(16) The door posts.--This is the same word as in Ezekiel 40:6-7, &c., and means thresholds. The various particulars mentioned--the thresholds, the windows, and the galleries--are all to be taken in connection with the "he measured" of Ezekiel 41:15, and are details of the three buildings there spoken of, yet they did not all of them necessarily belong to each building.
Narrow windows.--Rather, closed windows. (See Note on Ezekiel 40:16.)
On their three stories.--"Stories" is not in the original, and introduces a wrong idea. He measured the three buildings (Ezekiel 41:15), and various details about their three (constructions) (Ezekiel 41:16).
Over against the door, cieled with wood round about.--This is really a parenthesis, although scarcely intelligible as it stands. Translate, Opposite the thresholds (was) a ceiling of wood round about. The part strictly opposite the threshold was the lintel; but the expression is here broad enough to include also the sides of the doorway. The doorways in the various buildings were all ceiled with wood, and it is afterwards said that this was carved.
And from the ground.--After the parenthesic, the construction dependent upon "he measured" is resumed. As everything else was measured, so also the space between the ground and the windows; then, again, it is mentioned parenthetically that the windows were covered, viz., as in Ezekiel 40:16, by lattices fastened so as not to be opened.
(1) That the door-posts (rather, thresholds), and the narrow (or, closed) windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, were covered with a wainscoting of wood from the ground up to the windows.
(2) That the windows, whether openings on the first floor (Kliefoth) or skylights in the roof (Hengstenberg), were "covered," which may signify, as Ewald and Plumptre think, that they were not left open, but protected by a lattice-work of bars or planks; or, as Currey suggests, that they were wainscoted as well as the space from the ground to the windows.
(3) That nothing was constructed by caprice or at random, but that all about the building proceeded by exact measurement.
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.
The door posts and the narrow windows,.... Of the inner temple or holy of holies; for this is what is last mentioned; of the door posts of it, see Ezekiel 41:3, in the holy of holies, both in Moses's tabernacle, and Solomon's temple, were no windows; Jehovah dwelt in thick darkness, 1 Kings 8:12, but in this inner temple, or the more perfect state of the church on earth, there will be much light: these windows are said to be "narrow", that is, without, but broad within; and let in a great deal of light, which, though not discerned by those without, yet comfortably enjoyed by those within; and will be so great, that there will be no need of the sun or moon; Christ the Lamb will be the light of this state; and the nations of the saved and their kings will walk in the light of it, Revelation 21:23,
and the galleries round about on their three stories; these seem to be the same with the side chambers, which were three storey high, and were on the three sides of the house, west, north, and south; see Ezekiel 41:6,
over against the door, cieled with wood round about: with cedar wood, as the Targum: or, "answerable were the doors cieled with wood" (l); door, for doors; that is, the doors of these side chambers, which answered to one another, were lined with cedar wood; all which doors, door posts, windows, and galleries, were severally measured:
and from the ground up to the windows; from the bottom of the floor of the most holy place up to the windows, which were above the third storey of the side chambers, he measured also:
and the windows were covered; either by the jetting out of the side chambers, so that they could not well be seen in the courts below; or they were lattice windows with such small holes as at a distance were scarcely discernible; or were covered with curtains within; or being very narrow on the outside, though broad within, looked as if they were covered; denoting how impenetrable the glories of this state are to those that are without, Revelation 22:15.
(l) "contra uniuscujusque limen, stratumque ligno per gyrum in circuitu", V. L. Capellus.
Narrow windows.--Rather, closed windows. (See Note on Ezekiel 40:16.)
On their three stories.--"Stories" is not in the original, and introduces a wrong idea. He measured the three buildings (Ezekiel 41:15), and various details about their three (constructions) (Ezekiel 41:16).
Over against the door, cieled with wood round about.--This is really a parenthesis, although scarcely intelligible as it stands. Translate, Opposite the thresholds (was) a ceiling of wood round about. The part strictly opposite the threshold was the lintel; but the expression is here broad enough to include also the sides of the doorway. The doorways in the various buildings were all ceiled with wood, and it is afterwards said that this was carved.
And from the ground.--After the parenthesic, the construction dependent upon "he measured" is resumed. As everything else was measured, so also the space between the ground and the windows; then, again, it is mentioned parenthetically that the windows were covered, viz., as in Ezekiel 40:16, by lattices fastened so as not to be opened.
(1) That the door-posts (rather, thresholds), and the narrow (or, closed) windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, were covered with a wainscoting of wood from the ground up to the windows.
(2) That the windows, whether openings on the first floor (Kliefoth) or skylights in the roof (Hengstenberg), were "covered," which may signify, as Ewald and Plumptre think, that they were not left open, but protected by a lattice-work of bars or planks; or, as Currey suggests, that they were wainscoted as well as the space from the ground to the windows.
(3) That nothing was constructed by caprice or at random, but that all about the building proceeded by exact measurement.
and the galleries round about on their three stories; these seem to be the same with the side chambers, which were three storey high, and were on the three sides of the house, west, north, and south; see Ezekiel 41:6,
over against the door, cieled with wood round about: with cedar wood, as the Targum: or, "answerable were the doors cieled with wood" (l); door, for doors; that is, the doors of these side chambers, which answered to one another, were lined with cedar wood; all which doors, door posts, windows, and galleries, were severally measured:
and from the ground up to the windows; from the bottom of the floor of the most holy place up to the windows, which were above the third storey of the side chambers, he measured also:
and the windows were covered; either by the jetting out of the side chambers, so that they could not well be seen in the courts below; or they were lattice windows with such small holes as at a distance were scarcely discernible; or were covered with curtains within; or being very narrow on the outside, though broad within, looked as if they were covered; denoting how impenetrable the glories of this state are to those that are without, Revelation 22:15.
(l) "contra uniuscujusque limen, stratumque ligno per gyrum in circuitu", V. L. Capellus.