X-Dreamers
Bible chapter guide
Ezekiel 40
In the twenty-fifth year of the exile Ezekiel is brought in a vision to a very high mountain, where a man with a measuring reed shows him a temple: its outer and inner gates, courts and chambers, each measured in detail.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
See it in the Labs
- Solomon's TempleThe windows · Solomon's TempleOpen
- Temples Side by SideEzekiel's visionary temple · Temples Side by SideOpen
- Temples Side by SideStacked on one spot · Temples Side by SideOpen
Also in this chapter
How sure can we be?
- Textually stated
Inner court: 100 × 100 cubits. A square of 100 cubits before the house, with the altar in it.
- Plausible
'The first measure' of 2 Chronicles 3:3 was probably an older, longer cubit.
The Chronicler, writing after the exile, explains that Solomon's figures used the old standard; compare Ezekiel's long cubit (40:5).
- Plausible
How long was a cubit? About 52 cm, the long or royal cubit, a handbreadth longer: for Solomon's “first measure” and Ezekiel's cubit.
Scholars who read 2 Chronicles 3:3 and Ezekiel 40:5 this way; Egyptian royal cubit rods measure about 52.4 cm.
- Speculative
The court is drawn 200 × 100 cubits, doubling the Tabernacle's 100 × 50.
No size is given. Doubling follows the house's own doubling of the Tabernacle; Ezekiel's inner court is 100 cubits square (40:47).