Ezekiel 41:26

And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) Windows and palm trees.—These have already been mentioned in connection with the gateways (Ezekiel 40:16), and are now further described as in the “side chambers of the temple.” The last word, translated “thick planks,” is very obscure. If it be the plural of the word used in Ezekiel 41:25, it would mean that the mouldings in front of the porches were also carved with palm trees.

It is to be observed that in these outer parts of the Temple only palm trees were used in the ornamentation, the cherubim being reserved for the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.

The description of the Temple proper is now finished, and it is noticeable how very little is said of its interior furniture and arrangements. There is no mention at all of that profuse overlaying with gold so characteristic of Solomon’s Temple; nothing is said of the candlestick, or the table of show-bread; even the ark itself, that climax of Israel’s symbolic worship, is not mentioned. The prophet seems to be looking forward to the time described by his contemporary, Jeremiah, when these outward symbols should be forgotten in the higher spiritual presence of the Lord: “They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD; neither shall it come to mind. . . . At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it” (Jeremiah 3:16-17).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thick planks - Others render it: leaves in wood (and in Ezekiel 41:26).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. thick planks—a thick-plank work at the threshold.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 26. No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And there were narrow windows,.... See Ezekiel 41:16,

and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch; upon the posts that were on each side the porch, north and south; Ezekiel 40:16,

and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks; that is, there were palm trees upon the side chambers, which were in number thirty, Ezekiel 41:6 and upon the planks also; every part of this fabric within and without were ornamented.

Geneva Study Bible

And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. For narrow windows, closed. The “sides” (lit. shoulders) are the side walls of the porch, but whether the walls on both sides of the entrance be meant, or the end-walls (N. and S.), cannot be decided. There should be a full stop at porch. The next statement is incomplete: and the side-chambers of the house and the landings.…

Ezekiel 41:26

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Altar of Burnt-Offering in the holy place (see Plate III n). "The abrupt style of writing is still continued." The altar wood for the altar was of wood three cubits high; its length, i.e., the expanse of the wall from one corner to the other, was two cubits; the breadth (thickness), which is not expressly mentioned, was the same, because the square form is presupposed from the shape of this altar in the tabernacle and Solomon's temple. Under the term מקצעותיו, its corner-pieces, the horns projecting at the corners, or the horn-shaped points, are probably included, as the simple mention of the corners appears superfluous, and the horns, which were symbolically significant features in the altar, would certainly not have been wanting. There is something strange in the occurrence of וארכוּ before and along with קירות, as the length is already included in the walls, and it would not be appropriately said of the length that it was of wood. ארכוּ is therefore certainly a copyist's error for אדנוּ, ἡ βάσις αὐτοῦ (lxx), its stand or pedestal. The angel describes this altar as the "table which stands before Jehovah" - in perfect harmony with the epithet already applied to the sacrifices in the Pentateuch, the "bread (לחם) of God," though not "because the altar table was intended to combine the old table of shewbread and the altar of incense" (Bttcher). The table of shewbread is not mentioned any more than the candlestick and other portions of the temple furniture. - The altar of burnt-offering stood before Jehovah, i.e., before the entrance into the holy of holies. This leads in Ezekiel 41:23. to the notice of the doors of the sanctuary, the character of which is also described as simply openings (פּתח), since the doorway had been mentioned before. delet דּלת signifies a moveable door, and the plural דּלתות, doors, whether they consist of one leaf or two, i.e., whether they are single or folding doors. Here the דּלתות in Ezekiel 41:23 and Ezekiel 41:24 (לדלתות) are folding doors; on the other hand, the first דּלתות in Ezekiel 41:24 and דּלת ibid. are used for the wings of the door, and מוּסבּות for the swinging portions (leaves) of the separate wings. The meaning is this: the holy place (היכל) and the holy of holies (הקּדשׁ) had two folding doors (i.e., each of these rooms had one). These doors had two wings, and each of these wings, in the one door and in the other, had two reversible door-leaves, so that when going in and out there was no necessity to throw open on every occasion the whole of the wing, which was at least three or four cubits broad. There is no foundation for the objection raised by Kliefoth to the interpretation of להיכל ולקּדשׁ as signifying the holy place and the holy of holies; since he cannot deny that the two words are so used, היכל in 1 Kings 6:5, 1 Kings 6:17, 1 Kings 6:31, 1 Kings 6:33, and קדשׁ in Leviticus 16:2-3, etc. And the artificial explanation, "to the temple space, and indeed to the holy place," not only passes without notice the agreement between our verses and 1 Kings 6:31-34, but gains nothing further than a side door, which does violence to the dignity of the sanctuary, a passage from the side chambers into the holy place, with which Bttcher has presented Solomon's temple. - These doors were ornamented, like the walls, with figures of cherubim and palms. - Other remarks are added in vv. 25b and 26 concerning the porch in front of the holy place. The first is, that on the front of the porch outside there was עב אץ. The only other passage in which the word עב occurs in a similar connection is 1 Kings 7:6, where it refers to wood-work in front of the Ulam of Solomon's porch of pillars; and it cannot be determined whether it signifies threshold, or moulding, or threshold-mouldings. On the shoulders, i.e., on the right and left side walls of the front porch, there were closed windows and figures of palms. The cherubim were omitted here. - The last words of Ezekiel 41:26 are very obscure. וצלעות הבּ may be taken in connection with the preceding clause, "and on the side-rooms of the temple," as there is no necessity to repeat the preposition in the case of closely continuous clauses (vid., Ewald, 351a); and the side-rooms not only must have had windows, but might also be ornamented with figures of palms. But if the words be taken in this sense, the עבּים must also signify something which presented, like the walls of the porch and of the side chambers, a considerable extent of surface capable of receiving a similar decoration; although nothing definite has hitherto been ascertained with regard to the meaning of the word, and our rendering "beams" makes no pretension to correctness.