Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 42:15
Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect [is] toward the east, and measured it round about.
15. measured it ] i.e. whole building, along the outer wall.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
15 20. Measurements of the whole complex of the temple buildings on the outside
The measuring angel began by measuring the height and thickness of the outside surrounding wall (Eze 40:5); then he entered the outer gate, passing into the outer court, the measurements of which were made (Eze 40:6-27); then he entered the inner court, containing the house and cells, all of which he measured (Eze 40:28 to Eze 42:14). These measures being completed, the angel now returns to the outside by the way he entered, the eastern gate, and finishes by measuring the compass of the whole temple buildings outside. This building, its surrounding wall being measured, forms a square of 500 cubits.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Precincts. The temple and its courts were surrounded by an area of exact dimensions 3,000 cubits (1,500 yards) square. See Plan IV.
Eze 42:15
The inner house – The temple and its courts, all that lay within the wall on the outside of the house Eze 40:5; the gate is the eastern gate of the outer court.
Measured it round about – The precincts, into which he had brought the seer through the eastern gate of the outer court.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The inner house; the holy of holies, the temple, and all the buildings that were in it, and its inner courts.
He brought me forth, quite out to the outmost court, and wall of it, which compassed all the rest of the courts.
Toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east; to the east gate of the outside wall, mentioned Eze 40:6, which see.
Round about, i.e. the four squares of the wall for this, as the other walls, was square, not round, and therefore this round about is to be understood of measuring all four equilateral sides or parallels.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house,…. The holy place, and the holy of holies, with all the courts and chambers belonging to them; even the whole building within the compass of the outermost wall, and all that pertained unto it; the chambers last mentioned, as well as the rest, the dimensions of, which are given in this and the two preceding chapters:
he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east: not to the east gate of the outward wall, but to the east gate which led into the outward court; the gate he was first brought unto, and which was first measured, Eze 40:6: and measured it round about; not the east gate, nor the outward wall that went all round the house; though this was measured, and its dimensions given, last of all; nor the house itself, which had been measured already; or the figure of it, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; but all that space that was between this building and the wall that surrounded it; the area or compass of ground on which the building stood.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Extent of the Holy Domain around the Temple
Eze 42:15. And when he had finished the measurements of the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate, which is directed toward the east, and measured there round about. Eze 42:16. He measured the eastern side with the measuring rod five hundred rods by the measuring rod round about; Eze 42:17. He measured the northern side five hundred rods by the measuring rod round about; Eze 42:18. The southern side he measured five hundred rods by the measuring rod; Eze 42:19. He turned round to the western side, measured five hundred rods by the measuring rod. Eze 42:20. To the four winds he measured it. It had a wall round about; the length was five hundred and the breadth five hundred, to divide between the holy and the common. – There has been a division of opinion from time immemorial concerning the area, the measuring of which is related in these verses, and the length and breadth of which are stated in Eze 42:20 to have been five hundred; as the Seventy, and after them J. D. Michaelis, Bttcher, Maurer, Ewald, and Hitzig, understand by this the space occupied by the temple with its two courts. But as that space was five hundred cubits long and five hundred broad, according to the sum of the measurements given in Ezekiel 40-42:15, the lxx have omitted the word in Eze 42:16, Eze 42:18, and Eze 42:19, whilst they have changed it into in Eze 42:17, and have also attached this word to the numbers in Eze 42:20. According to this, only the outer circumference of the temple area would be measured in our verses, and the wall which was five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits broad (Eze 42:20) would be the surrounding wall of the outer court mentioned in Eze 40:5. Eze 42:15 could certainly be made to harmonize with this view. For even if we understood by the “inner house” not merely the temple house, which the expression primarily indicates, but the whole of the inner building, i.e., all the buildings found in the inner and outer court, and by the east gate the eastern gate of the outer court; the expression ‘ , “he measured it round about,” merely affirms that he measured something round about outside this gate. The suffix in is indefinite, and cannot be taken as referring to any of the objects mentioned before, either to or to . The inner house he had already measured; and the measurements which follow are not applicable to the gate. Nor can the suffix be taken as referring to , illam sc. aedem (Ros.); or at any rate, there is nothing in Eze 42:20 to sustain such a reference. Nevertheless, we might think of a measuring of the outer sides of the whole building comprehended under the idea of the inner house, and regard the wall mentioned in Eze 42:20 as that which had been measured round about on the outer side both in length and breadth. But it is difficult to reconcile this view even with Eze 42:20; and with the measurements given in Eze 42:16-19 it is perfectly irreconcilable. Even if we were disposed to expunge as a gloss in Eze 42:16, Eze 42:17, Eze 42:18, and Eze 42:19, the words, “he measured the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred by the measuring rod,” are equivalent to five hundred rods, according to the well-known Hebrew usage; just as indisputably as , a hundred by the cubit, is equivalent to a hundred cubits (see the comm. on Eze 40:21 at the close). The rejection of as an imaginary gloss is therefore not only arbitrary, but also useless; as the appended words , even without , affirm that the five hundred were not cubits, but rods.
