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Email: <lelgee@voicenet.com>Copyright © L. L. Griffith, 1971, 1996. ISBN 0-929554-01-9. This document may be reproduced in whole or in part provided that this copyright notice is reproduced on each copy made.
The reader who studies this prophetic vision is repeatedly warned to be careful in seeing and in hearing the things it shows. There is to be no excuse for ignorance of, or misunderstanding about, the vision's content. This prophecy is the assurance for the reestablishment of a new covenant with the sons of Jacob, and for the restoration of the nation of Israel. The vision provides information about the foundation of the new order of service to the LORD when the nation is delivered "in the last days" from its Ancient Adversary and Enemies. Christians and Jews who cannot, or will not, acknowledge the truth of this Holy Scripture will be without excuse at the judgment seat.
Make note that Chapter Eleven of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ shows that the Outer Court of the temple is not to be measured during the time when the temple and altar are measured because the Outer Court area is being "trampled" by the surrounding nations. Today in Jerusalem the Temple Institute Faithful make preparations for their expected Messiah.
The disciples once asked, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" Where the laborers are few, there are no oxen at work; the crib is clean. Empty! "O hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky but you cannot discern the signs of the times," Matthew 16:3. Get to the work!
In the LORD's sanctuary on Mt. Zion, there are many chambers... See John 14:2 and 14:23. Thirty of these temporal abodes are located upon the lower pavement of the Outer Court.
Other chambers set apart for the Zadokite priests are located within the Inner Court, upon the highest terrace of the structure like a city. Each of these chamber areas is a rectangle of 50 by 100 cubits long. One is directly north of the temple's house and one is directly north of the building to the west; two other chambers, corresponding to them, are directly south of the same center buildings. These four chamber areas provide places for the priests who serve in the inner sanctuary of the household of God on earth.
That some rooms of these highest chambers are situated between the third level terrace of the structure like a city, and the level of the pavement of the lower Outer Court is indicated in the verses which follow, from Ezekiel 42. The general features of the chambers to the north are given in the first fourteen verses.
1 Then he brought me forth into the utter court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the chamber that [was] over against the separate place, and which [was] before the building toward the north.
Notice how carefully Ezekiel relates his position relative to the things which he sees.
Both Ezekiel and the man would have moved from the vicinity of the temple's porch, following the pathway. They would move down the porch steps, cross the northwest corner of the altar court outside toward the north inner gate, descend the steps and enter into the chamber opposite the high court.
Ezekiel is within a building of the Inner Court! Both his position and his perspective have changed. (Sometimes it seems that his eyes are, from above, actually looking from one place to another on an outline of the site of the sanctuary).
2 Before the length of an hundred cubits [was] the north door, and the breadth [was] fifty cubits.
Two chambers qualify for the position, but this one is specified as facing toward the north. Refer to Diagram R, The Sanctuary of the LORD's House, (letter h), and review Ezekiel 40:44c, and 40:46-47 for orientation. The opening is westward beside the north gatehouse, in the Outer Court.
3 Over against the twenty [cubits] which [were] for the inner court, and over against the pavement which [was] for the utter court, [was] gallery against gallery in three [stories].
The section lies horizontally between the two courts. The external appearance is composed of galleries, in three tiers.
4 And before the chambers [was] a walk of ten cubits breadth inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors toward the north.
The English translators, whether biased or just working as best as they might, obviously had not much idea of what they should see in this part of the vision. Reconstruction of the temple and its service under Messiah does not relate well to certain doctrines of Christendom. What they looked at in the vision was "strange" to them so they stumble frequently in the translation. More modern translations reduce the awkwardness of their construction! (But, perhaps it was not yet time for the vision to speak and to not lie...)
In the kingdom of the heavens (under which the kingdom of God suffers much afflictions), the kingdom to Israel will be restored; but with a renewed and magnified law. That law will be administered by Messiah as king, and high priest.
Many people and many nations will be startled to know that "the truth" is quite different than many Christians and Jews had expected. Ezekiel's vision proves which "church" will triumph in the "last days."
5 Now the upper chambers [were] shorter: for the galleries were higher than these, than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building.
The reason for the recess is stated. The chambers are built upon the ground. Thus their construction is somewhat different than the other buildings within the sanctuary.
6 For they [were] in three [stories], but had not pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore [the upper story] was straitened more than the lowest and the middlemost from the ground.
