Ezekiel 40:49 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 40:49
The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits, and he brought me by the steps whereby they went up to it: and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and another on that side.
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
1 Kings 7:15-21 For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.
2 Chronicles 3:17 And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right h…
Jeremiah 52:17-23 Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chald…
Ezekiel 40:31 And the arches thereof were toward the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof: and the going up to it had eight steps.
Ezekiel 40:34 And the arches thereof were toward the outward court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the go…
Ezekiel 40:37 And the posts thereof were toward the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going…
Revelation 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God,…
1 Kings 6:3 And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits wa…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 40:39–end
In these verses we have an account,
I. Of the tables that were in the porch of the gates of the inner court. We find no description of the altars of burnt-offerings in the midst of that court till Eze 43:13. But, because the one altar under the law was to be exchanged for a multitude of tables under the gospel, here is early notice taken of the tables, at our entrance into the inner court; for till we come to partake of the table of the Lord we are but professors at large; our admission to that is our entrance into the inner court. But in this gospel-temple we meet with no altar till after the glory of the Lord has taken possession of it, for Christ is our altar, that sanctifies every gift.…
twenty . . . eleven cubits--in Solomon's temple (Kg1 6:3) "twenty . . . ten cubits." The breadth perhaps was ten and a half; Kg1 6:3 designates the number by the lesser next round number, "ten"; Ezekiel here, by the larger number, "eleven" [MENOCHIUS]. The Septuagint reads "twelve."
he brought me by the steps--They were ten in number [Septuagint].
Next: Ezekiel Chapter 41
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 40:49
By the steps - This was a flight of steps that led to the temple; there were eight steps in each flight. See YY in the plan.
John Gill on Ezekiel 40:49
The length of the porch was twenty cubits,.... From east to west; from the first gate of it to the last; which led directly into the house, or temple:
and the breadth eleven cubits; which may be thus accounted for; two cubits apiece being allowed for each post, and three for each leaf of the door that were hung upon them, and one for the upright post in the middle on which they shut; in all eleven:
and he brought me by the steps whereby they went up to it; as there was an ascent of seven steps to the several gates that led into the outward court; and another of eight steps, which led from that to the gates of the inner court; so there was an ascent from the inner court to the porch of the…
The Church Fathers
"And the length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits, and there were steps to it: and pillars before the gates one on this side, and another on that side." But what follows, the length of the vestibule is twenty cubits, and the width is eleven cubits, seems to raise the question of how the dual number, which refers to two decades, and the eleventh, which seems to have one less, can be said to complete the sacred number twelve in the temple vestibule. Most people solve this problem in the following way: Although the priests are holy and placed in the service of the temple, and offer daily sacrifices to Christ, because they dwell in this mortal and fragile body, subject to sickness and vice, they have the number twenty and eleven. Where was it that the Apostle said, 'Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death' (Rom. VII, 24)? Not that we believe, according to the most savage heresy, that bodies are to be destroyed; but that it is our desire to be clothed upon, not stripped, and to receive immortality with this mortal, and to put on incorruption with this corruptible. However, what follows, 'And it was ascended by eight steps' (I Cor. XV), that is, to the inner gate, presents a great difficulty for those who know the Hebrew language. Finally, Symmachus, whom we have followed in this place, set out eight degrees: Seventy, ten; Theodotion and the second edition of Aquila, eleven; but the first edition set no number, but simply said, and the degrees by which it was ascended to it: so that either according to the custom of the previous gates, we understand eight degrees, as Symmachus understood, or certainly those which the inner gate had, whose number Scripture did not say (for which in Hebrew it is placed, Urob (), that is, breadth, Aste (), Esre (). But if it is read in this way, eleven signifies; but if we read 'Esre,' which means ten, without the final 's,' it does not signify ten but a pronoun (which). To experts in the Hebrew language, these may seem like delusions; but now we are not writing about controversies or speeches in which the composition of words is commonly used, but about explanations and commentaries on Hebrew books. But let us return to our task. The number eight or ten, which is a perfect number, or eleven, about which we have already spoken, is ascended to the gate of the holy ones, on the…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
The Temple-Porch
(see Plate III A). The measuring angel conducts the prophet still farther to the porch of the temple, and measures its breadth and length. - Eze 40:48. And he led me to the porch of the house, and measured the pillar of the porch, five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side; and the breadth of the gate, three cubits on this side and three cubits on that side. Eze 40:49. The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits, and that by the steps by which one went up; and columns were by the pillars, one on this side and one on that side. - הבּית is the temple in the more restricted sense of the word, the temple-house, as in Kg1 6:2, etc.; and אלם…
Outside the entry room were square (see 41:21) columns of unspecified function, just as in Solomon’s Temple (1 Kgs 7:15-22).
Rashi on Ezekiel 40:49
The length of the Hall was twenty cubits corresponding to the width of the Temple.
and the width was eleven cubits from east to west.
and with the steps upon which they would ascend to it And they ascended to it by way of the steps, as we learned (Mid. 3:6): “Between the Hall and the altar were twenty-two cubits, and twelve steps were there, the height of each step being one half cubit.”
and pillars to the posts instead of Jachin and Boaz (I Kings 7:21) which were in the First Temple.
