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The Prophets · Old Testament

Ezekiel 41

Ezekiel 41: the temple, the most holy place and the carved cherubims

General context

The man brings the prophet to the temple and measures its posts, six cubits broad on each side, "which was the breadth of the tabernacle". The door is ten cubits broad with sides of five cubits, and the room beyond it is forty cubits long and twenty broad. He goes inward, measures a door of six cubits with posts of two, and finds a room twenty cubits by twenty: "This is the most holy place". The wall of the house is six cubits thick. Side chambers four cubits broad surround it, three storeys high and thirty in order, entering a wall belonging to the house for hold, though "they had not hold in the wall of the house", and the house widens as it goes up. Their foundations are a full reed of six great cubits, the wall for the outer side chamber is five cubits thick, twenty cubits lie round the house, and side doors open north and south. A building west of the separate place is seventy cubits broad and ninety long. The house measures a hundred cubits long, the separate place with its building a hundred, and the face of the house with the separate place eastward a hundred broad. Galleries on three storeys and narrow windows are cieled with wood. The walls carry cherubims and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub, each cherub with two faces, a man's toward one palm tree and a young lion's toward the other. An altar of wood three cubits high and two long is named by the man: "This is the table that is before the Lord". The temple and the sanctuary have two doors, each with two turning leaves, carved with cherubims and palm trees, and thick planks face the porch.

Cited passages: Ezekiel 41:1, Ezekiel 41:2, Ezekiel 41:3, Ezekiel 41:4, Ezekiel 41:5, Ezekiel 41:6, Ezekiel 41:7, Ezekiel 41:8, Ezekiel 41:9, Ezekiel 41:10, Ezekiel 41:11, Ezekiel 41:12, Ezekiel 41:13, Ezekiel 41:14, Ezekiel 41:16, Ezekiel 41:18, Ezekiel 41:19, Ezekiel 41:21, Ezekiel 41:22, Ezekiel 41:23, Ezekiel 41:24, Ezekiel 41:25

Ezekiel 41 (KJV)

1Afterward he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle.

2And the breadth of the door was ten cubits; and the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits: and the breadth, twenty cubits.

3Then went he inward, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits.

4So he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place.

5After he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side.

6And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house.

7And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst.

8I saw also the height of the house round about: the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six great cubits.

9The thickness of the wall, which was for the side chamber without, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within.

10And between the chambers was the wideness of twenty cubits round about the house on every side.

11And the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about.

12Now the building that was before the separate place at the end toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and the length thereof ninety cubits.

13So he measured the house, an hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, an hundred cubits long;

14Also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, an hundred cubits.

15And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, an hundred cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the court;

16The door posts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the door, cieled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered;

17To that above the door, even unto the inner house, and without, and by all the wall round about within and without, by measure.

18And it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces;

19So that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side: it was made through all the house round about.

20From the ground unto above the door were cherubims and palm trees made, and on the wall of the temple.

21The posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other.

22The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the Lord.

23And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

24And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door.

25And there were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubims and palm trees, like as were made upon the walls; and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without.

26And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.

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Historical context

The chapter continues the guided measuring of chapter 40 without a new heading; the one who measures is called only "he", the man with the measuring reed introduced in chapter 40. The text names its own rooms in only two places: the twenty-by-twenty room is "the most holy place", and the wooden altar is "the table that is before the Lord". The building is called the temple, the house and the sanctuary in different verses. The word tabernacle appears once, and there as a comparison of breadth rather than a name for this house. The measure is restated at the foundations as "a full reed of six great cubits", and the text does not explain what a great cubit is. The passage on the side chambers and the "winding about" of the house is dense, and the exact arrangement it describes cannot be fixed from the words alone. The "separate place" and the western building are named without their purpose being stated. The cherubims carved here have two faces, a man and a young lion; the living creatures of the opening vision are described with four faces each, and the text of this chapter does not comment on the difference. The chapter says nothing about who builds this house or when, and it does not identify it with any building that stood before or after.

Cited passages: Ezekiel 41:1, Ezekiel 41:4, Ezekiel 41:22, Ezekiel 41:23, Ezekiel 41:8, Ezekiel 41:7, Ezekiel 41:12, Ezekiel 41:18, Ezekiel 1:10, Ezekiel 40:3

Literary context

The movement of chapter 40 continues inward and then turns back out. The prophet is led to the temple, then "inward" to the innermost room, and only after that does the description step outside to the thickness of the walls, the side chambers, the surrounding space and the western building, as if the house were being measured from its centre. The guide speaks twice, and both times to name what a number cannot: "This is the most holy place", "This is the table that is before the Lord". The figure a hundred cubits repeats four times across three verses, for the house, the separate place with its building, the face of the house and the building over against the separate place. After the numbers the chapter turns to surfaces: wood ceilings, covered windows and carved cherubims and palm trees repeated on walls and doors, continuing the palm trees on the posts of the gates in the previous chapter. The carving is the one place in this chapter where faces appear, and they are a man and a young lion, both turned toward palm trees. The prophet reports his own seeing once, "I saw also the height of the house", in a chapter that otherwise records what the man measures. The only furnishing named inside is the wooden altar, and the chapter ends at the doors and the porch, on the threshold between inside and out.

Cited passages: Ezekiel 41:3, Ezekiel 41:5, Ezekiel 41:4, Ezekiel 41:22, Ezekiel 41:13, Ezekiel 41:15, Ezekiel 41:16, Ezekiel 41:20, Ezekiel 40:16, Ezekiel 41:19, Ezekiel 41:8, Ezekiel 41:26

Key moments

  1. Into the temple (Ezekiel 41:1). The man brings the prophet to the temple and measures its posts at six cubits each side.
  2. This is the most holy place (Ezekiel 41:4). The inner room measures twenty cubits by twenty and the man names it the most holy place.
  3. Side chambers in three storeys (Ezekiel 41:6). Thirty side chambers in three storeys surround the house without being held in its wall.
  4. A house a hundred cubits long (Ezekiel 41:13). The house, the separate place and the western building each measure a hundred cubits.
  5. Cherubims with two faces (Ezekiel 41:19). Carved cherubims face palm trees with the face of a man on one side and a young lion on the other.
  6. The table before the Lord (Ezekiel 41:22). A wooden altar three cubits high is named as the table that is before the Lord.
  7. Doors of two turning leaves (Ezekiel 41:24). The temple and sanctuary doors each have two turning leaves carved like the walls.

For reflection

The guide gives the prophet room after room of numbers and names only two things, the most holy place and the table before the Lord. What does it mean to be shown a holy space almost entirely as dimensions, with nothing said about what happens inside it?