Ezekielchapter 42
20 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
In front of the chambers was an inner walkway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long. Their doors were on the north.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel wrote this part of the temple vision for exiles, many of them from priestly families, who knew what the rooms of a sanctuary were for. Earlier in the book he had charged the priests of Jerusalem with blurring the line between the holy and the common. Here the guide shows two blocks of rooms beside the house and then walks the outer wall. Listen for what the priests eat in these rooms and what they leave there before going out to the people. Listen also for the one sentence at the close that states the purpose of the whole plan.
Context
- Who
- Exiles from priestly families who knew what these rooms were for
- What
- The measuring of the priests' chambers north and south of the temple and of the outer wall on all four sides.
- Where
- In vision, in the temple courts and around the outer wall of the temple on the mountain in the land of Israel.
- When
- The twenty-fifth year of the exile, about 573 BC, within the vision dated in Ezekiel 40:1.
- Why
- To provide holy rooms for eating the offerings and changing garments, and a wall that separates the holy from the common.
Historical context
The chambers being measured are working rooms, and the text says plainly what they are for: this is where the priests who approach the LORD eat the most holy offerings, and where they lay those offerings down. Parts of the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering were the priests' food and had to be eaten in a holy place. These rooms are the dining halls and the pantries of the sanctuary.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
They are also changing rooms, and that is the more striking function. When the priests come out of the sanctuary they take off the linen garments in which they minister, leave them in these chambers, and put on other clothes before going out to where the people are. The idea underneath is that holiness transfers by contact, the garments have been in the holy place, and the ordinary crowd must not brush against them.
The building is described in three storeys with the upper levels set back, because galleries took floor space from the storeys beneath. There is a passage between the chambers and the outer court, and a separate low wall for the outer chambers, so the traffic of the priests and the traffic of the people never cross.
The chapter ends with the guide measuring the outer wall: five hundred by five hundred, with the stated purpose of making a separation between the holy and the common. That single sentence is the whole architecture in summary.
Significance
The exiles had been told exactly why the old house fell. Chapter twenty-two named it: her priests made no distinction between the holy and the common. This chapter shows a building whose floor plan makes the distinction for them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For first hearers the practical detail, the room where you hang up the linen before you go out to the people, was the sign that the failure had been thought about. Nothing here depends on the priests remembering to be careful. The walls remember for them.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the eighth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Eikev 7:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern.
The chambers of the priests are the hardest ground in the vision, and Rashi says so where he cannot follow. At the fifth verse, on the upper chambers, he writes: "I do not understand them at all" (Rashi on Ezekiel 42:5:1). At the ninth he gives two readings of the space below the chambers and settles neither. "I do not know whether this comes to teach that they had tunnels beneath them", or whether the words describe the slope of the mountain to the east (Rashi on Ezekiel 42:9:1).
Where he can follow, he works the plan by the cubit. The chambers take one hundred cubits from east to west and fifty from north to south, with an open space of the same size before them (Rashi on Ezekiel 42:2:1). The walk of ten cubits at the fourth verse draws a long reckoning. Every side of the space seems closed, and he finds the way in through an entrance one cubit wide set diagonally in the end of the wall (Rashi on Ezekiel 42:4:1). The use of the chambers is stated simply, the place the priests enter "to eat" (Rashi on Ezekiel 42:14:1).
The last verse measures the whole, and Rashi reads it as three thousand cubits on each side, since the rod was six cubits long. He cites the liturgical poet Kalir for the same figure and works the arithmetic. The Temple Mount of five hundred cubits square is multiplied "thirty-six times the original dimensions" (Rashi on Ezekiel 42:20:1).
The corpus carries seven further notes on this chapter without an English text, each of them marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Ezekiel 42:2:1, 42:6:1, 42:13:1 and 42:16:1, at Malbim on Ezekiel 42:17:1 and 42:18:1 and at Metzudat David on Ezekiel 42:19:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries four rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the eighth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Eikev 7:1 and Midrash Yelamdenu, Selections from Yalkut Talmud Torah 115:1. On the ninth verse it holds Tractate Soferim 7:4. On the sixteenth verse it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 3:11. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 42:1:1 to 42:20:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 42:2:1, 42:6:1, 42:13:1 and 42:16:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Ezekiel 42:17:1 and 42:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Ezekiel 42:19:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/42.json, the 4 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this chapter and printing no weekly portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Chambers where the priests eat the holy things
Ezekiel 42:1-8
northward into the outer court: The guide brings the prophet to the chambers opposite the courtyard, where gallery faced gallery, the upper chambers smaller because the galleries took more space. An inner walkway ten cubits wide ran before the doors. The measurements stand as the text gives them, a hundred cubits and fifty.
