Ezekiel 43:17 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

The settle; so called now, since the uppermost carrieth the name of altar, proper to itself. Fourteen cubits, as said in the former verse: nor can it be otherwise, since it is one cubit on each side broader than the altar, which was twelve cubits square. The border; or a border, or ledge, fastened to the edge of the outside of this bench, that goes round about the settle. Half a cubit; about eleven inches, being the half of this great cubit: now this border was for security to the priests in their going round the altar, that if a foot slipped, this border might stay it. The bottom, the superficies, on which the priest treads when he is doing any thing on the altar, or the breadth of this bench within the border, a cubit. Stairs, or steps, for such they needed; and probably each stair about one fourth of a cubit, to carry them up to the first and second settles. These stairs were placed eastward, that he who went up should have his face to the west, his back to the east; his face toward God, not toward the rising sun, as they who made the sun their idol.