Apparently the chambers do not have porches, which would require pillars for their support. The only similarity to a "porch" would be the walkway's recess beneath the chambers for the openings.
Verse six is the second and last reference to the "pillars of the court." The prior reference was at 40:49. Pillar is not the usual word used concerning the posts of the colonnades. The word evidently is an indirect reference to the individual post, the stele; the column of the colonnades which surround both the Outer and the Inner Courts. The gallery or balcony of the chambers faces to the north.
7 And the wall that [was] without over against the chambers, toward the utter court on the forepart of the chambers, the length thereof [was] fifty cubits.
The forepart of the chamber structure is the eastward end.
8 For the length of the chambers that [were] in the utter court [was] fifty cubits: and, lo, before the temple [were] an hundred cubits.
In other words, a wall defines the perimeter between the high court and the court outside, which is the court of the altar. See Diagram R again, (above) which shows the approximate pattern of the sanctuary of the LORD's house. The careful location of the lines places the area directly north of the temple building.
Because Ezekiel almost never gives any specific measure for any height, it is difficult to show a side view of the varying elevations of the sanctuary. For instance, it is known that the bulwark of the sanctuary is six cubits high and wide. The lower pavement of the sanctuary is thus six cubits above the site's ground level. Then, the steps to the inner gatehouses are eight in number, but have no overall height given. The altar's court is at the floor level of the inner gatehouses; but from the altar's court, more steps lead up to the temple's porch. No height is given for this elevation.
This elevation is the place of the wall spoken of in 42:7-8. Thus, Ezekiel bids, Pay attention..; don't become disoriented. Know where Ezekiel and the man are positioned at every point throughout the prophet's vision-tour of the site.
Ezekiel's text becomes somewhat tedious as the Holy Spirit carefully reiterates the location of the chambers, and adds some detail. You were warned, remember?
9 And from under these chambers [was] the entry on the east side, as one goeth into them from the utter court.
This entrance is located at the west side of the north inner gatehouse; see 40:44-46 and 46:19. The entrance is probably through the "low wall" (which is likely a high curb). No mention is made here of any steps. Obviously part of the chambers lie beneath the surface of the high court.
The work or activities performed in the vicinity of the north gate require that the priests first change from their "street clothing" into their priestly robes before any work is attempted. Dressing rooms would be indicated as one use of the chambers.
10 The chambers [were] in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place, and over against the building.
So the mass of the elevation of the high court contains the chambers. On the diagram this area appears as a rectangle of 50 by 200 cubits long north of the temple and the building to the west. It supports two distinct chambers, each 50 by 100 cubits long.
11 And the way before them [was] like the appearance of the chambers which [were] toward the north, as long as they, [and] as broad as they: and all their goings out [were] both according to their fashions, and according to their doors.
Thus a comparison is made to the pathway of the chambers described in 42:4.
12 And according to the doors of the chambers that [were] toward the south [was] a door in the head of the way, [even] the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one entereth into them.
The location of the openings into the priests' chambers are probably where the colonnade of the porches of the inner gatehouses meet the low wall of the high court. On the diagram's topview, the openings would be (hidden) beneath the colonnade, one at the northwest and one at the southwest corner of the altar's court.
13 Then said he unto me, The north chambers [and] the south chambers, which [are] before the separate place, they [be] holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place [is] holy.
The "separate place" is the word which designates the entire inner sanctum of the LORD's house; this is the 200 by 300 cubits area confined within the inner gatehouses. Thus these specific chambers are designated as dining places for the priests who approach the LORD, the zadokim. This verse makes an agreeable point with 46:19-20 which speaks of the food preparation there.
The man now enlarges upon a rule governing the sanctity of the chambers.
14 When the priests enter therein, then shall they not go out of the holy [place] into the utter court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they [are] holy; and shall put on other garments, and shall approach to [those things] which [are] for the people.
In other words, they have changeable clothing, distinctive garments which are worn to serve for the different occupations. The holy garments are kept within the holy chambers in their own closet.
This charge by the man who guides Ezekiel concludes the general description of the priestly quarters within the Inner Court. The man who has guided Ezekiel throughout the vision has ended all measuring of all the buildings which are located within the sanctuary of the LORD on Mt. Zion.
