Ezekiel 41:1

(Chapter 41, Verse 1 and following) 'And he brought me into the temple, and measured the fronts, six cubits in width here and six cubits in width there, the width of the tabernacle. And the width of the gate was ten cubits, and the sides (or shoulders) of the gate were five cubits here and five cubits there. And he measured its length, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits.' After many mysteries and various entrances, and the peculiarities of each place, at last finally a man comes, whose string of masons and measuring rod was in his hand, and he brings Ezekiel the prophet into the temple, and he measured the front of the temple: for which atelam, the Septuagint; and aelim Theodotius; and around Symmachus translated. And on both sides the width of the tabernacle was six cubits, containing the mystery of all creatures: for in six days the world was finished. Through the knowledge of these and the causes and conditions and the order of creation, we enter into the temple of God, and through the order and stability of created things we come to know the Creator. But the width of the gate of the temple was ten cubits, which is a sacred and perfect number, and in which, on the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, there is fasting and propitiation. But on the tenth day of the first month, which is called Nisan, the lamb is taken for sacrifice and preparation for the Passover. Therefore, in the seventh month, the tithes are offered in the storehouses of God, or, as the Scripture has accustomed to call them, the wine presses. Hence the Apostle says: Be ye enlarged also (2 Corinthians 6); so that after entering the temple through the ten cubit gates, on both sides of the gate itself, the sides, or as it is properly said in Hebrew, the shoulders are measured, which are always referred to as works. And Issachar desired good (Gen. XLIX), resting among the clergy, seeing the rest, because it is good, and the land, because it is fertile, he put his shoulder to work, and he became a man of agriculture. And in the vestment of the high priest, the ephod with the breastplate is fastened, so that the works of reason are joined, and the man can say: I have understood from your commandments (Ps. CXVIII, 104). The gatekeepers on both sides of the gate had five porches, so that through earthly and divine senses, about which we have often written their differences, we…