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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 41:1 - 41:1
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The Inner Space of the Temple (see Plate III B and C)
Eze 41:1. And he led me into the temple, and measured the pillars, six cubits breadth on this side and six cubits breadth on that side, with regard to the breadth of the tent. Eze 41:2. And the breadth of the door was ten cubits; and the shoulders of the door, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that: and he measured its length, forty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits. Eze 41:3. And he went within the measured the pillar of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits. Eze 41:4. And he measured its length, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, toward the temple; and said to me, This is the holy of holies. - Eze 41:1 and Eze 41:2 give the measurements of the holy place. הֵיכָל is used here in the more restricted sense for the nave of the temple, the holy place (B), without the porch and the holy of holies (cf. 1Ki 6:17). The measuring commences with the front (eastern) wall, in which there was the entrance door. This wall had pillars (e e) of six cubits breadth on either side (on the right hand and the left), and between the pillars a door (d) ten cubits broad, with door-shoulders (e e) of five cubits on this side and that (Eze 41:2). These measurements (6 + 6 + 10 + 5 + 5) yield for the front wall a total breadth of thirty-two cubits. This agrees with the measurements which follow: twenty cubits, the (internal) breadth of the holy place, and six cubits the thickness of the wall (e) on either side (Eze 41:5). The only remaining difficulty is in the very obscure words appended, רֹחַב הָאֹהֶל, in which Ewald and Hitzig propose to alter האהל into הָאַיִל otni האהל re, because the lxx have substituted τοῦ αἰλάμ, but without making any improvement, as הָאַיִל is still more inexplicable. Kliefoth, after examining the various attempts to explain these words, comes to the conclusion that no other course is left than to take הָאֹהֶל as signifying the inner space of Ezekiel's temple, consisting of the holy place and the holy of holies, which was the same in the entire building as the tabernacle had been, - viz. the tent of God's meeting with His people, and which is designated as אֹהֶל to show the substantial identity of this space and the tabernacle. The clause רֹחַב הָאֹהֶל is thus attached to the preceding double מִפֹּה (i.e., to the measurement of the two pillars bounding the holy space), in an elliptical manner, in the following sense: “he measured the breadth of the pillars, on this side and that, which marked off the breadth of the tent, on the outside, that is to say, of the inner space of the holy place which resembled the tabernacle;” so that this clause formed a loose apposition, meaning, “with regard to the breath of the tent.” כִּתְפֹות הַפֶּתַח are the walls on both sides of the door (e e), between the door and the boundary pillars. - The internal length and breadth of the holy place are the same as in the holy place of Solomon's temple (1Ki 6:2, 1Ki 6:17).
Eze 41:3 and Eze 41:4 refer to the holy of holies (c). “He went within.” We have וּבָא (for וַיָּבֹוא) and not וַיְבִיאֵנִי (Eze 41:1), because the prophet was not allowed to tread the most holy place, and therefore the angel went in alone. פְּנִימָה is defined in Eze 41:4 as the holy of holies. The measurements in Eze 41:3 refer to the partition wall between the holy place and the most holy (g). אֵיל הַפֶּתַח, the pillar-work of the door, stands for the pillars on both sides of the door; and the measurement of two cubits no doubt applies to each pillar, denoting, not the thickness, but the breadth which it covered on the wall. There is a difficulty in the double measurement which follows: the door six cubits, and the breadth of the door seven cubits. As the latter is perfectly clear, and also apparently in accordance with the fact, and on measuring a door the height is the only thing which can come into consideration in addition to the breadth, we agree with Kliefoth in taking the six cubits as a statement of the height. The height of six cubits bears a fitting proportion to the breadth of seven cubits, if there were folding-doors; and the seven is significant in the case of the door to the holy of holies, the dwelling of God. The Seventy, however, did not know what to do with this text, and changed רֹחַב הַפֶּתַח שֶׁבַע אַמֹּות into τὰς ἐπωμίδας τοῦ θυρώματος πηχῶν ἑπτὰ ἔνθεν καὶ ἔνθεν, in which they have been followed by Böttcher, Hitzig, and others. But it is obvious at once that the Seventy have simply derived these data from the measurements of the front of the holy place (Eze 41:2), and have overlooked the fact, that in the first place, beside the measure of the כִּתְפֹות הַפֶּתַח, i.e., ἐπωμίδες τοῦ πυλῶνος, the רֹחַב הַפֶּתַח, or breadth of the door, is also expressly measured there, whereas here, on the contrary, it is preceded by הַפֶּתַח alone, without רֹחַב; and secondly, as the measurement of the אֵילִים given in Eze 41:1 indicates their breadth (from south to north), in the present instance also the measure ascribed to the אֵיל הַפֶּתַח can only refer to the breadth of the אַיִל, and not to its thickness (from east to west). But if we explain the first clause of Eze 41:3 in this manner, as both the language and the fact require, the reading of the lxx is proved to be a false correction, by the fact that it yields a breadth of twenty-two or twenty-four cubits (2 + 2 + 6 + 7 + 7), whereas the holy of holies, like the holy place, was only twenty cubits broad. The dimensions of the holy of holies also correspond to the space covered by the holy of holies in Solomon's temple (1Ki 6:20). The expression אֶל־פְּנֵי הַהֵיכָל, “toward the holy place,” is to be explained by the supposition that the measuring angel, after he had proceeded to the western end of the holy of holies for the purpose of measuring the length, turned round again to measure the breadth, so that this breadth lay “toward the holy place.”