For verses 1-3 the Good News Translation heading is “The Use of the East Gate.” If translators prefer to follow the subsection breaks in Good News Translation, other possible titles are “Those who are allowed to use the east gate” and “Rules about the east gate.”

Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east: The pronoun he refers to Ezekiel’s angelic guide (see 40.3). Brought me back is literally “caused me to return.” The outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east refers to the east gateway of the Temple’s inner courtyard, where Ezekiel was when he saw the glory of the LORD come back into the Temple (43.1). In 43.5 God’s spirit had taken him into the inner courtyard to see the glory of the LORD in the Temple, and the phrase brought me back implies that he now returned to the same gate where he was before. The outer gate of the sanctuary does not refer to the doors of the Temple itself, but to the gateway into the inner courtyard around the Temple. The outer gate was the outer door of the gateway, the one that opened into the outer courtyard. Ezekiel was probably standing in the outer courtyard outside the east gateway to the inner courtyard. Contemporary English Version provides a helpful model for this clause, saying “The man took me back to the outer courtyard, near the east gate of the temple area.” Some translations follow a different interpretation and state that Ezekiel went back to “the east gateway in the outer wall of the Temple area” (New Living Translation; similarly New Century Version, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible), but we do not recommend this view.

And it was shut means the gateway was “closed” (Good News Translation), so that no one could go through it. This clause does not mean that the doors of the gateway were closed, because later we read that the leader of Israel was allowed to enter the gateway’s porch, but not go through the gateway to the inner courtyard (see Ezek 44.3 and 46.1-8). Ezekiel does not say how he knew it was shut; he never says that he saw that the doors were closed.

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 .