Ezekiel 42:1
“Chapter XLII, verses 1 and following: 'And he brought me to the outer court by the way leading to the north, and he brought me to the treasury which was opposite the separated building and opposite the temple facing the north. On the face of the length of one hundred cubits of the north gate, and the breadth of fifty cubits.' In this place, the Septuagint edition differs greatly from the Hebrew truth.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 42:1
“Utter court - Outward court, so Eze 42:3. Into the chamber ... before the building - to the chambers (See L, Plan II)... over against etc. “The building” is the temple-building, for this row of chambers was built against eighty cubits of the wall bounding “the separate place” and twenty cubits of the wall of the temple-court.”
a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide: Albert Barnes sets the priests' chambers north of the temple a hundred cubits east to west and fifty north to south. Their door faced north. Jerome notes that the Greek Septuagint differs widely from the Hebrew in this passage, which is one reason the layout is hard to fix.
Ezekiel 42:2
“He brought me “before” a row of chambers 100 cubits long, east and west. “The door” of which lay on the north side of the chambers. The priests entered from the outer court (O); the breadth of this block of chambers was fifty cubits, north and south Eze 42:8.”
Gallery faced gallery in three levels: John Wesley pictures two galleries back to back, one facing the inner court and one facing the pavement, with the chambers between them. The block stood between the holy ground near the temple and the common pavement. Its place in the plan matches its use.
Ezekiel 42:3
"Opposite the twenty cubits of the inner court, and opposite the pavement laid with stone of the outer court, where the porch was joined to the triple porch." And that which is joined next to the Hebrew, opposite the twenty cubits of the inner court, which the Seventy have translated, was described like the gates of the inner court, has this meaning: that the number of a hundred and fifty in the outer court should have the same force as the number of twenty in the inner court.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 42:3
“Against gallery - That is, a gallery on the south part toward the inner court, and a gallery toward the pavement north-ward, and between the backs of these galleries were chambers.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 42:3
“These “chambers” (compare Eze 46:19) did not reach to the western wall; between it and them lay a court for cooking (M), probably forty cubits by thirty; such court with its approaches filled up the corner of fifty cubits square, as in the case of the kitchen-courts for the people.”
an inner walkway ten cubits wide: Albert Barnes reads the walkway as a passage leading inward, with stairs to the upper stories. The Septuagint gives different figures here. Matthew Henry turns the walk into a picture of fellowship, recalling the promise to Joshua of a place to walk among those standing (Zechariah 3:7).
Ezekiel 42:4
Or, In the front “of the chambers” was a gangway “of ten cubits” breadth (leading) “inward,” a path “of one cubit, and their doors toward the north.” The “gangway” had stairs to the upper stories, while along the north front of the building there was a kerb of one cubit, as before the guard-chambers Eze 40:12, on which kerb the north doors (leading to the basement) opened. Others follow the Septuagint “And opposite the chambers a walk 10 cubits in width to 100 cubits in length.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 42:4
“But man is made for society, and Christians for the communion of saints; and the duties of that communion we must make conscience of, and the privileges and pleasures of that communion we must take the comfort of. It is promised to Joshua, who was high priest in the second temple, that God will give him places to walk in among those that stand by, Zech. iii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the upper chambers were smaller: Albert Barnes explains that the building rose in terraces, as Babylonian buildings did, each story set back from the one below. John Gill notes the reverse of 41:7. There the side rooms grew wider going up, and here the chambers grow smaller.
Ezekiel 42:5
“Render: “And the upper chambers were” shortened, for galleries took off from them, from “the lower” and from “the middle-most, chambers, of the building.” The building rose in terraces, as was usual in Babylonian architecture, and so each of the two upper stories receded from the one below it.”
