(7) And there was an enlarging.--The description in this verse is difficult to understand, and has called out much variety of opinion. The main facts are clear: that there was an increase in the width of each storey of the side chambers by the distance which the wall receded, as is expressly said in 1Kings 6:6; but whether there was a corresponding recession in the thickness of the outer wall of the chambers is not stated. It is also plain that the side chambers surrounded the house; and that the two upper storeys were reached by a winding staircase (w [Ezekiel 40:44-49]). It is impossible to enter into more detail without a careful discussion of the words in the original, the meaning of some of which is disputed.

Verse 7. - In the side chambers an enlarging took place as they went up, i.e. the floorage of the second story exceeded that of the first, and the floorage of the third that of the second; though how this was effected can only be conjectured. If the chambers were built against the temple wall, then probably the wall at each story went in, say a cubit or a cubit and a half from the outside, so as to admit the beams; or, if the chambers were built against an outside wall, a similar recession of the wall from the inside may have taken place. In either ease, the (interior) breadth of the house, i.e. of the side chambers, would be upward, and would increase from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst. Plumptre, after Kliefoth, suggests that the increasing size of the chambers in the three stories may have been due to projecting galleries. Ewald, taking "house" as "the temple," supposes that it gradually became bigger. i.e. broader, as it rose, which could be the case only if the side chambers were built against the temple wall, and the increased width of the stories was scoured By projecting galleries or corridors. Greater obscurity attaches to the second clause, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers, which the Authorized Version and some expositors regard as an indication that Ezekiel's temple had a spiral staircase like that in Solomon's temple (see 1 Kings 6:8); and probably some such mode of passing from story to story did exist in Ezekiel's temple; yet the clause, when properly rendered, does not refer to this. The Revised Version reads, "And the side chambers were broader as they encompassed the house higher and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and higher round about the house; therefore the breadth of the house continued upward; and so one went up (most likely by a spiral stair) from the lowest chamber to the highest by the middle chamber."

41:1-26 After the prophet had observed the courts, he was brought to the temple. If we attend to instructions in the plainer parts of religion, and profit by them, we shall be led further into an acquaintance with the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers,.... These chambers, as they rose up in stories one above another, were larger and larger; those in the middlemost storey were larger than those in the lower storey by a cubit; so much being taken out of the thickness of the wall, to make the rests or rebatements for the beams of the floor to rest upon, by which so much was gained in breadth for the chambers; and those in the upper storey, for the same reason, were a cubit broader than those in the middle, and two cubits broader than the lowermost; the floor of the first and lower storey was four cubits broad, Ezekiel 41:5 the floor of the second five cubits; and the floor of the third or uppermost six cubits. The wall of the temple at the bottom was six cubits thick, Ezekiel 41:5, at the middlemost storey five cubits; and at the uppermost four: and all this may denote the enlargement of the church of Christ, as it comes nearer the heavenly state; the present state of the church may be signified by the lower storey, where the chambers are narrowest; the state of the church in the latter day glory, or spiritual reign of Christ, by the middlemost, when it will be enlarged; its converts being very numerous, Isaiah 49:19 and the New Jerusalem church state by the uppermost storey; which city or state will be very large, and next to heaven, or the ultimate glory; see Revelation 21:16. The "winding" that went upwards to the side chambers were winding stairs, which went up from one storey to another, higher and higher; see 1 Kings 6:8. The Misnic doctors say (c), that in the second temple these winding stairs went from one side of the temple to the other, from the north east to the northwest; by which they went up to the roofs of these chambers and to the upper room over the sanctuary. These may signify the various afflictions and tribulations, trials and exercises, in which the Lord leads his people, and by which the churches of Christ pass from one state to another:

for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: not on the outside, but within; properly round about the chambers, which are here called the house:

therefore the breadth of the house was still upward; became broader and broader, as it rose up higher and higher:

and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst; from being only four cubits broad in the lowest storey, it became five cubits in the middlemost, and from thence six cubits in the highest.

(c) Misn. Middot, c. 4. sect. 5.