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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 41:15 - 41:15
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Summary Account of the Measurement, the Character, and the Significant Ornaments of the Projecting Portions of the Temple Building. - Eze 41:15. And thus he measured the length of the building in the front of the separate place which was at the back thereof, and its galleries on this side and that side, a hundred cubits, and the inner sanctuary, and the porches of the court; Eze 41:16. The thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries round about all three - opposite to the thresholds was wainscoting wood round about, and the ground up to the windows; but the windows were covered - Eze 41:17. (The space) above the doors, both to the inner temple and outside, and on all the wall round about, within and without, had its measures. Eze 41:18. And cherubs and palms were made, a palm between every two cherubs; and the cherub had two faces; Eze 41:19. A man's face toward the palm on this side, and a lion's face toward the palm on that side: thus was it made round about the whole house. Eze 41:20. From the floor to above the doors were the cherubs and palms made, and that on the wall of the sanctuary. Eze 41:21. The sanctuary had square door-posts, and the front of the holy of holies had the same form. Eze 41:22. The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits; and it had its corner-pieces and its stand, and its walls were of wood: and he said to me, This is the table which stands before Jehovah. Eze 41:23. And the holy place and the holy of holies had two doors. Eze 41:24. And the doors had two wings, two turning leaves; the one door two, and the other two leaves. Eze 41:25. And there were made upon them, upon the doors of the sanctuary, cherubs and palms, as they were made upon the walls; and a moulding of wood was on the front of the porch outside. Eze 41:26. And there were closed windows and palms on this side and on that, on the side-walls of the porch, and the side-rooms of the house, and the beams. - Eze 41:15 is the commencement of a comprehensive enumeration of particular features in the building, the greater part of which have not been mentioned before; so that וּמָדַד (for וַיָּמָד) is to be rendered, “and thus he measured.” The circumstance that another measurement follows in Eze 41:15, whereas no further numbers are given from Eze 41:15 onwards, does not warrant us in assuming that Eze 41:15 is to be joined on to Eze 41:14, and Eze 41:15 to be taken in connection with Eze 41:16. The absence of the cop. ו before הַסִּפִּים in Eze 41:16 is sufficient to preclude the latter, showing as it does that הַסִּפִּים commences a fresh statement; and the words 'וְהַהֵיכָל וגו in Eze 41:15 are still governed by the verb וּמָדַד in Eze 41:15. The contents of Eze 41:15 are also decisive against the separation mentioned. If, for instance, we connect Eze 41:15 with Eze 41:14, the first clause contains a pure tautology, as the length of the building has been already measured, and the result is given in Eze 41:13. The tautology does not exist, if the summary statements of the measurement of different portions of the whole temple building commence with Eze 41:15; and in connection with these a supplementary account is given of various details not mentioned before.
The contents of the second clause, namely, what is stated concerning the אַתִּיקִים, belong directly to the latter. The building in front of the separate place, which was measured by the man, is more precisely defined, so far as its situation is concerned, by the words אֲשֶׁר עַל־אַחֲרֶיהָ. The feminine suffix in אחריה points back to הַגִּזְרָה; consequently אֲשֶׁר can only refer to הַבִּנְיָן: “the building...which was at the back of the gizrah.” This is not at variance with the situation indicated in אֶל־פְּנֵי הַגִּזְרָה, but serves as a more exact definition of this statement, showing that the building which stood at the front of the gizrah occupied the hinder part of it, i.e., extended in length from the front of the gizrah to the back. - The meaning of אַתּוּקִים or אַתִּיקִים, here (Keri) and in Eze 41:16; Eze 42:3 and Eze 42:5, the only other passages in which it occurs, is involved in obscurity. Even Raschi confesses that he does not know what it means, and the older translators have simply resorted to vague conjectures for their renderings; the lxx here, ἀπόλοιπα, in Eze 42:3 and Eze 42:5 περίστυλον and στοαί; the Vulgate, here, ethecas (the Hebrew word Latinized), in Ezekiel 42 porticus; Targum, in the London Polyglot, Eze 41:15, זִיוְיָתָהָא; Eze 41:16, אַתִּיקַיָּא; Eze 42:3, זָוֵי; and Eze 42:5, זִיזַיָּא. There is no root אָתַק in Hebrew; and the derivation of the word from עָתַק is not only uncertain, but furnishes us with nothing that can be used for tracing the architectural signification of the word. Even the context in Eze 41:15 and Eze 41:16 of this chapter supplies nothing, for in both verses the meaning of the clauses in which אתיקים stands is a matter of dispute. It is only in Eze 42:3 and Eze 42:5 that we find any clue. According to Eze 42:3, in the three-storied cell-building there was אַתִּיק אֶל־פְּנֵי on the third storey; and according to Eze 41:5 the cells of the upper storey in this building were shorter than those of the lower and central storey, because אַתִּיקִים took space away from them; and the reason for this, again, was, that the three-storied cells had no pillars. From this we may infer with certainty that the אַתִּיקִים were galleries or passages running along the outer walls of the building, which were not supported by pillars, and therefore necessarily rested upon ledges obtained by the receding of the rooms of the upper storey. This meaning also suits the present chapter. The suffix in אַתּוּקֶיהָא (an