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Ezekiel

About this book
Chapter 42

1 Then he led me out to the outer court, toward the north, and brought me to the chamber that was opposite the courtyard and opposite the building on the north. 2 Its length was 175 feet on the north side, and its width 87½ feet. 3 Opposite the 35 feet that belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement that belonged to the outer court, gallery faced gallery in the three stories. 4 In front of the chambers was a walkway on the inner side, 17½ feet wide at a distance of 1¾ feet, and their entrances were on the north. 5 Now the upper chambers were narrower, because the galleries took more space from them than from the lower and middle chambers of the building. 6 For they were in three stories and had no pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore, the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and middle ones. 7 As for the outer wall by the side of the chambers, toward the outer court facing the chambers, it was 87½ feet long. 8 For the chambers on the outer court were 87½ feet long, while those facing the temple were 175 feet long. 9 Below these chambers was a passage on the east side as one enters from the outer court. 10 At the beginning of the wall of the court toward the south, facing the courtyard and the building, were chambers 11 like those on the north with a passage in front of them. The chambers that were toward the south were the same length and width as those on the north, and had matching exits and entrances and arrangements. 12 There was an opening at the head of the passage, the passage in front of the corresponding wall toward the east when one enters. 13 Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers that face the courtyard are holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, because the place is holy. 14 When the priests enter, then they will not go out from the sanctuary to the outer court without taking off their garments in which they minister, for these are holy; they will put on other garments, then they will go near the places where the people are.” 15 Now when he had finished measuring the interior of the temple, he led me out by the gate that faces east and measured all around. 16 He measured the east side with the measuring stick as 875 feet by the measuring stick. 17 He measured the north side as 875 feet by the measuring stick. 18 He measured the south side as 875 feet by the measuring stick. 19 He turned to the west side and measured 875 feet by the measuring stick. 20 He measured it on all four sides. It had a wall around it, 875 feet long and 875 feet wide, to separate the holy and common places.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 10:10 and Ezekiel 42:20

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Ezekiel 42 echoes Leviticus 10 to emphasize the primary role of the priests to maintain separation, such as between the holy and the common. Separating the temple’s physical boundaries in Ezekiel mirrors the task of distinguishing priestly categories.

Passages

Leviticus 10:10

Hebrew Bible
9 “Do not drink wine or strong drink, you and your sons with you, when you enter into the Meeting Tent, so that you do not die. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations, 10 as well as to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, 11 and to teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Ezekiel 42:20

Hebrew Bible
17 He measured the north side as 875 feet by the measuring stick. 18 He measured the south side as 875 feet by the measuring stick. 19 He turned to the west side and measured 875 feet by the measuring stick. 20 He measured it on all four sides. It had a wall around it, 875 feet long and 875 feet wide, to separate the holy and common places.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

References

"... The next occurrence of the syntactical pairing occurs in Leviticus 11:47, which functions as the concluding summary of that chapter’s legislation. The purpose given for “this law” is to enable priests and people “to separate between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten”. The verbatim repetition of Leviticus 10:10b in the purpose statement of Leviticus 11:47a creates a link between these two pericopes and implies that the legislation of Leviticus 11 (and of chapters 11–15 more broadly) is an outworking of the command given in Leviticus 10. The final use of the construction is found in Ezekiel 42:20, where the function assigned to the boundary wall in Ezekiel’s temple vision is “to separate between the holy and the common”. Within the Old Testament this is used only in creation (Genesis 1) and cultic contexts. This parallel suggests a connection between God’s creative acts of separation and Israel’s cultic acts of separation ..."
G. Geoffrey Harper, "I Will Walk among You": The Rhetorical Function of Allusion to Genesis 1-3 in the Book of Leviticus (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2018), 181.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 10:10 and Ezekiel 42:20

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