Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought
me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and
measured it round about. He measured the east side with the
measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round
about. He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the
measuring reed round about. He measured the south side, five hundred
reeds, with the measuring reed round about. He measured the south
side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed. He turned about
to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring
reed. He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about,
five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a
separation between the sanctuary and the profane place (verses
15-20).
The measuring of the inner house completed, the prophet is led back to
the starting point, the gate that is toward the East. In this final
measurement four times five hundred reeds are mentioned. The east side,
north side, south side, and west side, each is measured as being five
hundred reeds. This passage has occasioned much controversy. The
question is if five hundred cubits or five hundred reeds is correct. If
we take the reed to be ten feet it would mean that the temple is five
thousand feet on each side. But that seems impossible in view of the
previous measurement. The Septuagint translators realized this
difficulty and took the liberty of changing the word "reeds" to
"cubits." If cubits is right then it would agree with all the previous
measurements, hence many of the commentators have changed the reeds to
cubits. But what authority is there to make this change? The Hebrew word
for reeds is "_gonim_" and cubit is "_ammah_," two entirely different
words. A copyist's error is therefore excluded. We maintain that
measurement is five hundred reeds and that the text is correct.
But what is measured? Certainly not the temple area with its wall, outer
court and Holy and the Most Holy. What is measured here is the territory
which surrounds the whole temple buildings. If we retrace the steps of
the man who measured and led along Ezekiel we see him leaving the Most
Holy; they then go back into the Holy part, the outer court and then
passing through the eastern gate through which they had entered, they
are both outside of the outer wall. They are now in a very large space
surrounding the temple buildings, and this space is measured.
Furthermore we find that there was an immense wall surrounding this
enclosure: this wall separated between that which is holy and what is
common (verse 20). Another difficulty has been mentioned by expositors
if this measurement of five hundred reeds is correct. They say it is far
too large for Mount Moriah, the chosen place of the temple. There is no
difficulty here at all, for we read, "And it shall come to pass in the
last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in
the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all
nations shall flow unto it" (Isa. ii:2). When the Lord returns and His
Kingdom will be established great physical changes take place in
Israel's land, changes which no one can fully understand.[43] The
mountain upon which this temple is to be built is a very high mountain,
which comes into existence when the earth and the heavens will be
shaken. The temple was a holy square of five hundred cubits, in another
square of five hundred reeds. Later we shall find that there is another
holy portion of the land which surrounds the temple, and the territory
of five hundred reeds square, and that portion was of an extremely large
dimension, that is, twenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten
thousand reeds in breadth.[44] All this would not be possible in the
present Palestine; but it will be made possible through the changes of
that coming day (Is. ii:12; xxiv:3-4; 19-23).
[43] See Zech. xiv:4, 8, 10.
[44] Chapter xlv:1-2.