Ezekiel 43:15

Eze 43:15 So the altar [shall be] four cubits; and from the altar and upward [shall be] four horns.

Ver. 15. So the altar.] Heb., Hareel, the hill of God, or the only place of sacrifices.

And from the altar.] Ariel, the lion of God; so called because the fire of this altar devoured the sacrifices, as a lion doth the prey. See Isa 29:16.

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.

altar--Hebrew, Harel, that is, "mount of God"; denoting the high security to be imparted by it to the restored Israel. It was a high place, but a high place of God, not of idols.

from the altar--literally, "the lion of God," Ariel (in Isa 29:1, "Ariel" is applied to Jerusalem). MENOCHIUS supposes that on it four animals were carved; the lion perhaps was the uppermost, whence the horns were made to issue. GESENIUS regards the two words as expressing the "hearth" or fireplace of the altar.

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

Verse 15. So the altar] ההראל haharel, "the mount of God."

And from the altar] ומהאראיל umihaariel, "and from the lion of God." Perhaps the first was a name given to the altar when elevated to the honour of God, and on which the victims were offered to him, and the second, the lion of God, may mean the hearth, which might have been thus called, because it devoured and consumed the burnt-offerings, as a lion does his prey. See on Isa 29:1.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. So the altar] And the altar, lit. the hearth of God (Isa_29:1). The word here is spelled harel (mount of God?), and in the next clause ariel (hearth of God). LXX. spells both alike, and probably they do not differ. The form ariel is also Moabite (Mesha inscr. l. 12, 17). From the second ledge up to the altar-hearth or platform was a distance of four cubits, and from the altar area rose four horns, one at each corner. LXX. for “four” reads “a cubit”—as the height of the horns.

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.

So the altar shall be four cubits,.... That is, from the greater settle; so that in the whole it was ten cubits high, the same with Solomon's, Ch2 4:1 some make this to be eleven cubits high, one higher than Solomon's; it is here called "Harel", the mountain of God, because it looked like a mountain in the court, for its size: it was on a mountain our Lord was offered up a sacrifice for the sins of his people; and which was far superior to all other sacrifices, and for more persons than those sacrifices offered up on the altar of burnt offerings.

And from the altar and upward shall be four horns; or, "from Ariel" (x); which was the focus or hearth where the wood was laid, and the fire kindled, called "Ariel"; which some render the lion of God, because, as the Jewish Rabbins (y) say, the fire of the altar lay upon it in the form of a lion; or rather, because like a lion it devoured the sacrifices: this name of the altar agrees well with Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah; who was strong to bear the sins of men, and the wrath of God for them, whereby they are no more; though it rather signifies the fire of God, which consumed the sacrifice, and denoted the wrath of God on Christ, and also the divine acceptance of his sacrifice: now from hence and upwards were four horns at the four corners of the altar; which denote the strength of Christ, to save all that come unto God by him, and his being a refuge to them that by faith lay hold upon him; and that he is accessible to persons that come from all parts, from the four corners of the earth.

(x) "ab Hareil", Starckius. (y) Misn. Middot, c. 4. sect. 7.

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

The altar ... the altar - See the margin. The two words may denote, the first a square block (N) placed upon the upper settle, the second a slab (O), the thickness of which is not given, from which rose four horns Exo 27:2; and to which it seems probable that the victims of sacrifice were at times bound. Psa 118:27. Why the names Harel and Ariel were used must be conjectural. Mount of God may have been a title naturally given to the place of sacrifice as elsewhere to the place of worship Eze 40:2; Lion of God was a term used for the Holy City itself Isa 29:1.

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

The ariel. That is, the altar itself, or rather the highest part of it, upon which the burnt-offerings were laid. In the Hebrew it is harel, that is, the mountain of God; but in the following verse haariel, that is, the lion of God; a figure, from its consuming, and as it were devouring the sacrifices as a lion devours its prey. (Challoner) --- Fire descending sometimes from heaven. (St. Jerome) (Worthington) --- It also appeared like a little mountain in the court. See Isaias xxix. 1. The altar was probably made of brass, like Solomon’s. Josephus and Philo say that rough stones were used after the captivity: but it seems little attention was paid to the dimensions of the temple, &c., given by Ezechiel. (Calmet) --- Yet the prophets were present to see the laws of God executed, and never complain of their infringement in these particulars, which were attended with no great difficulty, chap. xl. 1. (Haydock) --- It is certain the Jews never thought themselves bound to make their altars of a determinate size.

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).

The altar: this upper part is now called the altar, though sometimes this name is given to the whole, as Eze 43:13.

Four cubits in height, for it was of much greater wideness, as in the next verse.

From the altar; from the top of the altar, at each corner shall be a horn, four in all.

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

Noteworthy is the word altar, which in this verse renders two distinct Hebrew terms, laerhand laeyria which Gesenius, Hitzig, Ewald, Smend, and others, after the LXX (to ajrihl), identify as synonymous, and translate by "hearth." But the first can only signify "the mount of God," while the latter may mean either "lion of God" or "hearth of God." Kliefoth, deriving the latter from hr; a; "to consume," and kyia, "a ram," prefers as its import "ram-devourer;" Hengstenberg, resolving into lyia"a ram," and yira, "a lion," proposes as its equivalent "ram-lion." i.e. "the lion that consumes the rams for God a ten-doting closely allied to that of Kliefoth. In any case, the terms allude to parts of the altar: the second, Ariel (equivalent to the hearth on which God"s fire burns), according to Keil, Kliefoth, and the best expositors, meaning the flat surface of the altar; and the first, Harel (conveying the ideas of elevation and sanctity), the base on which it rested. The height of this base was four cubits, while from the hearth projected four horns, as in the altars of the Mosaic tabernacle (Exo_27:2 Exo_38:2; Lev_4:7, 18 8:15) and Solomonic temple. (Psa_118:27) If the length of these be set down, as Kliefoth suggests, at three cubits, then the whole height of the altar will be in cubits one for the ground bottom, two for the lower settle, four for the upper, four for the bases of the hearth, with three for the horns, equal to fourteen in all; or, omitting the horns, of which the length is not given, and the altar base, which is distinguished from the altar, ten cubits in all for the altar proper. As to the symbolic import of the "horns," Kurtz, after Hofmaun and Kliefoth, finds this in the idea of elevation, the "horns," as the highest point in the altar, bringing the blood put upon them nearer to God than the sides did the blood sprinkled on them (see "Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament," Keil, after Bahr, in the notions of strength, beauty, and blessing, the horns of an animal being the points in which its power, grace, and fullness of life are concentrated, and therefore fitting emblems of those points in the altar in which appears "its significance as a place of the revelation of Divine might and strength, of Divine salvation and blessing" ("Biblische Archaologie,"

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

Four cubits - In height. From the altar - From the top of the altar.

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

The hearth

the place where sacrifices were either cooked or burnt up with fire

four cubits ... twelve cubits ... fourteen cubits ... a half cubit ... a cubit

Each "long cubit" was about 54 centimeters. You may choose not to include this information if you give modern measurements instead of "cubits" as the UDB does. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 40:5. AT: "about 2.2 meters ... about 6.5 meters ... about 7.6 meters ... about 27 centimeters ... about 54 centimeters" (See: Biblical Distance)

horns

The horns were the parts of the altar at the four corners of the altar that stuck up above the rest of the altar.

with its steps facing east

"with steps on the east side of the altar" or "and the altar's steps are on its east side"

translationWords

altar

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 the altar hearth The height of the top of the altar, from the circuit and above; and in the [Second] Temple it was only three [cubits]. Jonathan, too, renders: And the altar was four cubits.

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.