Ezekiel 40

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1In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city–on that very day the hand of the Lord was upon me and he took me there.

2In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city.

3He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand.

4The man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see.”

5I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man's hand was six long cubits, each of which was a cubit and a handbreadth. He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high.

6Then he went to the gate facing east. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep.

7The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.

8Then he measured the portico of the gateway;

9it was eight cubits deep and its jambs were two cubits thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.

10Inside the east gate were three alcoves on each side; the three had the same measurements, and the faces of the projecting walls on each side had the same measurements.

11Then he measured the width of the entrance to the gateway; it was ten cubits and its length was thirteen cubits.

12In front of each alcove was a wall one cubit high, and the alcoves were six cubits square.

13Then he measured the gateway from the top of the rear wall of one alcove to the top of the opposite one; the distance was twenty-five cubits from one parapet opening to the opposite one.

14He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway–sixty cubits. The measurement was up to the portico facing the courtyard.

15The distance from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its portico was fifty cubits.

16The alcoves and the projecting walls inside the gateway were surmounted by narrow parapet openings all around, as was the portico; the openings all around faced inward. The faces of the projecting walls were decorated with palm trees.

17Then he brought me into the outer court. There I saw some rooms and a pavement that had been constructed all around the court; there were thirty rooms along the pavement.

18It abutted the sides of the gateways and was as wide as they were long; this was the lower pavement.

19Then he measured the distance from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner court; it was a hundred cubits on the east side as well as on the north.

20Then he measured the length and width of the gate facing north, leading into the outer court.

21Its alcoves–three on each side–its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as those of the first gateway. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

22Its openings, its portico and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them.

23There was a gate to the inner court facing the north gate, just as there was on the east. He measured from one gate to the opposite one; it was a hundred cubits.

24Then he led me to the south side and I saw a gate facing south. He measured its jambs and its portico, and they had the same measurements as the others.

25The gateway and its portico had narrow openings all around, like the openings of the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

26Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them; it had palm tree decorations on the faces of the projecting walls on each side.

27The inner court also had a gate facing south, and he measured from this gate to the outer gate on the south side; it was a hundred cubits.

28Then he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurements as the others.

29Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

30(The porticoes of the gateways around the inner court were twenty-five cubits wide and five cubits deep.)

31Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it.

32Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurements as the others.

33Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

34Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.

35Then he brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measurements as the others,

36as did its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico, and it had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

37Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.

38A room with a doorway was by the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offerings were washed.

39In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered.

40By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance to the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables.

41So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other–eight tables in all–on which the sacrifices were slaughtered.

42There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices.

43And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were attached to the wall all around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.

44Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, one at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the south gate and facing north.

45He said to me, “The room facing south is for the priests who have charge of the temple,

46and the room facing north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the Lord to minister before him.”

47Then he measured the court: It was square–a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.

48He brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubits and its projecting walls were three cubits wide on either side.

49The portico was twenty cubits wide, and twelve cubits from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs, and there were pillars on each side of the jambs.

Commentary

40:1-49 The Vision of the Temple. - Here is a vision, beginning at ch. 40, and continued to the end of the book, ch. 48, which is justly looked upon to be one of the most difficult portions in all the book of God. When we despair to be satisfied as to any difficulty we meet with, let us bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but that things necessary are plain enough; and let us wait till God shall reveal even this unto us. This chapter describes two outward courts of the temple. Whether the personage here mentioned was the Son of God, or a created angel, is not clear. But Christ is both our Altar and our Sacrifice, to whom we must look with faith in all approaches to God; and he is Salvation in the midst of the earth, Ps 74:12, to be looked unto from all quarters.

"\nIn the five and twentieth year of our captivity,.... That is, from Jeconiah's captivity, from whence this prophet begins his dates: he calls it our captivity, because he himself was then carried captive; and this was twenty years after his first vision; see Eze 1:1:\n\nin the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month; the Jews had two beginnings of their year, the one on civil accounts, which was in the autumnal equinox, in the month Tisri, which answers to part of our September; and if this is meant here, the tenth day of it was the day of atonement, in which the Jews were to afflict their souls; but on this day the prophet has a view of the Gospel church, which receives the atonement by the sacrifice of Christ: the other beginning of the year, which was on ecclesiastic accounts, was in the vernal equinox, the month Nisan, which answers to part of our March; and the tenth day of it was the day that the passover lamb was separated from the flock, and kept up till the fourteenth; the time between Christ's public entry into Jerusalem, and his being sacrificed as the passover for us. Some interpreters go one way, some the other: it is not easy to determine which is meant; though I think more probably the latter, since church affairs are chiefly here represented. This, according to the Talmudists {n}, was the year of the jubilee: Bishop Usher {o} places it in the year of the world 3430 A.M., and before Christ 574; and makes the day to be the thirtieth of April, and the third day of the week (Tuesday); and, as to the year, Mr. Whiston {p} agrees with, him:\n\nin the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten; taken, broken up, and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; its walls demolished; its houses burnt, and inhabitants put to the sword, or carried captive. This was in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, to which add the fourteen years from hence and they make twenty five, as reckoned from Jeconiah's captivity:\n\nin the self-same day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me hither; that is, on the tenth day of the month, of the new year, begin when it will. The Spirit of the Lord, which is sometimes called the finger of God, and the power of God, this fell upon him, or was laid on him, and impressed his mind and soul; and he in a visionary way, as appears by what follows, was brought into, the land of Israel, and to Jerusalem, according as things were represented to his mind; though, as to his body, he was still in the land of Chaldea. The Targum interprets "the hand of the Lord" the spirit of prophecy; see Eze 1:3.\n\n{n} T. Bab. Eracin, fol. 12. 1. {o} Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3430. {p} Chronological Tables, cent. 10.\n\n\n\n "