Aramaic form for אַתִּיקֶיהָ) points back, not to בִּנְיָן, but to הַבִּנְיָה in Eze 41:13; for the words, “and its galleries on this side and on that,” i.e., on the north and south sides of the building, are not dependent upon אֹרֶךְ הַבִּנְיָן, in the sense of “the length of the building, with its galleries on this side and on that,” as ואתוקיהא is too widely separated from 'אֹרֶךְ הב for this. ואתוקיהא is rather a second object to מָדַד: he measured (1) the length of the building; (2) its galleries on this side and that - a hundred cubits; (3) the inner temple, etc. The hundred cubits do not refer to the length of the building, but to the galleries on both sides, which were of the same length as the building, and therefore ran along its entire length, - a fact which it was not superfluous to mention, as they might possibly have been shorter. הַהֵיכָל הַפְּנִימִי is the temple house, with the buildings against it, within the inner court. In addition to these, there are also mentioned the porches of the court, i.e., at the gate-buildings of the inner and outer courts, as the projecting portions of these buildings. These three works mentioned in Eze 41:15 comprise the whole of the buildings, the measurements of which have been mentioned in the previous description - viz. the building to the west of the temple, in Eze 41:12-14; the inner temple, in Eze 41:1-11; the porches of the courts, to which the temple porch in front of the holy place is to be added, as having been reckoned in the measurement as belonging to the inner court, in Ezekiel 41. - Thus the contents of our verse (Eze 41:15) plainly show that it not only is an indivisible whole, but forms a conclusion in which the foregoing measurements are all summed up, and which serves as an introduction, in accordance with this, to the following summary of various additional features in the temple buildings which are also worthy of mention.
In this summary there are five points noticed: (a) the fact that all parts of the buildings had their measurements (Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17); (b) the significant ornamentation of the inner walls of the sanctuary (Eze 41:18-21); (c) the altar in the holy place (Eze 41:22); (d) the character and decoration of the doors of the sanctuary (Eze 41:23-25); (e) the style of the porch and of the side-buildings against the temple (Eze 41:25, Eze 41:26). - Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17 form one period, enlarged by the parenthetical insertion of explanatory statements, similar to the construction in Eze 41:18 and Eze 41:19. The predicate to the three subjects - the thresholds, the closed windows, and the galleries - is not to be sought for either in סָבִיב or in 'הַסַּף שְׁחִיף וגו. The latter construction, adopted by Böttcher and Hävernick, yields the unmeaning assertion that the thresholds lay across in front of the threshold. The former gives the apparently bald thought, that thresholds, windows, and galleries were round about; in which the use of the article, the thresholds, the windows, is exceedingly strange. The predicate to 'הַסִּפִּים וגו is מִדֹּות at the end of Eze 41:17 : the thresholds, etc., had measurements; and the construction is so far anakolouthistic, that the predicate מִדֹּות, strictly speaking, belongs to the things mentioned in Eze 41:17 alone, and the subjects mentioned in Eze 41:16 are to be regarded as absolute nominatives. The words סָבִיב לִשְׁלָשְׁתָּם belong to the three preceding subjects, as a further definition, the thresholds, windows, and galleries (which were) against these three round about. The suffix to שְׁלָשְׁתָּם, “their triad,” refers to the three buildings mentioned in Eze 41:15 : the one upon the separate place, the temple building, and the porches of the court; and the appositional סָבִיב is not to be so pressed as to lead to the conclusion that all three buildings, and therefore the porches of the court also, had אַתִּיקִים round about. As the סביב לשׁלשׁתם is affirmed of the thresholds, and the windows, and the galleries, and these three objects are introduced by the article, as well known, i.e., as already mentioned and described in the preceding verses, the more precise definition (resp. limitation) of the apposition, “round about these three,” is to be taken from the preceding description of these three buildings, and we are simply to assume the existence of thresholds, windows, and galleries in these buildings in those cases in which they have been mentioned in that description; so that the only place in which there were galleries was the building upon the separate place. But before the intended information is given concerning the thresholds, etc., a remark is introduced, with the words from נֶגֶד הַסַּף to סָבִיב, as to the construction of the thresholds: viz., that opposite to the threshold (הַסַּף being used in a general sense for every threshold) there was שְׁחִיף עֵץ, a thin covering of wood, or wainscoting. נֶגֶד does not mean across the front (Böttcher), but “opposite;” and the part opposite to the threshold of a door is, strictly speaking, the lintel. Here, however, the word is probably used in the broader sense for the framework of the door, above and on the two sides, as is shown by סָבִיב סָבִיב which follows. With הָאָרֶץ a fresh object is introduced. הָאָרֶץ is a nominative, like הַסִּפִּים, etc.; and the thought of supplying מִן gniylppus, “from the ground,” has originated in a faulty interpretation of the words. The idea is this: as the thresholds, the windows, etc., so also the ground up to the windows, i.e., the space between the ground and the windows, had measurements. The allusion to the windows is followed by the remark, in the form of a circumstantial clause, that “the windows were covered.” מְכֻסֹּות is apparently only a substantial explanation of אֲטֻמֹות (see the comm. on Eze 40:16).
