Ezekiel 40:7 - Exposition

And every little chamber . Proceeding inward beneath a covered porch, the exact width of the gate and threshold, i.e. ten cubits, the prophet's guide, after having passed the threshold, conducted him to a series of lodges , תָּאִיִם , or "guard-chambers," six in number, three on each side ( Ezekiel 40:10 ), one reed or six cubits square, roofed ( Ezekiel 40:11 ), and separated from each other by a space of five cubits square, open overhead and closed towards the north or south as the case might be by a side wall. These "lodges," or "cells," were intended for the Levite sentinels who kept guard over the house. Beyond the cells stretched the threshold of the gate by the porch (Hebrew, אוּלָם ; the LXX ; αἰλάμ : Vulgate, vestibulum , "a portico") of the gate within ; literally, from the house ; i.e. the gate fronting one coming from the temple, hence the gate looking "towards the house." מֵהַבַּיִת , "from the house," does not qualify the threshold as if to indicate that this was an interior threshold in contrast to the former, or exterior, but "the gate," its intention being to state that the porch in front of which extended the second "threshold" was the vestibule or portico before the gate which conducted inwards towards the temple, or on which one first stepped on his way from the temple.