Ezekiel 42 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
573 BC, the twenty-fifth year of the Babylonian exile
Location
The outer and inner courts of the visionary temple, specifically the chambers on its north and south sides
Audience
Judean exiles in Babylonia, including displaced priests concerned with how worship could ever be restored
Situation
The guide shows Ezekiel the rooms where priests eat the most holy offerings and change their garments, then measures the full square of the temple area and its surrounding wall.
Key Background
Portions of certain sacrifices belonged to the priests as food, and law required that they be eaten inside the sacred area rather than carried home, which is why dedicated dining chambers were part of any working temple. The requirement to change out of priestly garments before entering the public court reflects a belief that holiness was contagious in a dangerous way, so contact had to be controlled in both directions. The wall described at the end explicitly separates the holy from the common, which addresses one of Ezekiel's earlier complaints, that the old temple had let royal buildings and ordinary life crowd right up against sacred ground.
Then he led me out into the toward the north, and brought me to the that faced the open area and the building to the north.
Along the north side, the length measured a hundred with a width of fifty
Opposite the twenty cubits of the and opposite the pavement of the outer faced on three levels.
In front of the chambers ran a ten cubits wide on the inner side, a passage one cubit wide, with their doors facing north.
Now the upper chambers were narrower, because the galleries took more space from them than from the lower and middle levels of the building.
For they were on three levels, and they had no like the of the courts. That is why the upper level was set back from the ground and middle levels.
There was an outer wall running parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, in front of the chambers. It extended fifty cubits.
For the row of chambers along the outer court was fifty cubits long, while those facing the measured a hundred cubits.
Below these chambers was an entrance on the east side, for those coming in from the outer court.
Along the south side, facing the open area and the building, there were also chambers —
with a walkway in front of them. They were identical in design to the chambers on the north side — the same length, the same width, the same exits, the same layout, and the same doors.
Like the doors of the chambers that faced south, there was a door at the head of the walkway — the walkway that ran directly along the corresponding wall — where one would enter from the east.
Then he said to me, "The north chambers and the south chambers that face the open area are the for where the who come near will eat the that to There they will store those the the and the because the place belongs to
Once the priests enter, they must not go out from the sacred place into the outer court without first leaving behind the they wore while serving, because those to They must put on other clothes before going near anything meant for the people.
When he had finished measuring the interior of the temple complex, he led me out through the that faced east and measured the area all around.
He measured the east side with the — five hundred rods by the all around.
He measured the north side — five hundred rods by the measuring rod all around.
He measured the south side — five hundred rods by the measuring rod.
He turned to the west side and measured — five hundred rods by the measuring rod.
He measured it on all four sides. It had a all around it, five hundred rods long and five hundred rods wide, to separate what to from what is for