Ezekiel 40:18

And the pavement by the side of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) Over against the length of the gates.—The width of the pavement was the same as the projection of the gateways into the court, i.e., 44 cubits (50 cubits, less the thickness of the wall).

Lower pavement.—In contradistinction to the pavement of the inner court, which was upon a higher level.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

40:1-49 The Vision of the Temple. - Here is a vision, beginning at ch. 40, and continued to the end of the book, ch. 48, which is justly looked upon to be one of the most difficult portions in all the book of God. When we despair to be satisfied as to any difficulty we meet with, let us bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but that things necessary are plain enough; and let us wait till God shall reveal even this unto us. This chapter describes two outward courts of the temple. Whether the personage here mentioned was the Son of God, or a created angel, is not clear. But Christ is both our Altar and our Sacrifice, to whom we must look with faith in all approaches to God; and he is Salvation in the midst of the earth, Ps 74:12, to be looked unto from all quarters.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The "outward" or outer "court" (o, Plan II) corresponds to what was in Herod's temple the court of Women, into which all Jews, but not Gentiles were admitted.

Ezekiel 40:17

Chambers - (I) See Jeremiah 35:2.

A pavement - (H) Of mosaic work 2 Chronicles 7:3; Esther 1:6 which formed a border of forty-four cubits. On each side of the court in which there were gates, i. e., on east, north, and south. It was called the "lower pavement" to distinguish it from the pavement of the inner court; the outer court being lower than the inner Ezekiel 40:31.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. The higher pavement was level with the entrance of the gates, the lower was on either side of the raised pavement thus formed. Whereas Solomon's temple had an outer court open to alterations and even idolatrous innovations (2Ki 23:11, 12; 1Ch 20:5), in this there was to be no room for human corruptions. Its compass was exactly defined, one hundred cubits; and the fine pavement implied it was to be trodden only by clean feet (compare Isa 35:8).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The pavement; that mentioned Ezekiel 40:17.

By the side of the gates; that part which lay on each side of the gate, and from thence spread itself towards the chambers, leaving a space of pavement of equal breadth with the porch, or gate in the middle.

The length of the gates: this length was measured fifty cubits, Ezekiel 40:15, from the outside of the first wall to the outside of the inmost wall of the gate and porch, from which, on a pavement somewhat raised, as in other stately walks, this went on to the next gate of the next court.

The lower pavement; the side pavement was laid somewhat lower than this middle pavement, not only for state, but for the more convenient keeping it clean; so the middle pavement rose with a little convex surface, and the edges sunk with a little declivity.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the pavement by the sides of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement. That is, this pavement, which went along by every gate, and answered the length of them, and what appertained to them, east, west, north, and south, was either lower than the pavement in the inward court, adjoining to this, to which there was an ascent by steps; or the middle part of this pavement rose up in a convex form, and on all sides there was a declivity; by which means all filth was washed away, and it was kept clean, and always fit to walk on. This distinction of a higher and lower pavement, whether on one account or another, may point out; the one, the believer's walk by faith on Christ; and the other, his walk in the ordinances of Christ, and in all becoming conversation.

Geneva Study Bible

And the pavement by the side of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. Render: and the pavement was by the side of the gates, along the length of the gates, to wit, the lower pavement. The pavement is called “lower” because the outer court lay below the level of the inner (Ezekiel 40:34); it extended into the court along the whole length of the gateway, and was therefore (the outer wall being subtracted) 44 cubits broad.



Ezekiel 40:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Outer Court Described and Measured

Ezekiel 40:17. And he led me into the outer court, and behold there were cells and pavement made round the court; thirty cells on the pavement. Ezekiel 40:18. And the pavement was by the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates, (namely) the lower pavement. Ezekiel 40:19. And he measured the breadth from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner court, about a hundred cubits on the east side and on the north side. - Ezekiel having been led through the eastern gate into the outer court, was able to survey it, not on the eastern side only, but also on the northern and southern sides; and there he perceived cells and רצפּה, pavimentum, mosaic pavement, or a floor paved with stones laid in mosaic form (2 Chronicles 7:3; Esther 1:6), made round the court; that is to say, according to the more precise description in v. 18, on both sides of the gate-buildings, of a breadth corresponding to their length, running along the inner side of the wall of the court, and consequently not covering the floor of the court in all its extent, but simply running along the inner side of the surrounding wall as a strip of about fifty cubits broad, and that not uniformly on all four sides, but simply on the eastern, southern, and northern sides, and at the north-west and south-west corners of the western side, so far, namely, as the outer court surrounded the inner court and temple (see Plate I b b b); for on the western side the intervening space from the inner court and temple-house to the surrounding wall of the outer court was filled by a special building of the separate place. It is with this limitation that we have to take סביב סביב. fעשׂוּy may belong either to לשׁכות ורצפּה or merely to רצפּה, so far as grammatical considerations are concerned; for in either case there would be an irregularity in the gender, and the participle is put in the singular as a neuter. If we look fairly at the fact itself, not one of the reasons assigned by Kliefoth, for taking fעשׂוּy as referring to רצפּה only, is applicable throughout. If the pavement ran round by the side of the gate-building on three sides of the court, and the cells were by or upon the pavement, they may have stood on three sides of the court without our being forced to assume, or even warranted in assuming, that they must of necessity have filled up the whole length on every side from the shoulder of the gate-building to the corner, or rather to the space that was set apart in every corner, according to Ezekiel 46:21-24, for the cooking of the sacrificial meals of the people. We therefore prefer to take עשׂוּי as referring to the cells and the pavement; because this answers better than the other, both to the construction and to the fact. In Ezekiel 40:18 the pavement is said to have been by the shoulder of the gates. השּׁערים is in the plural, because Ezekiel had probably also in his mind the two gates which are not described till afterwards. כּתף, the shoulder of the agate-buildings regarded as a body, is the space on either side of the gate-building along the wall, with the two angles formed by the longer side of the gate-buildings and the line of the surrounding wall. This is more precisely defined by 'לעמּת ארך השׁ, alongside of the length of the gates, i.e., running parallel with it (cf. 2 Samuel 16:13), or stretching out on both sides with a breadth corresponding to the length of the gate-buildings. The gates were fifty cubits long, or, deducting the thickness of the outer wall, they projected into the court to the distance of forty-four cubits. Consequently the pavement ran along the inner sides of the surrounding wall with a breadth of forty-four cubits. This pavement is called the lower pavement, in distinction from the pavement or floor of the inner court, which was on a higher elevation.

