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Ezekiel 40:14

in Ezekiel 40

Next he measured the gateposts to be sixty cubits high. The gateway extended around to the gatepost of the courtyard.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

He made also posts, threescore cubits; and the court reached unto the posts, round about the gate.

KJV

He made also posts of threescore cubits, even unto the post of the court round about the gate.

This verse in Ezekiel 40

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
He made also posts of threescore cubits,.... Jerom thinks, that between the outward wall which surrounded this building, and the building itself, these posts or pillars were placed for ornament, which took up the space of sixty cubits; but rather these design the posts or columns of the gate, which supported the arch over it, on which were rooms or stories, and these were sixty cubits high; for of their height is this measure to be understood.

This site's exposition

climbed its steps

on Ezekiel 40:6-16

At the gate facing east, threshold, gate chambers, portico, jambs and gateposts are measured in order, with palm trees on every side pillar. The tour starts in the east, the direction by which the glory left at 11:23 and returns through the eastern gate at 43:4.

This site's exposition

sixty cubits high

Sixty cubits, about a hundred feet, is a great height for gateposts, and the Hebrew is difficult. John Wesley takes it as the height of the gate built up two stories above the arch, and John Gill agrees it measures the columns. Jerome, Gill reports, read it as a width.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verse 14 and following) He made fronts for sixty cubits, and the courtyard of the gate had a surrounding circuit. And before the face of the gate, which reached up to the face of the interior vestibule gate, there were fifty cubits, and oblique windows in the chambers, and in their fronts which were inside the gate all around. Similarly, there were windows in the vestibules all around inside: and before the fronts, there was a depiction of palms.

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Gregory the Dialogist

Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 2, Homily 5 · Written before 604.

proposed

And he made fronts of sixty cubits, and to the front of the gate was the court on every side round about. We have often said that perfection of good work is signified by the number six, not following what the wise men of this age have striven to establish, saying that the number six is perfect because it is completed when counted in its own order, as when one, two, three are said, the number six is filled up; or because it is divided into three parts, that is, a sixth, a third, and a half, namely into one, two, and three; but we say that the number six is perfect because, as was said a little before, God completed all His works on the sixth day. Since indeed He gave the law to sinful man, which is written in ten precepts, and six times ten makes sixty, rightly through sixty cubits the perfection of good works is signified. This the Lord also clearly indicates in the Gospel, who, when He was explaining the parable of the sower, said: "Other seed fell on good ground, and yielded fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought forth one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred." For the fruit of good ground brings forth thirty when the mind has conceived the perfection of faith, which is in the Trinity. It brings forth sixty when it has produced perfect works of a good life. But it brings forth a hundred when it has advanced to the contemplation of eternal life. For our left hand is the present life, but the right hand is the life to come. And rightly through the number one hundred the contemplation of eternal life is signified, because when after thirty and sixty we arrive by counting at the number one hundred, that same hundredth number passes to the right hand. Faith and works are still on the left hand, because while we are still placed here, we both believe what we do not see, and we work so that we may see. […]

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

He made - Measured, and thereby shewed what kind of posts they should be. Threescore cubits - Probably this refers to the height of this gate built up two stories above the arch, and the posts in their height are only mentioned, but imply all the rest of the building over the east gate.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), He made also the posts. He that now measured them was the same that made them; for Christ is the builder of his church and therefore is best able to give us the knowledge of it.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

And he made the pillars sixty cubits The height of the pillars of the posts of the hall was sixty cubits.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ezekiel 40:14:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
And he measured the gate from the roof of the cell to its [other] roof from the roof of the cell at the north of the gate to the roof of the cell at the south of the gate.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ezekiel 40:13:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיַּ֥עַשׂand he made

    vaiyaasH6213 →2628 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • אֵילִ֖יםpillars

    ʾeilimH352 →187 times

  • שִׁשִּׁ֣יםsixty

    shishimH8346 →

  • אַמָּ֑הcubit[s]

    ʾamahH520 →247 times

  • וְאֶל־and [was] to

    veel-H413 →5510 times

  • אֵיל֙a pillar

    ʾeilH352 →187 times

  • הֶֽחָצֵ֔רthe courtyard

    hechatzerH2691 →191 times

  • הַשַּׁ֖עַרthe gate

    hashaarH8179 →374 times

  • סָבִ֥יב׀all around

    savivH5439 →336 times

  • סָבִֽיב׃all around

    savivH5439 →336 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 100:4

    Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name.

    it leads to

    • Colossians 3:16–17

      Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to…

    • Hebrews 13:15

      Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.

    • 1 Chronicles 29:13

      Now therefore, our God, we give You thanks, and we praise Your glorious name.

    • Psalms 103:1–2

      Bless the LORD, O my soul; all that is within me, bless His holy name.

    • Psalms 116:17–19

      I will offer to You a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 42:1

    Then the man led me out northward into the outer court, and he brought me to the group of chambers opposite the temple courtyard and the outer wall on the north side.

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 40:20

      He also measured the length and width of the gateway of the outer court facing north.

    • Ezekiel 40:17

      Then he brought me into the outer court, and there were chambers and a pavement laid out all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement,

  • Through

    1 Chronicles 28:6

    And He said to me, ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build My house and My courts, for I have chosen him as My son, and I will be his Father.

    it leads to

    • 2 Samuel 7:13–14

      He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Where this verse is studied

About Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Gregory the Dialogist, Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 2, Homily 5; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.