Ezekiel 40 explained: A Vision of a Rebuilt Temple

A vision amid the ruins (vv. 1-4)

This is dated around 573 BC, fourteen years after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, while Ezekiel was still an exile in Babylon. In a vision he is set on a high mountain in Israel, where a guide who shines like bronze holds measuring tools and tells him to watch closely and report everything to his people.

The outer wall and east gate (vv. 5-16)

The guide's rod is about three meters long, using a long cubit of roughly half a meter, and the thick wall marks off holy ground from ordinary ground. The east gate, with guard rooms on each side, looks like the fortified city gates of ancient Israel, built to control who could enter, and its carved palm trees echo the decorations of Solomon's temple.

The outer court and matching gates (vv. 17-27)

Thirty rooms line a stone pavement in the outer court, though the text does not say exactly what they were for. The north and south gates copy the east gate exactly, each reached by seven steps, and the repeated, even measurements give a sense of perfect order.

The inner court gates (vv. 28-37)

Three more gates face the outer ones but sit higher, reached by eight steps instead of seven. Many readers see this rising ground as a picture of drawing step by step closer to God's presence.

Where sacrifices were prepared (vv. 38-43)

Near the inner gates, especially the north one, are a room and stone tables for washing and killing the animals offered in worship, with hooks on the walls for the meat. These included offerings burned whole on the altar and offerings made to deal with wrongdoing and make amends.

Priests, altar and temple porch (vv. 44-49)

Two rooms are set aside for priests who guard the temple and the altar, and service at the altar is limited to descendants of Zadok, the priest from King Solomon's time, out of the wider priestly tribe of Levi. The inner court is a perfect square with the altar in front of the temple, and the chapter ends at the steps of the temple's entrance porch.

Key verse: Ezekiel 40:4

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether this temple describes a literal building still to come, a plan meant for the exiles who returned to rebuild, or a symbolic picture of God dwelling with his people, which many Christians connect with Jesus and the church.

Something to think about

When something important to a person or a people has been destroyed, what might it do for them to picture, in exact detail, how it could be rebuilt?