Chambers for the Priests
1Then 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. 2The building with the door facing north was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide.†
The rooms for the priests at the sides...
The rooms for the priests at the sides of the building to the rear of the sanctuary were three levels high so that the priests could enter at the top from the inner court (42:12) and emerge at the bottom in the outer court (42:9). These rooms were boundary spaces for activities that the priests had to perform on the way into and out of the inner court.
3Gallery faced gallery in three levels opposite the twenty cubits† that belonged to the inner court and opposite the pavement that belonged to the outer court.
4In front of the chambers was an inner walkway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long.† Their doors were on the north.
5Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space from the chambers on the lower and middle floors of the building. 6For they were arranged in three stories, and unlike the courts, they had no pillars. So the upper chambers were set back further than the lower and middle floors. 7An outer wall in front of the chambers was fifty cubits long and ran parallel to the chambers and the outer court. 8For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those facing the temple were a hundred cubits long. 9And below these chambers was the entrance on the east side as one enters them from the outer court.
10On the south side† along the length of the wall of the outer court were chambers adjoining the courtyard and opposite the building, 11with a passageway in front of them, just like the chambers that were on the north. They had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions. 12And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, there was a door in front of the walkway that was parallel to the wall extending eastward.
The priests would store the sacred offerings and...
The priests would store the sacred offerings and eat the most holy offerings in these rooms. The clothes that the priests wore while ministering in the Lord’s presence would be stored there, and the priests would put on other clothes because these clothes were holy. All of these regulations represent a significant increase in the care taken to separate the holy from the profane, as compared to the similar laws in Leviticus (cp. Lev 6).
13Then the man said to me, “The north and south chambers facing the temple courtyard are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy. 14Once the priests have entered the holy area, they must not go out into the outer court until they have left behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they approach the places that are for the people.”
The Outer Measurements
15Now when the man had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faced east, and he measured the area all around:
Having finished his tour of the inner courtyard,...
- Having finished his tour of the inner courtyard, Ezekiel was shown the overall dimensions of the area. The whole complex was square, which denoted holiness and differentiated it from the less regular design of Solomon’s Temple and the Tabernacle before it, in which only the Most Holy Place was square.
- The description of the Temple finished where it began, with a mention of a wall all around it (see 40:5); Ezekiel reminds us again that the purpose of that wall was to separate what was holy from what was common.
16With a measuring rod he measured the east side to be five hundred cubits long.†
17He measured the north side to be five hundred cubits long.
18He measured the south side to be five hundred cubits long.
19And he came around and measured the west side to be five hundred cubits long.
20So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall all around, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.