And there were also four tables of hewn stone …: Next Ezekiel describes four tables of hewn stone, which means people had cut stone to make these tables. These tables were a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, that is, about 0.75 meter (30 inches) square, and one cubit high, that is, about 0.5 meter (18 inches) high. These tables were the places where the priests kept the instruments … with which the burnt offerings and the sacrifices were slaughtered. These instruments were mostly “butchering knives” (New Living Translation), as well as tongs, forks and other tools that the priests used when they killed the animals. The instruments were laid on the stone tables, probably in neat rows so that they were readily available to the priests when they needed them. The last half of verse 42 may be rendered “The priests laid out the instruments on these tables that they used to kill the animals for the burnt offerings and other sacrifices.”
The stone tables were where the priests prepared the burnt offerings (see verse 38), that is, those sacrifices in which the whole body of the animal was burned on the altar, and the other sacrifices, that is, those sacrifices and offerings in which some parts of the animals were burned, but most of the meat was either given to the priests or eaten by the worshipers. The burnt offerings and the sacrifices may be rendered “the animals that they would burn completely as an offering to God and the other animals that they would sacrifice to worship God.”
And hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened round about within: The next thing Ezekiel saw was hooks (so also New International Reader’s Version, New Living Translation, King James Version / New King James Version, English Standard Version, Complete Jewish Bible) or “pegs” (New Revised Standard Version). New International Version reflects the dual form of the Hebrew word for hooks by saying “double-pronged hooks,” and so does New American Standard Bible with “double hooks” and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project with “pairs of hooks.” These hooks were a handbreadth long, that is, about 75 millimeters (3 inches) long. They were fastened round about within, that is, they were attached to the walls “all around the inside of the room” (Complete Jewish Bible). Ezekiel does not say what these hooks were used for. Presumably they were to hang the knives and other butchering equipment on, when they were not being used. Or the priests may have hung the carcasses of the animals on them. However, this is less likely, because the end of verse 43 says that the meat of the sacrifices was laid on the tables.
Some translations change the Hebrew word for hooks slightly to read “ledges” (Good News Translation, New English Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt), “shelf/shelves” (Contemporary English Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “rims” (Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, Christian Community Bible). If this reading is followed, the first clause of verse 43 could refer to small “shelves” on the walls inside the room (so Contemporary English Version with “All around the walls of this room was a three inch shelf”), but it may also refer to “ledges” or “rims” on the stone tables themselves (so Good News Translation with “Ledges three inches wide ran around the edge of the tables”). A rim or ledge around the edge of the stone tables would stop the blood from the slaughtered animals flowing all over the place on to the ground.
Some scholars have suggested that the last half of verse 42 is misplaced and should come after the first sentence of verse 43 (so New American Bible with “The ledges, a handbreadth wide, were set on the inside all around, and on them were laid the instruments with which the holocausts were slaughtered”). This reading makes very good sense, because it implies that the instruments were kept on a shelf rather than on the tables, but there is no textual basis for it, so it is better not to change the order of the words in this way. In addition, if the ledges were in fact rims around the top of the tables to contain the blood of the slaughtered animals, the issue of where the most appropriate place to store the instruments does not even arise.
And on the tables the flesh of the offering was to be laid: The priests laid the meat of the sacrifices on the tables until they were ready to take it to the altar to burn it. The tables refers to the stone tables and other tables.
Where were the four stone tables? Ezekiel does not say exactly where they were, but they were probably close to some of the tables mentioned in verses 39-41. It is most likely that the animals were killed in the courtyard, then they were washed in the room next to the porch entrance, after which the meat was processed on the other tables outside and inside the porch until it was ready to be taken to the altar for the actual sacrifice. Therefore it is probable that the four stone tables were close to the four tables in the outer courtyard outside the porch. They were probably the tables on which the priests killed the animals, because their rims contained the blood and, being stone, they were easier to clean. That was also why the knives and other equipment were on them.
Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .