubits; and the entire temple complex, five hundred by five hundred cubits. The number of steps (7 + 8 + 10) leading to the temple adds up to twenty-five. The length of the measuring rod (six units of twenty-one inches; lit “six cubits, with a cubit and a handbreadth”) followed the later cubit length. The shorter cubit, eighteen inches, was used in former times (2Ch 3:3).

40:6-7 The alcoves, guardrooms, or recesses inside the temple gates were one rod long and one rod wide (10 ½ feet long and 10 ½ feet deep; see also v. 10). The projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. Guardrooms were also a part of the Solomonic temple (2Ch 12:11). This pattern also occurs at Solomon’s fortified gates uncovered at the cities of Gezer, Hazor, and Megiddo. Each gate had an initial threshold, three recessed chambers on either side, and an inner vestibule.

40:16 Representations of the palm tree also decorated Solomon’s temple (1Kg 6:29,32,35).

40:17-27 Ezekiel’s tour proceeds to the outer court.

40:17-19 A paved surface functioned something like a border around the outside edges of the outer court. Along this pavement were thirty rooms used by the Levites (perhaps for meals) in other Israelite temples (Neh 13:4-14; Jr 35:2-4). The distance from the outer gate to the exterior of the inner court was a hundred cubits, or 175 feet. The dimensions of the northern and southern gates as well as the space between these gates to the inner court were identical to the dimensions of the east gate (vv. 17-27).

40:28-41:26 Ezekiel’s tour reaches the inner court, which is the focus of the tour.

40:28 There was no western gate for this temple because the temple occupied the western side of the compound.

40:39 A burnt offering is mentioned in early texts such as Gn 8:20; Ex 10:25; and Jb 1:5. Burnt offerings were performed at momentous occasions in Israel’s history (Jos 8:31; 1Kg 9:25). The purpose of burnt offerings was to honor God and attract his attention. Times of thankfulness (Gn 8:20) as well as times of crisis (Jdg 20:26) called for such offerings. The burnt offering may be considered the most important sacrifice since it was the most prominent sacrifice in the festivals (Nm 28-29). It was distinctive insomuch as the entire offering (apart from the skin) was offered, leaving none for the priest to eat. But even burnt offerings were inferior to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who offered himself for sin once for all (Heb 10:1-4,10). The entire sacrificial system foreshadowed the death of Christ for the sins of the world.

For inadvertent sins, some were to be purified by the sin offering (Lv 4:1-5:13) while others required a guilt offering (Lv 5:14-6:7). In distinction to the sin offering, the guilt or restitution offering was required for offenses that created a debt between humans or between a human and God, as for instance if someone had improperly handled one of God’s “holy things,” such as the implements in the temple. It is of great Christological significance that the offering of the Suffering Servant in Is 53 is described as a guilt offering (Is 53:10). This passage was interpreted to be a prophecy of the suffering of the Christ by NT writers (see Mt 8:17; Lk 22:37; Jn 12:38; Rm 10:16; 1Pt 2:22,24-25), and thus Jesus’s death is understood as a guilt offering that removed the debt we owe to God.

40:46 According to the book of Ezekiel, the Zadokites will be distinguished from the Levites in the coming age. The Zadokites were sons of Zadok, who traced his Levitical lineage to Aaron through Aaron’s son Eleazar (1Ch 6:50-53). Zadok served as a priest under David, along with Abiathar (2Sm 8:17; 15:24-29; 20:25). Zadok was appointed chief priest during Solomon’s reign because he supported Solomon as king (1Kg 1:32-35; 2:26-27,35). The Zadokites were elevated and the Levites demoted out of concern for ritual purity, a dominant subject in Ezk 40-46.

40:47 In Ezekiel’s temple, square shapes (175 feet long and 175 feet wide) are often associated with holy places. The most holy place was a perfect cube (41:4).