Ezekiel 41

 

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

NASB	NKJV	NRSV	TEV	NJB
		Vision of the Restored Temple and Land (40:1-48:35)	Vision of the Future Temple (40:1-48:35)
The Inner Temple	Dimensions of the Sanctuary		The Inner Courtyard and Temple Building 40:47-41:4	The Hekal
41:1-4	41:1-4	41:1-4		4:1-2
				The Debir
				4:3-4
	The Side Chambers on the Wall		The Rooms Built Against the Temple Walls	The Side Cells
41:5-11	41:5-11	41:5-11	41:5-11	41:5-7
				41:8-11
	The Building at the Western End		The Building on the West	The Building on the West Side
41:12	41:12	41:12	41:12	41:12-15a
	Dimensions and Design of the Temple Area		The Total Measurements of the Temple Building
41:13-14	41:13-17	41:13-14	41:13-15
41:15-20		41:15a	Details of the Temple Building	The Particulars of the Temple Itself
		41:15b-20	41:15b-21a	41:15b-21a
	41:18-20
41:21-26	41:21-26	41:21-26	The Wooden Altar	The Wooden Altar
			41:21b-22	41:21b-22
			The Doors	The Doors
			41:23-26	41:23-26

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Guide to Good Bible Reading")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects (reading cycle #3). Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

1. First paragraph

2. Second paragraph

3. Third paragraph

4. Etc.

 

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT:41:1-4
 ¹Then he brought me to the nave and measured the side pillars; six cubits wide on each side was the width of the side pillar. ²The width of the entrance was ten cubits and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side. And he measured the length of the nave, forty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits. ³Then he went inside and measured each side pillar of the doorway, two cubits, and the doorway, six cubits high; and the width of the doorway, seven cubits. ⁴He measured its length, twenty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits, before the nave; and he said to me, "This is the most holy place."

41:1 "he brought me" Does the "he" refer to (cf. 40:17,24,28,32,35,48)

1. the hand of the Lord, 40:1,2

2. the Lord's Spirit

3. the angel guide, 40:45,47; 41:2,3,4,15

In context #3 fits best.

NASB, NRSV"the nave"
NKJV"the sanctuary"
JPSOA"the great hall"
TEV"central room"
NJB"the Hekal"'

This word (BDB 228, KB 244) can refer to

1. palace/temple of God as the great king, II Kgs. 18:16; 23:4; 24:13; Jer. 7:4; 24:1; Ezek. 8:16

2. the holy place of Solomon's temple, I Kgs. 6:17; 7:50, and of Ezekiel's temple, 41:1, 4, 15, 21, 23

3. the heavenly temple of Isaiah, Isa. 6:1 (cf. Ps. 11:4; Micah 1:2; Hab. 2:20)

4. the second temple built by Zerubbabel, Hag. 2:15,18; Zech. 6:12,13,14,15; 8:9; Mal. 3:1

 

41:4 "This is the most holy place" This refers to the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant originally dwelt (cf. Exod. 26:33-34; I Kgs. 6:16; 8:6). This was the place of atonement, the place of YHWH's personal presence (cf. Leviticus 16).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT:41:5-11
 ⁵Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits; and the width of the side chambers, four cubits, all around about the house on every side. ⁶The side chambers were in three stories, one above another, and thirty in each story; and the side chambers extended to the wall which stood on their inward side all around, that they might be fastened, and not be fastened into the wall of the temple itself. ⁷The side chambers surrounding the temple were wider at each successive story. Because the structure surrounding the temple went upward by stages on all sides of the temple, therefore the width of the temple increased as it went higher; and thus one went up from the lowest story to the highest by way of the second story. ⁸I saw also that the house had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full rod of six long cubits in height. ⁹The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. But the free space between the side chambers belonging to the temple ¹⁰and the outer chambers was twenty cubits in width all around the temple on every side. ¹¹The doorways of the side chambers toward the free space consisted of one doorway toward the north and another doorway toward the south; and the width of the free space was five cubits all around.

41:7

NASB"the second story"
NKJV, NRSV"the middle one"
LXX"third story"

The term (BDB 1064, KB 1724) means "middle." From the context it must refer to the middle or second level (cf. 42:5,6).

The Jewish Study Bible, p. 1122, says v. 7 is describing a spiraling staircase.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT:41:12
 ¹² The building that was in front of the separate area at the side toward the west was seventy cubits wide; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT:41:13-14
 ¹³Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; the separate area with the building and its walls were also a hundred cubits long. ¹⁴Also the width of the front of the temple and that of the separate areas along the east side totaled a hundred cubits.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT:41:15-20
 ¹⁵He measured the length of the building along the front of the separate area behind it, with a gallery on each side, a hundred cubits; he also measured the inner nave and the porches of the court. ¹⁶The thresholds, the latticed windows and the galleries round about their three stories, opposite the threshold, were paneled with wood all around, and from the ground to the windows (but the windows were covered), ¹⁷over the entrance, and to the inner house, and on the outside, and on all the wall all around inside and outside, by measurement. ¹⁸It was carved with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces, ¹⁹a man's face toward the palm tree on one side and a young lion's face toward the palm tree on the other side; they were carved on all the house all around. ²⁰From the ground to above the entrance cherubim and palm trees were carved, as well as on the wall of the nave.

41:16

NASB"lattices windows"
NKJV"beveled window frames"
NRSV"windows with recessed frames"
TEV"the windows could be covered"
NJB"the windows were screened with latticework"

This descriptive term (BDB 31, KB 36) can mean

1. closed, barred, cf. v. 16c

2. framed, cf. I Kgs. 6:4; 7:4-5

3. narrow

 

▣ "were paneled with wood all around" This was just like Solomon's temple (cf. I Kgs. 6:15).

41:18 "cherubim and palm trees" These were the same decorations that were used in Solomon's temple (cf. I Kgs. 6:8,29; 7:29,36). There is some doubt as to the exact physical description of the Cherubim: (1) the Ark of the Covenant had Cherubim who had one face each; (2) in Ezekiel 1 and 10 they seem to have four faces; (3) Revelation 4 records a different face for each creature. See Special Topic: Cherubim at 1:5.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT:41:21-26
 ²¹The doorposts of the nave were square; as for the front of the sanctuary, the appearance of one doorpost was like that of the other. ²²The altar was of wood, three cubits high and its length two cubits; its corners, its base and its sides were of wood. And he said to me, "This is the table that is before the Lord." ²³The nave and the sanctuary each had a double door. ²⁴Each of the doors had two leaves, two swinging leaves; two leaves for one door and two leaves for the other. ²⁵Also there were carved on them, on the doors of the nave, cherubim and palm trees like those carved on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the front of the porch outside. ²⁶There were latticed windows and palm trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the porch; thus were the side chambers of the house and the thresholds.

41:22 "the altar of wood" There are two possibilities for this piece of furniture because it is called both an altar (BDB 258) and a table (BDB 1020): (1) the table of showbread (cf. Exod. 25:23-30; Lev. 24:5-9; 1 Kgs. 6:20-22; 11 Chr. 3:lff) or (2) the altar of incense which stood before the inner veil (cf. Exod. 30:1-10; 37:25-29).

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