a room in a building (whether for storage · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
entries
וּפִתְחָ֔הּu.fit.Chah
H6607
an opening (literally) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
posts
בְּאֵילִ֖יםbe.'ei.Lim
H352
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
gates
הַשְּׁעָרִ֑יםha.she.'a.Rim
H8179
an opening · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
washed
יָדִ֥יחוּya.Di.chu
H1740
to thrust away · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
offering
הָעֹלָֽהha.'o.Lah
H5930
a step or (collectively · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Chronicles 4:6 He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them: such things as they offered for the burnt of…
Leviticus 1:9 But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made b…
Leviticus 8:21 And he washed the inwards and the legs in water; and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar: it was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet savour,…
1 Kings 6:8 The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of…
Ezekiel 40:12 The space also before the little chambers was one cubit on this side, and the space was one cubit on that side: and the little chambers were…
Ezekiel 40:17 Then brought he me into the outward court, and, lo, there were chambers, and a pavement made for the court round about: thirty chambers were…
Ezekiel 41:10-11 And between the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits round about the house on every side.
Ezekiel 42:13 Then said he unto me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they be holy chambers, where the pries…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 40:27-38
In these verses we have a delineation of the inner court. The survey of the outer court ended with the south side of it. This of the inner court begins with the south side (Eze 40:27), proceeds to the east (Eze 40:32), and so to the north (Eze 40:35); for here is no gate either of the outer or inner court towards the west. It should seem that in Solomon's temple there were gates westward, for we find porters towards the west, Ch1 9:24; Ch1 26:8. But Josephus says that in the second temple there was no gate on the west side. Observe, 1. These gates into the inner court were exactly uniform with those into the outer court, the dimensions the same, the chambers adjoining the same, the galleries…
chambers . . . entries--literally, "a chamber and its door."
by the posts--that is, at or close by the posts or columns.
where they washed the burnt offering--This does not apply to all the gates but only to the north gate. For Lev 1:11 directs the sacrifices to be killed north of the altar; and Eze 8:5 calls the north gate, "the gate of the altar." And Eze 40:40 particularly mentions the north gate.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 40:30
And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits long - That the five cubits broad should be read twenty-five is evident from Eze 40:21, Eze 40:25, Eze 40:29, Eze 40:33, and Eze 40:36, The word ועשרים veesrim, twenty, has probably been lost out of the text. Indeed the whole verse is wanting in two of Kennicott's MSS., one of De Rossi's, and one of mine, (Cod. B.) It has been added in the margin of mine by a later hand. It is reported to have been anciently wanting in many MSS.
John Gill on Ezekiel 40:38
And the chambers, and the entries thereof, were by the posts of the gates,.... Of the north gate; the plural for the singular; for not at the other gates, only at the north gate, were the sacrifices slain and washed; as under the law, only on the north side of the altar, Leviticus 1:11, now, by the posts of this gate, or at the entrance of it on one side,
stood a cell or chamber, and a door into it (o), as the words may be rendered; for they are singular in the text:
where they washed the burnt offering; its legs and inwards, Leviticus 1:9, according to the law, there were lavers in Solomon's temple, to wash the sacrifices in, 2 Chronicles 4:6, but there was no such cell or chamber there f…
The Church Fathers
And there are four tables made of square stones, and these themselves are for sacrifice and burnt offering (also called holocausts). These are living stones that are rolled upon the earth, and they have with them a corner stone, by which the walls of the old and new Covenant are held together. Now the number four signifies the Gospel sacraments, having in length and width one and a half cubits, that is, a square, which, when joined together, make three cubits, which three cubits have one cubit in height, so that the mysteries of the Trinity may preserve the measure of one cubit, that is, the divine majesty, as the Lord tells the disciples: Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)... Above these, however, are four tables of holocausts built with living stones, the length, width, and height of which have been described; vessels are placed in them in which the holocaust of the martyrs is offered, of whom it is said: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps. 116:15)... I believe that the meaning of these tables is contained in the books of Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John, which are about the apostles.
"And for each treasury chamber there was a door in the fronts of the gates." We said above that the treasuries are the hearts of teachers, which preserve the riches of knowledge. The fronts of the gates are the words and works of preachers, by which we recognize outwardly what kind of persons they are who live within themselves. There is a door through each treasury in the fronts of the gates, because each teacher opens understanding in the heart of the hearer through the sayings and works of the fathers. For when we examine the preaching of the apostle Peter, when we search out the words of Paul, when we investigate the Gospel of John, and from their words draw our hearers to interior understanding, what else do we do but open a door in the fronts of the gates? Let it therefore be said: Through each treasury a door in the fronts of the gates, because if a teacher does not confirm what he says by the sayings of the apostles, he does not have a door in the fronts of the gates. And if he does not have a door, it can no longer be called a treasury of the spiritual building, because if he does not open understanding, he is not a teacher. "There they washed the burnt offering." For those who have devoted themselves to the Lord through faith in holy conduct have become a holocaust to the Lord. But because they still suffer many things in themselves from their corruptible flesh, because purity of heart is still defiled in them by sordid thoughts, they return daily to tears, they are afflicted by constant weeping. For they consider the words and deeds of the holy fathers, and when they judge themselves unworthy, they wash the holocaust at the entrance of the gates. Behold, for example, someone has vowed out of fear of the almighty Lord to be patient, to render no insult for insult, to tolerate all things with equanimity, and yet when an insult hurled from a neighbor's mouth suddenly strikes him, disturbed he perhaps says something he should not have said. Certainly this man is already a holocaust, but still unclean. Perhaps he showed patience against the insults hurled at him, he remained silent; but nevertheless he is touched by grief at those same insults which he bears, and his soul is wounded in its charity. For true patience is that which loves even the one whom it bears. For to tolerate but to hate is not the virtue of gentleness, but a covering for rage. And…
The Cells and Arrangements for the Sacrificial Worship by and in the Inner Court
Eze 40:38. And a cell with its door was by the pillars at the gates; there they had to wash the burnt-offering. Eze 40:39. And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side and two tables on that, to slay thereon the burnt-offering, the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering. Eze 40:40. And at the shoulder outside, to one going up to the opening of the gate toward the north, stood two tables; and at the other shoulder, by the porch of the gate, two tables. Eze 40:41. Four tables on this side and four tables on that side, at the shoulder of the gate; eight tables on which they were to slaughter. Eze 40:4…
The sacrificial animals were slaughtered and prepared in rooms beside the gateways into the inner courtyard. This detail highlights the primary function of this new Temple as a place of sacrifice. The animals had to be washed and cut into pieces before they could be offered on the altar. • This new Temple in Ezekiel’s vision was radically focused on sacrifices that atoned for sin. By contrast, the Temple in Jerusalem was both a center for sacrifice and a house for prayer (see 1 Kgs 8:27-30, 52-53; Isa 56:6-8; Matt 21:13).
Rashi on Ezekiel 40:38
And a chamber was beside the Northern Gate in the Israelites’ Court.
and its entrance [The entrance] of the chamber faced the posts of the gate.
in [line with] the pillars of the gates In this chapter, there are verses that call the sides of the gates אֵילִים, meselins in Old French, posts, pillars.
there they would rinse the burnt offering the burnt offering, that was slaughtered in the north.
they would rinse the burnt offering they would wash the innards.