(Note: The for in Eze 42:16 is utterly useless as a proof that cubits and not rods are intended; as it is obviously a copyist’s error, a fact which even the Masoretes admit. Rabbi ben-Asher’s view of this writing is an interesting one. Prof. Dr. Delitzsch has sent me the following, taken from a fragment in his possession copied from a codex of the Royal Library at Copenhagen. R. ben-Asher reckons among the , i.e., words written , of which there are forty-seven in the whole of the Old Testament, the following being quoted by ben-Asher ( l.c.) by way of example: , Jos 20:8; Jos 21:27; , 2Sa 20:14; , 2Sa 15:28; , Jdg 16:26; , 1Sa 14:27.)
The in Eze 42:16 and Eze 42:17 is not to be understood as signifying that on the east and north sides he measured a square on each side of five hundred rods in length and breadth, but simply indicates that he measured on all sides, as is obvious from Eze 42:20. For according to this, the space which was measured toward every quarter at five hundred rods had a boundary wall, which was five hundred rods long on every side. This gives an area of 250,000 square rods; whereas the temple,with the inner and outer courts, covered only a square of five hundred cubits in length and breadth, or 250,000 square cubits. It is evident from this that the measuring related in Eze 42:15-20 does not refer to the space occupied by the temple and its courts, and therefore that the wall which the measured space had around it (Eze 42:20) cannot be the wall of the outer court mentioned in Eze 40:5, the sides of which were not more than five hundred cubits long. The meaning is rather, that around this wall, which enclosed the temple and its courts, a further space of five hundred rods in length and breadth was measured off “to separate between the holy and profane,” i.e., a space which was intended to form a separating domain between the sanctuary and the common land. The purpose thus assigned for the space, which was measured off on all four sides of the “inner house,” leaves no doubt remaining that it was not the length of the surrounding wall of the outer court that was measured, but a space outside this wall. The following clause , “a wall was round about it,” is irreconcilable with the idea that the suffix in (Eze 40:20 and Eze 40:15) refers to this wall, inasmuch as the can only refer to the object indicated by the suffix attached to . This object, i.e., the space which was five hundred rods long and the same broad round about, i.e., on every one of the four sides, had a wall enclosing it on the outside, and forming the partition between the holy and the common. is therefore , “the inner house;” but this is not the temple house with its side-building, but the sanctuary of the temple with its two courts and their buildings, which was measured in Ezekiel 40:5-42:12.
The arguments which have been adduced in opposition to this explanation of our verses, – the only one in harmony with the words of the text, – and in vindication of the alterations made in the text by the lxx, are without any force. According to Bttcher (p. 355), Hitzig, and others, is likely to be a false gloss, (1) “because stands close to it; and while this is quite needless after , it may also have occasioned the gloss.” But this tells rather against the suspicion that is a gloss, since, as we have already observed, according to the Hebrew mode of expression, the “five hundred” would be defined as rods by , even without . Ezekiel, however, had added for the purpose of expressing in the clearest manner the fact that the reference here is not to cubits, but to a new measurement of an extraordinary kind, to which nothing corresponding could be shown in the earlier temple. And the Seventy, by retaining this clause, , have pronounced sentence upon their own change of the rods into cubits; and it is no answer to this that the Talmud ( Midd. c. ii. note 5) also gives only five hundred cubits to the , since this Talmudic description is treating of the historical temple and not of Ezekiel’s prophetic picture of a temple, although the Rabbins have transferred various statements from the latter to the former. The second and third reasons are weaker still – viz. “because there is no other instance in which the measurement is expressed by rods in the plural; and, on the other hand, is frequently omitted as being the ordinary measurement, and therefore taken for granted.” For the first assertion is proved to be erroneous, not only by our verses, but also by Eze 45:1. and Eze 48:16., whilst there is no force whatever in the second. The last argument employed is a more plausible one – namely, that “the five hundred rods are not in keeping with the sanctuary, because the edifice with the courts and gates would look but a little pile according to the previous measurements in the wide expanse of 20,000 (?) rods.” But although the space measured off around the temple-building for the separation between the holy and the profane was five times as long and five times as broad, according to the Hebrew text, or twenty-five times as large as the whole extent of the temple and its courts,
(a) Area of the temple with the two courts, 500 cubits square.
