Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 43:13–end
This relates to the altar in this mystical temple, and that is mystical too; for Christ is our altar. The Jews, after their return out of captivity, had an altar long before they had a temple, Ezr 3:3. But this was an altar in the temple. Now here we have,
I. The measures of the altar, Eze 43:13. It was six yards square at the top and seven yards square at the bottom; it was four yards and a half high; it had a lower bench or shelf, here called a settle, a yard from the ground, on which some of the priests stood to minister, and another two yards above that, on which others of them stood, and these were each of them half a yard broad, and had ledges on either side, that they might stand firm…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 43:16
square in the four squares--square on the four sides of its squares [FAIRBAIRN].
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 43:15
So the altar - ההראל haharel, "the mount of God."
And from the altar - ומהאראיל umihaariel, "and from the lion of God." Perhaps the first was a name given to the altar when elevated to the honor of God, and on which the victims were offered to him, and the second, the lion of God, may mean the hearth, which might have been thus called, because it devoured and consumed the burnt-offerings, as a lion does his prey. See on Isa 29:1 (note).
John Gill on Ezekiel 43:16
And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad,.... The length of it, from east to west, was twelve cubits; and the breadth, from north to south, was the same; so that it was a proper foursquare, as follows: Christ the altar, or the doctrine of his sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of men, is the doctrine of the twelve apostles of Christ, and embraced by the twelve times twelve, the 144,000 that belong unto him:
square in the four squares thereof; as the altar in the tabernacle, and Solomon's temple, were, Exodus 27:1, denoting the largeness of Christ's sacrifice, the perfection of it, and its stability and permanency, to take away the sin, of his people.
