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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Ezekiel 42:20 - 42:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
He measured it, the whole wall, by the four sides, repeating the measure of the whole, according to the number of the sides.
It had a wall; the whole had such a wall: had each side been five hundred reeds, the prophet must in propriety of speech have said
they, i.e. the sides, not
it, i.e. the whole compass of the wall.
Five hundred reeds long: in such an equilateral square there is properly no length, for all sides are equal, but because in the temple structure there was length and breadth, therefore that latus, or side, which runs in straight line, parallel with the length of the temple, is here taken for the length; the other, which was parallel to the breadth of the temple, is the breadth of this isopleuron, or equilateral square.
Five hundred broad: he speaks not here of the thickness, though sometimes breadth and thickness are the same.
To make a separation; to distinguish, and accordingly to exclude or admit persons, for all might not go in.
The sanctuary; not the temple, this is not here meant; but we must remember here that the Jews accounted the whole earth profane, i.e. common or unclean, compared with Canaan, and Canaan common or less holy than Jerusalem, and every part nearer the temple the more holy; and so here the outward court was enclosed to distinguish it by its comparative holiness, it was more holy than all without it.
Thus, enveloped in clouds and darkness, thou hast, good reader, a conjecture at many things, which, I need not blush to confess, are more above mine own comprehension than above some others. The mystical sense I refer to thy thoughts.