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The East Gateway

I could see a wall completely surrounding the Temple area. The man took a measuring rod that was 10 1⁄2 feet[a] long and measured the wall, and the wall was 10 1⁄2 feet[b] thick and 10 1⁄2 feet high.

Then he went over to the eastern gateway. He climbed the steps and measured the threshold of the gateway; it was 10 1⁄2 feet front to back.[c] There were guard alcoves on each side built into the gateway passage. Each of these alcoves was 10 1⁄2 feet square, with a distance between them of 8 3⁄4 feet[d] along the passage wall. The gateway’s inner threshold, which led to the entry room at the inner end of the gateway passage, was 10 1⁄2 feet front to back. He also measured the entry room of the gateway.[e] It was 14 feet[f] across, with supporting columns 3 1⁄2 feet[g] thick. This entry room was at the inner end of the gateway structure, facing toward the Temple.

10 There were three guard alcoves on each side of the gateway passage. Each had the same measurements, and the dividing walls separating them were also identical. 11 The man measured the gateway entrance, which was 17 1⁄2 feet[h] wide at the opening and 22 3⁄4 feet[i] wide in the gateway passage. 12 In front of each of the guard alcoves was a 21-inch[j] curb. The alcoves themselves were 10 1⁄2 feet[k] on each side.

13 Then he measured the entire width of the gateway, measuring the distance between the back walls of facing guard alcoves; this distance was 43 3⁄4 feet.[l] 14 He measured the dividing walls all along the inside of the gateway up to the entry room of the gateway; this distance was 105 feet.[m] 15 The full length of the gateway passage was 87 1⁄2 feet[n] from one end to the other. 16 There were recessed windows that narrowed inward through the walls of the guard alcoves and their dividing walls. There were also windows in the entry room. The surfaces of the dividing walls were decorated with carved palm trees.

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Footnotes

  1. 40:5a Hebrew 6 long cubits [3.2 meters], each being a cubit [18 inches or 45 centimeters] and a handbreadth [3 inches or 8 centimeters] in length.
  2. 40:5b Hebrew 1 rod [3.2 meters]; also in 40:5c, 7.
  3. 40:6 As in Greek version, which reads 1 rod [3.2 meters] deep; Hebrew reads 1 rod deep, and 1 threshold, 1 rod deep.
  4. 40:7 Hebrew 5 cubits [2.7 meters]; also in 40:48.
  5. 40:8 As in many Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac version; other Hebrew manuscripts add which faced inward toward the Temple; it was 1 rod [10.5 feet or 3.2 meters] deep. Then he measured the entry room of the gateway.
  6. 40:9a Hebrew 8 cubits [4.2 meters].
  7. 40:9b Hebrew 2 cubits [1.1 meters].
  8. 40:11a Hebrew 10 cubits [5.3 meters].
  9. 40:11b Hebrew 13 cubits [6.9 meters].
  10. 40:12a Hebrew 1 cubit [53 centimeters].
  11. 40:12b Hebrew 6 cubits [3.2 meters].
  12. 40:13 Hebrew 25 cubits [13.3 meters]; also in 40:21, 25, 29, 30, 33, 36.
  13. 40:14 Hebrew 60 cubits [31.8 meters]. Greek version reads 20 cubits [35 feet or 10.6 meters]. The meaning of the Hebrew in this verse is uncertain.
  14. 40:15 Hebrew 50 cubits [26.5 meters]; also in 40:21, 25, 29, 33, 36.

Temple compound

Now there was an outer wall that went all the way around the temple compound. The measuring rod in the man’s hand was ten and a half feet[a] (based on a standard eighteen inches[b] plus three inches[c]). When he measured the wall’s height and width it was ten and a half feet high and ten and a half feet wide. He entered the gate facing east. He went up its steps, and he measured the plaza[d] at the gate. It was ten and a half feet wide: the plaza was ten and a half feet wide. The rooms were ten and a half feet long and ten and a half feet wide, with a space of seven and a half feet between them. The plaza next to the porch at the gate opposite the temple was ten and a half feet. He measured the porch of the gate opposite the temple: it was ten and a half feet. Then he measured the porch of the gate: it was twelve feet,[e] and its arches were three feet. The porch of the gate was opposite the temple. 10 Inside the east gate, there were three rooms on each side. Each was the same size, and the arches on each side were the same size also. 11 Then he measured the width of the gate opening, which was fifteen feet, and the gate’s length, which was nineteen and a half feet. 12 A border running along the front of the rooms on each side was eighteen inches wide, and each of the rooms was nine feet square. 13 He measured the gate through the room openings that faced each other. From the outer ceiling edge of one room to the outer ceiling edge of the other, the gate was thirty-seven and a half feet wide. 14 Next he made out the perimeter of the hallway, defined by the arches inside the gate: it was ninety feet. 15 It was seventy-five feet from the front of the outer gate to the front of the inner porch of the gate. 16 Inside the gate, all of the rooms and their arches had closed windows; there were also niches inside the porch all the way around. The arches were decorated with palm trees.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 40:5 Heb shesh ammoth ba'ammah traditionally six long cubits, which is defined as six times a standard ammah of eighteen inches plus a topha (traditionally handbreadth) of three inches. So the measuring rod has six segments of twenty-one inches each, which equals ten and a half feet. It is unclear whether the measurements with the rod continue past 40:8, when standard ammah appear, though the longer ammah do continue briefly in 43:13-17 for the altar.
  2. Ezekiel 40:5 Or a standard cubit
  3. Ezekiel 40:5 Or a handbreadth
  4. Ezekiel 40:6 Or threshold; Heb architectural and decorative terminology in Ezek 40–48 is often uncertain.
  5. Ezekiel 40:9 Or eight cubits