Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Inner Court and the Tables
Ezekiel 40:28-49
28 Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate. He measured the south gate according to these measurements; · WEB
The survey reaches the inner court, and the working equipment of sacrifice is measured as carefully as the walls.
The tour continues inward through the south, east and north gates of the inner court, and the notation is deliberately repetitive. Each gate is measured according to these measurements — the same plan, the same dimensions, the same chambers. A reader who has followed the earlier chapters will notice what the repetition rules out. There is no privileged approach and no back way in.
Then the equipment appears, and the detail becomes practical. Tables are counted for the slaughtering of the burnt offering, the sin offering and the trespass offering — four on one side and four on the other, of hewn stone, with the instruments laid on them and hooks a hand width long fastened around. This is a working butchery, described by someone who knew what the work required.
Rooms are then assigned by function, and the assignments carry the chapter's argument. One room is for the priests who perform the duty of the house, another for the priests who perform the duty of the altar, and the second group is identified: These are the sons of Zadok, who from among the sons of Levi come near to Yahweh to minister to him. Not all Levites, and not all priests. A named line has the altar, and the reason for the restriction is given later in the vision Ezekiel 44:15.
The inner court is measured last and it comes out square — a hundred cubits by a hundred — with the altar standing before the house. The porch follows, with its steps and its pillars. What the whole chapter has established by this point is a geometry of graded access, and the vision has not yet said a word about who God is or what he intends. It has simply drawn the plan of a place where the mistakes of chapters 8 to 11 would be structurally difficult.
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