The next six verses provide the proof of the length of the sanctuary's bulwark. All of the buildings now measured lie within this surrounding bulwark.
At 40:5 is the statement that there was "a wall on the outside of the house round about, ...he measured the breadth of the building, one reed, and the height, one reed."
The man still carries the measuring rod and the line of flax to do the preliminary site work here in Chapter 42.
15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect [is] toward the east, and measured it round about.
"It," the object of "he measured," is the "house inside," (the inner structure) not the east gatehouse. (This should now be obvious to the reader). He has measured all the houses and structures inside the bulwark; now he measures around the whole sanctuary on its outside.
The external measure is begun where the internal... began - at the east side.
So Ezekiel is returned to his starting point - the east gatehouse.
16 He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred [[reeds]], with the measuring reed round about.
The measure taken by the reed are cubit lengths - as can be proved through the scale proportion shown with the diagrams, (Scale 10:1; 5:1, or 1:1) where the greater number in the scale proportion is the measure reflected by each square shown on the diagram.
The word reeds - shown as [[reeds]] in italic print in verses 16 through 20 - has been copied out of the margin of the original Hebrew text. Rashi's scribes are responsible for copying the marginal note of "reed" into the main body of the text in the place where the ellipsis stands for the word "cubit" of the 500 measures to the wall.
Only by careful proving of Ezekiel's text against an outline drawing is the error revealed. But wise men will heed the warning of the angel, won't they?
17 He measured the north side, five hundred [[reeds]], with the measuring reed round about.
18 He measured the south side, five hundred [[reeds]], with the measuring reed.
19 He turned about to the west side, [and] measured five hundred [[reeds]] with the measuring reed.
The phrase "with the measuring reed" is repeated for emphasis. See Diagram B, The Basic Gatehouse Design, which references the measure of the wall (i.e., the sanctuary's bulwark) with the letter a.
20 He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred [[reeds]] long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.
The common is elaborated upon in later chapters of the vision. The Hebrew is one word - chol; common. In the vocabulary of England a common is a place familiar to all. The people even has its House of Commons! The vision's common may be visualized as a broad greensward, the estate grounds which surround the sanctuary.
The sanctuary's common should not be confused with the other common which surrounds the city of new Jerusalem, for the dimensions differ considerably as we shall also see later on
Like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead, a tradition, when it is good can be very, very good; but when it is bad, it is horrid!
Likewise the temptation to take away from, or to add to the Holy Scriptures, is sometimes too great merely to contemplate, although the Holy Spirit from heaven has warned of the judgment for removing or adding to the Word. Scribes and copyists of the original texts are the first sinners in this respect. But translators and interpreters are close behind, and by their sheer numbers, are able to distort - like the serpent first misrepresented the Word of God - the meaning of even the perfect and unmarred original Word by their work. Ezekiel's text at 42:16-20 is an example of text which has gone beyond contemplation. The problem is the addition by a copyist of the words reeds. The Septuagint version solves the problem by allowing the text to read cubits, which are the measures of the rod. The cubit is the basic measure of the rod which the man used to relate the outline of the site to Ezekiel throughout the measuring. How did the problem, then, arise?
In the Hebrew text the tradition of Rashi prevails. His authority for the insertion of the word reeds is provided not out of Ezekiel's text, but from the writing of the poet and liturgist, Kalir.
Kalir, a poet and liturgist, not a holy prophet, stated that the future temple would be 36 times the size of the old temple. Now, 36 times 500 amounts to 18,000 measures, which number is exactly what the text of Ezekiel 48:35 states to be the actual external measurement of the city of new Jerusalem. Such a happy coincidence!
Do pay attention to the angel's warning. The outline of the sanctuary of the LORD's house, here at 42:15-20, does not refer to the outline for the city of the new Jerusalem. Neither Rashi nor Kalir heed the Holy Spirit's warning to observe and to hear by paying close attention to the man who instructs the prophet in his vision of the world to come. The Talmud asserts that the true measure of the city's frame is 500 cubits on each side. The texts of Ezekiel 45:2-3 and Ezekiel 48:21 prove that the sanctuary of the LORD's house is in the midst of the city, new Jerusalem. The English RSV text, whose editors were cognizant of the controversy about traditions, correctly translates this block of text to read "five hundred cubits" throughout, as it was before the work done by Rashi's scribe and before Kalir merged the boundaries of the two sites.