(b) Surrounding space, five hundred rods = 3000 cubits square.
(c) Circuit of fifty cubits in breadth around the surrounding space. – Eze 45:2
the appearance of the temple with its courts is not diminished in consequence, because the surrounding space was not covered with buildings; on the contrary, the fact that it was separated from the common by so large a surrounding space, would rather add to the importance of the temple with its courts. This broad separation is peculiar to Ezekiel’s temple, and serves, like many other arrangements in the new sanctuary and worship, to symbolize the inviolable holiness of that sanctuary. The earlier sanctuary had nothing answering to this; and Kliefoth is wrong in supposing that the outer court served the same purpose in the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple, whereas in the temple of Ezekiel this had also become part of the sanctuary, and was itself holy. The tabernacle had no outer court at all, and in Solomon’s temple the outer court did form a component part of the sanctuary. The people might enter it, no doubt, when they desired to draw near to the Lord with sacrifices and gifts; but this continued to be the case in Ezekiel’s temple, though with certain restrictions (cf. Eze 46:9 and Eze 46:10). Only, in the case of Solomon’s temple, the outer court bordered directly upon the common soil of the city and the land, so that the defilement of the land produced by the sin of the people could penetrate directly even into the holy space of the courts. In the sanctuary of the future, a safeguard was to be placed against this by the surrounding space which separated the holy from the common. It is true that the surface of Moriah supplied no room for this space of five hundred rods square; but the new temple was not to be built upon the real Moriah, but upon a very high mountain, which the Lord would exalt and make ready for the purpose when the temple was erected. Moreover, the circumstance that Moriah was much too small for the extent of the new temple and its surroundings, cannot furnish any argument against the correctness of our view of the verses in question, for the simple reason that in Ezekiel 45 and 48 there follow still further statements concerning the separation of the sanctuary from the rest of the land, which are in perfect harmony with this, and show most indisputably that the temple seen by Ezekiel was not to have its seat in the ancient Jerusalem.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Vision of the Temple. | B. C. 574. |
15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about. 16 He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. 17 He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. 18 He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed. 19 He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 20 He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.
We have attended the measuring of this mystical temple and are now to see how far the holy ground on which we tread extends; and that also is here measured, and found to take in a great compass. Observe, 1. What the dimensions of it were. It extended each way 500 reeds (v. 16-19), each reed above three yards and a half, so that it reached every way about an English measured mile, which, the ground lying square, was above four miles round. Thus large were the suburbs (as I may call them) of this mystical temple, signifying the great extent of the church in gospel-times, when all nations should be discipled and the kingdoms of the world made Christ’s kingdoms. Room should be made in God’s courts for the numerous forces of the Gentiles that shall flow into them, as was foretold, Isa 49:18; Isa 60:4. It is in part fulfilled already in the accession of the Gentiles to the church; and we trust it shall have a more full accomplishment when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in and all Israel shall be saved. 2. Why the dimensions of it were made thus large. It was to make a separation, by putting a very large distance between the sanctuary and the profane place; and therefore there was a wall surrounding it, to keep off those that were unclean and to separate between the previous and the vile. Note, A difference is to be put between common and sacred things, between God’s name and other names, between his day and other days, his book and other books, his institutions and other observances; and a distance is to be put between our worldly and religious actions, so as still to go about the worship of God with a solemn pause.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
THE TEMPLE PRECINCTS
Verses 15-20:
Verse 15 indicates that when the angelic surveyor had completed measuring the inner house, the temple and its courts and chambers, Eze 40:5, he led Ezekiel to the east gate, from which he proceeded to measure the outer walls of the surrounding enclosure of the temple and court of the Gentiles.
