48 Then he brought me to the vestibule of the temple and measured the jambs of the vestibule, five cubits on either side. And the breadth of the gate was fourteen cubits, and the sidewalls of the gate1 were three cubits on either side. 49 The length of the vestibule was twenty cubits, and the breadth twelve2 cubits, and people would go up to it by ten steps.3 And there were pillars beside the jambs, one on either side.
41 Then he brought me to the nave and measured the jambs. On each side six cubits4 was the breadth of the jambs.5 2 And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sidewalls of the entrance were five cubits on either side. And he measured the length of the nave,6 forty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits. 3 Then he went into the inner room and measured the jambs of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the sidewalls on either side7 of the entrance, seven cubits. 4 And he measured the length of the room, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, across 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, all around the temple. 6 And the side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets8 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 it became broader as it wound upward to the side chambers, because the temple was enclosed upward all around the temple. Thus the temple had a broad area upward, and so 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 all around; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits. 9 The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. The free space between the side chambers of the temple and the 10 other chambers was a breadth of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side. 11 And the doors of the side chambers opened on the free space, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south. And the breadth of the free space was five cubits all around.
12 The building that was facing the separate yard on the west side was seventy cubits broad, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits.
13 Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; and the yard and the building with its walls, a hundred cubits long; 14 also the breadth of the east front of the temple and the yard, a hundred cubits.
15 Then he measured the length of the building facing the yard that was at the back and its galleries9 on either side, a hundred cubits.
The inside of the nave and the vestibules of the court, 16 the thresholds and the narrow windows and the galleries all around the three of them, opposite the threshold, were paneled with wood all around, from the floor up to the windows (now the windows were covered), 17 to the space above the door, even to the inner room, and on the outside. And on all the walls all around, inside and outside, was a measured pattern.10 18 It was carved of cherubim and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub. Every cherub had two faces: 19 a human face toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple all around. 20 From the floor to above the door, cherubim and palm trees were carved; similarly the wall of the nave.
21 The doorposts of the nave were squared, and in front of the Holy Place was something resembling 22 an altar of wood, three cubits high, two cubits long, and two cubits broad.11 Its corners, its base,12 and its walls were of wood. He said to me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.” 23 The nave and the Holy Place had each a double door. 24 The double doors had two leaves apiece, two swinging leaves for each door. 25 And on the doors of the nave were carved cherubim and palm trees, such as were carved on the walls. And there was a canopy13 of wood in front of the vestibule outside. 26 And there were narrow windows and palm trees on either side, on the sidewalls of the vestibule, the side chambers of the temple, and the canopies.
42 Then he led me out into the outer court, toward the north, and he brought me to the chambers that were opposite the separate yard and opposite the building on the north. 2 The length of the building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits,14 and the breadth fifty cubits. 3 Facing the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court, and facing the pavement that belonged to the outer court, was gallery15 against gallery in three stories. 4 And before the chambers was a passage inward, ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long,16 and their doors 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 of the building. 6 For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the courts. Thus the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones. 7 And 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 nave17 were a hundred cubits long. 9 Below these chambers was an entrance on the east side, as one enters them from the outer court.
10 In the thickness of the wall of the court, on the south18 also, opposite the yard 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 breadth, with the same exits19 and arrangements and doors, 12 as were the entrances of the chambers on the south. There was an entrance at the beginning of the passage, the passage before the corresponding wall on the east as one enters them.20
13 Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the yard are the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall put 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 garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They shall put on other garments before they go near to that which is for the people.”
15 Now when he had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faced east, and measured the temple area all around. 16 He measured the east side with the measuring reed, 500 cubits by the measuring reed all around. 17 He measured the north side, 500 cubits by the measuring reed all around. 18 He measured the south side, 500 cubits by the measuring reed. 19 Then he turned to the west side and measured, 500 cubits by the measuring reed. 20 He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, 500 cubits long and 500 cubits broad, to make a separation between the holy and the common.