CHAPTER 40Eze 40:1-49. The Remaining Chapters, the Fortieth through Forty-eighth, Give an Ideal Picture of the Restored Jewish Temple.The arrangements as to the land and the temple are, in many particulars, different from those subsisting before the captivity. There are things in it so improbable physically as to preclude a purely literal interpretation. The general truth seems to hold good that, as Israel served the nations for his rejection of Messiah, so shall they serve him in the person of Messiah, when he shall acknowledge Messiah (Isa 60:12; Zec 14:17-19; compare Ps 72:11). The ideal temple exhibits, under Old Testament forms (used as being those then familiar to the men whom Ezekiel, a priest himself, and one who delighted in sacrificial images, addresses), not the precise literal outline, but the essential character of the worship of Messiah as it shall be when He shall exercise sway in Jerusalem among His own people, the Jews, and thence to the ends of the earth. The very fact that the whole is a vision (Eze 40:2), not an oral face-to-face communication such as that granted to Moses (Nu 12:6-8), implies that the directions are not to be understood so precisely literally as those given to the Jewish lawgiver. The description involves things which, taken literally, almost involve natural impossibilities. The square of the temple, in Eze 42:20, is six times as large as the circuit of the wall enclosing the old temple, and larger than all the earthly Jerusalem. Ezekiel gives three and a half miles and one hundred forty yards to his temple square. The boundaries of the ancient city were about two and a half miles. Again, the city in Ezekiel has an area between three or four thousand square miles, including the holy ground set apart for the prince, priests, and Levites. This is nearly as large as the whole of Judea west of the Jordan. As Zion lay in the center of the ideal city, the one-half of the sacred portion extended to nearly thirty miles south of Jerusalem, that is, covered nearly the whole southern territory, which reached only to the Dead Sea (Eze 47:19), and yet five tribes were to have their inheritance on that side of Jerusalem, beyond the sacred portion (Eze 48:23-28). Where was land to be found for them there? A breadth of but four or five miles apiece would be left.

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Translations8 · 5

AMHEVG በተማረክን በሀያ አምስተኛው ዓመት በዓመቱ መጀመሪያ ከወሩ በአሥረኛው ቀን፥ ከተማይቱ ከተመታች በኋላ በአሥራ አራተኛው ዓመት፥ በዚያው ቀን የእግዚአብሔር እጅ በእኔ ላይ ነበረ እርሱም ወደዚ… አማርኛ BCV ካብ እንማረኽ ኣብ መበል ዕስራን ሓሙሽተን ዓመት፥ ኣብ መጀመርታ እታ ዓመት፥ ኣብ ዓስረይቲ መዓልቲ እታ ወርሒ፥ እታ ኸተማ ኻብ እትውቃዕ፥ ኣብ መበል ዓሰርተ ኣርባዕተ ዓመታ፥ ልክዕ በታ መ… ትግርኛ GAZBIB Nuyi booji'amnee waggaa digdamii shanaffaatti, jalqaba waggichaatti, ji'icha keessaa guyyaa kurnaffaatti, mandarichi er… Afaan Oromoo BCV GIZ ወእምዝ አመ ዕሥራ ወኃሙሱ ዓመ እምዘተፄወውነ በቀዳሚ ወርኅ አመ ዐሡሩ ለሠርቅ ወበዐሠርቱ ወአርባዕቱ ዓመት እምድኅረ ተፄወወት ሀገር፡ ውእተ አሚረ ኮነ እደ እግዚአብሔር ላዕሌየ። giz GAZGAZ Nuyi booji'amnee waggaa digdamii shanaffaatti, jalqaba waggichaatti, ji'icha keessaa guyyaa kurnaffaatti, mandarichi er… Afaan Oromoo BCV aksum ካብ እንማረኽ ኣብ መበል ዕስራን ሓሙሽተን ዓመት፥ ኣብ መጀመርታ እታ ዓመት፥ ኣብ ዓስረይቲ መዓልቲ እታ ወርሒ፥ እታ ኸተማ ኻብ እትውቃዕ፥ ኣብ መበል ዓሰርተ ኣርባዕተ ዓመታ፥ ልክዕ በታ መ… ትግርኛ AMHNIV በተሰደድን በሃያ አምስተኛው ዓመት፣ በዓመቱ መጀመሪያ፣ በዐሥረኛው ቀን፣ ከተማዪቱ በወደቀች በዐሥራ አራተኛው ዓመት፣ በዚያው ዕለት የእግዚአብሔር እጅ በላዬ ነበር፤ እርሱም ወደዚያ ወሰደኝ። አማርኛ SWAHSUV Katika mwaka wa ishirini na tano wa kuhamishwa kwetu, mwanzo wa mwaka, siku ya kumi ya mwezi, katika mwaka wa kumi na n… Kiswahili