Ezekiel 41:7 - Exposition

In the side chambers an enlarging took place as they went up, i.e. the floorage of the second story exceeded that of the first, and the floorage of the third that of the second; though how this was effected can only be conjectured. If the chambers were built against the temple wall, then probably the wall at each story went in, say a cubit or a cubit and a half from the outside, so as to admit the beams; or, if the chambers were built against an outside wall, a similar recession of the wall from the inside may have taken place. In either ease, the (interior) breadth of the house , i.e. of the side chambers, would be upward , and would increase from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst. Plumptre, after Kliefoth, suggests that the increasing size of the chambers in the three stories may have been due to projecting galleries. Ewald, taking "house" as "the temple," supposes that it gradually became bigger. i.e. broader, as it rose, which could be the case only if the side chambers were built against the temple wall, and the increased width of the stories was scoured By projecting galleries or corridors. Greater obscurity attaches to the second clause, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers , which the Authorized Version and some expositors regard as an indication that Ezekiel's temple had a spiral staircase like that in Solomon's temple (see 1 Kings 6:8 ); and probably some such mode of passing from story to story did exist in Ezekiel's temple; yet the clause, when properly rendered, does not refer to this. The Revised Version reads, "And the side chambers were broader as they encompassed the house higher and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and higher round about the house; therefore the breadth of the house continued upward; and so one went up (most likely by a spiral stair) from the lowest chamber to the highest by the middle chamber."