Ezekielchapter 41
26 verses · KJVEzekiel book hub →
Key verse
And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 11.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The measuring goes inside. The man measures the jambs and the doorway, then the nave, and passing within measures the inner room and says, 'This is the most holy place.' Around the house run side-chambers in three stories, each thirty to a story, resting on rebatements in the wall so that they take no hold on the house itself. Westward stands the separate place and its building. Then the decoration, given with unusual care: the walls carved throughout with cherubim and palm-trees alternating, every cherub with two faces, a man's face toward the palm tree on one side and a young lion's face on the other. A wooden altar stands before the sanctuary, 'This is the table that is before Jehovah.'
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel · Ezekiel overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 41 falls in The Temple vision (chapters 40–48). Detailed architectural and liturgical vision. Literal-millennial (dispensational), symbolic-of-the-Church (Reformed), typological (amill) readings all surfaced. The glory returns; the city's name is YHWH Shammah (48:35).
Before it: Gog and Magog, chapters 38–39.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 41The history
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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
Old men in that community had grown up on descriptions of the house Solomon built and had heard it burn described by a survivor. Here is a house measured in front of them with the same shape and larger courts.
The care taken over the walls says something quietly. Every measurement in this chapter is about separating what is holy from what is not, thickness, ledges, panelling, doors. After chapters of explaining why the first house was defiled, the exiles are shown one built so that it cannot be.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. The nave, the most holy place, and the side chambers
1. (vv. 1-4)
a.brought me to the temple: The guide's measuring reed moves from the outer sanctuary into the temple proper, the posts, the door and the room itself, forty cubits by twenty, until his own words fix what has been reached: this is the most holy place. The word rendered temple for the whole structure is the same word used of the tabernacle, the ancient tent language kept for a building of stone and cedar, which the commentators read as the continuity of one dwelling across two ages. Gill notes the deliberate slowness of the tour, each threshold measured before the next is named, so that the reader arrives at the innermost room only after every approach to it has been counted.
Ezekiel 41:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 41:1
“The Temple - Properly the holy place (a), as distinguished from the porch (G) and the holy of holies (B) 1Ki 6:17; 1Ki 7:50. The posts - The outer wall of the temple was six cubits thick Eze 41:5. The eastern posts of this wall forming part of the front of the temple were ornamented with pillars, six cubits on each side. He measured the breadth - This breadth was twenty cubits Eze 41:2. Omit “which was.” “tabernacle” is here the interior (the covered portion) of the temple.”
Ezekiel 41:1
“Ezekiel was himself a priest, but by the iniquity and calamity of the times was cut short of his birthright privilege of ministering in the temple; but God makes up the loss to him by introducing him into this prophetical, evangelical, celestial temple, and employing him to transmit a description of it to the church, in which he was dignified above all the rest of his order.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 41:2, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:2
“The breadth of the door - This was the door, or gate, of the sanctuary, (see gates 3, in the plan), and this doorway was filled up with folding gates. The measurements are exactly the same as those of Solomon’s temple. See 1Ki 6:2, 1Ki 6:17.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 41:3, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:3
“Went he inward - Toward the holy of holies. It is not said, “he brought me in,” but “he went in,” because the holy of holies was not to be entered even by a priest like Ezekiel, but only by the high priest once a year. So the “angel” enters and announces: the measurements. The post of the door - On either side of the entrance was a pillar, the two together making up two cubits.”
Ezekiel 41:4, 2 voices
Ezekiel 41:4
“The length thereof, twenty cubits - This is the measurement of the sanctuary, or holy of holies. See G in the plan. This also was the exact measurement of Solomon’s temple, see 1Ki 6:20. This, and the other resemblances here, sufficiently prove that Ezekiel’s temple and that of Solomon were on the same plan; and that the latter temple was intended to be an exact resemblance of the former.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 41:4
“For the new Jerusalem is exactly square ( Rev. xxi. 16 ), denoting its stability; for we look for a city that cannot be moved. The upper stories were larger than the lower,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 5-11)
a.the wall of the house, six cubits: The wall of the house measures six cubits thick, with a belt of side chambers running around it three stories high, thirty in each course, that gain a cubit of width at each higher story because the wall is cut back to leave them a resting ledge rather than let their beams go into the temple wall. Keil and Fairbairn both read the detail on the beams not entering the temple wall as care that nothing driven into the sanctuary should support a mere store room, holiness kept structural rather than only ceremonial. Doors on the north and south let the chambers be reached without crossing the inner court, an arrangement the text records without explaining further.
Ezekiel 41:5, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:5
“The wall of the house - This was the outer wall of the temple itself. Its thickness of six cubits corresponds with the colossal proportions of the architecture of the east. Every side chamber - the side-chambers (D). These were a marked feature in Solomon’s Temple, and were probably used as storehouses for the furniture and property of the temple. The arrangement of these side-chambers differed in some respects from that of Solomon’s Temple, the object of Ezekiel’s vision being throughout to bring all things to a more exact proportion.”
