But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
But - `And.'
The court ... without - all outside the Holy Place (Revelation 11:1).
Leave out - of thy measurement; 'cast out;' reckon as unhallowed.
It - emphatic. It is not to be measured; whereas the Holy Place is.
Given - by God's appointment.
Unto the Gentiles. In the wider sense, 'the times of the Gentiles' are meant; wherein Jerusalem is 'trodden down of the Gentiles,' as Luke 21:24 proves; for the same word is used here х patein (G3961)]. Compare also Psalms 79:1; Isaiah 63:18.
Forty and two months - (Revelation 13:5.) The same period as Daniel's (Daniel 7:25; Daniel 12:7) "time, times, and an half" (Revelation 11:3, and Revelation 12:6; Revelation 12:14, the woman a fugitive in the wilderness "a thousand two hundred and three-score days"). In the wider sense, we may adopt the year-day theory of 1,260 years (on which, and the papal rule of 1,260 years, see notes, Daniel 7:25; Daniel 8:14; Daniel 12:11), or rather, regard the 2,300 days (Daniel 8:14), 1,335 days (Daniel 12:11-12), 1,290 days, and 1,260 days, as symbolical of the long Gentile times, dating from the subversion of the Jewish theocracy at the Babylonian captivity (the kingdom having been never since restored to Israel), or from the last destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, and extending to the restoration of the theocracy at the coming of Him "whose right it is" (Ezekiel 21:27). The different epochs marked will not be cleared up until the grand consummation; but, meanwhile, our privilege urges us to investigate them.
Some one of the epochs assigned may be right, but as yet it is uncertain. The times of the Gentile monarchies during Israel's seven times' (Leviticus 26:18; Leviticus 26:21; Leviticus 26:24) punishment will probably, in the narrower sense (Revelation 11:2), be succeeded by the restricted times of Antichrist's tyranny in the Holy Land. The long papal misrule may be followed by the short time of the man of sin, who shall concentrate in himself all the apostasy, persecution, and evil of the forerunning antichrists-Antiochus, Mohammed, Popery-just before Christ's advent. His time shall be THE RECAPITULATION and open consummation of the "mystery of iniquity" (so long leavening the world). Witnessing churches may be followed by witnessing individuals-the former occupying the longer, the latter the shorter period. The three and a half (1,260 days-three and a half years of 360 days each), during which the two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, is the sacred seven halved, implying the anti-Christian world-power's time is broken at best.
It answers to the three and a half years of Christ's witness for the truth, when the Jews, His own people, disowned, and the God-opposed world-power crucified Him (note, Daniel 9:27). The three and a half marks the time in which the earthly rules over the heavenly kingdom. It was the duration of Antiochus' treading down the temple, and persecuting faithful Israelites. The world-power's times never reach the sacred fullness of seven times 360 - i:e., 2,520, though they approach it in 2,300 (Daniel 8:14). The forty-two months answer to Israel's forty-two sojournings (Numbers 33:1-50) in the wilderness, contrasted with the Sabbatic rest in Canaan: reminding the Church that here, in the world-wilderness, she cannot look for her Sabbatic rest. Also, three and a half years was the period of the heaven being shut up, and of consequent famine in Elias' time. Three and a half represented to the Church the toil, pilgrimage, persecution.