“Afterward he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle.”
The temple. This plan of a temple, which was here shewn to the prophet in a vision, partly had relation to the material temple, which was to be rebuilt: and partly, in a mystical sense, to the spiritual temple of God, the Church of Christ. (Challoner) — The description seems grander than Solomon’s; and yet Zorobabel’s temple was meaner than his. Hence this prophecy, and those of Aggeus and Zacharias, cannot be understood of it, but of the Church. (St. Jerome; St. Augustine, City of God xviii. 45.) (Worthington)
“Then went he inward, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits.”
Front, or door-posts. The temple was 20 cubits broad.
“After he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side.”
Four. Herein it differed from Solomon’s chambers, which were in breadth five, six, and seven cubits, in the three stories, respectively. (Calmet)
“And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house. one: Heb. side chamber over side chamber thirty: or, three and thirty times, or, foot have hold: Heb. be holden”
One by another, or one over another: literally, side to side, or side upon side. (Challoner) — The word side is here equivocal, like Hebrew tsela, sometimes denoting the boards, and at other times the apartments round the temple, except on the west, over against the sanctuary, which seems to be the case here. It is true, we shall not easily find sixty-six chambers. But the Hebrew, &c., have only thirty-three. (Calmet) — Villalpand rightly translated anterides, (ver. 5.) but here he substitutes trabes, “beams or thick planks,” to make it agree with 3 Kings vi. 6., as if the same temple were meant. He also adopts the Vulgate bis. — Twice. Hebrew pehamim. Yet he afterwards places in his commentary, pedes, “thirty-three feet, that is twenty-two cubits,” though feet are never used at all as a measure in Scripture. (Houbigant)
“And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst. there: Heb. it was made broader, and went round”
Broader, as the wall was not so thick. (Haydock) — Midst. The two staircases were round in the hollow of the wall, (Menochius) at the eastern end of the chambers. (Josephus) See 3 Kings. (Calmet)
“The thickness of the wall, which was for the side chamber without, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within.”
House. Because these side-chambers were in the very walls of the temple all around: or it may also be rendered, (more agreeably to the Hebrew) so as to signify, that the thickness of the wall for the side-chambers within was the same as that of the wall without; that is, equally five cubits. (Challoner) — Protestants, “and that which was left, was the place of the side-chambers that were within.” (Haydock) — To manifest a greater respect for God, the apartments of the priests were twenty-five cubits distant from the temple, (ver. 10.) and divided by a wall, which Josephus describes as three cubits high. (Antiquities viii. 2.) This wall was at the distance of five cubits from the temple. (Calmet)
“And the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about.”
Prayer, or “separated;” munnach, (Haydock) the inner house, ver. 9.
“So he measured the house, an hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, an hundred cubits long;”
Separate, different from that [in] ver. 9., (Calmet; Hebrew gizra.; Haydock) between the temple and the priests’ apartments, which it may also designate, (Calmet) unless it (Haydock) mean the temple itself, which was divided from the rest, (Menochius) and set aside for prayer, &c. (Haydock)
“And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, an hundred cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the court; galleries: or, several walks, or, walks with pillars”
Galleries; Ethecas, or as the more correct manuscripts of St. Jerome read, Ecthetas, seems to be formed from (Calmet) Hebrew athikim, (Haydock) which St. Jerome explains a balcony, portico, or gallery.
“The door posts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the door, cieled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered; cieled: Heb. cieling of wood and from: or, and the ground unto the windows”
About. Thus he intimates the inner temple, which was covered with boards. — Windows. The temple was hidden so far by the chambers; or rather he measured (Calmet) “the ground and up to the windows, which were” shut up with lattices, affording light over the doors (Haydock) and apartments, fifteen cubits from the ground.
“And it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces;”
Two. Before he describes them with four faces. But they varied, (Exodus xxv. 18.) or the other two might be against the wall. (Calmet) — The cherub signified “knowledge,” and the palm-tree victory, to shew that man must be instructed with divine knowledge, and so fight for the victory. The face of man implied that Christ would suffer, and that of a lion announced that he would overcome all his enemies. (Worthington)
“The posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other. posts: Heb. post”
The threshold was four-square. That is, the gate of the temple was four-square, and so placed as to answer the gate of the sanctuary within. (Challoner) — It was not an arch, though not a perfect square, 3 Kings vi. 34.
“The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD.”
Table, or altar of incense, larger than that of Moses, Exodus xxx. 1.
“And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors.”
Sanctuary. One folding door opened into it, the other into the temple.
“And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door.”
Other. It was not perhaps necessary to open the large door.
“And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.”
Sides, (humerulis) or pilasters. Hebrew, “on the shoulder of the porch, and on the sides of the house, and beams.” (Calmet)