Ezekiel41chapter 41

The building follows the plan the hearers knew. A porch, then a main hall about forty cubits by twenty, then an innermost room twenty by twenty — the same proportions as Solomon's temple, which their grandfathers had worshipped in. When the guide measures the inner room he tells Ezekiel this is the most holy place, and notably he goes in alone; the prophet, priest though he is, stays outside.

The side chambers are built in three storeys around three sides of the sanctuary, and the text explains the construction detail: the wall of the house was stepped back at each level so the supporting beams rested on the ledges and did not have to be set into the sanctuary wall itself. That is exactly the technique described in the building of Solomon's temple. The holy wall is not pierced by ordinary joinery.

The decoration is Levantine craftsmanship of a familiar kind. The walls are panelled with wood and carved from floor to above the doors with palm trees alternating with cherubim, each cherub having two faces — a human face toward the palm on one side and a young lion's face toward the palm on the other. Carved and ivory-inlaid panels combining palmettes with winged creatures are found across the Levant from this era, so the style would have looked right to anyone who had seen the old house.

Two things are conspicuously absent or altered. There is no mention of the ark in the most holy place — the ark had gone with Jerusalem. And the piece of furniture in the main hall is described as a wooden altar three cubits high, which the guide calls the table that is before the LORD.