Ezekiel 41:6, 3 voices
Ezekiel 41:6
“And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order,.... There were three stories of them, and thirty in every storey, in all ninety; there were such chambers round about Solomon's temple, and so many stories of them, though their number is not expressed, 1Ki 6:5, but Josephus (z) says they were thirty, and one above another, three stories of them, as here. Some think twelve were on the north side, twelve on the south, and six on the west; or fifteen on the north, and fifteen on the south.”
Ezekiel 41:6
“The side chambers were three - We find by Joseph. Antiq. 8:3, 2, that round Solomon’s temple were chambers three stories high, each story consisting of thirty chambers. It is supposed that twelve were placed to the north of the temple, twelve to the south, and six to the east. Entered into the wall - The beams were admitted into the outer wall, but they rested on projections of the inner wall.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 41:6
"They entered," namely, the beams of the chambers, which were three-storied and thirty in consecutive order, entered into the wall, that is, were made to lean on rests projecting from the wall.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 41:7, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:7
“An enlarging - The “wall for the side-chambers” had for the ground story its full thickness of five cubits Eze 41:9 - then it was diminished one cubit, so as to form a ledge whereon to rest the beams of the floor of the second story, and again was further diminished one cubit for the floor of the third story. Thus there was an “enlarging” of the second story of the chambers by one cubit, and of the third story by two cubits beyond the breadth of the chambers on the ground-floor.”
Ezekiel 41:8, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:8
“The foundations of the side chambers - Therefore the height of the side-chambers from the floor was six cubits there being three stories, which corresponds sufficiently with the twenty cubits which was the height of the temple. “A great cubit” is probably an architectural term to denote the line of junction between two stories, which would be that of the ceiling of the lower and the floor of the upper story.”
Ezekiel 41:10, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:10
“And between the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits,.... Not the side chambers before mentioned, as if there was the space of twenty cubits between each chamber; for another word is used; more probably the meaning is, that between the side chambers, or the void space before them of five cubits, and the chambers which were in the court facing them, was such a wideness of twenty cubits: round about the house on every side; on all sides of the temple, where the above chambers were, west, north, and south.”
B. The building westward and the carved cherubim and palms
1. (vv. 12-17)
a.the building that was before the separate place: The building beyond the temple to the west, the separate place, and the house itself are each brought to the same round total, a hundred cubits, the vision's proportions announcing themselves in whole numbers rather than the odd fractions an actual construction project usually carries. Narrow windows, three-story galleries and walls cieled with wood round about are recorded as an eyewitness would report them, the tour continuing past the sanctuary to the buildings around it rather than stopping once the most holy place has been named. The measurements are carried as the text gives them, and the commentators divide over whether a future precinct or an ideal proportion is intended, a question the architecture itself does not settle.
Ezekiel 41:12, 2 voices
Ezekiel 41:12
“Now the building that was before the separate place,.... The "separate place" is the holy of holies, which was separated by a vail under the second temple, and by a wall as in this, and the first from the holy place: "before or over against" which was a building, as it is rendered, Eze 41:15, a new building, not before taken notice of: and it was situated at the end toward the west: or "sea" (e), the Mediterranean sea, which lay west to the land of Canaan.”
Ezekiel 41:12
“The length thereof ninety cubits - The temple, with the buildings which surrounded it, was eighty-one cubits long; add ten cubits for the vestibule, or five for the breadth of the separate place, and five for its wall; in all, ninety cubits. See the plan, LHIL. By the separate place I suppose the temple itself is meant.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 41:13, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:13
“So he measured the house - The temple, taken from the wall which encompassed it from the western side to the vestibule, was one hundred and one cubits; five for the separate place, nine for the wall and the chambers attached to the temple, sixty for the sanctuary and the holy place, ten for the vestibule, and twelve for the two great walls on the west and east of the temple; in all, one hundred and one cubits, See the plan, GHI.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 41:14, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:14
“Toward the east - The separate place was measured on its eastern side, for the western was not approachable for the purpose of measurement.”
Ezekiel 41:15, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:15
“The description of certain details is introduced by a summary statement of what had been already done. Galleries - On either side of the eastern front of the building on the separate place was a gallery of ten feet, under which was an approach to the building, by which the refuse was to be carried in by openings in the north and south, and then carried out by a western postern.”
Ezekiel 41:16, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:16
“Galleries - The upper story of the side-chambers was probably built in the form of an open gallery. Over against the door - The rows of the side-chambers extended to the front of the temple, so that they were “over against” the opening, but did not extend so far as the porch. Cieled - Overlaid. Pillars, galleries, narrow windows were overlaid with wood 1Ki 6:15-16. Were covered - With wood.”
