Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Ezekiel
Chapter 42: A Separation Between the Holy and the Common
The guide finishes the temple survey by measuring the priests' chambers and then the whole precinct. The chambers on the north and south are 'holy chambers,' where the priests 'that approach unto the LORD' eat the most holy portions of the offerings and lay aside the garments in which they minister, so that the holy is never carried carelessly into the common. Then the guide measures the entire square, five hundred reeds on each side, and states the purpose of the great enclosing wall in a single phrase that sums up the whole design: 'to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.' God is holy, and His dwelling is set apart, guarded on every side, so that His people may learn to put a difference between the holy and the common.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Ezekiel chapter 42, the priests' chambers and the outer measurement of the temple precinct. For each section you will find the KJV text, key word studies, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. This chapter closes the survey of the temple complex (chapters 40-42) before the glory of God returns in chapter 43. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Holy Chambers
Where the priests eat the most holy things of the offerings.
Laid Aside as Holy
Ministering robes not carried out into the common court.
Five Hundred Reeds
The whole precinct measured, foursquare and walled.
Holy and Profane Divided
A wall "to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place."
Where the Priests That Approach Unto the LORD Shall Eat (Ezekiel 42:1-14)
The guide measures the chambers set apart for the priests, where they eat the most holy portions of the offerings and lay aside their holy garments, so that what is consecrated to God is never carried carelessly into the common court.
For the Place Is Holy
"Then he brought me forth into the utter court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate place, and which was before the building toward the north. Before the length of an hundred cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits. Over against the twenty cubits which were for the inner court, and over against the pavement which was for the utter court, was gallery against gallery in three stories. And before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits breadth inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors toward the north. Now the upper chambers were shorter: for the galleries were higher than these, than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building. For they were in three stories, but had not pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore the building was straitened more than the lowest and the middlemost from the ground. And the wall that was without over against the chambers, toward the utter court on the forepart of the chambers, the length thereof was fifty cubits. For the length of the chambers that were in the utter court was fifty cubits: and, lo, before the temple were an hundred cubits. And from under these chambers was the entry on the east side, as one goeth into them from the utter court. The chambers were in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place, and over against the building. And the way before them was like the appearance of the chambers which were toward the north, as long as they, and as broad as they: and all their goings out were both according to their fashions, and according to their doors. And according to the doors of the chambers that were toward the south was a door in the head of the way, even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one entereth into them. Then said he unto me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they be holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy. When the priests enter therein, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the utter court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy; and shall put on other garments, and shall approach to those things which are for the people."
Word Study
"the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things." The holiest portions of the offerings, "the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering", were given to the priests to eat in the holy chambers. Those who served God at the altar were sustained by what was offered to God. Paul draws the principle straight into the church: "they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple... Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).
"lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy." The priests were not to walk out into the common "utter court" wearing the robes in which they served at the altar; they laid them in the holy chambers and "put on other garments" to mingle with the people. The holy was not to be treated as common. This care over even the priests' clothing dramatizes the whole lesson of the temple: God's people must "put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean" (Leviticus 10:10).
Explanation
The guide measures a block of three-story "chambers" on the north (and matching ones on the south), built into the temple precinct. Then he explains their purpose: "they be holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things." Here the priests would eat the sacred portions of the offerings and store them, "for the place is holy."
Verse 14 adds a striking detail about the priests' conduct. When they finished ministering, they were not to go straight out "into the utter court" still wearing their holy garments; they must lay those robes in the holy chambers and "put on other garments" before approaching "those things which are for the people." The garments consecrated for God's service were not to be casually paraded among the people. Even the clothing enforced the difference between the holy and the common. Nothing about drawing near to God was to be treated as ordinary.
Gospel Focus
Two truths shine here. First, God provides for those who serve Him. The priests ate "the most holy things"; they lived from the altar they served. The Lord still "ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:14), and more broadly, all who give themselves to God's service will find that He sustains them from His own table. Second, the care over the priests' garments teaches reverence, that the holy things of God are never to be treated as common. In an age that wants everything casual, the temple insists that God is holy and that approaching Him is a sacred thing. This is not cold formalism; it is the reverence that flows from knowing who God is. The New Testament keeps the same call: "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16), and "follow... holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). The believer, now a priest in Christ, is likewise to keep a difference between the holy and the profane, refusing to drag the sacred down to the level of the careless world.
A Separation Between the Sanctuary and the Profane Place (Ezekiel 42:15-20)
The guide measures the whole precinct, five hundred reeds on each of the four sides, a perfect square, and names the purpose of its enclosing wall: to divide the holy from the common.
It Had a Wall Round About
"Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about. He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about. He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed. He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place."
Word Study
"to make a separation," l'havdil (לְהַבְדִּיל). To divide, to separate. It is the same verb God used at creation when He "divided the light from the darkness" (Genesis 1:4), and the very word behind the priests' charge to "put difference between holy and unholy" (Leviticus 10:10). This single word states the purpose of the entire wall, and indeed of the whole temple design: to guard the line between the holy and the common. God is holy, and holiness must be protected from careless mixture with the profane.
