And before the chambers was a passage inward, ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long: In front of the building’s rooms there was a passage, also called “hallway” (New Century Version) or “walkway” (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, Complete Jewish Bible). Inward presumably means that the passage led “inwards” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible), that is, “towards the inner court” (Revised English Bible; similarly Moffatt). Another suggestion is that the passage ran along the side of the building closest to the inner courtyard (so New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), If so, it was parallel to the inner courtyard, not leading into it. However, according to our plan, it is most likely that this walkway was on the northern side of the building, that is, the side further away from the inner courtyard. Some translations suggest that it was an internal corridor inside the building (so New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New American Standard Bible). Others simply omit the Hebrew phrase rendered inward (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, Complete Jewish Bible). Wherever this passage was, it was ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long, that is, 5 meters (17 feet) wide and 50 meters (168 feet) long. However, the rendering and a hundred cubits long involves a change to the Hebrew text, which actually reads “a way of one cubit” (Revised Standard Version footnote). Most translations make this change, so translators may follow any major translation that their readers may be familiar with, because there is so much uncertainty about what the text really means here.

And their doors were on the north: The doors of the rooms opened toward the north. New Living Translation says “and all the doors faced north.”

There is another interpretation of this verse which we believe makes better sense. We suggest that the passage actually refers to the balconies above the lower rooms of the building, so that there was an area big enough to walk on (that is, a deck, walkway or platform) in front of the second and third story rooms. These decks were on the inside of the building, that is, on the side facing the inner courtyard and the Temple, the south side of the building. So the profile of the building’s rooms was stepped in a complementary way to the side rooms of the Temple itself. If this understanding of passage is followed, then the second half of this verse describes what was on the north side of the building, namely, a path one cubit (that is, 0.5 meter [1.5 feet]) wide and the doors to the rooms. This interpretation requires no change to the Hebrew text and fits in with the best plan of the Temple that we can draw. A model for this interpretation of the verse is:

• Toward the inside [of the Temple’s inner courtyard], in front of the rooms there were decks [or, walkways] 5 meters wide. On the northern side was a walkway half a meter [wide], as well as the doors to the [block of] rooms.

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 .