This verse summarizes the information in verse 7 (see the comments there) about the small rooms on each side of the east gatehouse and gives some additional information.

And there were three side rooms on either side of the east gate: There were three small rooms on each side of the east gatehouse, making six in all.

The three were of the same size: All six rooms had the same size. According to verse 7, they were 3 meters (10 feet) by 3 meters (10 feet). This clause may be rendered “they were the same size as each other,” “each one was as big as the others,” or “all of the small rooms were 3 meters by 3 meters.”

And the jambs on either side were of the same size means the walls between the small rooms had the same thickness. According to verse 7, these walls were 2.5 meters (8 feet) thick. Good News Translation renders this clause as “and the walls between them were all of the same thickness,” and Contemporary English Version has “and the walls that separated them were the same thickness.”

If all of the information in this verse has been included in verse 7, it is acceptable not to repeat it here by combining the two verses. Good News Translation uses parentheses around this verse to indicate that it is not giving new information.

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 .

Then he said to me: Next Ezekiel’s angelic guide explained what the two buildings of rooms were used for.

The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the yard are the holy chambers: The north chambers and the south chambers refers to the blocks of rooms on each side of the Temple that Ezekiel has been describing in verses 1-12. The yard is the restricted area behind the Temple (see Ezek 42.1). The rooms were holy chambers, which may be translated “sacred rooms” (Contemporary English Version), “holy rooms” (New Century Version, Christian Community Bible, Complete Jewish Bible) “consecrated rooms” (Revised English Bible), or “rooms put aside for God.” Another way of rendering this phrase is “rooms of the sanctuary” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “sanctuary chambers” (New American Bible), where “sanctuary” refers to the Temple as a whole, not just its large main room or the Most Holy Place. For holy see the comments on 41.3-4.

Where the priests who approach the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings: These rooms were the places where the priests, that is, the people who conducted the sacred religious ceremonies (see 1.3), were to eat the most holy offerings. In the Jewish religious system of the Old Testament, people brought offerings of grain, birds, or animals to the Temple to ask God to forgive their sins or thank him for doing something for them. They burned some of these offerings on the altar, but sometimes the priests and the people were allowed to eat some of the food that the people brought. The book of Leviticus describes the rules for many of these offerings. The angelic guide describes the food that only the priests were allowed to eat as the most holy offerings, which may be rendered “the special offerings that people make to God.” He refers to the priests as those who approach the LORD, that is, they were allowed to “enter the LORD’s presence” (Good News Translation) in the Temple and “offer sacrifices to the LORD” (New Living Translation). They were the sons of Zadok who are mentioned in 40.45-46.

There they shall put the most holy offerings: The second function of these rooms was as storerooms where the priests put the offerings that the people brought before they offered them as sacrifices on the altar. The angelic guide gives the following list of the offerings:

1. The cereal offering (“grain offering” in New Revised Standard Version) was an offering of grain, not “meat” as King James Version says. It was mixed with incense and olive oil. This offering could be raw grain, finely ground grain, or grain made into cakes and then baked or fried. Instructions for this offering are found in Lev 2.1-16 and 6.14-23.
2. The sin offering was a sacrifice of a young bull, goat or sheep, or a pair of doves or pigeons (see the comments on 40.39).
3. The guilt offering was a sacrifice of a sheep or goat (see 40.39).

The Hebrew words for cereal offering, sin offering and guilt offering are singular, but they have a collective sense here, so they may be rendered “the offerings of grain [or, wheat] and flour, and the offerings of animals and birds that the people give so that God will forgive their sins and take away their guilt.”

For the place is holy: This verse ends by repeating that the rooms were holy. Since this has already been stated at the beginning of the verse, it is not necessary to say it again here (so Contemporary English Version).

A model for this verse is:

• Then he said to me, “The buildings of rooms on the north and south sides of the restricted area behind the Temple are rooms that are put aside for those who serve God. It is in them that the priests who go into God’s presence to offer sacrifices to God shall eat the special offerings that the people make to God. And there they will put [or, store] the offerings of grain and flour, and the offerings of animals and birds that the people give to God so that God will forgive their sins and take away their guilt. These buildings are for God’s service.

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 .

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 .

Of this a square plot of five hundred by five hundred cubits shall be for the sanctuary: The demonstrative pronoun this refers to the sacred area described in verse 1. Of this may be rendered “Inside this area” (similarly Good News Translation). A square plot of five hundred by five hundred cubits is an area of ground 250 meters (840 feet) square (compare 42.16-20). This ground will be set aside for the sanctuary, that is, for the Temple compound.

With fifty cubits for an open space around it: On all four sides of the Temple compound, there will be an additional strip of land that will be left empty all around it; this was not mentioned in chapter 42. This strip of empty ground will be fifty cubits wide on each side. Fifty cubits is about 25 meters (84 feet). This means that the whole area set apart for the Temple compound will be 600 cubits (50 + 500 + 50 = 600 cubits), that is, 300 meters (1,008 feet), square. This phrase may be rendered “All around the Temple compound there will be a strip of open land that is 25 meters wide.”

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 .

