Ezekiel 42:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 42:3
Over against the twenty cubits which were for the inner court, and over against the pavement which was for the utter court, was gallery against gallery in three stories.
a yard (as inclosed by a fence) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
gallery
אַתִּ֥יק'a.Tik
H862
a ledge or offset in abuilding · noun, common masculine singular absolute
against
פְּנֵֽיpe.nei-
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct
gallery
אַתִּ֖יק'a.Tik
H862
a ledge or offset in abuilding · noun, common masculine singular absolute
three
בַּשְּׁלִשִֽׁיםba.she.li.Shim
H7992
third · preposition with the article + ordinal number, masculine plural 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
Ezekiel 41:15-16 And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side an…
Ezekiel 41:10 And between the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits round about the house on every side.
2 Chronicles 7:3 And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their f…
Song of Solomon 7:5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.
Ezekiel 40:17-18 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 42:5 Now the upper chambers were shorter: for the galleries were higher than these, than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 42:1-14
The prophet has taken a very exact view of the temple and the buildings belonging to it, and is now brought again into the outer court, to observe the chambers that were in that square.
I. Here is a description of these chambers, which (as that which went before) seems to us very perplexed and intricate, through our unacquaintedness with the Hebrew language and the rules of architecture at that time. We shall only observe, in general, 1. That about the temple, which was the place of public worship, there were private chambers, to teach us that our attendance upon God in solemn ordinances will not excuse us from the duties of the closet. We must not only worship in the courts of God's house,…
He brought me forth into the utter court - He brought him out from the temple into the court of the priests. This, in reference to the temple, was called the outer court; but the court of the people was beyond this.
John Gill on Ezekiel 42:3
Over against the twenty cubits which were for the inner court,.... Starckius thinks that the breadth of the chambers being fifty cubits, is here parted, and disposed of, and accounted for. The chambers were in two rows over against each other; that row which looked to the south, and so to the temple, was twenty cubits broad; and because it led to the temple, its court is called the inner court:
and over against the pavement which was for the utter court: or that row which was over against the pavement of the outward court, to the north, was also twenty cubits broad, which make forty; and the walk of ten cubits between them, Ezekiel 42:4, account for the breadth of the fifty cubits:
was gal…
The Cell-Building in the Outer Court for Holy Use
Eze 42:1. And he brought me out into the outer court by the way toward the north, and brought me to the cell-building, which was opposite to the separate place, and opposite to the building toward the north, Eze 42:2. Before the long side of a hundred cubits, with the door toward the north, and the breadth fifty cubits, Eze 42:3. Opposite to the twenty of the inner court and opposite to the stone pavement of the outer-court; gallery against gallery was in the third storey. Eze 42:4. And before the cells a walk, ten cubits broad; to the inner a way of a hundred cubits; and their doors went to the north. Eze 42:5. And the upper cells were short…
The Church Fathers
"Opposite the twenty cubits of the inner court, and opposite the pavement laid with stone of the outer court, where the porch was joined to the triple porch." And that which is joined next to the Hebrew, opposite the twenty cubits of the inner court, which the Seventy have translated, was described like the gates of the inner court, has this meaning: that the number of a hundred and fifty in the outer court should have the same force as the number of twenty in the inner court. For if you reckon four times five times, in the number twenty, you will find both Testaments: so that both the Law may be held in the Gospel and the Gospel may be born from the root of the Law. For the number seventy, the likeness of the inner court, may have been interpreted, perhaps fearing the number twenty, in which offerings of Esau are made, to place in the inner court. It follows: And against the pavement, the floor of the outer court, where there was a porch, joined to the triple porch; for which seventy were transferred: And as the columns of the outer court were placed in order, opposite the face of the triple porches. However, it signifies that the pavement of the outer court was laid with living stone, so that the feet of the priests are not defiled by the dust of summer or the mud of winter. And so, the Lord, about to ascend to the Father, washes the feet of the Apostles (John 13), so that with purified and cleansed feet they may ascend to the kingdoms of heaven; and he commands the apostles that in whichever city they enter and are not received, they should shake off the dust from their feet (Matthew 10; and Mark 6): so that nothing of earthly possessions may remain with them. And not only was the pavement covered with stones, but there was also a portico joined to a triple portico. A portico protecting priests from rain and heat, and joined to the triple portico, showing the mystery of the Trinity, which, while being divided in names among the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, is yet joined in one divinity to itself.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Galleries · In the temple of Ezekiel’s vision — In the temple of Ezekiel’s vision
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The rooms for the priests at the sides of the building to the rear of the sanctuary were three levels high so that the priests could enter at the top from the inner court (42:12) and emerge at the bottom in the outer court (42:9). These rooms were boundary spaces for activities that the priests had to perform on the way into and out of the inner court.
Rashi on Ezekiel 42:3
Opposite the twenty of the Inner Court All this is [meant as] an indication of the location of the chambers [that were] beside the twenty [cubit] wide space of the Inner Court surrounding the House, as it is stated above (41:10): “And between the chambers was a [space] twenty cubits wide.”
and opposite the balcony of the Outer Court For [as] we stated above, the Court was encompassed by a surrounding balcony.
a pillar opposite a pillar [Heb. אַתִּיק,] I do not know what this is.
(Addendum A pillar opposite a pillar An אַתִּיק is a pillar, as Rashi explained [on] (41:15): “and the pillars (וְהָאַתִּיקִים) were around the three of them,” i.e., they surrounded the “upper chambers”, [and he c…
