Ezekiel 43:13-17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

These are the measures of the altar The Jews, after their return out of captivity, had an altar long before they had a temple, Ezra 3:3; but the altar here spoken of is an altar in the temple, the mystical temple emblematical of the gospel church; and this altar is mystical too, for Christ is our altar. The bottom shall be a cubit, &c. To render the dimensions here specified of the altar more intelligible to an English reader, it may be best to observe, that it was about six yards square at the top, and seven at the bottom. It was four yards and a half high; it had a lower bench, or shelf, here called a settle, a yard from the ground, on which some of the priests stood to minister, and another, two yards above that, on which others of them stood; and those were each of them half a yard broad, and had ledges on either side, that they might stand firm upon them. The sacrifices were killed at the table spoken of Ezekiel 40:39; what was to be burned on the altar was given up to those on the lower bench, and handed by them to those on the higher, and they laid it on the altar. Thus in the service of God we must be assistant to one another.