Ezekiel 41:6

The side rooms were arranged one above another in three levels of thirty rooms each. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports would not be fastened into the wall of the temple itself.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Ezekiel records the architectural specifications of a future temple vision while guided by a measuring figure during the Babylonian exile. The passage details the construction phase of the temple's surrounding side chambers.

The words — The Hebrew צֵלָע (tzeLa') denotes a side-chamber or rib-like structure, while שָׁלֹשׁ (shalosh) and שְׁלֹשִׁים (sheloshim) specify the three tiers of thirty rooms each. פְּעָמִים (pe'amim) indicates the successive times or levels of this arrangement.

The thread — The description parallels Solomon’s temple in 1 Kings 6:5 and 1 Kings 6:10, which similarly records a chambered structure built against the temple walls. Ezekiel 40:17 also notes chambers laid out around a surrounding court.

Why it lands — The text requires attention to precise engineering and the deliberate separation of structural supports from the sacred wall. It asks the reader to observe how functional design preserves the integrity of the holy space.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house.

Cross-references

1 Kings 6:10 He built chambers all along the temple, each five cubits high and attached to the temple with beams of cedar.
1 Kings 6:5 Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms.
Ezekiel 40:17 Then he brought me into the outer court, and there were chambers and a pavement laid out all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement,
1 Peter 1:5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.