Ezekiel 40:38
in Ezekiel 40There was a chamber with a doorway by the portico in each of the inner gateways. There the burnt offering was to be washed.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And a chamber with the door thereof was by the posts at the gates; there they washed the burnt-offering.
KJV
And the chambers and the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering.
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This verse in Ezekiel 40
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The chambers - Render it: and chambers, not yet described. They were north of the altar, by the “posts” or pillars in front and along the sides of the gate-building. There were several gates in the gate-building.
This site's exposition
with a doorway by the portico
on Ezekiel 40:38-43
A chamber by the portico is where “the burnt offering was to be washed,” and eight tables serve the offerings Leviticus names. Four tables of dressed stone hold the utensils. Keil takes this detail as meaning actual sacrifice in this house, while others read the offerings as the vision's symbolism.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
And there are four tables made of square stones, and these themselves are for sacrifice and burnt offering (also called holocausts). These are living stones that are rolled upon the earth, and they have with them a corner stone, by which the walls of the old and new Covenant are held together.
(Verse 35 and following) 'And he brought me to the gate that faced the north, and he measured it according to the higher measurements: its chamber, its facade, its vestibule, and its windows all around: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its vestibule faced the outer court, and its palm tree engravings on its facade on both sides, and its staircase with eight steps.' And at each treasury there shall be a door in the gates (or fronts) of the doors: there they shall wash the holocaust.
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistHomilies on Ezekiel, Book 2, Homily 8 · Written before 604.
proposed
"And for each treasury chamber there was a door in the fronts of the gates." We said above that the treasuries are the hearts of teachers, which preserve the riches of knowledge. The fronts of the gates are the words and works of preachers, by which we recognize outwardly what kind of persons they are who live within themselves. There is a door through each treasury in the fronts of the gates, because each teacher opens understanding in the heart of the hearer through the sayings and works of the fathers. For when we examine the preaching of the apostle Peter, when we search out the words of Paul, when we investigate the Gospel of John, and from their words draw our hearers to interior understanding, what else do we do but open a door in the fronts of the gates? Let it therefore be said: Through each treasury a door in the fronts of the gates, because if a teacher does not confirm what he says by the sayings of the apostles, he does not have a door in the fronts of the gates. And if he does not have a door, it can no longer be called a treasury of the spiritual building, because if he does not open understanding, he is not a teacher. "There they washed the burnt offering." For those who have devoted themselves to the Lord through faith in holy conduct have become a holocaust to the Lord. But because they still suffer many things in themselves from their corruptible flesh, because purity of heart is still defiled in them by sordid thoughts, they return daily to tears, they are afflicted by constant weeping. For they consider the words and deeds of the holy fathers, and when they judge themselves unworthy, they wash the holocaust at the entrance of the gates. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), to intimate that before we draw near to God's altar we must have every thing in readiness, must wash our hands, our hearts, those spiritual sacrifices, and so compass God's altar. The use that some of the chambers mentioned before were put to. Some were for the singers,
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
And the chambers, and the entries thereof, were by the posts of the gates,....
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
For Le 1:11 directs the sacrifices to be killed north of the altar; and Eze 8:5 calls the north gate, "the gate of the altar." And Eze 40:40 particularly mentions the north gate.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְלִשְׁכָּ֣ה | velishkah | and a room | H3957 → | 47 times |
| וּפִתְחָ֔הּ | ufitchah | and entrance its | H6607 → | 164 times |
| בְּאֵילִ֖ים | beeilim | [was] at pillars | H352 → | 187 times |
| הַשְּׁעָרִ֑ים | hashearim | the gates | H8179 → | 374 times |
| שָׁ֖ם | sham | there | H8033 → | 834 times |
| יָדִ֥יחוּ | yadichu | people rinse | H1740 → | |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הָעֹלָֽה׃ | haolah | the burnt offering | H5930 → | 287 times |
וְלִשְׁכָּ֣הand a room
velishkahH3957 →47 times
וּפִתְחָ֔הּand entrance its
ufitchahH6607 →164 times
בְּאֵילִ֖ים[was] at pillars
beeilimH352 →187 times
הַשְּׁעָרִ֑יםthe gates
hashearimH8179 →374 times
שָׁ֖םthere
shamH8033 →834 times
יָדִ֥יחוּpeople rinse
yadichuH1740 →
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הָעֹלָֽה׃the burnt offering
haolahH5930 →287 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
Hebrews 10:22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 36:25
I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.
- John 3:5
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
- Ephesians 5:26
to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
- 1 Peter 3:21
And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
- 1 Corinthians 6:11
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- Ezekiel 36:25
Through
Leviticus 1:9The entrails and legs must be washed with water, and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the…
it leads to
- Genesis 8:21
When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth.…
- Leviticus 1:13
The entrails and legs must be washed with water, and the priest shall bring all of it and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, a…
- Genesis 8:21
Through
2 Chronicles 4:6He also made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. The parts of the burnt offering were rinsed in them, but the priests used the…
it leads to
- 1 Kings 7:38
He also made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin for each of the ten stands.
- 1 Kings 7:38
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
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; Gregory the Dialogist, Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 2, Homily 8; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.