Ezekiel 42:5

5 Now the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away from the others, from the lower ones and from the middle ones.

Ezekiel 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.

Ezekiel 42:5 In-Context

3 Over against the twenty cubits which were in the inner court, and over against the pavement which was in the outer court, were the chambers in three stories.

4 And in front of the chambers was a walk of ten cubits breadth inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors toward the north.

5 Now the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away from the others, from the lower ones and from the middle ones.

6 For they were in three stories, but did not have pillars as the pillars of the courts; therefore they were narrower than the lowest and the middlemost from the ground.

7 And the wall that was without over against the chambers, toward the outer court in front of the chambers, was fifty cubits long.