Ezekiel 40 to 48

The whole vision, zoomable

The house is twenty cubits across and the district it stands in is twenty-five thousand. Here they are on one grid, in the places the measurements put them, so you can travel between them instead of being shown them separately.

Every measurement Ezekiel 40

One plan, at every scale

Ezekiel measures at two scales that will not sit in one picture. The Most Holy Place is twenty cubits square; the district it stands in is twenty-five thousand. That is a range of more than a thousand to one, which is why the measured page draws the vision three times.

This is the same vision drawn once. The house, the compound and the district are in one grid, each in the place the text puts it, and zooming travels between them. Nothing is swapped in or out as you go: the plan you see close up is the plan you saw far off, so the smallness of the compound against its district is real rather than illustrated.

Zoomable plan of Ezekiel’s visionOne plan of the whole vision, drawn to scale in cubits. The holy district is a square 25,000 cubits on a side, in three strips: the priests’ portion, the Levites’ portion, and a narrower strip holding the city, 4,500 cubits square with open land around it. In the middle of the priests’ portion stands the temple compound, 500 cubits square, with a wall six cubits thick pierced by gates on the east, north and south, an inner court 100 cubits square with the altar at its centre, and west of that the house, whose vestibule, nave and Most Holy Place run 100 cubits from the steps at its east front to the wall at its west. Every measurement is listed on the measured page linked below.The priests’ portion25,000 × 10,000 cubitsEZEKIEL 48:10The Levites’ portion25,000 × 10,000 cubitsEZEKIEL 48:13Food for the workers10,000 × 5,000 cubitsThe same again, east10,000 × 5,000 cubitsThe city4,500 × 4,500 cubitsThe prince’s landThe prince’s landJUDAH, TO THE NORTHBENJAMIN, TO THE SOUTHEast gateNorth gateSouth gateAll six gates alike50 × 25 cubitsInner court100 × 100 cubitsAltar14 × 14 cubitsSeparate yardThe buildingon the west90 × 70 cubitsPriests’ chambers100 × 50 cubitsPriests’ chambers100 × 50 cubitsOUTER COURTOUTER COURTThe temple compound500 × 500 cubitsMost Holy Place20 × 20 cubitsNave40 × 20 cubits20 × 12 cubitsVestibuleSteps upThe house, 100 cubits longThe house
100 cubits
680 cubits across
Measure in

Drag to move, scroll or pinch to zoom, or jump to a scale. With the map focused, the arrow keys move it and plus and minus zoom. The labels change with the zoom; the walls never do.

What this drawing is, and is not

It is to scale. Every wall, court and chamber is the size Ezekiel gives and sits where his measurements put it, in cubits, on one grid. The compound is placed by Ezekiel 45:2, which sets the sanctuary as a square of 500 by 500 cubits with fifty cubits of open space around it, in the middle of the priests’ portion.

It is not a picture of what the place looked like. A plan is a drawing of measurements, and measurements are nearly all Ezekiel gives. He supplies almost no heights: the wall is one reed high (Ezekiel 40:5), the altar rises in named stages (Ezekiel 43:13-17), the side chambers stand in three storeys (Ezekiel 41:6). For the house itself there is no height, no roof, no material, no colour. Anything that filled those in would be our invention wearing the authority of a drawing, so the plan stops where the text stops.

The arrangement is a reconstruction, as it is on the measured page. Ezekiel states sizes far more often than he states how the parts sit together. Where he gives a size this drawing obeys it, and the compound closes on 500 cubits in both directions without being forced.

Every number behind it

This page is the plan. The measurements themselves, each one in cubits, reeds, feet and miles, with the reference it comes from, are on the temple Ezekiel measured, along with what the measuring is for and where readers of the chapter differ.

My notes