Ezekiel 43:16

16 "The top of the altar, the hearth, is square, twenty-one by twenty-one feet.

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 deep and twenty-one inches wide, with a four-inch lip around its edge.
15 The altar hearth is another seven feet high. Four horns stick upward from the hearth twenty-one inches high.
16 "The top of the altar, the hearth, is square, twenty-one by twenty-one feet.
17 The upper ledge is also square, twenty-four and a half feet on each side, with a ten-and-a-half-inch lip and a twenty-one-inch-wide gutter all the way around. "The steps of the altar ascend from the east."
18 Then the man said to me, "Son of man, God, the Master, says: 'These are the ordinances for conduct at the altar when it is built, for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood on it.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.