Then he brought me …: Ezekiel’s angelic guide reappears at this point (see 40.3). The last time he was mentioned was in 44.4, when he led Ezekiel from the outer courtyard through the north gateway into the inner courtyard. There they stood in front of the Temple building, that is, on the eastern side of the Temple. We may presume that Ezekiel and his guide remained in the inner courtyard up to this point. If necessary, translators may make this explicit. For he brought me, see 40.17.

The angelic guide led Ezekiel through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, to the north row of the holy chambers for the priests. This entrance was probably the entrance to the walkway by the screening wall that was described in 42.7-10a. In order to go into that entrance, they had to go out into the outer courtyard, and the entrance was not far from the side of the inner courtyard’s north gate. The walkway was in front of the north row of the holy chambers for the priests. These were the priests’ rooms described in 42.1-14. To the north row indicates that Ezekiel and his guide went out the north gate and turned immediately right to go into the entrance of the walkway. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version have them inside the inner courtyard and on the southern side of the courtyard, so they should not be followed. A good model for the first sentence of this verse is:

• Then the man led me through the entrance [of the walkway], which was at the side of the [north] gateway, to the priests’ holy rooms that face north.

And there I saw a place at the extreme western end of them: And there I saw a place is literally “and, behold, there was a place” (King James Version), which is a vivid phrase expressing surprise. Ezekiel does not describe the place he saw until the next verse, but it was at the extreme western end of them, that is, at the end of the walkway up against the western wall of the Temple compound.

The pronoun them refers to the priests’ rooms. This clause may be expressed as “And I saw a place [or, And there he showed me a place] at the western end of the 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 .

And alongside the territory of the priests: This phrase repeats the sense of the last phrase of the previous verse. If such repetition is not clumsy and unnatural, translators will do well to retain it.

The Levites shall have an allotment twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in breadth: The Levites’ land will be the same size as the priests’ land (see verse 10).

The whole length shall be twenty-five thousand cubits and the breadth twenty thousand: There are some problems here. If The whole length refers to the Levites’ land, why has God repeated the information from the previous sentence? Some translations simply omit this sentence (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Reader’s Version). However, some translations have taken The whole length to refer to the Levites’ and the priests’ land combined (so New Living Translation with “Together these portions of land”). Translations that do this then follow the Septuagint and read twenty thousand in breadth, so that the measurements agree with the previous figures. The Hebrew text has “the breadth [will be] ten thousand [cubits].” The Septuagint gives a possible reading here, even though Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends against it because it involves changing the Hebrew. And it becomes the preferred reading if verse 14 also refers to both sections of land. However, if verse 14 refers to the Levites’ land only, the reference to the whole section of land at the end of this verse is quite out of context. Translators may follow either of these readings, so possible models for this sentence are “The size of both sections of the holy land combined will be 12.5 kilometers long by 10 kilometers wide” and “The size of the [Levites’] land will be 12.5 kilometers long by 5 kilometers wide.”

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 .

Ezekiel continues his tentative description of God. He qualifies everything he saw with the appearance of and as it were. Yet the main impression is a bright, shining, fiery figure.

And upward from what had the appearance of his loins: Upward from … his loins refers to the upper part of his body, from the waist up. Sometimes in the Bible the Hebrew word for loins refers to a person’s sexual organs, but the word actually refers to that part of the body between a person’s ribs and hips. The best translation for it here is the “waist.” Translators may render this clause as “Above what appeared like his waist.”

I saw as it were gleaming bronze: Gleaming bronze renders the same Hebrew word used in verse 4. See the comments there.

Like the appearance of fire enclosed round about: The Hebrew here is very puzzling. Literally it reads “like the appearance of fire [was] a house for it around about.” Scholars and translators are divided over the meaning of the last few words. Some think that the fire was surrounding the upper body of the figure like a sheath; for example, New Jerusalem Bible renders the first half of this verse as “I saw a brilliance like amber, like fire, radiating from what appeared to be the waist upwards.” Others think that the fire itself is enclosed and surrounded by something; for example, New English Bible and Revised English Bible render this clause as “like fire in a furnace.” This model makes very good sense. Anyone who has seen molten metal in a furnace knows how bright and fiery it is. This seems to be an appropriate description of the figure on the throne. The first half of this verse may be rendered “I saw what appeared to be the upper part of his body and it seemed to look like polished metal as if it were on fire in a furnace.”

And downward from what had the appearance of his loins refers to the lower part of his body, from the waist down. I saw as it were the appearance of fire means this part of his body was fiery, as if it were burning. Translators may render this whole sentence as “And from what appeared to be his waist down, it looked like fire.” The emphasis is on the brightness of what Ezekiel saw. This brightness is reinforced by the last clause: and there was brightness round about him, that is, “It shone all over with a bright light” (Good News Translation). This brightness was not just around the lower part of his body. It was either around the whole figure, or around the whole throne (so Revised Standard Version footnote with the pronoun “it”). Most translations take the pronoun him to refer to the figure itself, not to the throne.

A model for this verse is:

• And I looked at what seemed like the upper part of his body, and it was very bright, like glowing metal in the middle of a furnace. And what seemed like the lower part of his body, I saw that it was fiery, like it was burning. And he shone all over with a bright light.

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 .