Ezekiel’s Measured Temple

The Bible does not end with a temple in ruins. In chapters 40 through 48, Ezekiel is shown a temple that will stand again, and he is shown it in astonishing detail. Those chapters are full of measurements, and the arithmetic is startling.

The Measuring Reed

Ezekiel watches a man measure everything with a reed:

Ezekiel 40:5 And behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about, round about, and in the hand of the man (ish אִישׁ eesh) a reed of measurement of six cubits, by the cubit and a handbreadth; and he measured the breadth of the building, one reed, and the height, one reed.

The reed is six cubits long, each a long cubit: a normal cubit plus a handbreadth. If we take that long cubit as roughly 52 centimeters, about 20.5 inches, then one reed is about 3.1 meters, a little over ten feet.

Then the measuring begins.

Ezekiel 41:13-14 And he measured the house, length a hundred cubits; and the separate place and the building and its walls, length a hundred cubits. And the breadth of the face of the house and the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits.

Ezekiel 42:16-20 He measured the spirit (ruach רוּחַ roo'-akh) of the east with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. He measured the spirit (ruach) of the north, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. The spirit (ruach) of the south he measured, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed. He turned to the spirit (ruach) of the sea, he measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. To four spirits (ruach) he measured it; it had a wall round about, round about, length five hundred and breadth five hundred, to separate between the holy and the profane.

Ezekiel 48:20 All the offering, five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand; a fourth you shall set apart, the holy offering, with the possession of the city.

Put into sizes we can picture, those numbers look like this:

The outer wall alone encloses an area about seventeen times larger than the entire Temple Mount as it stands today, and one side of that wall is about as long as the whole perimeter of today’s Temple Mount.

Ezekiel 42:16-19 names the reed as the unit, but Ezekiel 48:20 gives no unit at all. If that number is read in cubits instead, the area is about 13 kilometers on each side, roughly 8 miles. Either way, it is enormous.

It Cannot Fit

No one could build that on the mountain in Jerusalem as it is now. A platform a mile square would hang off the edges of the ridge and reach out over the valleys. So the text is telling us something about the future: the land itself has to change before this temple can stand.

The prophets tell us how it will change.

The Day the Mountain Splits

Zechariah 14:4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in its midst, toward the east and toward the west, a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

John sees the same day from another angle:

Revelation 16:18-20 And there occurred flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder, and a great earthquake occurred such as had not occurred since people have been on the earth — so great an earthquake, so mighty. And the great city became three parts, and the cities of the ethne(nations, Gentiles) fell, and Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of His orge ὀργή or-gay'(wrath). And every island fled, and mountains were not found.

Zechariah describes what the land around Jerusalem looks like afterward:

Zechariah 14:10 All the land shall be turned like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she shall be lifted up and dwell in her place, from the gate of Benjamin to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.

The land around is turned like the Arabah, the great rift valley, while Jerusalem is lifted up. Isaiah saw this too:

Isaiah 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the end of days, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established at the top of the mountains, and lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it.

And Ezekiel, before he saw a single measurement, was set down on “a very high mountain”:

Ezekiel 40:2 In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and he set me down upon a very high mountain, and upon it was like the structure of a city on the south.

Ezekiel 43:12 This is the Torah of the house: upon the head of the mountain, all its border round about, round about, is holy of holies; behold, this is the Torah of the house.

So the Temple Mount as it is now, with whatever stands on it, will not remain in its present shape. In its place, the mountain of the house of the LORD will be raised above all the hills. The earthquake makes room for Ezekiel’s temple.

A River Where There Is None

There is another detail that today’s Temple Mount cannot supply. Water flows out from under Ezekiel’s temple:

Ezekiel 47:1 And he brought me back to the entrance of the house, and behold, waters going out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house faced east; and the waters were going down from under, from the right shoulder of the house, from the south of the altar.

Ezekiel 47:8-9 And he said to me: These waters go out to the eastern region, and go down upon the Arabah, and enter the sea; to the sea the waters that are led out, and the waters are healed. And it shall be, every living soul (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh) that swarms, wherever the two rivers come, shall live (chai חַי khah'-ee); and there shall be very many fish, for these waters have come there, and they shall be healed; and everything shall live (chai) wherever the river comes.

There is no river on the Temple Mount today. Zechariah saw the same living water:

Zechariah 14:8 And it shall come to pass in that day, that living (chai) waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter shall it be.

What Happens Inside

What takes place in this temple? Ezekiel tells us that it is the place of the LORD’s throne:

Ezekiel 43:7 And he said to me: "Son of man (adam אָדָם aw-dawm'), the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell there in the midst of the sons of Israel forever; and the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, they and their kings, by their harlotry and by the carcasses of their kings, their high places;

And Passover is kept there:

Ezekiel 45:21-22 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast (chag חַג khag) of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. And the prince shall prepare on that day, for himself and for all the people of the land, a bull, a sin offering.

The priests teach the people the difference between holy and common, and between clean and unclean, as Ezekiel 44:23 says, and the next verse continues:

Ezekiel 44:24 And over a controversy they shall stand to judge; by my judgments (mishpat מִשׁפָּט mish-pawt') they shall judge it; and my Torah and my statutes (chuqqot חֻקָּה khook-kaw') in all my appointed times (moadim מוֹעֵד mo-ade') they shall keep, and my Shabbat they shall sanctify.

In the kingdom to come, with the King on His throne and a new temple standing, the priests keep God’s Torah, keep His statutes in all His appointed times, and keep His Shabbat holy. The Torah is not a temporary support that will be thrown away later. It is the way of life in the kingdom.

An Objection from Revelation

Readers who know the end of the Bible will raise an objection here. Does Revelation not say that in the end there is no temple at all, and if John saw no temple in the city, how can Ezekiel’s temple stand?

The answer is found in Zechariah 14, in a detail that makes sense only if there is a period between the King’s return and the final new creation.