And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area: The first thing Ezekiel saw was the wall surrounding the Temple area. This wall surrounded the whole area of the Temple, not just the Temple building itself. Ezekiel does not say what the wall was made of, but the measurements indicate that it was a substantial wall. It was probably made of stone. For behold see Ezek 40.3. The Hebrew word for temple area is literally “house” (King James Version). Here it may be rendered “area of Yahweh’s house” (compare 8.14).
And the length of the measuring reed in the man’s hand was six long cubits, each being a cubit and a handbreadth in length: This clause explains the measuring system used by the man showing Ezekiel the Temple area. For measuring reed, see Ezek 40.3. The man’s measuring rod was six long cubits long, which is equivalent to about 3.12 meters (10.25 feet) long (see the introductory comments on chapters 40–48 to see how we calculated this). In round terms the length of the measuring rod was about 3 meters (10 feet). We prefer round terms to avoid including fractions, which can become cumbersome and clumsy.
So he measured the thickness of the wall, one reed; and the height, one reed: When the man measured the wall around the Temple compound, Ezekiel saw that it was the length of one reed thick and one reed high, that is, about 3 meters (10 feet) thick and 3 meters (10 feet) high. The wall is the first item of many in chapters 40–42 that the man measured with the measuring stick.
A model for this verse is:
• I saw that there was a wall around the whole area where the Temple was. Now the measuring stick the man had in his hand was about three meters long. He measured that wall with the stick and it was three meters high and three meters thick.
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 .