(9) That which was left.--After stating the thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers at five cubits, the prophet speaks of the remaining space left unoccupied by the building. The clause should be translated, "and so also (i.e., of the same width) was that which was left free against the house of side chambers which belonged to the house," i.e., to the Temple. The same width is assigned to this space in Ezekiel 41:11.Verse 9. - The thickness of the wall, which was for the side chambers on the outside, is next mentioned as having been five cubits, i.e. the same as the breadth of the wall of the porch (Ezekiel 40:48), but one cubit thinner than that of the temple (ver. 5). The clause which follows is obscure. By that which was left, the Authorized and Revised Versions understand the place of the side chambers that were within - or, that belonged to the house (Revised Version) - without intending to assert that the whole space left, which was five cubits (ver. 11), was occupied by the side chambers, which were only four cubits broad (ver. 5). Accepting these measurements, Kliefoth and Keil regard the free space as a walk of five cubits broad on the outside of the side chambers. Ewald, and Dr. Currey, in the 'Speaker's Commentary,' place the five cubits between the temple wall and the side chambers. 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.The thickness of the wall, which was for the side chambers without, was five cubits,.... This is the outward wall of the chambers, north and south, which was five cubits thick, made of stone; See Gill on Ezekiel 41:5, and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within; this was a void space, not built upon, which was before the chambers that stood within it; and was a space to walk in for those that dwelt in the chambers, or to go in from chamber to chamber; which also was five cubits in breadth, as appears from the next verse. This may denote the communion of churches, and the members of them one with another. |