a yard (as inclosed by a fence) · preposition + definite article + noun, common both genders 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
Ezekiel 46:19 After he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests, which looked toward the nor…
Ezekiel 44:5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning a…
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,…
shorter--that is, the building became narrower as it rose in height. The chambers were many: so "in My Father's house are many mansions" (Joh 14:2); and besides these there was much "room" still left (compare Luk 14:22). The chambers, though private, were near the temple. Prayer in our chambers is to prepare us for public devotions, and to help us in improving them.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 42:4
A walk of ten cubits' breadth inward - This seems to have been a sort of parapet.
John Gill on Ezekiel 42:9
And from under these chambers,.... Or, "from the lower part of these chambers" (z); or, "from the lowest" of them there was a space, as may be supplied, and as is by Cocceius and Starchius; and as there was a wall to the west of them, so there was a void space to the east; and as follows:
the entry on the east side: or, "he that brought me from the east" (a), as the Keri; and coming eastward to these chambers, one must needs go through this space:
as one goeth into them from the utter court; if a man went eastward into those chambers from the outward court he must go through this space, which lay to the east of the lowest chambers: or the sense is, that from under the north chambers to the…
"And there was an entrance under these treasuries from the east for those who entered from the outer court: in the width of the courtyard of the eastern way before the separate building. And there were before the building treasuries, and a road in front of their face like the treasuries, which were on the northern side, according to their length, and thus their width. And every entrance of them, and their similarities, and their doors, according to the doors of the treasuries, which were on the road facing the South, a door at the head of the road, which was in front of the separate vestibule through the Eastern road for those entering." That which is translated into the East in the LXX is not found in the Hebrew, and it is clear that it is superfluous. For how is it brought out to the outer gate toward the East, when it follows against the gate of the North? And below, there was an entrance to the treasury from the East for those entering from the outer atrium. For it is necessary for us to possess the riches of God, and to find the entrance below the treasury from the outer atrium, under the treasury of the East, and to come through the width of the vestibule, which faces the way of the East, to the building that is separated for the holy ones, before which are the treasuries, and in that very way, a likeness to the treasuries that were in the way of the North. For although we may reach the entrance to the East, the resemblance of the ancestors is found in the smaller things, and we cannot reach the light of the East except by way of the North, that is, by progressing from the smaller and lower things to the greater and higher things. In the very entrance itself, the length was similar to the width, that is, the same measurement throughout: every entrance and likeness, and doors had the same measurement and likeness as the treasure chambers that were on the road facing the South. For indeed, by the East the cold of the North is resisted, we reach the South, in which the bridegroom reclines at midday, and moves in full light. At the head, however, of the same road, that is, the Eastern one, which is open to those who enter, there is a door, which unless it is opened by Him who says: I am the door (John 10:9) and who has the key of David, to the vestibule separated by holy virtues, and which receives those coming from the North, we cannot reach. It is…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 42:1-14
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 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 42:9
And below these chambers I do not know whether this comes to teach that they had tunnels beneath them, or whether it comes to teach that there were chambers in the east of the Court, and [that] since the mountain slopes [downward] to the east, he calls it “and below these chambers.” And he is saying this: And at the lowest point of the Court, to the approach that was on the east as one comes to them from the outer Court.
