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Ezekiel 42
The Voice
Ezekiel 42
The Voice
Ezekiel’s descriptions of the Jerusalem temple are often difficult to comprehend. Since Jerusalem’s temple was completely destroyed, archaeology is helpful in reconstructing Ezekiel’s description of it. In Northern Syria lie the ruins of a temple at ‘Ain Dara‘ that closely resemble the biblical descriptions of God’s temple. It, too, had three rooms, winged beings guarding the holiest place, and an eastern gate through which a deity entered. But what might be the most helpful parallel between it and Jerusalem’s temple are its windows. Carved into the stone are false windows, each with three successively smaller window frames—the largest frame on the outside and the smallest on the inside. Apparently this architectural detail was popular in ornate Near Eastern buildings during the first millennium b.c., especially in temples, and it sheds light on Ezekiel’s obscure description.
42 Then the man whose appearance was like bronze took me north into the outer courtyard. He brought me to the chambers that were opposite the open area around the temple and opposite the outside wall on the northern end. 2 This building with its north-facing door was 175 feet long and 87½ feet wide. 3 Facing a 35-foot-wide section of the inner court and facing the paved area of the outer court were rows of chambers 3 stories high. 4 An interior passageway ran in front of each chamber. It was 17½ feet wide and ran the entire length of the gallery, 175 feet. The doors faced north. 5 All the upper chambers were narrower because the galleries took up more space than they did on the first and second levels. 6 There were no columns for the chambers on the third level—no columns like the ones in the courtyards—so the chambers on the third level were set back further than the chambers on the first and second levels. 7 The wall behind the chambers ran parallel to them and the outer courtyard for a distance of 87½ feet. 8 On the side next to the outer courtyard, the row of chambers was 87½ feet long. On the side nearest to the sanctuary it was 175 feet long. 9 The chambers on the first level could be entered from the east when coming in from the outer courtyard.
These chambers on the wall surrounding the inner courtyard are where the priests prepare themselves for their sacred duties.
10 There were rows of chambers on the south[a] side of the temple, just like on the north, separating the inner and outer courtyards. 11 There was a walkway in front of them. These chambers were exactly like the chambers on the northern side—same measurements and architecture. 12 In front of each walkway in the south chambers was a doorway near the wall that could be entered from the east when coming in from the outer courtyard.
The Man (to Ezekiel): 13 The north and south chambers that face the courtyard around the temple are sacred, set apart for the priests who come near to the Eternal to eat the holiest of offerings. In those sacred chambers, the priests store the holiest of offerings—grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. 14 As soon as the priests enter into the sacred areas, they can’t leave and go into the outer courtyard until they first take off their holy clothes in which they have ministered to the Lord. These ministerial clothes are sacred. They must put on other clothes before they go anywhere other people are allowed to be, because their priestly garments can’t come into contact with anything impure.
15 When the man completed taking measurements inside the temple, he took me out through the lower eastern gate and began measuring around the temple complex. 16 He took his measuring reed and measured the entire east side. It was 875 feet long. 17-19 He measured the north, south, and west sides; and they, too, were each 875 feet long. 20 He measured the temple complex on all four sides. The wall around it formed a square 875 feet by 875 feet. It served to separate the sacred from the common.
Footnotes
- 42:10 Hebrew manuscripts read, “east.”
Ezekiel 42
New International Version
Ezekiel 42
New International Version
The Rooms for the Priests
42 Then the man led me northward into the outer court and brought me to the rooms(A) opposite the temple courtyard(B) and opposite the outer wall on the north side.(C) 2 The building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide.[a] 3 Both in the section twenty cubits[b] from the inner court and in the section opposite the pavement of the outer court, gallery(D) faced gallery at the three levels.(E) 4 In front of the rooms was an inner passageway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits[c] long.[d] Their doors were on the north.(F) 5 Now the upper rooms were narrower, for the galleries took more space from them than from the rooms on the lower and middle floors of the building. 6 The rooms on the top floor had no pillars, as the courts had; so they were smaller in floor space than those on the lower and middle floors. 7 There was an outer wall parallel to the rooms and the outer court; it extended in front of the rooms for fifty cubits. 8 While the row of rooms on the side next to the outer court was fifty cubits long, the row on the side nearest the sanctuary was a hundred cubits long. 9 The lower rooms had an entrance(G) on the east side as one enters them from the outer court.
10 On the south side[e] along the length of the wall of the outer court, adjoining the temple courtyard(H) and opposite the outer wall, were rooms(I) 11 with a passageway in front of them. These were like the rooms on the north; they had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions. Similar to the doorways on the north 12 were the doorways of the rooms on the south. There was a doorway at the beginning of the passageway that was parallel to the corresponding wall extending eastward, by which one enters the rooms.
13 Then he said to me, “The north(J) and south rooms(K) facing the temple courtyard(L) are the priests’ rooms, where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings,(M) the sin offerings[f](N) and the guilt offerings(O)—for the place is holy.(P) 14 Once the priests enter the holy precincts, they are not to go into the outer court until they leave behind the garments(Q) in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they go near the places that are for the people.(R)”
15 When he had finished measuring what was inside the temple area, he led me out by the east gate(S) and measured the area all around: 16 He measured the east side with the measuring rod; it was five hundred cubits.[g][h] 17 He measured the north side; it was five hundred cubits[i] by the measuring rod. 18 He measured the south side; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. 19 Then he turned to the west side and measured; it was five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. 20 So he measured(T) the area(U) on all four sides. It had a wall around it,(V) five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide,(W) to separate the holy from the common.(X)
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 42:2 That is, about 175 feet long and 88 feet wide or about 53 meters long and 27 meters wide
- Ezekiel 42:3 That is, about 35 feet or about 11 meters
- Ezekiel 42:4 Septuagint and Syriac; Hebrew and one cubit
- Ezekiel 42:4 That is, about 18 feet wide and 175 feet long or about 5.3 meters wide and 53 meters long
- Ezekiel 42:10 Septuagint; Hebrew Eastward
- Ezekiel 42:13 Or purification offerings
- Ezekiel 42:16 See Septuagint of verse 17; Hebrew rods; also in verses 18 and 19.
- Ezekiel 42:16 Five hundred cubits equal about 875 feet or about 265 meters; also in verses 17, 18 and 19.
- Ezekiel 42:17 Septuagint; Hebrew rods
The Voice (VOICE)
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New International Version (NIV) 
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