Although the angel carries both a measuring reed and a line of flax, he has been relating all measures by the cubit - which is also defined as being a specific cubit measure - the royal cubit of a cubit and an hand breadth. It is completely illogical to amend the text in this one spot. At 40:6, the man holds "a rod, measuring six cubits, with a cubit and an hand span."
When one chooses to multiply the rod by a number six times greater, the confusion multiplies when we come to consider the measurements given in the remaining chapters. The word reed is only used ten times in the vision. Two are at 40:5 and 41:8, great cubits. The word is not used without qualification even in the remaining chapters of the vision.
Finally, one wonders why does the man use the line to measure at 47:3 - instead of the rod - when he measures the length of the water's course? It appears that a measurement of more than 1000 cubits requires the use of the line. If this is so, then the "wall" was measured with the rod, a measuring tool used to measure distance less than 1000 cubits. However, this conclusion is not graven in stone. But if the "wall" of the sanctuary truly measures six times greater than the stated number of 500, why did the man not use the line?
The translators of the Authorized Version of the Bible were obviously puzzled about the meaning of common; (Hebrew: chol) Whether the word was one of the points where King James displayed his personal dogma is not certain. He did believe in familiar spirits, hence the text of the authorized version reveals the existence of the Holy "Ghost" in the place of "Spirit." Whatever the reason, the translators were perplexed. Some questions are: What is a common? And, what is common? The question is (as the Authorized Version renders the text), What is "the profane place" which surrounds the sanctuary? Is the word "profane" a noun, or is it an adverb?
By definition there quite a bit of difference between that which is common and that which is profane. What is owned by several individuals is known as common property. What is profane implies unsuitability for the Divine Purpose altogether. Certainly this cannot be the meaning of the word as used in 42:20. Because, the temple, the holy city, and the holy oblation of the LORD are all set aside for the use of the LORD's servants. The meaning of "the common (place)" must be searched out from the Holy Scriptures, not from traditions.
The word common appears in 1 Samuel 21:4-5. Translated as profane and profane place it appears in Ezekiel 22:26; 42:40; 48:15; and as unholy in Leviticus 10:10, examples of the inconsistency of the translators. In 1 Samuel bread is not permitted to be eaten by David's young men except that they had been apart from women and were dedicated to serve the king, and were in want of food. Thus qualifying them David petitioned the priest for food on their behalf, stating that "the vessels of the young men are holy... and in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel." So bread was given them.
In Ezekiel 22:26 the intent of its meaning is clear. "They have put no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they shown a difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from My sabbaths; and I am profaned among them." The conditions were not so with David's men. They recognized the boundary's limit.
In Leviticus 10:9-11 the situation describes something like that of 1 Samuel 21:4-5. The barrier between holiness and the unclean is to be observed by those who approach the LORD's things.
Ezekiel 42:20 restates the need to make a literal boundary area between the sanctuary of the LORD's house and the community of new Jerusalem beyond the sanctuary's wall. The wall, of six cubits in height and of six cubits in breadth and of 500 cubits in length, is the barrier between the sanctuary and the common. Ezekiel 44:23 repeats the warning of Ezekiel 22:26 concerning the manner of the people's thinking about holy things.
The context of Ezekiel 48:15-16 shows that the common (place) describes the portion of land remaining out of the measure of the 25,000 squares measured for the holy offering of the promised land which is set apart for the lands of the LORD's possession. This portion belongs to the king's palace grounds. The common itself is clearly defined in the following two verses: "And these shall be the measures of it - the north side, 4,500; and the south side, 4,500; and on the east side, 4,500; and the west side, 4,500. And the pasture lands of the city shall be toward the north, 250; and toward the south, 250; and toward the east, 250; and toward the west, 250." The new city comprises an area that is 5,000 measures square. This other common is land set aside for the city of a new Jerusalem.
The use for this common is described in the prior verse. "And the 5,000... shall be a common for the city; for dwelling and for open fields; and the city shall be in the midst of it." This common of 42:20, (which measures 50 cubits wide on all sides of the sanctuary) contains the city of new Jerusalem with its dwellings and open fields. It begins immediately outside the perimeter of the sanctuary's wall. It marks the inner boundary of the common in comparison with its outer boundary limit as described in Ezekiel 48:14-16.
