Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 42

Verses 1-20

Ezekiel 42:4 . Before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits. This chapter describes the rows of chambers as a hundred cubits long, and an entrance of one cubit on each side, which make the way two cubits. These chambers were very numerous, in allusion to which our Saviour says, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” John 14:2.

Ezekiel 42:13-14 . Chambers where the priests shall eat and lay the most holy things. Here is the ordinary use of upper rooms; the princes also and the council occupied chambers; and the records were kept in the temple.

Ezekiel 42:16 . Five hundred reeds. The reed was six cubits. The Hebrew text and Montanus are as the English; but the LXX read “cubits;” and the very learned Capellus has taken much pains to prove that the reading of the LXX is correct. My opinion is that the LXX, who very often take astonishing liberties with the original, were desirous to accommodate Ezekiel’s vision to their diminished temple. St. John, on the contrary, gives a very enlarged idea of the new Jerusalem and its temple; and it is not likely that this vision should diminish the size. Besides, the cuts in the Synopsis, and Dr. Lightfoot’s remarks, perfectly coincide with the Hebrew text. Hence the square circumference of the inner courts of this temple was twelve thousand cubits, or about a mile and a furlong in the square, while all the other apartments and wings were in proportion.