All that is said concerning the לשׁכות is, that there were thirty of them, and that they were אל הרצפּה (see Plate I C). The dispute whether אל signifies by or upon the pavement has no bearing upon the fact itself. As Ezekiel frequently uses אל for על, and vice vers, the rendering upon can be defended; but it cannot be established, as Hitzig supposes, by referring to 2 Kings 16:17. If we retain the literal meaning of אל, at or against, we cannot picture to ourselves the position of the cells as projecting from the inner edge of the pavement into the unpaved portion of the court; for in that case, to a person crossing the court, they would have stood in front of (לפני) the pavement rather than against the pavement. The prep. אל, against, rather suggests the fact that the cells were built near the surrounding wall, so that the pavement ran along the front of them, which faced the inner court in an unbroken line. In this case it made no difference to the view whether the cells were erected upon the pavement, or the space occupied by the cells was left unpaved, and the pavement simply joined the lower edge of the walls of the cells all round. The text contains no account of the manner in which they were distributed on the three sides of the court. But it is obvious from the use of the plural לשׁכות, that the reference is not to thirty entire buildings, but simply to thirty rooms, as לשׁכּה does not signify a building consisting of several rooms, but always a single room or cell in a building. Thus in 1 Samuel 9:22 it stands for a room appointed for holding the sacrificial meals, and that by no means a small room, but one which could accommodate about thirty persons. In Jeremiah 36:12 it is applied to a room in the king's palace, used as the chancery. Elsewhere לשׁכּה is the term constantly employed for the rooms in the court-buildings and side-buildings of the temple, which served partly as a residence for the officiating priests and Levites, and partly for the storing of the temple dues collected in the form of tithes, fruits, and money (vid., 2 Kings 23:11; Jeremiah 35:4; Jeremiah 36:10; 1 Chronicles 9:26; Nehemiah 10:38 -40). Consequently we must not think of thirty separate buildings, but have to distribute the thirty cells on the three sides of the court in such a manner that there would be ten on each side, and for the sake of symmetry five in every building, standing both right and left between the gate-building and the corner kitchens. - In Ezekiel 40:19 the size or compass of the outer court is determined. The breadth from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner court was 100 cubits. השּׁער התּחתּונה, the gate of the lower court, i.e., the outer gate, which was lower than the inner. התּחתּונה is not an adjective agreeing with שׁער, for apart from Isaiah 14:31 שׁער is never construed as a feminine; but it is used as a substantive for חצר התּחתּונה, the lower court, see the comm. on Ezekiel 8:3. מלפני denotes the point from which the measuring started, and לפני החצר the direction in which it proceeded, including also the terminus: "to before the inner court," equivalent to "up to the front of the inner court," The terminal point is more precisely defined by מחוּץ, from without, which Hitzig proposes to erase as needless and unusual, but without any reason. For, inasmuch as the gateways of the inner court were built into the outer court, as is evident from what follows, מחוּץ simply affirms that the measuring only extended to the point where the inner court commenced within the outer, namely, to the front of the porch of the gate, not to the boundary wall of the inner court, as this wall stood at a greater distance from the porch of the outer court-gate by the whole length of the court-gate, that is to say, as much as fifty cubits. From this more precise definition of the terminal point it follows still further, that the starting-point was not the boundary-wall, but the porch of the gate of the outer court; in other words, that the hundred cubits measured by the man did not include the fifty cubits' length of the gate-building, but this is expressly excluded. This is placed beyond all doubt by Ezekiel 40:23 and Ezekiel 40:27, where the distance of the inner court-gate from the gate (of the outer court) is said to have been a hundred cubits. - The closing words הקּדים have been very properly separated by the Masoretes from what precedes, by means of the Athnach, for they are not to be taken in close connection with ויּמד; nor are they to be rendered, "he measured...toward the east and toward the north" for this would be at variance with the statement, "to the front of the inner court." They are rather meant to supply a further appositional definition to the whole of the preceding clause: "he measured from...a hundred cubits," relating to the east side and the north side of the court, and affirm that the measuring took place from gate to gate both on the eastern and on the northern side; in other words, that the measure given, a hundred cubits, applied to the eastern side as well as the northern; and thus they prepare the way for the description of the north gate, which follows from Ezekiel 40:20 onwards.