Verse 16,17,18,19 certify that the east, north, south and western walls were measured to be 500 reeds in length each; or a distance of 2,000 reeds around the quadrangle wall enclosure. The activities to be conducted within the entire walled enclosure were to be held as sacred, holy, in contrast with the profane without, within the world.
Verse 20 describes the summary dimensions of the four walls about the sanctuary, temple, and other buildings within, were all for Holy purposes associated with Divine worship. The 500 reeds of the quadrangle were equivalent to 3,000 cubits, times 3,000 cubits, making 9,000,000 square cubits, equivalent to 2,225,000 square yards. Heaven’s new place of worship will be much more adequate, as described Revelation ch. 21, 22.
HERE IN THE HARDBOUND COMMENTARY IS A GROUND PLAN OF THE TEMPLE
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
F. Total Dimensions of the Temple Area 42:1520
TRANSLATION
(15) Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about. (16) He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. (17) He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about. (18) He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. (19) He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. (20) He measured it on the four sides: it had a wall round about, the length five hundred, and the breadth five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common.
COMMENTS
The measurements of the inner house including its courts and associated buildings is now complete. The angel returned to the eastern gate, the point at which the measuring had begun. He now measures the entire area surrounding the wall (Eze. 42:15). Apparently another wall surrounded the entire Temple complex as it has previously been described. This third wall formed a square of five hundred reeds. Since a reed is thought to have been about six cubits, this outer area would have been a three thousand cubit square. The size of Solomons Temple was only five hundred cubits square.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(15) The inner house.This expression is here evidently used neither of the Holy of Holies, nor of the whole Temple building exclusively, but of all that had been measured, all that was included within the wall of the outer court. The prophet is led out from this by the eastern gate to measure a much larger space around it. It is not said in what part of this space the Temple with its courts was situated; but, for the reason given in Eze. 42:20, it is to be supposed that it was in the centre.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15-20. If the present Hebrew text is to be followed, we have here a measurement of an outer wall, encompassing the temple quadrangle, three thousand sacred cubits (three thousand five hundred common cubits) long on every side. However, as this wall is not mentioned elsewhere, many scholars follow the LXX. text, reading “cubit,” instead of “reed.” Such a wall five hundred cubits on each side is spoken of Eze 45:2, and is entirely in accordance with the other measurements as given in detail. Yet if the Hebrew manuscripts originally read “cubit,” how could the word “reed” have been substituted for it? It is easy to see how the LXX. might in this, as in other cases, have changed the unusual statement to that which was more easily understood. No literal temple nine million square cubits in area could have been accommodated on any one of the mountains of Palestine. The reed is elsewhere very seldom used as a measure. (Yet see Eze 45:1; Eze 48:16.) In either case this wall was to mark the boundary between the sacred and the common (compare Eze 43:12; Eze 45:4), and whether the measurement was in cubits or reeds, the symbolism was the same. The perfect cube emblemed the perfect temple the ideal church in the midst of the ideal nation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The External Dimensions of the Temple Area ( Eze 42:15-20 ).
‘Now when he had finished measuring the inner house he brought me out by way of the gate whose prospect is towards the east, and measured it round about. He measured on the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about. He measured on the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. He measured on the south side, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. He measured it on the four sides.’
Finally the heavenly visitant measured outside the temple. Note here that ‘the inner house’ probably means the whole temple complex. The use of ‘inner’ can vary depending on where the person is starting from.