"the sanctuary and the profane place," chol (חֹל). The word "profane" here does not mean wicked; it means common, ordinary, not consecrated. The wall separates the holy space from ordinary space. Holiness, in Scripture, always carries this sense of being set apart for God. The people of God are called by the same principle to be distinct, "come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord" (2 Corinthians 6:17).
Explanation
Having "made an end of measuring the inner house," the guide steps back and measures the whole precinct from the outside. Each of the four sides is "five hundred reeds", a vast perfect square, enclosed by "a wall round about." Then, in the last words of the chapter, he states the reason for the entire enclosing wall: "to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place."
This one phrase is the key to the whole temple vision. All the measuring, all the gates and courts and chambers, all the walls, serve a single purpose, to guard the holiness of God's dwelling by keeping a clear line between what is holy and what is common. The wall does not exist to keep people from God arbitrarily; it exists because God is holy, and access to Him must be on His terms, through the appointed way. The whole architecture is a sermon on holiness.
Gospel Focus
"To make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place" holds a truth the gospel both keeps and transforms. God is holy; that never changes, and Scripture still calls His people to holiness, "be ye separate," "be ye holy; for I am holy." The line between the holy and the common is real, and the believer is not to erase it by dragging the sacred into the careless mud of the world. Yet here is the wonder of the gospel: the wall that once shut sinners out has been dealt with in Christ. Paul says Jesus "hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us" (Ephesians 2:14), not by making God less holy, but by making us holy in Himself. The separation between us and God is not overcome by lowering His holiness but by His holiness being given to us, "of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us... sanctification" (1 Corinthians 1:30). So we hold both together: we honor the difference between holy and common, keeping ourselves for God, and we rejoice that in Christ the wall that barred us is thrown down and we are brought inside, made a "holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9), a sanctuary where God Himself dwells.
Chapter 42 in Review
Ezekiel 42 completes the survey of the temple complex. The guide measures the "holy chambers" where "the priests that approach unto the LORD" eat the most holy portions of the offerings, and notes their care to lay aside their ministering garments rather than carry the holy into the common court, "for the place is holy." Then he measures the whole precinct, "five hundred reeds" on every side, a perfect walled square, and sums up the purpose of the entire design in one phrase: the wall is "to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place."
For the Apostolic reader the chapter drives home the holiness of God and the reverence it demands. God provides for those who serve Him, sustaining His ministers from His own altar, and He insists that the holy never be treated as common, guarding the line even in the priests' clothing. The whole walled temple exists to "put difference between holy and unholy." The gospel keeps this call to holiness, "be ye holy," "be ye separate", while proclaiming the greater news that in Christ the wall which shut sinners out has been broken down, not by cheapening God's holiness but by making us holy in Him. We honor the sacred and refuse to drag it into the profane, and at the same time we enter with boldness, brought inside by the blood of Jesus, made ourselves a holy dwelling for God.
- God sustains those who serve Him: the priests ate "the most holy things" from the altar (42:13; 1 Corinthians 9:13-14).
- The holy is not to be treated as common, guarded even in the priests' garments (42:14; Leviticus 10:10).
- The whole temple design serves one purpose: "to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place" (42:20).
- "Profane" means common, not consecrated; holiness means set apart for God (42:20; 2 Corinthians 6:17).
- The gospel keeps the call to holiness: "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (42:14, 20; 1 Peter 1:16; Hebrews 12:14).
- In Christ the wall that barred sinners is broken down, and we are made a holy nation (42:20; Ephesians 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9).
Questions for Reflection
- The priests kept a clear line between holy and common. Where do you need to guard that difference in your own life?
- God sustained His ministers from His altar. How does that shape the way you support those who serve God?
- The whole temple existed to protect God's holiness. Has the casual spirit of the age dulled your sense of God's holiness?
- In Christ the dividing wall is broken while His holiness remains. How do you hold both reverence and boldness before God?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). Key terms: l'havdil ("to make a separation," verse 20), the same verb as Genesis 1:4 and Leviticus 10:10; chol ("profane," meaning common, not consecrated, verse 20). Priests sustained from the offerings: Leviticus 6:16-18, 26; applied to gospel ministers in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14. Putting difference between holy and common: Leviticus 10:10; Ezekiel 44:23. The call to holiness and separation: 1 Peter 1:16; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Hebrews 12:14. The dividing wall broken in Christ: Ephesians 2:14; believers made holy and a holy nation: 1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Peter 2:9. This chapter closes the temple survey (chapters 40-42) before the return of the glory in chapter 43. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The priests' holy chambers, eating the most holy things, and the holy garments: Ezekiel 42:1-14; 1 Corinthians 9:13-14; Leviticus 10:10; 1 Peter 1:16.
- The whole precinct measured, and the wall to separate holy from common: Ezekiel 42:15-20; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9.