Ezekiel 40:5-16--The East Gate to the Outer Court

Ezekiel 40:5-16
English Standard Version

The East Gate to the Outer Court
5 And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area, 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. So he measured the thickness of the wall, one reed; and the height, one reed. 6 Then he went into the gateway facing east, going up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed deep. 7 And the side rooms, one reed long and one reed broad; and the space between the side rooms, five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the vestibule of the gate at the inner end, one reed. 8 Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, on the inside, one reed. 9 Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits; and its jambs, two cubits; and the vestibule of the gate was at the inner end. 10 And there were three side rooms on either side of the east gate. The three were of the same size, and the jambs on either side were of the same size. 11 Then he measured the width of the opening of the gateway, ten cubits; and the length of the gateway, thirteen cubits. 12 There was a barrier before the side rooms, one cubit on either side. And the side rooms were six cubits on either side. 13 Then he measured the gate from the ceiling of the one side room to the ceiling of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; the openings faced each other. 14 He measured also the vestibule, sixty cubits. And around the vestibule of the gateway was the court. 15 From the front of the gate at the entrance to the front of the inner vestibule of the gate was fifty cubits. 16 And the gateway had windows all around, narrowing inwards toward the side rooms and toward their jambs, and likewise the vestibule had windows all around inside, and on the jambs were palm trees.

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The Tabernacle was set up with only one door that faced the East, and the Bronze Altar was right in front of this door/gate.  This heavenly temple seems to have a gate on each side, but the Eastern Gate is still the main entrance, and seems to be the only way into the Outer Court where the Bronze Altar stood in the Tabernacle, Solomon's Temple, and Zerubbabel's/Herod's Temple.  The measurements are taken in units you may not be familiar with, so let's start there.  This "long cubit" is defined here as a standard cubit (about 18 inches) and a hand length (about 4 inches), so we'll call this "long cubit" about 22 inches in length.  It is approximately the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.  The measuring rod was 6 long cubits, so it was approximately 132 inches or 11 feet long..  Where the text mentions a cubit and does not call it a long cubit or does not refer to the reed/rod for measuring, I would assume a standard cubit of 18 inches or 1.5 feet.  Since Ezekiel is meaning to "draw us a picture" with these descriptions (like we are looking at engineering drawings or blueprints), I found a site that will be helpful with not just this section, but all the future descriptions where a picture may be helpful.  The images don't even do it justice though because they are scale drawings without a person of standard height there for reference.  Suffice it to say that the structure is massive--not nearly as massive as the New Jerusalem will be, but still massive.


freebibleimages.org/illustrations/ezekiel-40-temple/.  Hopefully you find these images helpful as you read the descriptions of the entrance into the Temple.  Note that everything in this portion of text is all about the trip into the Courtyard.  This is the path everyone must walk to enter into the Temple.  The side rooms that are mentioned were used in the original temple to house the Levites that were on guard duty.  While there will probably be no need for Temple guards in this new kingdom without sin or the effects of the curse of sin, It is still something that will be part of the majesty of the Temple that will bring glory to God and it will be part of the good work that some of us will do, though our jobs will be easy.  David once said that he would give up being king to be a doorkeeper in the LORD's heavenly temple--this would be the job he was speaking of.  Imagine being the first person to meet those coming into the Temple to worship the LORD--people from every tribe, tongue and nation.  Wouldn't that be exciting!?  As you read this, imagine this is the place in which you would serve the LORD.  What would you feel standing in a place like that? What would it be like to see all the people willfully and joyfully coming to worship the LORD and experience His presence (we'll see later that the separation between the LORD and His people is no longer there like it used to be).  If this is the scale of the entryway, then the Temple itself must be massive, and rightfully so if people from all places and all times will be gathering together to worship the LORD together.