The whole is stated in the Hebrew to be 500 reeds by 500 reeds. The measuring reed was six long cubits (Eze 40:5) which would make this an excessive amount (3,000 cubits by 3,000 cubits) if it referred to the outer wall of the temple (500 cubits by 500 hundred cubits). But it may in fact be the measurement which includes a space of separation, the part of the surrounding area which had to be set apart to separate the common from the holy (compare Eze 43:12 where it says, ‘the whole limit around it (the temple) will be most holy’). Such a space of separation is found in Jos 3:4, where the people were not allowed to come within two thousand cubits of the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh; in Exo 19:12 where a bound was set away from the holy mount which people must not cross; and in Num 35:4-5 where such an area was set apart round Levitical cities. It is enlarged in this case to demonstrate the added holiness of this temple. Some have suggested a further wall built to enclose this area.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Outside Measurements
v. 15. Now, when He had made an end of measuring the inner house, v. 16. He measured the east side with the measuring-reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring-reed round about.
v. 17. He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring-reed round about.
v. 18. He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring-reed.
v. 19. He turned about to the west side and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring-reed. v. 20. He measured it by the four sides; it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the Sanctuary and the profane place,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Eze 42:15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect [is] toward the east, and measured it round about.
Ver. 15. Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house. ] The inner part of the Church. The Church invisible is first and chiefly to be looked into, rather than the external adjuncts, as multitude, prosperity, clarity, antiquity, &c.; the substantials rather than the accidentals. The Church of Rome borrows her mark from the market, plenty or cheapness, &c. Vilissimus pagus, saith Luther. The mean stivilage seems to me to be an ivory palace, if there be but in it a faithful pastor, and a few true believers.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 42:15-20
15Now when he had finished measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate which faced toward the east and measured it all around. 16He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds by the measuring reed. 17He measured on the north side five hundred reeds by the measuring reed. 18On the south side he measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 19He turned to the west side and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 20He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, the length five hundred and the width five hundred, to divide between the holy and the profane.
Eze 42:16 the measuring reed five hundred reeds by the measuring reed The problem occurs in the length of a measuring reed. Earlier in the literary unit (cf. Eze 40:5) it was over ten feet, but here it seems to refer to one cubit (i.e., 21 inches). The MT scholars recognized the problem.
Qere (to be read), five hundred reeds
Ketiv (written), five cubits, reeds
This same confusion is repeated in Eze 42:17-19.
If one assumes that a reed is over 10′ the area was about 500 acres (The Jewish Study Bible, p. 1125), if 21 the area is about 14 acres. If the larger measurement is used it denotes the symbolic nature because of its size.
Eze 42:20 to divide between the holy and profane This is another example of architectural design to accentuate holiness. The wall was too low to provide protection; therefore, some commentators see it as a wall of holiness (similar to the dividing walls of Herod’s temple).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Eze 42:15-20
The Holy and the Common – Eze 42:15-20
Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about. He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about. He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. He measured it on the four sides: it had a wall round about, the length five hundred, and the breadth five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common (Eze 42:15-20).
The description contained in Eze 42:15-20 reveals the extent of the Holy domain around the temple.
The Architecture of the New Temple
Eze 40:1 to Eze 42:20
Open It
1. What are some of the more impressive examples of architecture that you have seen?
2. How difficult would it be for you to find your way around your home blindfolded?
Explore It
3. What was the specific time of Ezekiels vision of the temple? (Eze 40:1)
4. Whom did Ezekiel meet when God transported him to Jerusalem in a vision? (Eze 40:2-3)
5. What instructions did the man have for Ezekiel before they set out on their exploration? (Eze 40:4)
6. What was impressive about the wall that surrounded the temple Ezekiel saw? (Eze 40:5)
7. What are some examples of how detailed Ezekiels description of the east gate area becomes? (Eze 40:6-16)
8. What did the man do each time he stopped at the outer court, the north gate, and the south gate? (Eze 40:17-27)
9. What sorts of rooms did Ezekiel see before he actually came into the temple? (Eze 40:28-47)
10. What was at the center of the temple structure? (Eze 40:48 to Eze 41:15)
11. How were the internal parts of the temple decorated? (Eze 41:16-26)
12. What important activity was to take place in the side rooms around the temple? (Eze 42:1-13)
13. What specific regulations were given with regard to the priests garments inside and outside the temple? (Eze 42:14)
14. How was the whole temple area kept distinct from the “common” parts of the city? (Eze 42:15-20)
Get It
15. Why do you think the exiles to whom Ezekiel spoke might have “eaten up” every detail of his description of the temple?