3 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 42:5
“Now the upper chambers were shorter,.... The chambers were in three stories, as in the following verse, one above another; the middlemost were shorter than the lowermost, and the upper shorter than either; just the reverse of the chambers in Eze 41:7, they were not so high from the floor to the ceiling, nor so broad from side to side.”
Ezekiel 42:5
“Shorter - At first view it should seem to refer to the length, but indeed it refers to the height of the chambers, of which the lowest chamber was highest, the second lower pitched than the first, yet of greater height than the uppermost between the floor and ceiling.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 42:5
“There were many, that there might be conveniences for all such devout people as Anna the prophetess, who departed not from the temple night or day, Luke ii. In my Father's house are many mansions. In his house on earth there are so; multitudes by faith have taken lodgings in his sanctuary, and yet there is room.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
they had no pillars: With no pillars to carry the floors, each story rested on the one below and stepped back from it, as Albert Barnes reads the narrowing. The rooms were many. Matthew Henry finds room in them for worshipers like Anna, who stayed in the temple night and day (Luke 2:37).
Ezekiel 42:6
The front of the higher stories was not supported on pillars, but there was a narrowing from “the lowest” (chambers) “and” from “the middlemost” (chambers) “from the ground.”
An outer wall in front of the chambers: Albert Barnes takes this wall to run north to south along the chambers' east side, fencing their passage off from the outer court. Its fifty cubits match the chambers' width. It shields the priests' rooms, used in verses 13 and 14 for eating holy food and changing garments.
Ezekiel 42:7
“The “wall” here must be one from north to south, fencing off from the outer court the passage along the east side of the chambers, and therefore fifty cubits long.”
those facing the temple were a hundred cubits long: The two rows are unequal: the row on the outer court runs fifty cubits, and the row facing the temple a hundred. Albert Barnes places the longer row opposite the temple courtyard and the temple. The side nearest the sanctuary received the greater length.
Ezekiel 42:8
“The length - From north to south. Before the temple - This describes their position in a general way; more precisely they lay over against partly the “separate place” and partly the “temple-court” Eze 42:1.”
Ezekiel 42:9-12
the entrance on the east side: The south side mirrors the north: chambers along the wall of the outer court, and the same length and width, “with similar exits and dimensions”. The sanctuary is ordered down to its storerooms, north answering south. The details stand in the text for the reader who wants them.
Ezekiel 42:9
“The entry from these chambers to the temple-court was by a passage lying to the east fenced off by the “wall” Eze 42:7. This passage is described as lying under the chambers, being on the basement, and also having access by steps to the temple-court, which was raised many steps above the outer court.”
On the south side: The south block repeats the north block, and Albert Barnes renders the verse to place these chambers along the boundary wall of the temple courtyard. The Hebrew text names the east here. The Berean reads south, which the mirrored layout of verses 11 and 12 supports.
Ezekiel 42:10
Render it: Breadth-wise (was) the wall Eze 42:7 toward the east; in front of the separate place and of the building (were) the chambers: i. e., on the east was “the wall” (“geder”); along the boundary wall of “the separate place” and of the “building” (the temple) lay the “chambers.”
just like the chambers that were on the north: Albert Barnes translates the verse as a full list: the same length and breadth, the same exits, fashions and doors as the north block. Both blocks serve one purpose. Verses 13 and 14 name it, as places for the priests to eat the most holy offerings and change their garments.
Ezekiel 42:11
“Translate: And along the front of them - like (literally as the appearance of) the chambers which were toward the north, as long as they and as broad as they, and (like) all their goings out, and like their fashions, and like their doors, even so were the doors of the chambers which were toward the south; (with) a door at the head of the way, the way of the wall adjoined eastward as one entereth into them (the chambers).”
a door in front of the walkway: The doorway leads in from the east, beside the wall that verse 7 measured. The priests enter both blocks the same way. The south side repeats the north down to its door, so neither block has a different rule of access.
Ezekiel 42:13-14
the holy chambers where the priests: These are “the holy chambers where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings”. There the priests leave “the garments in which they minister, for these are holy,” and put on other clothes. What serves at the altar stays out of the outer court.
