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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 46:19 - 46:19
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The Sacrificial Kitchens for the Priests and for the People
Eze 46:19. And he brought me up the entrance by the shoulder of the gate to the holy cells for the priests, which looked to the north; and behold there was a place on the outermost side toward the west. Eze 46:20. And he said to me, This is the place where the priests boil the trespass-offering and the sin-offering, where they bake the meat-offering that they may not need to carry it out into the outer court, to sanctify the people. Eze 46:21. And he led me out into the outer court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and behold, in every corner of the court there was again a court. Eze 46:22. In the four corners of the court were closed courts of forty cubits in length and thirty cubits in breadth; all four corner spaces had one measure. Eze 46:23. And a row of stands was round about therein in all four, and boiling hearths were under the rows made round about. Eze 46:24. And he said to me, These are the kitchen-house, where the servants of the house boil the slain-offering of the people. - In the list and description of the subordinate buildings of the temple, the sacrificial kitchens are passed over; and they are therefore referred to here again in a supplementary manner. Ewald has shifted Eze 46:19-24, and placed them after Eze 42:14, which would certainly have been the most suitable place for mentioning the sacrificial kitchens for the priests. But it is evident that they stood here originally, and not there; not only from the fact that in Eze 46:19 the passage to the holy cells (Eze 42:1.) is circumstantially described, which would have been unnecessary if the description of the kitchens had originally followed immediately after Eze 42:14, as Ezekiel was then standing by the cells; but also, and still more clearly, from the words that serve as an introduction to what follows, “he led me back to the door of the house” (Eze 47:1), which are unintelligible unless he had changed his standing-place between Eze 46:18 and Eze 47:1, as is related in Eze 46:19 and Eze 46:21, since Ezekiel had received the sacrificial thorah (Ezekiel 44:5-46:18) in front of the house (Eze 44:4). If Eze 46:19-24 had originally stood elsewhere, so that Eze 47:1 was immediately connected with Eze 46:18, the transition-formula in Eze 47:1 would necessarily have read very differently. - But with this section the right of the preceding one, Eze 46:16-18, which Ewald has arbitrarily interpolated in Ezekiel 45 between Eze 45:8 and Eze 45:9, to hold its present place in the chapter before us as an appendix, is fully vindicated. - The holy cells (Eze 46:19) are those of the northern cell-building (Eze 42:1-10) described in Eze 42:1-14 (see Plate I L). בַּמָּבֹוא is the approach or way mentioned in Eze 42:9, which led from the northern inner gate to these cells (see Plate I l); not the place to which Ezekiel was brought (Kliefoth), but the passage along which he was led. The spot to which he was conducted follows in אֶל (the article before the construct state, as in Eze 43:21, etc.). אֶל הַכֹּהֲנִים is appended to this in the form of an apposition; and here לִשְׁכֹות is to be repeated in thought: to those for the priests. 'הַפֹּנֹות צ belongs to הַלִשְׁכֹות. There, i.e., by the cells, was a space set apart at the outermost (hindermost) sides toward the west (Plate I M), for the boiling of the flesh of the trespass-offering and sin-offering, and the baking of the minchah, - that is to say, of those portions of the sacrifices which the priests were to eat in their official capacity (see the comm. on Eze 42:13). For the motive assigned in Eze 46:20 for the provision of special kitchens for this object, see the exposition of Eze 44:19.
In addition to these, kitchens were required for the preparation of the sacrificial meals, which were connected with the offering of the shelamim, and were held by those who presented them. These sacrificial kitchens for the people are treated of in Eze 46:20-24. They were situated in the four corners of the outer court (Plate I N). To show them to the prophet, the angel leads him into the outer court. The holy cells (Eze 46:19) and the sacrificial kitchens for the priests (Eze 46:20) were also situated by the outside wall of the inner court; and for this reason Ezekiel had already been led out of the inner court, where he had received the sacrificial thorah, through the northern gate of the court by the way which led to the holy cells, that he might be shown the sacrificial kitchens. When, therefore, it is stated in Eze 46:21 that “he led me out into the outer court,” יֹוצִיאֵנִי can only be explained on the supposition that the space from the surrounding wall of the inner court to the way which led from the gate porch of that court to the holy cells, and to the passage which continued this way in front of the cells (Plate I l and m), was regarded as an appurtenance of the inner court. In every one of the four corners of the outer court there was a (small) courtyard in the court. The repetition of 'חָצֵר בְּמִקְצֹעַ הח has a distributive force. The small courtyards in the four corners of the court were קְטֻרֹות, i.e., not “uncovered,” as this would be unmeaning, since all courts or courtyards were uncovered; nor “contracted” (Böttcher), for קָטַר has no such meaning; nor “fumum exhalantia,” as the Talmudists suppose; nor “bridged over” (Hitzig), which there is also nothing in the language to sustain; but in all probability atria clausa, i.e., muris cincta et janius clausa (Ges. Thes.), from קְטַר; in Aram. ligavit; in Ethiop. clausit, obseravit januam. The word מְהֻקְצָעֹות is marked with puncta extraordinaria by the Masoretes as a suspicious word, and is also omitted in the Septuagint and Vulgate. Böttcher and Hitzig have therefore expunged it as a gloss. But even Hitzig admits that this does not explain how it found its way into the text. The word is a Hophal participle of קָצַע, in the sense of cornered off, cut off into corners, and is in apposition to the suffix to לְאַרְבַּעְתָּם, - literally, one measure wax to all four, the spaces or courtyards cut off in the corners. For this appositional use of the participle, compare 1Ki 14:6. There is also a difference of opinion as to the meaning of the word טוּר, which only occurs here and in Exo 28:17. and Eze 39:10, where it signifies “row,” and not “enclosure” (Kliefoth). טִירֹות, which follows, is evidently merely the feminine plural, from טוּר, as טִירָה is also derived from טוּר, in the sense of “to encircle” (see the comm. on Psa 69:26). Consequently טוּר does not mean a covering or boundary wall, but a row or shelf of brickwork which had several separate shelves, under which the cooking hearths were placed. מְבַשְּׁלֹות, not kitchens, but cooking hearths; strictly speaking a partic. Piel, things which cause to boil. - בֵּית הַמְּבַשְּׁלִים - .liob ot e, kitchen house. מְשָׁרְתֵּי הַבַּיִת, the temple servants, as distinguished from the servants of Jehovah (Eze 44:15-16), are the Levites (Eze 44:11-12). עָשׂוּי is construed as in Eze 40:17 and Eze 41:18-19.