Ezekiel 41
Living Bible
41 Afterward he brought me into the nave, the large main room of the Temple, and measured the pillars that formed its doorway. They were 10-1/2 feet square. 2 The entrance hall was 17-1/2 feet wide and 8-3/4 feet deep. The nave itself was 70 feet long by 35 feet.
3 Then he went into the inner room at the end of the nave and measured the columns at the entrance and found them to be 3-1/2 feet thick; its doorway was 10-1/2 feet wide, with a hallway 12-1/4 feet deep behind it. 4 The inner room was 35 feet square. “This,” he told me, “is the Most Holy Place.”
5 Then he measured the wall of the Temple and found that it was 10-1/2 feet thick, with a row of rooms along the outside. Each room was 7 feet wide. 6 These rooms were in three tiers, one above the other, with thirty rooms in each tier. The whole structure was supported by girders and not attached to the Temple wall for support. 7 Each tier was wider than the one below it, corresponding to the narrowing of the Temple wall as it rose higher. A stairway at the side of the Temple led up from floor to floor.
8 I noticed that the Temple was built on a terrace and that the bottom row of rooms extended out 10-1/2 feet onto the terrace. 9 The outer wall of these rooms was 8-3/4 feet thick, leaving a free space of 8-3/4 feet out to the edge of the terrace, the same on both sides.
10 Thirty-five feet away from the terrace, on both sides of the Temple, was another row of rooms down in the inner court. 11 Two doors opened from the tiers of rooms to the terrace yard, which was 8-3/4 feet wide; one door faced north and the other south.
12 A large building stood on the west, facing the Temple yard, measuring 122-1/2 feet wide by 157-1/2 feet long. Its walls were 8-3/4 feet thick. 13 Then he measured the Temple and its immediately surrounding yards. The area was 175 feet square. 14 The inner court at the east of the Temple was also 175 feet wide, 15-16 and so was the building west of the Temple, including its two walls.
The nave of the Temple and the Holy of Holies and the entry hall were paneled, and all three had recessed windows. The inner walls of the Temple were paneled with wood above and below the windows. 17-18 The space above the door leading into the Holy of Holies was also paneled. The walls were decorated with carvings of Guardian Angels, each with two faces, and of palm trees alternating with the Guardian Angels. 19-20 One face—that of a man—looked toward the palm tree on one side, and the other face—that of a young lion—looked toward the palm tree on the other side. And so it was, all around the inner wall of the Temple.
21 There were square doorposts at the doors of the nave, and in front of the Holy of Holies was what appeared to be an altar, but it was made of wood. 22 This altar was 3-1/2 feet square and 5-1/4 feet high; its corners, base, and sides were all of wood. “This,” he told me, “is the Table of the Lord.”[a]
23 Both the nave and the Holy of Holies had double doors, 24 each with two swinging sections. 25 The doors leading into the nave were decorated with cherubim and palm trees, just as on the walls. And there was a wooden canopy over the entry hall. 26 There were recessed windows and carved palm trees on both sides of the entry hall, the hallways beside the Temple, and on the canopy over the entrance.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 41:22 the Table of the Lord, literally, “the table which is before the Lord.”
Ezekiel 41
New King James Version
Dimensions of the Sanctuary
41 Then he (A)brought me into the [a]sanctuary and measured the doorposts, six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide on the other side—the width of the tabernacle. 2 The width of the entryway was ten cubits, and the side walls of the entrance were five cubits on this side and five cubits on the other side; and he measured its length, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits.
3 Also he went inside and measured the doorposts, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits high; and the width of the entrance, seven cubits. 4 (B)He measured the length, twenty cubits; and the width, twenty cubits, beyond the sanctuary; and he said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.”
The Side Chambers on the Wall
5 Next, he measured the wall of the [b]temple, six cubits. The width of each side chamber all around the temple was four cubits on every side. 6 (C)The side chambers were in three stories, one above the other, thirty chambers in each story; they rested on [c]ledges which were for the side chambers all around, that they might be supported, but (D)not fastened to the wall of the temple. 7 As one went up from story to story, the side chambers (E)became wider all around, because their supporting ledges in the wall of the temple ascended like steps; therefore the width of the structure increased as one went up from the lowest story to the highest by way of the middle one. 8 I also saw an elevation all around the temple; it was the foundation of the side chambers, (F)a full rod, that is, six cubits high. 9 The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits, and so also the remaining terrace by the place of the side chambers of the [d]temple. 10 And between it and the wall chambers was a width of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side. 11 The doors of the side chambers opened on the terrace, one door toward the north and another toward the south; and the width of the terrace was five cubits all around.
The Building at the Western End
12 The building that faced the separating courtyard at its western end was seventy cubits wide; the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits.
Dimensions and Design of the Temple Area
13 So he measured the temple, one (G)hundred cubits long; and the separating courtyard with the building and its walls was one hundred cubits long; 14 also the width of the eastern face of the temple, including the separating courtyard, was one hundred cubits. 15 He measured the length of the building behind it, facing the separating courtyard, with its (H)galleries on the one side and on the other side, one hundred cubits, as well as the inner [e]temple and the porches of the court, 16 their doorposts and (I)the beveled window frames. And the galleries all around their three stories opposite the threshold were paneled with (J)wood from the ground to the windows—the windows were covered— 17 from the space above the door, even to the inner [f]room, as well as outside, and on every wall all around, inside and outside, by measure.
18 And it was made (K)with cherubim and (L)palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub. Each cherub had two faces, 19 (M)so that the face of a man was toward a palm tree on one side, and the face of a young lion toward a palm tree on the other side; thus it was made throughout the temple all around. 20 From the floor to the space above the door, and on the wall of the sanctuary, cherubim and palm trees were carved.
21 The (N)doorposts of the temple were square, as was the front of the sanctuary; their appearance was similar. 22 (O)The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits. Its corners, its length, and its sides were of wood; and he said to me, “This is (P)the table that is (Q)before the Lord.”
23 (R)The temple and the sanctuary had two doors. 24 The doors had two (S)panels apiece, two folding panels: two panels for one door and two panels for the other door. 25 Cherubim and palm trees were carved on the doors of the temple just as they were carved on the walls. A wooden canopy was on the front of the vestibule outside. 26 There were (T)beveled window frames and palm trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the vestibule—also on the side chambers of the temple and on the canopies.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 41:1 Heb. heykal; the main room in the temple, the holy place, Ex. 26:33
- Ezekiel 41:5 Lit. house
- Ezekiel 41:6 Lit. the wall
- Ezekiel 41:9 Lit. house
- Ezekiel 41:15 Or sanctuary
- Ezekiel 41:17 Lit. house; the Most Holy Place
Copyright © 2016 by Ruth Magnusson (Davis). Includes emendations to February 2022. All rights reserved.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
