Description of Rooms for the Priests
42 And he brought me out to the outer courtyard to the north,[a] and he brought me to the chamber which was opposite the courtyard and which is opposite the building to the north. 2 As to[b] the face of the length of the building with the doorway to the north, it was a hundred cubits,[c] and its[d] width was fifty cubits.[e] 3 Opposite the twenty cubits of the inner courtyard,[f] and opposite the pavement that was to the outer courtyard was a gallery facing[g] a gallery in the three stories. 4 And in front of[h] the chambers was a passageway ten cubits[i] in width toward the inside, a walkway of one cubit,[j] and their doorways were to the north. 5 And the upper chambers narrowed, for the galleries took away space from them more than they took from the lower levels and more than they took from the middle level in the building. 6 For they[k] were three stories and they had no pillars[l] like[m] the pillars of[n] the courtyards; therefore they were smaller than the lower stories and than the middle stories from the ground up. 7 And there was a wall that was to the outside alongside[o] the chambers on the walkway to[p] the outer courtyard[q] in front of[r] the chambers; its length was fifty[s] cubits.[t] 8 For[u] the length of the chambers which were to the outer courtyard was fifty[v] cubits,[w] and look![x] The chambers on the front of the temple were a hundred[y] cubits.[z] 9 And from under these chambers was the entrance[aa] from the east for them when one enters[ab] from the outer courtyard.
10 All along the width of the wall of the courtyard eastward[ac] in front of the courtyard to the front of the building were chambers. 11 And a walkway was before them[ad] like the appearance of the chambers which were on the north,[ae] just like them in their length, and so was their width and all their exits, and they were built like their arrangements and like their doorways, 12 and like the doorways of the chambers which were on the way of the south was a doorway at the head of the way[af] before the stone wall, projecting[ag] on[ah] the way of the east at their coming.[ai]
13 And he said to me, “The chambers of the north and the chambers of the south which are before[aj] the courtyard, they are the holy chambers[ak] in which the priests, who are near to Yahweh, will eat the most holy objects.[al] There they shall put the most holy objects,[am] and the grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering, for the place is holy. 14 When the priests enter,[an] then they shall not go out from the sanctuary to the outer courtyard; and there they must put[ao] their garments in which they serve because they are holy. They must put on other garments and then they may approach the area that is for the people.
15 And he completed the measurements of the inner temple, and he brought me to the walkway of the gate that faces toward the east[ap] and he measured it all the way around.[aq] 16 He measured the east side with the reed[ar] for[as] measuring, five hundred cubits,[at] with respect to reeds with the reed for measurement, he measured it all around. 17 He measured the north side as five hundred cubits, with respect to reeds with the reed for measurement all around. 18 Then he measured the south side as five hundred cubits, with respect to reeds with the reed for measurement. 19 He went around the west side[au] and he measured five hundred cubits, with respect to reeds with the reed for measurement. 20 Toward the four sides[av] he measured it; there was a wall for it all the way around.[aw] Its length was five hundred cubits[ax] and its width was five hundred cubits, in order to make a separation between what is holy and what is common.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 42:1 Literally “to the way of the north”
- Ezekiel 42:2 Or “along the face of”
- Ezekiel 42:2 That is, 175 feet
- Ezekiel 42:2 Or “the”
- Ezekiel 42:2 That is, 87.5 feet
- Ezekiel 42:3 Literally “which were to the courtyard the inner”
- Ezekiel 42:3 Literally “toward in the face/front of”
- Ezekiel 42:4 Literally “to the face of”
- Ezekiel 42:4 That is, 17.5 feet
- Ezekiel 42:4 One cubit of 18–21 inches is problematic; LXX and Syriac read 100 cubits (175 feet) running the length of the building
- Ezekiel 42:6 Or “there”
- Ezekiel 42:6 Literally “there were not for them pillars”
- Ezekiel 42:6 Or “as”
- Ezekiel 42:6 Or “for”
- Ezekiel 42:7 Literally “to the outside to corresponding”
- Ezekiel 42:7 Or “of”
- Ezekiel 42:7 That is, “to the north”
- Ezekiel 42:7 Literally “to in face of”
- Ezekiel 42:7 That is, 87.5 feet
- Ezekiel 42:7 Hebrew “cubit”
- Ezekiel 42:8 Or “while”
- Ezekiel 42:8 Hebrew “cubit”
- Ezekiel 42:8 That is, 87.5 feet
- Ezekiel 42:8 Or “yet!”
- Ezekiel 42:8 Hebrew “cubit”
- Ezekiel 42:8 That is, 175 feet
- Ezekiel 42:9 Reading the Ketiv
- Ezekiel 42:9 Literally “at/in his/its coming”
- Ezekiel 42:10 Literally “on the way of the east”
- Ezekiel 42:11 Literally “was to the face of them”
- Ezekiel 42:11 Literally “were on the way of the north”
- Ezekiel 42:12 Dropping one “way”
- Ezekiel 42:12 Or “protecting wall”
- Ezekiel 42:12 Or “toward”
- Ezekiel 42:12 That is, when people entered the complex
- Ezekiel 42:13 Literally “to the front of”
- Ezekiel 42:13 Literally “are the chambers of the holiness”
- Ezekiel 42:13 Literally “holy objects of the holy objects”
- Ezekiel 42:13 Literally “holy objects of the holy objects”
- Ezekiel 42:14 Literally “at coming their”
- Ezekiel 42:14 Or “deposit/leave/remove”
- Ezekiel 42:15 Literally “which its face is to the way of the east”
- Ezekiel 42:15 Literally “all around, all around”
- Ezekiel 42:16 Or “rod”
- Ezekiel 42:16 Literally “of measuring”
- Ezekiel 42:16 Hebrew has “reeds” here (= 5,250 feet), which is not correct; 500 cubits = 875 feet.
- Ezekiel 42:19 Or “side toward/to the sea”
- Ezekiel 42:20 Literally “toward the four winds”
- Ezekiel 42:20 Literally “all around, all around”
- Ezekiel 42:20 That is, 875 feet