Ezekiel 42:5
in Ezekiel 42Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space from the chambers on the lower and middle floors of the building.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Now the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the middlemost, in the building.
KJV
Now the upper chambers were shorter: for the galleries were higher than these, than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building.
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This verse in Ezekiel 42
Commentary
5 notes on this verseNow 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.
This site's exposition
into the utter court
on Ezekiel 42:1-8
The guide brings the prophet into the outer court to the priests' chambers facing the separate place, a three-story block with galleries, the upper floors set back because the galleries took from their breadth, no pillars like the courts' pillars, a walk of ten cubits before the doors. The vision's method continues here as everywhere in these chapters: architecture recorded as an eyewitness tour rather than a builder's plan, which is why the commentators differ over details the text never resolves. The measurements are carried as the text gives them, an hundred cubits and fifty, and the exposition does not force a reconstruction the words do not draw.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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.
on Ezekiel 42:5-6
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.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהַלְּשָׁכ֥וֹת | vehaleshakhot | and the rooms | H3957 → | 47 times |
| הָעֶלְיוֹנֹ֖ת | haelyonot | <the> upper | H5945 → | 53 times |
| קְצֻר֑וֹת | ketzurot | [were] short | H7114 → | |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| יוֹכְל֨וּ | yokhlu | they consumed | H398 → | 810 times |
| אַתִּיקִ֜ים | ʾatikim | galleries | H862 → | 5 times |
| מֵהֵ֗נָה | mehenah | from them | ||
| מֵֽהַתַּחְתֹּנ֛וֹת | mehatachtonot | more than the lower [rooms] | H8481 → | 13 times |
| וּמֵהַתִּֽכֹנ֖וֹת | umehatikhonot | and more than the middle [rooms] | H8484 → | 11 times |
| בִּנְיָֽן׃ | binyan | [the] structure | H1146 → | 7 times |
וְהַלְּשָׁכ֥וֹתand the rooms
vehaleshakhotH3957 →47 times
הָעֶלְיוֹנֹ֖ת<the> upper
haelyonotH5945 →53 times
קְצֻר֑וֹת[were] short
ketzurotH7114 →
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
יוֹכְל֨וּthey consumed
yokhluH398 →810 times
אַתִּיקִ֜יםgalleries
ʾatikimH862 →5 times
מֵהֵ֗נָהfrom them
mehenah
מֵֽהַתַּחְתֹּנ֛וֹתmore than the lower [rooms]
mehatachtonotH8481 →13 times
וּמֵהַתִּֽכֹנ֖וֹתand more than the middle [rooms]
umehatikhonotH8484 →11 times
בִּנְיָֽן׃[the] structure
binyanH1146 →7 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
3 stopsEach 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
Ezekiel 41:7The side rooms surrounding the temple widened at each successive level, because the structure surrounding the temple ascended by stages corresponding to the narrowing of the temple wall as it rose upward. And so…
it leads to
- 1 Kings 6:8
The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the middle level, and from there to the third floor.
- Matthew 13:32
Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
- Hebrews 6:1
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God,
- 1 Kings 6:8
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.