Ezekiel 42:13
“In Lev 10:13 it was prescribed that the priests should eat of the sacrifices in the “holy place.” This was originally before the altar in the inner court - now separate chambers are assigned, and these become “the holy place” for this purpose. Of the “trespass-offering” and “meat-offering” what was not consumed was eaten Lev 7:6, but the “sin-offering” was burned without the camp Eze 43:21. Probably the carcass was brought from the altar to the chamber before being carried out.”
they must not go out into the outer court: Adam Clarke explains that the priests kept their vestments for ministry only and stored them in these chambers when they finished. Ezekiel 44:19 repeats the rule and gives its reason. Holiness stays where it belongs, and the people are kept from contact with what only priests may wear.
Ezekiel 42:14
“They shall lay their garments wherein they minister - The priests were not permitted to wear their roles in the outer court. These vestments were to be used only when they ministered; and when they had done, they were to deposit them in one of the chambers mentioned in the thirteenth verse.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The wall measured on all four sides
Ezekiel 42:15-20
had finished measuring the interior: The inner survey ends. The rod goes around the whole: five hundred cubits, a square with a wall all around, “to separate the holy from the common”. The glory left a defiled house at 11:23, and this wall is set two chapters before its return at 43:4.
five hundred cubits long: The Hebrew text reads five hundred reeds, and Jerome and Adam Clarke follow it, Clarke saying an area so large might be called a city. The Berean reads cubits, a figure that fits the measures of chapters 40 and 41. Matthew Henry sees the church's reach in it.
Ezekiel 42:16
“He measured the east - north - south - west side - Each of which was five hundred reeds: and, as the building was square, the area must have been nearly thirteen thousand paces. No wonder this was called a city. See Eze 40:2.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 42:16
“Thus large were the suburbs (as I may call them) of this mystical temple, signifying the great extent of the church in gospel-times, when all nations should be discipled and the kingdoms of the world made Christ's kingdoms. Room should be made in God's courts for the numerous forces of the Gentiles that shall flow into them, as was foretold, Isa. xlix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the north side: matches the east. Jerome traces the rod going around in order, east, north, south, then west. Matthew Henry reads the size of this enclosure as room made in God's courts for the Gentiles who would come into them, citing Isaiah 49.
Ezekiel 42:17
“He measured the north side, five hundred reeds,.... From the two angles of that side, east and west; and it was of the same dimension as the east side, just five hundred reeds, or one thousand seven hundred and fifty yards: with a measuring reed round about; he measured with the same reed, from point to point; and having measured this side, he went to another.”
the south side: gives the same figure again. Each side is measured and named, four statements where one would have sufficed, and Jerome keeps that order in his account of the rod's circuit. The repetition leaves no side of the sanctuary unmeasured.
Ezekiel 42:18
“He measured the south side, five hundred reeds,.... From the two angles of that side, east and west; and it amounted to just the same number of reeds, even five hundred reeds, or one thousand seven hundred and fifty yards: with the measuring reed; the same as before; here, and in the next verse, the phrase "round about" is not used, but is to be understood; and having been repeated, there was no need of mentioning it again.”
he came around and measured the west side: The tour that began at the east gate in 40:6 comes to its end on the west, as Jerome traces it. From here the vision turns from buildings to the glory itself. Chapter 43 opens back at the east gate.
Ezekiel 42:19
“He turned about to the west side,.... And took the dimensions of that, from angle to angle, the south and north points of it: and measured five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed; and it was exactly of the same measure with the other three sides.”
to separate the holy from the common: Adam Clarke explains the line this wall drew: the holy area was closed to anyone impure, while the common area was open to all. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown see in the square a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28). John Wesley links the size to Gentiles entering the church.
Ezekiel 42:20
“It had a wall round about - to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place - The holy place was that which was consecrated to the Lord; into which no heathen, nor stranger, nor any in a state of impurity, might enter. The profane place was that in which men, women, Gentiles, pure or impure might be admitted. Josephus says War, lib. vi., c.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 42:20
“Thus large were the suburbs of this mystical temple, signifying the great extent of the church in gospel times. It is in part fulfilled already, by the accession of the Gentiles to the church: and will be throughly accomplished, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 42:20
“The lowness of it renders it unfit for the purpose of defense (the object of the wall, Re 21:12). But its square form (as in the city, Re 21:16) is the emblem of the kingdom that cannot be shaken (Heb 12:28), resting on prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.