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The measuring reed is a long cubit, at 20 to 21 inches, rather than a short cubit at 18 inches. The sheer grandeur of this new temple and city and its surrounding land—along with its most prominent, divine dweller—calls for nothing less than royal measurements.

I saw a wall surrounding the temple. The measuring reed in the man’s hand was about 10½ feet long. He measured the wall and found it to be about 10½ feet thick and 10½ feet high. He walked around to the wall of the eastern gate and climbed its steps. He measured the depth of the gate’s entrance, and it was 10½ feet deep as well.

Inside the gate, the side guard chambers on each side were about 10½ feet square, with 8¾-feet-thick walls between each of them. The threshold of the gate entrance nearest to the portico that faced the temple was about 10½ feet deep. Then he measured the portico that faced the temple; it was also 10½ feet deep. But the portico on the inner side of the gate complex was 14 feet with columns of 3½ feet. 10 The eastern gate had 3 chambers on each side. All 3 chambers, as well as all of the columns, had the exact same measurements. 11 Then he measured the entrance of the east gate: it was 17½ feet wide and 22¾ feet long. 12 The short barrier stood in front of each guard chamber; it was 21 inches high on both sides. The chambers themselves were 10½ feet square. 13 He then measured the distance between the top of the back wall of one chamber to the top of the wall opposite of it: 43¾ feet. 14 Then he measured the length of the gate-complex portico at 35 feet, which stretched to the outer courtyard.[a] 15 The measurement from the outer courtyard gate entrance to the farthest end of the outer courtyard at the inner portico of the inner east gate was 87½ feet. 16 This inner gateway complex had windows with multiple recessed frames toward the side chambers and columns, as did the portico. And all the columns were decorated with palm trees.

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Footnotes

  1. 40:14 Meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

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