Ezekiel 42:2-20

2 The length of the building that was on the north side was one hundred cubits, and the width fifty cubits.
3 Across the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court, and facing the pavement that belonged to the outer court, the chambers rose gallery by gallery in three stories.
4 In front of the chambers was a passage on the inner side, ten cubits wide and one hundred cubits deep, and its entrances were on the north.
5 Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries took more away from them than from the lower and middle chambers in the building.
6 For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the outer court; for this reason the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones.
7 There was a wall outside parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, opposite the chambers, fifty cubits long.
8 For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those opposite the temple were one hundred cubits long.
9 At the foot of these chambers ran a passage that one entered from the east in order to enter them from the outer court.
10 The width of the passage was fixed by the wall of the court. On the south also, opposite the vacant area and opposite the building, there were chambers
11 with a passage in front of them; they were similar to the chambers on the north, of the same length and width, with the same exits and arrangements and doors.
12 So the entrances of the chambers to the south were entered through the entrance at the head of the corresponding passage, from the east, along the matching wall.
13 Then he said to me, "The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the vacant area are the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings; there they shall deposit the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy.
14 When the priests enter the holy place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court without laying there the vestments in which they minister, for these are holy; they shall put on other garments before they go near to the area open to the people."
15 When he had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faces east, and measured the temple area all around.
16 He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.
17 Then he turned and measured the north side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.
18 Then he turned and measured the south side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.
19 Then he turned to the west side and measured, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.
20 He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to make a separation between the holy and the common.

Ezekiel 42:2-20 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 15

  • [a]. Gk: Heb [door]
  • [b]. Gk: Heb [before the length]
  • [c]. Heb lacks [the chambers rose]
  • [d]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
  • [e]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
  • [f]. Gk Syr: Heb [a way of one cubit]
  • [g]. Heb [their]
  • [h]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
  • [i]. Gk: Heb lacks [outer]
  • [j]. Heb lacks [of the passage]
  • [k]. Gk: Heb [east]
  • [l]. Heb [and all their exits]
  • [m]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
  • [n]. Gk: Heb [measuring reed all around. He measured]
  • [o]. Gk: Heb [measuring reed all around. He measured]
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.