Ezekiel 41:13-15 - Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

The Full Measurement of the Sanctuary (Ezekiel 41:13-15 a).

‘So he measured the house, a hundred cubits long, and the separate place and the building, with its walls, one hundred cubits long. Also the breadth of the house, and of the separate place towards the east, a hundred cubits. And he measured the length of the building before the separate place, which was at the back of it, and its galleries on the one side and on the other side, a hundred cubits.'

The point is not so much the measurement as the perfect symmetry. This was the ideal temple, a suitable dwelling place for God. It was the heavenly temple and could not be built by man. All man's feeble efforts would produce but a poor imitation. Yet as they worshipped in what they did build they were ever aware that what they worshipped in represented this glorious heavenly structure.

The hundred cubits long of the house is made up of the post (5 cubits - Ezekiel 40:48), the vestibule (11 cubits - Ezekiel 40:49), the post (six cubits - Ezekiel 41:1), the holy place (40 cubits - Ezekiel 41:2), the post (2 cubits - Ezekiel 41:3), the holiest of all (20 cubits - Ezekiel 41:4), the wall (6 cubits - (Ezekiel 41:5), the side chamber (4 cubits - Ezekiel 41:5) and the outer wall - 5 cubits (Ezekiel 41:9), making 99 cubits. The pillars at the front (Ezekiel 40:49) were presumable one cubit in diameter.

The hundred cubits across is the measurement of the rear building (90 cubits + two 5 cubit walls). This is the equivalent of the width of the sanctuary and the temple yards, made up of the holy place (20 cubits - Ezekiel 41:2; Ezekiel 41:4), walls (two x 6 cubits - Ezekiel 41:5), side-chambers (two x 4 cubits - Ezekiel 41:5), walls (two x 5 cubits - Ezekiel 41:9), pavement (two x 5 cubits - Ezekiel 41:11), and separate place (temple yards - two x 20 cubits).

Ezekiel 41:13-15

13 So he measured the house, an hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, an hundred cubits long;

14 Also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, an hundred cubits.

15 And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it, and the galleriesb thereof on the one side and on the other side, an hundred cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the court;