Ezekiel
Chapter 42
He took me north into the court and led me to the rooms facing the outer court and the building to the north.
They measured one hundred cubits long on the north side and fifty cubits wide.
Facing the entrance of the inner court and the paving of the outer court was a gallery, in front of the triple gallery,
and in front of the rooms was a walkway, ten cubits wide, measured inward, and a hundred cubits long; their doors faced north.
The top-floor rooms were narrow because the galleries took up part of their width, making them narrower than those on the ground floor or the middle floor of the building.
They were three stories high and had no columns like those in the court, so they were narrower than the ground-floor and middle-floor rooms below.
The outer wall parallel to the rooms, facing the outer court, was fifty cubits long,
the length of the rooms facing the outer court; on the side facing the building, it was a hundred cubits.
Beneath the rooms, there was an entrance from the east leading into the outer court.
In the thickness of the wall of the court, on the south side, facing the court and the building, there were rooms.
A walkway ran in front of them, similar to the walkways in front of the rooms on the north side; they were of the same length and width and had similar design and doors for entry and exit.
They were similar to the entrances of the southern rooms, with one entrance at the end of each walkway facing the eastern wall, serving as the doorway. He said to me:
“The northern and southern rooms opening onto the court are holy rooms, where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most sacred things. In them will be placed the most holy objects: the offerings, the sacrifices for sin, and the guilt offerings, since this is a holy place.
Once the priests have entered, they will not leave the holy place for the outer court without removing their sacred garments, as these garments are holy; they will change into other clothes before approaching the room assigned to the people.”
After he finished measuring the inside of the temple, he took me to the east gate and measured the entire area of the courtyard.
He measured the east side with his measuring rod: a total of five hundred cubits.
Then he measured the north side: five hundred cubits.
Next, he measured the south side: five hundred cubits.
On the west side, he measured five hundred cubits as well. In total, he measured the entire enclosing wall on all four sides: length, five hundred cubits; width, five hundred cubits. This wall separated the sacred area from the profane.
Commentaries
New Temple and New Land.
The new temple is designed to avoid past mistakes: it will be reinforced. It will have new boundaries to separate the holiness of the people and their land (42:20). Everything will be reorganized from the sanctuary (43:12). God is returning to dwell among His people. This time, it will be forever (43:7).
The New Temple.
Ezekiel recounts one of his last visions, where he is led by a mysterious figure who shows him the detailed measurements of the new temple. The prophet is guided from the outer courtyard (40:17-19) to the inner courtyard (40:28-31) and the Holy of Holies (41:3). Before Ezekiel’s eyes, this figure measures the surface areas of courtyards, buildings, rooms, and halls, focusing especially on the dimensions of walls and doors to define as precisely as possible the boundaries that separate the profane spaces from the sacred ones (42:20).