And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
By the cubit and an hand-breadth. Measures were mostly taken from the human body. The greater cubit, the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, a little more than two feet: exceeding the ordinary cubit (from the elbow to the wrist) by an hand-breadth - i:e., twenty-one inches in all. Compare Ezekiel 43:13, "The cubit is a cubit and an hand-breadth," with Ezekiel 40:5. The palm was the full breadth of the hand, three and a half inches.
The breadth of the building - i:e., the boundary wall. The imperfections in the old temple's boundary wall were to have no place here. The buildings attached to it had been sometimes turned to common uses-e.g., Jeremiah was imprisoned in one (Jeremiah 20:2; Jeremiah 29:26). But now all these were to be holy to the Lord. The gates and doorways to the city of God were to be imprinted in their architecture with the idea of the exclusion of everything defiled (Revelation 21:27). The east gate was to be especially sacred, as it was through it the glory of God had departed (Ezekiel 11:23), and through it the glory was to return (Ezekiel 43:1-2; Ezekiel 44:2-3).