Ezekiel 40:30

And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits long,.... That is, high; this was the height of them; these were the frontispiece of the gate to the inner court without, and faced the outward

And he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these measures; And he measured the south gate according to these measures - namely, the measures of the outer gate.

Five and twenty cubits long: here, as once before, , length is put for height.

(30) The arches round about.—This word, as already noted under Ezekiel 40:16, should be projections of the walls, if it has been correctly pointed by the Masorets; but it is exceedingly difficult to understand what is meant by the dimensions given, twenty-five cubits long and five cubits broad. This statement occurs nowhere else in the description of the gates, and the verse is omitted in the Greek translation, and either considered spurious or else passed over in silence by many commentators. One explanation given is that the twenty-five cubits is the sum-total of all the “projections of the walls” into the interior of the gateway. thus there were two “spaces” (S on the plan [Ezekiel 40:44-49]), each of five cubits; two thresholds (TT′ ? [Ezekiel 40:44-49]), each of six cubits; and two walls of the porch, each of one cubit, or in all (5 × 2+6 × 2 + 2) twenty-four cubits, the remaining cubit being made up by mouldings at the angles of these several projections. But it is fatal to this explanation that in no other case is any measurement thus made up by adding together the details of parts which do not adjoin. The same explanation requires the breadth of five cubits to be the transverse measurement of these projecting parts, which certainly could not apply to the first threshold, and would require a very awkward or even impossible narrowing of the gateway where the “spaces” are placed. The true solution of the difficulty seems to be in a slight change in the vowels of the Masoretic punctuation, which will transform the word into “porch.” That porches were connected with the inner gates also is plain from Ezekiel 40:39, yet they are nowhere mentioned in the description unless here. Being a somewhat independent part of the gate, the measures are taken in a different direction from that of the gate itself. The “length” is the long way of the porch, just as long as the gateway is wide, twenty-five cubits; and the breadth is the measurement between the walls, five cubits, thus allowing a half-cubit for the thickness of each wall, and one cubit less clear space than in the outer gates.

Verse 30. And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits long] That the five cubits broad should be read twenty-five is evident from Ezekiel 40:21; Ezekiel 40:25; Ezekiel 40:29; Ezekiel 40:33; Ezekiel 40:36, The word ועשרים veesrim, twenty, has probably been lost out of the text. Indeed the whole verse is wanting in two of Kennicott's MSS., one of De Rossi's, and one of mine, (Cod. B.) It has been added in the margin of mine by a later hand. It is reported to have been anciently wanting in many MSS.

30. The verse is wanting in LXX. and some MSS., and in others deleted. No object belonging to the gateways has hitherto been mentioned to which the measurements can apply. The verse may have arisen from an inaccurate repetition of the measurements given in previous verse.

OF THE INNER COURT WITH ITS GATES, FOR , AND CELLS FOR PRIESTS, Ezekiel 40:28-49.28-37.