Verse 1. The temple. This plan of a temple, which was here shewn to the prophet in a vision, partly had relation to the material temple, which was to be rebuilt: and partly, in a mystical sense, to the spiritual temple of God, the Church of Christ. Challoner.—The description seems grander than Solomon’s; and yet Zorobabel’s temple was meaner than his. Hence this prophecy, and those of Aggeus and Zacharias, cannot be understood of it, but of the Church. Saint Jerome Saint Augustine de Civ. Dei. xviii. 45. Worthington.
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Verse 3. Front, or door-posts. The temple was 20 cubits broad.
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Verse 5. Four. Herein it differed from Solomon’s chambers, which were in breadth five, six, and seven cubits, in the three stories, respectively. Calmet.
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Verse 6. One by another, or one over another: literally, side to side, or side upon side. Challoner.—The word side is here equivocal, like Hebrew tselá, sometimes denoting the boards, and at other times the apartments round the temple, except on the west, over against the sanctuary, which seems to be the case here. It is true, we shall not easily find sixty-six chambers. But the Hebrew and so forth have only thirty-three. Calmet.—Villalpand rightly translated anterides, (verse 5) but here he substitutes trabes, “beams or thick planks,” to make it agree with 3 Kennicott. 7:6 as if the same temple were meant. He also adopts the Vulg. bis.—Twice. Hebrew pehamim. Yet he afterwards places in his commentary, pedes, “thirty-three feet, that is twenty-two cubits,” though feet are never used at all as a measure in Scripture. Houbigant.
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Verse 7. Broader, as the wall was not so thick. Bible.—Midst. The two staircases were round in the hollow of the wall, ( Menochius.) at the eastern end of the chambers. Jos. See 3 Kennicott. Calmet.
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Verse 9. House. Because these side-chambers were in the very walls of the temple all around: or it may also be rendered, (more agreeably to the Heb.) so as to signify, that the thickness of the wall for the side-chambers within was the same as that of the wall without; that is, equally five cubits. Challoner.—Prot. “and that which was left, was the place of the side-chambers that were within.” Bible.—To manifest a greater respect for God, the apartments of the priests were twenty-five cubits from the temple, (verse 10) and divided by a wall, which Josephus describes as three cubits high. Ant. viii. 2. This wall was at the distance of five cubits from the temple. Calmet.
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Verse 11. Prayer, or “separated;” munnach, ( Bible.) the inner house, verse 9.
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Verse 13. Separate, different from that verse 9. ( Calmet. Hebrew gizra. Bible.) between the temple and the priests’ apartments, which it may also designate, ( Calmet.) unless it ( Bible.) mean the temple itself, which was divided from the rest, ( Menochius.) and set aside for prayer, and so forth Bible.
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Verse 15. Galleries; Ethecas, or as the more correct MSS. of S. Jerom read, Ecthetas, seems to be formed from ( Calmet.) Hebrew athikim, ( Bible.) which S. Jerom explains a balcony, portico, or gallery.
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Verse 16. About. Thus he intimates the inner temple, which was covered with boards.—Windows. The temple was hidden so far by the chambers; or rather he measured ( Calmet.) “the ground and up to the windows, which were” shut up with lattices, affording light over the doors ( Bible.) and apartments, fifteen cubits from the ground.
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Verse 18. Two. Before he describes them with four faces. But they varied, (Exodus 25:18) or the other two might be against the wall. Calmet.—The cherub signified “knowledge,” and the palm-tree victory, to shew that man must be instructed with divine knowledge, and so fight for the victory. The face of man implied that Christ would suffer, and that of a lion announced that he would overcome all his enemies. Worthington.
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Verse 21. The threshold was four-square. That is, the gate of the temple was four-square, and so placed as to answer the gate of the sanctuary within. Challoner.—It was not an arch, though not a perfect square. 3 Kennicott. 6:34.
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Verse 22. Table, or altar of incense, larger than that of Moses. Exodus 30:1.
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Verse 23. Sanctuary. One folding door opened into it, the other into the temple.
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Verse 24. Other. It was not perhaps necessary to open the large door.
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Verse 26. Sides, (humerulis) or pilasters. Hebrew “on the shoulder of the porch, and on the sides of the house, and beams.” Calmet.
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A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.