These uses of the word common shows that the prophet does not intend for the word to be defined as profane or unclean. The sanctity of the land dedicated to the LORD's use is to be observed by the inhabitants of the area. Within this common is the house wherein the priests (of Melchizedek's order, the Zadokim) dwell in the "many mansions" of the Lord's promise.
At the appointed time4 the land of promise is to be righteously divided for the children of the inheritance, for both the natural sons of Jacob and for the sons by adoption through the righteous faith of Abraham.
Of this land a portion is to be dedicated to the LORD and sanctified for the possession of His servants. And of this dedicated portion, Ezekiel 45:2-3 states "Of this there shall be for the sanctuary 500 (in length) with 500 (in breadth) square round about; and 50 cubits round about for open space. And of this measure shall you measureþ and in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy (part). The holy (part) of the land shall be for the priests; the ministers of the sanctuary who shall come near to minister unto the LORD; and it shall be a place for their houses and an holy place for the sanctuary."
The Lord, Jesus Christ, warned "the chief priests and the elders of the people" that "the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and it shall be given to a people producing the fruits of it," Matthew 21:23, 43. Now the promise that the elect of God shall become kings and priests in the age to come is solidly based in the Hebrew Scriptures. Numbers 14:21 is the initial foundation for establishing the holiness required of the nation by the Word of God.
That holiness is yet required for the chief priests-elect and for the elders-elect in the new order of the kingdom which follows "Jacob's troubles" of the last days. The deposition of the old order of the kingdom rulership and the election of the new order is shown from Hosea's prophecy, where it is written, "I will call that which is not my people, 'My people'; and that not beloved, 'Beloved.' And it shall be in the place where it was said of them, 'Ye are not My people,' there they shall be called the sons of the Living God." This text is quoted in the Greek New Testament in Romans 9:25-26 alongside supporting witness from the prophet Isaiah. The temple, within the sanctuary of the LORD's house, will be rebuilt.
Obviously, both the builders of the second temple; with Herod, in his reconstruction, ignored the magnified concept of the cubit measure as projected by the visionary Kalir!
Jesus Christ likewise strongly condemned the attitude of the Jews who refused to believe all the things written by the prophets, but the Jews have chosen to adhere to their "horrid" traditions to this very day. Traditional interpretations, poetic metaphor, and similar teachings must be examined objectively, not with the expansive comfort of human bias that shows respect for persons and things of the present world. Christianity, Catholic and Protestant, each holds its own "horrid" sectarian traditions, and are equally guilty before God.
Because the many will not change their mind, refusing both to see and to hear the holy prophets of the LORD, judgment will come upon the ungodly in the day of the LORD. In the "last days" when the "goodness" of "the nations" is exhausted, God turns back to the nation of Israel (despite what the supercessionists say).
For, the Holy Scriptures plainly state that "all Israel shall be saved." The context shows the writer means that all the LORD's chosen ones, who are engrafted into "Israel" throughout all the time when the LORD is doing His work upon this earth, will be saved together when Israel ceases to be godless. The whole of the Jewish people will be delivered from unbelief in His Word when the appointed time (moed) is come. See Daniel 8:19; 11:27-35; also Isaiah 49:8 and Romans 11.
Christians and Jews both will be required to reexamine their doctrines as to whether all their beliefs compare with "the faith of Abraham;" because, the elect of God from every era of the ages must be engrafted into the stock of the one "good olive tree" at "the end." This fact is a critical point in the "controversy of Zion." The crisis situation comes at the end of days when the "man of sin" sits in the temple of God, claiming that he alone is God. (See 2 Thessalonians 2, which speaks of this concurrent event when the day of Christ does come to pass.) Whether the "man of sin" is a Jew, Christian or Islamic, matters not; the seat that the sinner usurps belongs to another individual - "to him who has the right and I will give it," per the voice of the Holy Spirit in Ezekiel 21:27, KJAV; 21:32, Hebrew text.
God will send the One who has the right to the throne at the appropriate time, to deliver Israel from the "man of sin" - her Adversary - and her enemies. The LORD will make a new covenant with the people remaining after the "time of Jacob's trouble" is past. The new spiritual house of the LORD is near to being filled full as the days go by, but the new physical structure of which Ezekiel speaks has yet to be erected.
Through wisdom is an house builded, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches."
- Proverbs 24:3-4
