Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_200.lzh/6_230.TXT

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"here (that is, the temple) was a house for the priest.
"whose office it was to clothe the rest of the priests
" at the time of service; and he gave to every-one of
"them four sorts of garments, as were commanded,
"and fetched them out of the chests of the wardrobe;
· ' and on every chest, which were at the wails of this
"house, that is, above every one of them, was the
"name of the garment, that there might be no mistake
"nor confusion when they were wanted." And this
agrees with what is said in the Misnah s, that there was
one that was appointed over the priests' garmefits, and
who might be properly enough called the master of
the wardrobe; on which one of the commentators
says h, his business was "to clothe the priests at the
"time of service, and to unclothe them after service
"was done, and to keep the garments of the priest-
" hood in the chambers made for that purpose." Very
wrongly, therefore, is the learned Solden {} charged by
Mr. Shoringham {k}. witha mistake, in denying that the
priests wore thelr holy garments at any other time but
when they were at divine service.
Ver. 15..Nfow whenhe had made an end of measuring
the inner house, &c.] The holy place, and the holy of
halits, with all. the courts and chambers belonging to
them; even the whole building within the cam. pass of
the outermost wall, and. all that pertained unto it; the
chambers last mentioned, as well as the rest, the di-
mensions of, which are given in this and the two pre-
ceding chapters: he brought me forth toward the gate
whose prospect is toward the east: not to the east gate of
the outward wall, but to the east gate which led into
the outward court; the gate he was first brought uuto,
and which was tirst measured, ch. xl. 6: and measured
it round .about; not the east gate, nor the outward wall
that .went all ,,round the house; though this was mes-
sureA, and its dimensions given, last of all; nor the
house itself, which had been measured already; or the
figure of it, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; but
all that space that was between this building and the
wall that surrounded it; the area or compass of ground
on.which the building stood.
Ver. 16. lie measured the east side, &c.] He began
with that, being at the east gate: the building was
four-square, and so was the wall about it, and had
each .four equilateral .sides, which were separately
measured; here the east side, from the two angles of it,
the north and south points: with the measuring-reed;
which consisted of six cubits, and which cubits were
larger than the common sort by a hand's breadth; so
that a measuring-reed measured three yards and a
half: and the whole measure of the east side were
five hundred reeds: which make one thousand seven
hundred and fifty yards: with the measuring-r.eed round
about; not round about the building, since only one
side, as yet, was measured; but round about that side,
or from angle to angle, or from one side to the other:
having finished one side, he went to another, until he
had measured all round ;. but did not go four times
round it, only once.
Ver. 17. He measured. the north side, five hundred
reeds, &c.] Front the two angles of that side, east and
west; and it was of the same dimension as the east
side, .just five hundred reeds, or one thousand seven
hundred and fifty yards: with a measuring-reed round
about; he measured with the same reed, from point to
point; and having measured this side, he went to
another.
Ver. 18. He measured the south side, .five hundred
reeds, &c.] From the two angles of that side, east and
west;. and it amounted to just the same number of
reeds, even five hundred reeds, or one thousand seven
hundred and fifty yards: with the measuring-reed; the
same as before; here, and in the next verse, thc phrase
round about is not used, .but is to be understood; and
having been repeated, there was no need of mentioning
it again.
Vet. 19. Ite turned about to the west side, &c.] And
took4he dimensions of that, from angle to angle, the
south and north points of it: and measured five hundred
reeds, with the mcasurin2;-reed; and it was exactly of
the sane measure with the other three .sides.
Ver. 20. He measured it by the four sides, &c.] Which
were equilateral, parallel to each other, each mea-
suring five hundred reeds; which in all made up two
thousand reeds, or seven thousand yards: this shows
that no material building can be designed; never was
au edifice of such ditnensions; this seems rather to
describe a city than a temple; and denotes the large-
hess of the Gospel church-state in the latter day, when
the Jews will be converted, and the fulness of the
Gentiles brought in: it had a wall round about: the
same with that in ch. xl. 5: five hundred reeds long, and
five hundred broad; it was tbur-square, as the building
was, and exactly answered to that in its dimensions.
The Jews say {} the mountain of the house was five
hundred cubits by five hundred; that is, a perfect
square of five hundred cubits on every side, two thou-
sand cubits in the whole compass about. Josephus {m}
says the whole circuit was four furlongs, every side
containing the length of a furlong. Now, says Doctor
Lightfoot ", if any will take up the full circuit of the
wall that encompassed the holy ground, according to
our English measure, it will amount to half a mile.
and about one hundred and sixty-six yards; and who-
soever will likewise measure the square of Ezekiel,
ch. xlii. 20, will find it six times as large as this, ch.
xl. 5. the whole amounting to three miles and a half,
and about one hundred and forty yards, a compass in-
comparably larger than Mount Moriah divers times
over; and by this very thing is shewed that that is
spiritually and mystically to be understood; wherefore
these measures no doubt did, as Mr. Lee o observes,
gnify the great fulness of the Gentiles, and that
compass of the church in Gospel days should be
marvellously extended. The use of it was, to make a
separation between the sanctuary a,d the profane place:
the church and the world; the world is profane, and
lies in wickedness, and the men of it ought not to be

{g} Shekalim, c. 5. sect. 1.
{h} Bartenora in ib.
{i} De Success. in Pontif. Hob. 1. 2. c. 7. Vid. ib. de Synedriis, 1. 3. c.
11. sect. 6. & Braunium, de Vestitu Sacerdot. Hebr. 1. 2. c. 25.
{k} Ad Codicem Joma, c. 7. sect. 1. p. 78, 79.
{l} Misn. Middot, c. 2. sect. 1.
{m} Antiqu. 1. 15. c. 11. sect. 3. Ed. Hudson.
{n} Prospect of the Temple, c. 2. p. 1051.
{o} Temple of Solomon portrayed, &c. p. 241.