In Eze 41:17 two further objects are mentioned as having measurements; not, however, in the logical position of subjects, but with prepositions עַל and אֶל: upon that which was above the opening of the door...and (what was) on all the walls, i.e., the space above the doors and on all the walls. To this periphrasis of the subject, through עַל and אֶל, there is attached the predicate מִדֹּות, which belongs to all the subjects of Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17, in the sense of, “on all the walls there were measures.” The meaning is, that all the parts of the building which have been named had their definite measurements, were carefully measured off. In order to express this thought in as general and comprehensive a manner as possible, the ideas contained in the subjects in Eze 41:17 are expanded by means of appositions: that of the space above, over the entrance door, by וְלַחוּץ 'וְעַד הַבַּיִת הף (both ו-ו = et-et) into the inner temple, i.e., both the inside of the temple throughout, and also to the outside. The idea of the whole wall is expressed by “round about, in the inside and on the outside.” - Thus everything in Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17 is clear, and in accordance with fact; and there is no necessity either for the critical scissors of Ewald and Hitzig, who cut out all that they do not understand as glosses, or for the mal-emendation of Böttcher, who changes מִדֹּות into מִקְלָעֹות (1Ki 6:18), and thus finds it good to ornament the temple with sculptures, even on the outsides of all the walls.
Eze 41:18-21 treat of the ornamenting of the inside of the sanctuary, i.e., of the holy place and the holy of holies. Eze 41:18 and Eze 41:19 form, like Eze 41:16 and Eze 41:17, a period extended by parentheses. The predicate עָשׂוּי, standing at the beginning of Eze 41:18, is resumed in Eze 41:19, and completed by ס' 'אֶל־כָּל־הבַּיִת ס. That the cherubim and palms were executed in sculpture or carving, is evident from the resemblance to Solomon's temple. They were so distributed that a cherub was followed by a palm, and this by a cherub again, so that the palm stood between the two cherubim, and the cherub turned one of its two faces to the palm on this side, and the other to the palm upon that side. In sculpture only two faces could be shown, and consequently these cherubic figures had only two faces, and not four, like those in the vision. This sculpture was placed round about the whole house, and that, as is added in Eze 41:20 by way of explanation, from the ground even to up above the door, namely, on the inner wall of the sanctuary (הַהֵיכָל). כָּל־הַבַּיִת is hereby limited to the הֵיכָל, the holy place and the holy of holies. וְקִיר is a local accusative. To this there is appended the further notice in Eze 41:21, that the sanctuary had door-posts in a square form. The loose arrangement of the words, “the sanctuary post work of square form,” is a concise form of expression after the manner of brief topographical notices. מְזוּזָה invariably signifies, wherever it occurs, the door-posts, i.e., the projecting framework of the entrances. רָבוּעַ, “foured,” does not mean four-cornered merely, but really square (Exo 27:1 and Exo 28:16). Consequently the words, “the door-posts of the holy place were of a square shape,” might be understood as signifying not merely that the door-posts were beams cut square, but, as Kliefoth supposes, that the post work surrounding the door was made of a square form, that is to say, was of the same height as breadth, which would be quite in keeping with the predominance of the square shape, with its symbolical significance, in this picture of a temple. But the statement in the second half of the verse can hardly be reconciled with this; for whatever diversity there may be in the interpretation of this verse in particular points, it is certain that it does contain the general assertion that the doorway of the holy of holies was also shaped in the same way. But the door of the holy of holies, instead of being square, was (according to Eze 41:3) six cubits high and seven cubits broad. הַקֹּודֶשׁ, as distinguished from הַהֵיכָל, is the holy of holies, which Eze 41:23 places beyond all doubt (for this use of הַקֹּדֶשׁ, see Lev 16:2-3, Lev 16:16). פְּנֵי־הַקֹּדֶשׁ, the face of the holy of holies, the front which met the eye of a person entering the holy place. הַמַּרְאֶה כַּמַּרְאֶה is the predicate, which is attached as loosely as in the first hemistich. The front of the holy of holies had the appearance like the appearance (just described), i.e., like the appearance of the הֵיכָל; in fact, it had also a doorway with four-cornered posts. J. F. Starch has already given this explanation of the words: Eadem facies et aspectus erat utriusque portae templi et adyti, utraque quadrata et quadratis postibus conspicua erat. The proposal of Ewald, on the other hand, to connect כַּמַּרְאֶה with the following word הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, “in front of the holy of holies there was something to be seen like the shape of the altar” (lxx, Syr.), has the article in הַמַּרְאֶה against it (Böttcher).