Ezekiel 41:6

6 And the side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that they should not be supported by the wall of the temple.

Ezekiel 41:6 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 41:6

And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty
in order
There were three stories of them, and thirty in every storey, in all ninety; there were such chambers round about Solomon's temple, and so many stories of them, though their number is not expressed, ( 1 Kings 6:5 1 Kings 6:6 ) , but Josephus ^F26 says they were thirty, and one above another, three stories of them, as here. Some think twelve were on the north side, twelve on the south, and six on the west; or fifteen on the north, and fifteen on the south. The Misnic doctors ^F1 say there were thirty eight in the second temple, fifteen on the north side, fifteen on the south, and eight on the west. The Targum is,

``the chambers were chamber over chamber thirty three, eleven in a row;''

and so some ^F2 understand it, that they were in all but thirty three, eleven in the first storey, as many in the second, and the same number in the third; and place them four in the north, four in the south, and three in the west, so Starckius; but the first account seems best. This denotes the number of churches in Gospel times, especially in the latter day; when there will be large conversions, and room enough for all the converts: and as there are many mansions in heaven for all the saints; so there will be room enough in the New Jerusalem, the more perfect state of the church on earth, to hold the whole palm bearing company, whose number no man can number; and all the nations of them that are saved, who will walk in the light of it, ( Revelation 7:9 ) ( 21:24 ) : and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the
side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not
hold in the wall of the house;
the beams of the floors of those side chambers rested indeed upon the wall of the house which was built for them; but were not inserted into it, or laid in it, as we see in some buildings; but there were projections or buttresses in the wall, or what are called narrowed rests, ( 1 Kings 6:6 ) or rebatements of the breadth of a cubit, on which they were laid and rested; and so it was in the upper stories, as in the lowermost; there being an abatement of a cubit in the thickness of the wall in each storey, as in the following verse. This shows the firmness of this spiritual building resting upon such a wall and such buttresses as God himself is to it; (See Gill on Ezekiel 41:5).

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Antiqu. l. 8. c. 3. sect. 2.
F1 Misn. Middot, c. 4. sect. 3.
F2 Lipman. Tzurath Beth Hamikdash, sect. 69. fol. 10. 1.

Ezekiel 41:6 In-Context

4 And he measured the length of the room, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, beyond the nave. And he said to me, This is the most holy place.

5 Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits thick; and the breadth of the side chambers, four cubits, round about the temple.

6 And the side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that they should not be supported by the wall of the temple.

7 And the side chambers became broader as they rose from story to story, corresponding to the enlargement of the offset from story to story round about the temple; on the side of the temple a stairway led upward, and thus one went up from the lowest story to the top story through the middle story.

8 I saw also that the temple had a raised platform round about; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits.