the Lord." Its being called a table probably referred to the satisfaction and delight with which the Lord was to regard the services, which were henceforth to be offered to him by his renewed people. And possibly on this account, too, the dimensions are given larger than of old-three cubits in height and two in breadth, instead of two and one. But the most peculiar part of the description is what relates to the buildings connected with the separate place, so closely adjoining to the temple—in the unoccupied ground on the west-and so much resembling it in size. Nothing is said of their exact intention, nor is there even any particular description of the internal construction. The account, as to details, is remarkably general and obscure; and why then given at all? To show, as it would seem, that there was now to be no place left, as of old, which might not be held to be sacred ground. It appears to have been there that, in Manasseh's time, the horses were kept, which were consecrated to the sun (2 Kings xxiii. 11), called "the suburbs of the temple." But all excuse was henceforth to be taken away for such abominations; the Lord laid claim to all for his peculiar service, and had this also filled up with sacred erections.

CHAPTER XLII.

CHAMBERS OF THE TEMPLE AND ITS BOUNDARY WALLS.

Ver. 1. And he brought me forth into the outer court, the way toward the north, and he brought me to the chamber which is over against the separate place, and which is over against the building toward the north. 2. Before the length of the hundred cubits (those, namely, of the separate place, mentioned in chap. xli. 13), was the north door, and the breadth fifty cubits (occupying half the space). 3. Over against the twenty (i. e, probably the twenty cubits spoken of in chap. xli. 10), which belonged to the inner court, and over against the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery on gallery threefold. 4. And before the chamber was a walk ten cubits broad; into the interior (namely, of the chamber) a way of one cubit; and their doors toward the north. 5. And the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away (room) from them, above the lower, and the middle parts of the building. 6. For they were threefold; but they had not pillars as the pillars of the courts; therefore was it straitened more than the lowermost and the middle part from the ground. 7. And the wall which was without over against the chambers, toward the outer court, in front of the chambers-its length was fifty cubits. 8. For the length of the chambers

which belonged to the inner court was fifty cubits; and lo, before the temple were an hundred cubits. 9. And from below these chambers was the entrance on the east, when one goes to them from the outer court. 10. The chambers were of the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place and over against the building. 11. And the way (or direction) before them was like the appearance of the chambers which were on the north side, as long as they, as broad as they; and all their outgoings, and according to their plans, and according to their doors (was all made). 12. And according to the doors of the chambers, which were toward the south, there was a door by the head of the way, the way directly before the wall toward the east, where one enters in. 13. And he said to me, the apartments on the north and the apartments on the south, which are before the separate place, these are the sacred dwellings, wherein the priests, that draw near to the Lord, shall eat the most holy things; there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; for the place is holy. 14. When the priests enter in, then they shall not go out from the holy place into the outer court; and there shall they lay their garments wherein they minister, for they are holy; they shall put on other garments, and shall approach to what is of the people.

THIS part of chap. xlii. is taken up with describing the apartments, or chambers, which were reserved for the officiating priests. That this was their particular destination, is expressly stated in the two last verses. The aim and object of the buildings, therefore, is quite accurately defined; they were for the priests, that these might be able in their ministrations, to treat with due solemnity the sacred things of the Lord, and keep broad the distinction between the holy and the corrupt, the Divine and the human. So that the particularising here, is in perfect accordance with the great design of the prophet, in exhibiting a restored community and worship purified from the corruptions which had hitherto cleaved to them. And as he had before (chap. xl. 44-46) spoken of apartments on the north and south gates of the inner court, for the officiating priests, it seems quite necessary to understand what is said here of the same; the prophet merely returns, after having seen and described what belonged to the temple, to take a second and more exact view of these sacerdotal chambers. But why they should be said to stand over against the separate place and the building belonging to it, rather than the temple itself (ver. 1-10), does not appear. Nor is the description generally of such a kind, that we could hope to make it more intelligible to an English reader, by any lengthened observations. It seems impossible to ascertain distinctly the pattern, without either making considerable alterations in the text, or filling up many blanks from imagination. It is enough

for us to know, that the prophet saw in vision all the subordinate provisions made, which were necessary to the full and efficient discharge of the duties of the priesthood. He thus obtained for the church the assurance, that the service of God would yet be performed so as to meet God's perfect approval. We, therefore, pass on to the closing verses, which give the dimensions of the boundary-wall.

Ver. 15. And he finished the measurements of the house inwards, and he brought me forth by the gate, which looks toward the east, and he measured it round about. 16. He measured the east side (literally, wind) with the measuring rod, 500 rods, with the measuring rod round about. 17. He measured the north side, 500 rods, with the measuring rod round about. 18. He measured the south side, 500 rods, with the measuring rod. 19. He turned about to the west side, and measured 500 rods with the measuring rod. 20. By the four sides he measured it; it had a wall round about, 500 long, and 500 broad, to make a separation between the holy and the profane.

