Ezekiel 41:3

Eze 41:3 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.

Ver. 3. Then went he inward.] Toward the Holy of holies.

And the door.] Which in the second temple was but a veil, and rent at Christ’s passion.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze_41:3

And the door, six cubits.

A wide way to God

The porch, at which was an ascent to the temple, had a gate belonging to it. This gate was six cubits. Now, some may object, and say, Since the way to God by these doors was so wide, why doth Christ say the way and gate is narrow? Answer. The straitness, the narrowness, must not be understood of the gate simply, but because of that cumber that some men carry with them, that pretend to be going to heaven. Six cubits! What is sixteen cubits to him who would enter in here with all the world on his back? (John Bunyan.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 41:3-4. Then went he inward — From the outward sanctuary he went forward toward the holy of holies, and measured the thickness of the partition wall to be two cubits, the entrance itself six cubits, and breadth of the wall, on each side of the door, seven cubits: see Eze 40:48; where the breadth of the gate is taken in the same sense. The breadth of the wall, thus computed, making up fourteen cubits, and being added to the breadth of the entrance itself, makes up twenty cubits; the breadth of the inner sanctuary, as it is set down in the next verse. So he measured the length thereof — Of the holy of holies twenty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits — It was an exact cube, of the same dimensions in length, breadth, and height: see 1Ki 6:20; before the temple — Or rather, as the words should be rendered, according to the temple; that is, the breadth of it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

41:3-4 The inner room was the Most Holy Place, the only square space within the Temple. It was reached by passing through three openings of decreasing width—access was increasingly restricted as one approached God. The entrance to the entry room was 24½ feet wide (40:48), and the doorway into the sanctuary was 17½ feet wide (41:2), but the entrance to the Most Holy Place was only 10½ feet wide. Ezekiel did not enter the Most Holy Place, but waited outside while the angel went in alone and measured it.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

inward--towards the most holy place.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(3) Went he inward.—There is here a noticeable change in the usual expression; in all other cases the angel had brought the prophet to the places to be measured, but as he is here entering the Holy of Holies, into which, under the law, Ezekiel might not enter, the angel goes in alone. The prophetic vision was not yet sufficiently clear to speak of the way into the true Holy of Holies as at length opened to all (Heb_9:8; Heb_9:12; Heb_10:19).

The door, six cubits.—Door is here used for doorway, the clear space between the posts. The “breadth of the door” itself is immediately said to be seven cubits, the door overlapping the posts in a shoulder half a cubit on each side.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3, 4. The most holy place, Fig. 2, C

3. The wall was 2 cubits thick, Fig. 2, ef.

breadth of the door, seven cubits] The actual door or entrance Fig. 2, ee, ff, was 6 cubits (preceding clause); the present statement, therefore, refers to the walls on either side of the entrance (N. to S.). LXX. read or rightly interpreted: and the entrance six cubits; and the side pieces of the entrance seven cubits on one side and seven cubits on the other. Fig. 2, fk. That is 6 + 7 + 7 = 20, breadth of the house as before (Eze_41:4). It is to be observed that while Ez., being a priest, enters the holy place along with the guide he refrains from entering the most holy place, which the angel alone enters.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then went he inward,.... Through the temple or holy place he had measured, to the holy of holies:

and measured the post of the door two cubits; this was the door into the most holy place; there was one in Solomon's temple; but in the second temple there was none; but two rails instead of it, which were rent at the death of Christ; and two cubits was the thickness of the post, on which this door was shut:

and the door six cubits, and the breadth of the door seven cubits; this door was a two leaved one; each leaf consisted of three cubits broad, and the post in the middle on which they shut one cubit broad, which made seven: though some think that the side walls of the door are meant, as in Eze 41:2, which were each seven cubits; and the breadth of the door, six cubits, made twenty cubits; which was the breadth of the most holy place, as answering to the breadth of the holy place, as in the next verse.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Went he inward - Toward the holy of holies. It is not said, “he brought me in,” but “he went in,” because the holy of holies was not to be entered even by a priest like Ezekiel, but only by the high priest once a year. So the “angel” enters and announces: the measurements.

The post of the door - On either side of the entrance was a pillar, the two together making up two cubits. The first measurement of the door was from “post to post,” six cubits; and the second measurement, the “breadth of the door,” was the breadth of the actual doors which shut off the holy of holies Eze 41:23, and which may have been so, hung that each of the “posts” projected half a cubit beyond the hinge of the door (which opened inwards), so as to secure the complete closure of the holy of holies.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Front, or door-posts. The temple was 20 cubits broad.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Inward; from the porch through the body of the temple, to the partition between the body of the temple and the holy of holies, or the oracle.

The post; either the thickness of that partition wall, or of the pilasters, which stood one on one side and the other on the other side of the door.

The door, or entrance out of the temple into the oracle. This door was

six cubits high, say some, but, more likely, it was six cubits broad, and an upright bar or post on which the leaves did meet, and which was of one cubit’s breadth, make out the seven cubits mentioned in the last words of this verse.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Then went he inward; i.e. into the most holy place. As this could not be entered even by a priest, but only by the high priest once (Exo_30:10; Lev_16:17; Heb_9:7) Ezekiel was left without, while "the man" announced to him in succession the measurements of the adytum, as these were taken. First, that of the post of the door (the singular for the plural, meaning the post on either side of the doorway) two cubits. Next, that of the door itself, which is given first as six and second as seven cubits. Kliefoth and Keil take the six as the height and the seven as the breadth of the entrance into the holy of holies; but as no other measurement of height occurs throughout this description, Dr. Currey regards "six" as the distance from "pest" to "post," and "seven" as the actual width of the door, each post projecting half a cubit beyond the hinge of the door, which opened inward. Ewald and Villalpandus, after the LXX, read, "the entrance six cubits and the flanks of the entrance seven cubits;" and these figures, 7 + 6 4- 7, certainly make up the breadth of the interior; only it is impossible to extract this meaning from the Hebrew without tampering with the text.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Went he - From the porch thro' the body of the temple, to the partition between the body of the temple and the holy of holies. Measured - Either the thickness of that partition wall, or of the pilasters, which stood one on the one side, and the other on the other side of the door. Of the door - Or entrance out of the temple into the oracle. And the door - This door was six cubits broad, and an upright bar or post on which the leaves met, and which was of one cubit's breadth, make out seven cubits.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

two cubits

about 1.1 meter (See: Biblical Distance)

cubits

Each long cubit was about 54 centimeters. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 40:05. (See: Biblical Distance)

six cubits

about 3.2 meters (See: Biblical Distance)

seven cubits

about 3.8 meters (See: Biblical Distance)

twenty cubits

about 11 meters (See: Biblical Distance)

translationWords

holy place

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

And he came to the interior to the wall that separated the Heichal from the Holy of Holies.

and measured the pillar of the entrance Its thickness was two cubits. This was not equal to the cubit for the partition.

and the entrance six cubits I cannot explain this except as a reference to its height.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.