Section Overview
In chapter 40 the prophet described the outer and inner courts of the visionary temple, especially the wall around the outside and the massive gatehouses controlling access to both the outer and the inner courts. Now Ezekiel moves on to explore the central structure in the complex, the temple building proper. Like the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple, it comprises a Holy Place (here called the “nave,” Hb. hekal; 41:1) and a Most Holy Place, where the glory of God will once again take up residence among his people (ch. 43). However, such is the sacredness of this inner sanctum that even before the glory of the Lord arrives the prophet is not permitted to enter it. Instead, the angel enters the Most Holy Place and measures it for him.
In addition to the most sacred areas of the temple Ezekiel is also taken back out to survey some of the less sacred areas of the outer court (ch. 42). As a result, in chapters 40–42 he progresses from the outside to the heart of the temple and back again. This journey is mirrored in chapters 43–46, but, whereas chapters 40–42 focus on the sacred spaces, chapters 43–46 focus on the occupants allowed access to those spaces. Not coincidentally, this parallels the movement of the creation narrative in Genesis 1, in which the first three days involve the demarcation of sacred space, followed by the second set of three days, which record the creation of the occupants of those spaces.
Section Outline
IV. Oracles of Good News (33:1–48:35) . . .
D. The Renewed Temple (40:1–48:35)
1. The Formation of Sacred Space (40:1–42:20) . . .
b. The Inner Sanctuary (40:48–41:26)
c. The Temple’s Chambers (42:1–20)
Response
The purpose of such a vision is to reveal a world that is not in order to critique and expose the failings of the world that is. Ezekiel’s visionary temple is the epitome of ordered space, in contrast to the lived experience of the prophet (and the rest of us), in which it often seems as if the dominant reality is chaos. In the prophet’s case such chaos is not a random effect of living in a fallen and cursed world but the result of specific failures and sins by his generation and their predecessors, which had led to the Lord’s abandoning his temple in Jerusalem, with catastrophic results. In his vision Ezekiel sees a very different world, one in which it will be possible for the Lord to return and dwell in the midst of his people once more (cf. ch. 43).
Ezekiel’s visionary temple is a place with orderly and sharp lines between the holy and the profane, emphasized in numerous different ways—the wall around the complex, the holy rooms to store the priests’ garments, and the Most Holy Place that is so sacred that even the prophet himself may not enter it. This is a challenging concept for modern people to grasp, since we are not used to thinking about holy and profane space. In a profound sense we live in a desacralized world, one in which God’s presence with his people often seems a very abstract concept. We want a God who is close enough perhaps to perform some useful role in ordering civic society (the “God, whoever you conceive him to be” that politicians tell us to pray to in a national crisis), but we have little concept of the terrifying sanctity of the holy God who created heaven and earth—the God who is not merely “there” in the sense of objective existence but, terrifyingly, is “here,” coming near for judgment upon his errant creation (cf. Mal. 2:17–3:5). Yet even while our minds cannot grasp the idea of God’s presence, our souls thirst for him, for we were made to glorify and enjoy him, and our lives are empty at their core without him.
Ezekiel’s temple is countercultural in its stark simplicity: there is no ark of the covenant, no gold or silver, and no lampstand, just an altar of sacrifice (cf. ch. 43) and a simple wooden table (both of massive size) so that this all-holy God can receive the sacrifices that atone for our sin and purify our defilement. An atoning sacrifice is necessary if we are to stand before a holy God and share table fellowship with him, and this joy is what Ezekiel anticipates. If God is not present with his people, no amount of external aesthetics or glory will compensate for his absence; if he is there with us, little more is necessary for those desiring to worship him in spirit and in truth (cf. John 4:24).
These themes find their fulfillment and goal in Jesus Christ, who is Immanuel, God with us (cf. John 1:1–14). He came to earth in humble form as a servant, as the “Son of Man,” ready to serve and give his life as a ransom for his people (Matt. 20:28). His body is itself the new temple (John 2:19), the fulfillment of everything Ezekiel longed for and more; his own blood is the purification offering that cleanses the heavenly temple (Heb. 9:11–15), of which all earthly temples are simply replicas. Jesus went outside the camp to suffer, like the bodies of the purification offerings, so that through him our sinful bodies might be cleansed once for all (Heb. 13:11–12). Now he has gone into the place where Ezekiel could not go, into the presence of the Father himself, to purify the heavenly mercy seat and thus make a way for us to be reconciled with God forever (Heb. 9:23–24).Ezekiel 40:48–42:20
Ezekiel 43