We cannot but note the particularity with which these measurements are given, the rod as the measuring instrument, and the number of lengths on each side, being successively stated in regard to each. This plainly shows the importance which the prophet attached to the external dimensions, while the frequent occurrence also of the terms employed, more fully certifies us of their exact amount. Yet from an early period a disposition has been shown to tamper with the numbers. The Septuagint substitutes cubits for rods, and the great mass of modern commentators (still also Ewald, Hitzig, Böttcher, Thenius, the latter in his Anhang to the Com. on Kings) have thought it necessary to adopt the same alteration. The chief reasons for this are, first, the apparently extravagant compass assigned to the sacred buildings, a square of 500 rods, or 3,000 cubits, and these cubits about two feet each (chap. xl. 5), making in all a square of fully 14 of a mile. There can be no doubt that this exceeded the limits of all ancient Jerusalem; and so, it is thought, the prophet could never intend to give such enormous bounds to his new temple; he must have meant cubits only, and not rods. Then, it is also alleged, that the particular measurements in the preceding portion, do not require a space larger than a square of 500 cubits, and that the adoption of rods here instead of cubits, would necessarily leave an immense space of unappropriated ground. Hävernick has tried to evade this argument, by denying

that the 100 cubits mentioned in connection with the outer and inner courts (chap. xl. 23, 27) are given as the measures of the whole breadth of these, and contending that they apply only to the distance between one gate and another in the same court. I cannot concur in this; for I think the natural supposition is, that the gates between which the distances in question lay, were simply those of the two courts respectively. But if by rejecting that method of relief, we seem to have far too much space on hand, by adopting the smaller measures of cubits instead of rods, we should have decidedly too little. I think this might be proved by reckoning up the different items of the several measures connected with the temple itself and the separate place. But as we should thus inevitably get into intricacies, where few would follow, we prefer establishing our position by a simpler process. In the central part to the east of the temple, there was a square of 100 cubits, the court of the priests. But if on three sides of an entire square of 500 cubits, you take off first 100 cubits for the outer court, then 100 for the inner, with nothing intervening, there would be left precisely this square of 100 more for the court of the priests. But where, then, were the space to be found for the broad outermost wall, outside of which the measurement of 500 was made-six cubits all round? Where, again, for the seven steps leading up to the gate of the inner court, and the breadth of the wall dividing it from the outer? and where, once again, space for the eight steps leading up to the court of the priests, and the buildings of many chambers for them? There is evidently no room for these on the cubit hypothesis, which would require the different courts to be inclosed, and separated from each other, by strictly mathematical lines. So that, the objection of too much ground by the measurements of the text, may fairly be met by the too little of the hypothesis.

In truth, we have here another of those traits which render manifest, and, I believe, were intended to render manifest and palpable the ideal character of the whole description. It is of a nature throughout, which defies all attempts to bring it within the bounds of the real. Those who have endeavoured so to deal with it, have always been obliged to resort to numberless arbitrary suppositions and violent adjustments. And, in particular, the vast compass the prophet so explicitly and distinctly assigns to the whole area, involving a sort of natural incongruity,

like the promise of the new David in the prophecies of the restoration, must ever be regarded as an inseparable obstacle to their superficial literalism. It is an incontrovertible evidence that the prophet had something else in his eye than the masonry of stone and lime erections, and was labouring with conceptions which could only find their embodiment in the high realities of God's everlasting kingdom.

We abide, then, by the Hebrew text as the true handwriting of the prophet, the very difficulties of which are a proof of their correctness; and we regard the immense extent of the sacred area as a symbol of the vast enlargement that was to be given to the kingdom of God in the times of Messiah. It was immeasurably to surpass the old in the extent of its territory, and the number of its adherents, as well as in the purity of its worship. The wall that surrounded the sacred buildings is expressly said, in ver. 20, to have been for separating between the holy and profane; not, therefore, as in Rev. xxi. 12, and very commonly elsewhere, for defence and safety; as, indeed, its comparative want of elevation might seem to render it unfit for such a purpose. But its square form, and the square appearance of the entire buildings (as in John's city, Rev. xxi. 16), betokened the strength and solidity of the whole, along with a vast increase in extent and number. A perfect cube, it was the emblem of a kingdom that could not be shaken or removed. And thus every way it exhibited, to the eye of faith, the true ideal of that pure and glorious temple, which, resting on the foundation of the eternal Son, and girt round by all the perfections of Godhead, shall shine forth the best and noblest workmanship of Heaven..

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE LORD'S RETURN TO THE TEMPLE.

In the preceding part of the vision, the external things belonging to the Lord's house have been exhibited in their vast