Ezekiel 42:2-12

2 This structure, whose entrance opened toward the north, was 175 feet long and 87 feet wide.
3 One block of rooms overlooked the 35-foot width of the inner courtyard. Another block of rooms looked out onto the pavement of the outer courtyard. The two blocks were built three levels high and stood across from each other.
4 Between the two blocks of rooms ran a walkway 17 feet wide. It extended the entire 175 feet of the complex, and all the doors faced north.
5 Each of the two upper levels of rooms was narrower than the one beneath it because the upper levels had to allow space for walkways in front of them.
6 Since there were three levels and they did not have supporting columns as in the courtyards, each of the upper levels was set back from the level beneath it.
7 There was an outer wall that separated the rooms from the outer courtyard; it was 87 feet long.
8 This wall added length to the outer block of rooms, which extended for only 87 feet, while the inner block—the rooms toward the Temple—extended for 175 feet.
9 There was an eastern entrance from the outer courtyard to these rooms.
10 On the south side of the Temple there were two blocks of rooms just south of the inner courtyard between the Temple and the outer courtyard. These rooms were arranged just like the rooms on the north.
11 There was a walkway between the two blocks of rooms just like the complex on the north side of the Temple. This complex of rooms was the same length and width as the other one, and it had the same entrances and doors. The dimensions of each were identical.
12 So there was an entrance in the wall facing the doors of the inner block of rooms, and another on the east at the end of the interior walkway.

Ezekiel 42:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 42

In this chapter are a description of some chambers in the northern part of the outward court, Eze 42:1-12, an account of the use made of them by the priests, Eze 42:13,14, the measuring of the area, or whole compass of ground, on which the whole building before measured stood, with the wall that surrounded it, Eze 41:15-20.

Footnotes 6

  • [a]. Hebrew 100 cubits [53 meters]; also in 42:8 .
  • [b]. Hebrew 50 cubits [26.5 meters]; also in 42:7, 8 .
  • [c]. Hebrew 20[-cubit] [10.6-meter].
  • [d]. Hebrew 10 cubits [5.3 meters].
  • [e]. As in Greek and Syriac versions, which read Its length was 100 cubits [53 meters]; Hebrew reads and a passage 1 cubit [21 inches or 53 centimeters] wide.
  • [f]. As in Greek version; Hebrew reads east.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.