Ezekiel 41:23

And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 41:23-25. And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors — Each of them had a double, or folding-door. And the doors had two leaves apiece — The two doors being exceedingly large, that of the outward sanctuary ten cubits broad, and that of the inner six, (see Ezekiel 41:2-3,) and of a height proportionable; each of them had two leaves, that they might be more easily opened, and each leaf had a wicket in it. And there were made on them, &c., cherubims and palm-trees — Namely, on the doors both of the outward and inward sanctuary. And there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without — There was a wainscot work of boards fastened to the end of the great beams, which came out beyond the wall of the porch. These were laid so as to make a frieze-work over the entrance of the eastern porch.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

41:1-26 After the prophet had observed the courts, he was brought to the temple. If we attend to instructions in the plainer parts of religion, and profit by them, we shall be led further into an acquaintance with the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal reference.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. table … before the Lord—the altar of incense (Eze 44:16). At it, not at the table of showbread, the priests daily ministered. It stood in front of the veil, and is therefore said to be "before the Lord." It is called a table, as being that at which the Lord will take delight in His people, as at a feast. Hence its dimensions are larger than that of old—three cubits high, two broad, instead of two and one.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Each had one door, so there were two doors, and they were folding doors, or two-leaved doors.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors. Or the house of propitiatory, as the Targum; that is, the most holy place; not two doors apiece, but each had one door, which made two; the door of the temple was ten cubits broad, and the door of the most holy place six cubits, Ezekiel 41:2 showing the door is wider, and more enter into the outward visible church, or less perfect state, even some bad, as well as good, than the door of the Jerusalem church state, or heavenly glory, into which fewer enter.

Geneva Study Bible

And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23. two doors] i.e. each had a double or two-leaved door.

23–26. The doors of the holy place and the holiest.

The temple or holy place and the holiest had each a two-leaved door; and each of the leaves was again divided into two leaves.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 23-26. - The doors of the temple and of the sanctuary form the next subject for description. Again as in the Solomonic edifice (1 Kings 6:31, etc.), the holy place and the holy of holies had two doors; i.e. each had one door composed of two turning (or, folding) leaves, ornamented, like the walls of the house, with carvings of cherubim and palms. On the face of the porch without were thick planks, by which Ewald understands "foliage" or "leafwork," but which, with greater likelihood, were either as Keil renders, "moldings of wood" for the threshold; or "cornicings," as Kliefoth translates; if not, as Smend suggests, projecting beams to afford shelter to one standing in the porch; or as Hengstenberg and Plumptre say, "steps." The last verse states that narrow or closed (as in ver. 16) windows admitted light into the porch, while carvings of palm trees adorned its walls on each side. The cherubic figures, Plumptre hints, were absent, because the porch was a place of less sanctity than the temple. Hengstenberg notes that the words, "thick planks," "thick beams," or "steps," as he translates, fitly close this description, "as placing the extreme east over against the extreme west with which it began."



Ezekiel 41:23

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Altar of Burnt-Offering in the holy place (see Plate III n). "The abrupt style of writing is still continued." The altar wood for the altar was of wood three cubits high; its length, i.e., the expanse of the wall from one corner to the other, was two cubits; the breadth (thickness), which is not expressly mentioned, was the same, because the square form is presupposed from the shape of this altar in the tabernacle and Solomon's temple. Under the term מקצעותיו, its corner-pieces, the horns projecting at the corners, or the horn-shaped points, are probably included, as the simple mention of the corners appears superfluous, and the horns, which were symbolically significant features in the altar, would certainly not have been wanting. There is something strange in the occurrence of וארכוּ before and along with קירות, as the length is already included in the walls, and it would not be appropriately said of the length that it was of wood. ארכוּ is therefore certainly a copyist's error for אדנוּ, ἡ βάσις αὐτοῦ (lxx), its stand or pedestal. The angel describes this altar as the "table which stands before Jehovah" - in perfect harmony with the epithet already applied to the sacrifices in the Pentateuch, the "bread (לחם) of God," though not "because the altar table was intended to combine the old table of shewbread and the altar of incense" (Bttcher). The table of shewbread is not mentioned any more than the candlestick and other portions of the temple furniture. - The altar of burnt-offering stood before Jehovah, i.e., before the entrance into the holy of holies. This leads in Ezekiel 41:23. to the notice of the doors of the sanctuary, the character of which is also described as simply openings (פּתח), since the doorway had been mentioned before. delet דּלת signifies a moveable door, and the plural דּלתות, doors, whether they consist of one leaf or two, i.e., whether they are single or folding doors. Here the דּלתות in Ezekiel 41:23 and Ezekiel 41:24 (לדלתות) are folding doors; on the other hand, the first דּלתות in Ezekiel 41:24 and דּלת ibid. are used for the wings of the door, and מוּסבּות for the swinging portions (leaves) of the separate wings. The meaning is this: the holy place (היכל) and the holy of holies (הקּדשׁ) had two folding doors (i.e., each of these rooms had one). These doors had two wings, and each of these wings, in the one door and in the other, had two reversible door-leaves, so that when going in and out there was no necessity to throw open on every occasion the whole of the wing, which was at least three or four cubits broad. There is no foundation for the objection raised by Kliefoth to the interpretation of להיכל ולקּדשׁ as signifying the holy place and the holy of holies; since he cannot deny that the two words are so used, היכל in 1 Kings 6:5, 1 Kings 6:17, 1 Kings 6:31, 1 Kings 6:33, and קדשׁ in Leviticus 16:2-3, etc. And the artificial explanation, "to the temple space, and indeed to the holy place," not only passes without notice the agreement between our verses and 1 Kings 6:31-34, but gains nothing further than a side door, which does violence to the dignity of the sanctuary, a passage from the side chambers into the holy place, with which Bttcher has presented Solomon's temple. - These doors were ornamented, like the walls, with figures of cherubim and palms. - Other remarks are added in vv. 25b and 26 concerning the porch in front of the holy place. The first is, that on the front of the porch outside there was עב אץ. The only other passage in which the word עב occurs in a similar connection is 1 Kings 7:6, where it refers to wood-work in front of the Ulam of Solomon's porch of pillars; and it cannot be determined whether it signifies threshold, or moulding, or threshold-mouldings. On the shoulders, i.e., on the right and left side walls of the front porch, there were closed windows and figures of palms. The cherubim were omitted here. - The last words of Ezekiel 41:26 are very obscure. וצלעות הבּ may be taken in connection with the preceding clause, "and on the side-rooms of the temple," as there is no necessity to repeat the preposition in the case of closely continuous clauses (vid., Ewald, 351a); and the side-rooms not only must have had windows, but might also be ornamented with figures of palms. But if the words be taken in this sense, the עבּים must also signify something which presented, like the walls of the porch and of the side chambers, a considerable extent of surface capable of receiving a similar decoration; although nothing definite has hitherto been ascertained with regard to the meaning of the word, and our rendering "beams" makes no pretension to correctness.