16. What point did the temple buildings and worship practices make by separating the holy from the common?
17. In what respect was Ezekiel a “servant” of the exiled people of Israel?
18. If someone could bring you a blueprint of heaven, what details would you want it to include?
19. How would you describe heaven to someone unfamiliar with the Bible?
Apply It
20. How could you express your gratitude for the care that has gone into the planning and maintenance of your place of worship?
21. How can the prospect of a new heaven and a new earth inspire you in a specific problem you are presently facing?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
measuring: Eze 41:2-5, Eze 41:15
gate: Eze 40:6-16
Reciprocal: Eze 41:17 – measure Eze 43:1 – the gate that Eze 48:15 – for the city Eze 48:30 – four Rev 11:1 – a reed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 42:15. Prospect means the direction in which the gate faced, and the man measured the area around this gate.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 42:15-16. When he had made an end of measuring the inner house The inner house denotes the temple, distinguished from the courts about it; he measured the east side, &c. This and the following verses contain the measures of the holy mountain, or area, upon which the temple stood, and which is described to be an exact square, consisting of five hundred reeds in measure on each side of it, that is, of very near an English mile. The whole area, therefore, was near four miles in compass; a circuit as large as one-half of the whole city of Jerusalem, in its most flourishing condition, and certainly far greater than that occupied either by Solomons temple, with all its out-buildings and courts, or by the temple built after the return of the Jews from Babylon; and indeed greater than the mountain of the temple was capable of containing, according to the description given of it by all the Jewish writers. This proves, as Mr. Scott justly observes, that the vision cannot be explained of any temple that has hitherto been built, or indeed of any literal temple, but must be understood figuratively and mystically. Bishop Newcome indeed, following Capellus, says, Read here, and Eze 42:17-19, , cubits, for , reeds, with the LXX., Eze 42:17; Eze 42:20. But the former word, signifying cubits, does not once occur in the Hebrew text, whereas the word rendered reeds is repeated four times. And as to the LXX., it is evident they had Solomons temple in view, and changed reeds for cubits, in order to adjust the dimensions of this temple to those of Solomons; and that late writers have proposed the alteration in the text for the same reason. But if men allow themselves to substitute one word for another in the sacred text, because the alterations would render that consistent with their systems which otherwise would be incompatible with them, there is no knowing to what lengths they may proceed. Surely it is better to acknowledge our ignorance on such abstruse subjects than to support a favourite scheme of interpretation, by giving countenance to so dangerous a measure. We have said above, that the area here described is an exact square; and it is to be observed, that the heavenly Jerusalem, represented to St. John, Rev 21:16, is likewise described as foursquare, that figure being an emblem of solidity. And Ezekiels vision, as well as St. Johns, is designed, in its mystical sense, to represent the regularity and strength of Christs church and kingdom.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 42:15-20. The description of the Temple concludes with a summary of the principal measurements, according to which the whole enclosure is 500 cubits (i.e. 750 feet) square. According to Eze 48:12, the land beyond the Temple enclosure was holy; but naturally it was less holy than the courts and buildings which stood within it. The wall, therefore, marks the boundary between that which was holy and that which was relatively profane.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The dimensions of the temple enclosure 42:15-20
When the man had finished measuring the temple and the structures immediately associated with it, he led Ezekiel out the east outer gate. He measured the exterior of the temple wall, and it was 500 cubits (about 833 feet 4 inches) on each of its four sides (cf. Rev 21:13). The Hebrew text has "rods" rather than "reeds." This would result in the walls being 3,000 cubits (5,000 feet) on each side and the temple enclosure being almost one mile square. This seems much larger than what the dimensions of courts and structures inside the wall picture (cf. Eze 45:2). This enclosed area is about 18 acres, larger than 13 American football fields. [Note: Stuart, p. 384; Dyer, "Ezekiel," p. 1308.] The man measured the wall with his measuring reed. The wall around the temple area separated what was holy inside from what was common outside.
"The entire area was much too large for Mount Moriah where Solomon’s and Zerubbabel’s temples stood. The scheme requires a great change in the topography of the land which will occur as indicated in Zec 14:9-11, the very time which Ezekiel had in view." [Note: Feinberg, p. 249.]
How do less literal interpreters understand chapters 40-42? One answer follows.
"He [Ezekiel] views it [this temple] as a metaphor for God’s new work of liberation and restoration for his people." [Note: Allen, Ezekiel 20-48, p. 235.]