2. (vv. 18-20)
a.made with cherubims and palm trees: Every wall carries cherubims and palm trees carved alternately, a palm tree standing between each pair of cherubs, and each cherub given two faces, a man's toward the palm tree on one side and a young lion's on the other. The same pairing decorated Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:29), and the commentators read the repeated image, a guardian creature beside a living tree, as the same Eden vocabulary this book has already used at chapter 28, the garden and its cherub recalled in the sanctuary's own wall carving. The decoration runs from the ground to above the door on every wall of the temple, ordinary joinery made to preach the presence it surrounds.
Ezekiel 41:18, 3 voices
Ezekiel 41:18
“And it was made with cherubim and palm trees,.... That is, all the wall of the house round about was ornamented with these, even both of the holy and of the most holy place; with these the curtains of Moses's tabernacle, and the vail that divided between the holy and the most holy place, were decorated; as also the walls, both of the sanctuary and oracle, in Solomon's temple, Exo 26:”
Ezekiel 41:18
“A palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub - That is, the palm trees and the cherubs were alternated; and each cherub had two faces, one of a lion and the other of a man; one of which was turned to the palm tree on the right, the other to the palm tree on the left.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 41:18
“Cherubim - Generally taken for the portrait of angels, or young men with wings: yet is the description of them very different in different places; in Ezekiel's vision, chap. i, 5-14; x, 14, Isaiah's vision, Isaiah vi, 2, John's vision, Rev. iv, 6-8, and in Solomon's temple, 1 Kings vi, 23-26.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 41:20, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:20
“From the ground unto above the door - The temple was thirty cubits high, 1Ki 6:2, the gate was fourteen cubits, chap. Eze 40:48. The palm trees and the cherubim were the same height as the gate or door. The windows were above the door.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
C. The wooden altar and the doors of the temple
1. (vv. 21-26)
a.posts of the temple were squared: The posts of the temple stand squared like the sanctuary's own face, and inside stands a wooden altar three cubits high, the vision's plainest small furnishing, which the guide names for the reader just as he named the most holy place: this is the table that is before the Lord. Commentators connect the naming, this is the table, to the tabernacle's own table of shewbread that stood in the holy place (Exodus 25:23-30), an altar of sacrifice presented under the vocabulary of a table of fellowship. The doors of the temple and the porch carry the same cherubim and palm trees as the walls, so that a worshiper leaving by either door meets the same carved witness that met him going in.
Ezekiel 41:21, 2 voices
Ezekiel 41:21
“The posts of the temple were squared,.... Or, were "foursquare" (n); the two posts on each side the door, the lintel and the threshold, made a square; the posts themselves were not round, as pillars, but flat and square; and the upper part was not arched, as in some buildings, but square. Jarchi says he had heard that the posts of Solomon's temple were foursquare; but that is not certain; however, these were.”
Ezekiel 41:21
“The posts - Not the word used before (see Eze 40:9 note). These “posts” are rather pilasters forming part of the inner walls. The appearance ... other - i. e., the appearance in this vision was the same as in the actual temple (compare Eze 43:3); (or, according to others, the front of the sanctuary resembled, the front of the holy place).”
Ezekiel 41:22, 3 voices
Ezekiel 41:22
“The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits,.... This was the altar of incense, and was typical of Christ in his intercession and mediation.”
Ezekiel 41:22
“The altar of wood - The altar for incense (marginal reference); “altar of gold” (see 1Ki 7:48). Walls - The corner pieces of the altar, rising into projections called in Exodus horns, here corners. Table - “table and altar” were convertible terms Mal 1:7.”
Ezekiel 41:22
“At it, not at the table of showbread, the priests daily ministered. It stood in front of the veil, and is therefore said to be "before the Lord." It is called a table, as being that at which the Lord will take delight in His people, as at a feast. Hence its dimensions are larger than that of old--three cubits high, two broad, instead of two and one.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 41:23, 2 voices
Ezekiel 41:23
“And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors. Or the house of propitiatory, as the Targum; that is, the most holy place; not two doors apiece, but each had one door, which made two; the door of the temple was ten cubits broad, and the door of the most holy place six cubits, Eze 41:2 showing the door is wider, and more enter into the outward visible church, or less perfect state, even some bad, as well as good, than the door of the Jerusalem church state, or heavenly glory, into which fewer enter.”
Ezekiel 41:23
“There is so much difference both in the terms and in the rules of architecture between one age and another, one place and another, that it ought not to be any stumbling-block to us that there is so much in these descriptions dark and hard to be understood, about the meaning of which the learned are not agreed.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 41:25, 1 voice
Ezekiel 41:25
“There were thick planks - The wood, or planks, were thick and strong; for the cherubim and palm trees were carved in relief out of their substance, and unless they had been of considerable thickness, this could not have been done.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 41. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Matthew Henry and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
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