Ezekiel 43:16

Eze 43:16 And the altar [shall be] twelve [cubits] long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof.

Ver. 16. Square in the four squares thereof.] Christ, the Christian altar, is complete, firm, and fixed.

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.

square in the four squares--square on the four sides of its squares [FAIRBAIRN].

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

16. The preceding measurements have referred to height. Those referring to breadth or area are now given. The altar-hearth or platform was 12 cubits square.

four squares thereof] four sides thereof. So Eze_43:17.

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.

And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad,.... The length of it, from east to west, was twelve cubits; and the breadth, from north to south, was the same; so that it was a proper foursquare, as follows: Christ the altar, or the doctrine of his sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of men, is the doctrine of the twelve apostles of Christ, and embraced by the twelve times twelve, the 144,000 that belong unto him:

square in the four squares thereof; as the altar in the tabernacle, and Solomon's temple, were, Exo 27:1, denoting the largeness of Christ's sacrifice, the perfection of it, and its stability and permanency, to take away the sin, of his people.

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

altar - Ariel was to be an exact square on all sides. Compare Exo 27:1; Rev 21:16.

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

The altar; that which in the 15th verse is precisely determined to be the altar, the uppermost and least settle.

Twelve cubits long, twelve broad; all exact square, by which we may know the dimensions of the other two; the first of the two was wider by two cubits, and longer by two cubits, than the highest, and the lowest was as much greater and larger than the middlemost. The highest twelve cubits square, the middle fourteen cubits square, and the lowest sixteen cubits square.

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

Vers. 16, 17 The measurements that now begin concern the breadth of the altar, and proceed from above downwards. First the altar, or, hearth of God (Hebrew, ariel) was twelve cubits long and twelve broad, i.e. was square in the four squares (or, sides) thereof, or a perfect square. (Exo_27:1; Rev_21:16) Next the settle, or, enclosure (Hebrew, hrz) of ver. 14, was fourteen cubits long, and fourteen broad in the four squares (or, sides) thereof; the fourteen being made up of the twelve cubits of the altar-hearth"s side with one cubit of ledge from the settle all round. The only question is to which "settle," the upper or the under, reference is made. Some expositors, identifying the greater Azarah with the Harel, i.e. the "upper settle," with "the mount of God" or the base of the hearth, make the altar height only seven cubits from the ground to the hearth. The general belief, however, is that they cannot be so identified. Among interpreters who distinguish them, Kliefoth, with whom Smend agrees, holds the "settle" in this verse to be the harel, or "mount of God," which extended (Smend says with a hek. or "gutter") one cubit on each side beyond the ariel, or "hearth of God," so that the "mount of God," on which the" hearth of God" rested, was fourteen cubits square. Then, assuming a similar extension of one cubit at each stage in the greater azarah, the lesser azarah, and the hek, or ground bottom he finds the surface of the greater azarah to be sixteen, of the lesser azarah eighteen, and of the ground bottom twenty cubits square. Keil, with whom Schroder and Currey agree, objects to this as involving too much of arbitrary assumption, and takes the" settle" of this verse to mean the lower azarah; so that no additional measurements are required beyond those given in the text. If the square surface of the greater azarah be considered as having been the same as that of the harel, so that their sides were continuous, then, as the "ground bottom" extended one cubit on each side beyond the lower azarsh, the altar at its base was a square of sixteen cubits. Comparing now these measurements with those of the altar of burnt offering in the tabernacle and the temple, one finds that the former was only five cubits square and three cubits high, (Exo_27:1) while the latter was twenty cubits broad, but only ten cubits high, (2Ch_4:1) which awakes the suspicion that the different views above noted have been insensibly influenced by a desire on the part of their authors to make them harmonize with the measurements of the temple. But there does not appear sufficient reason why the measurements of Ezekiel"s altar should have agreed with those of Solomon"s rather than with those of Moses", The border (or, parapet) of half a cubit which ran round the ledge, or bottom, of a cubit, at the foot of the lower azarah was clearly designed, not for the protection of the priest officiating, but for ornament. The stairs (or, steps ), mention of which closes the description, mark a departure, not from the pattern of the Solomonic temple, in which the altar must have had steps (see Keil"s "Biblische Archaologie," p. 141), but from the pattern of the tabernacle, in which altar-steps were disallowed (Exo_20:26) and did not exist. (Exo_38:1-7) But if, as Jewish tradition asserts, the pest-exilic altar had no steps as Ezekiel"s had, having been reached by an inclined plane, because in the so-called book of the covenant steps were forbidden, how does this harmonize with the theory that Ezekiel"s vision temple was designed as a model for the post-exilic temple? And why, if the priest-code was the composition of a writer who worked in the spirit and on the lines of Ezekiel, should it have omitted to assign steps to the tabernacle altar?

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

And the altar hearth shall be twelve [cubits in] length The [entire] place for the woodpile was twenty-four [cubits] by twenty-four [cubits] and this [section] was twelve by twelve.

to [each of] its four sides [i.e.,] he measured twelve [cubits] from its center to every side. Behold [it was] 24 [cubits] by 24 [cubits]. So is it clear from Zebahim (61b), and so have we learned in Tractate Middoth (3:1): The altar [of the second Temple] was 32 by 32 [cubits]. It extended upward a cubit and receded a cubitforming the baseleaving it 30 by 30 [cubits]. It extended upward five [cubits] and receded a cubitthis is the circuitleaving 28 by 28 [cubits]. The area for the horns was a cubit here and a cubit there, leaving 26 by 26 [cubits]. The area for the priests to walk was a cubit here and a cubit there, leaving 24 by 24 [cubits]the place for the woodpiles.

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.