There was a chamber with a doorway by the portico in each of the inner gateways. There the burnt offering was to be washed.
Parallel translations
- WEB A room with its door was by the posts at the gates; there they washed the burnt offering.
- KJV And the chambers and the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering.
- NKJV There was a chamber and its entrance by the gateposts of the gateway, where they washed the burnt offering.
- NASB A chamber with its doorway was by the side pillars at the gates; there they rinse the burnt offering.
- NLT A door led from the entry room of one of the inner gateways into a side room, where the meat for sacrifices was washed.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Beside the gate stood a room where the burnt offerings were washed before they were presented to God. It signals that worship in this temple is set apart for what is clean and acceptable.
Overview
As the guide measures the visionary temple, Ezekiel notes the practical provisions for sacrifice, including a place to wash the burnt offering (compare Leviticus 1:9). The detail underscores God's insistence on purity in approaching him. In Christ, who offered himself without blemish (Hebrews 9:14), the need for ceremonial washing is answered once for all.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 2 Chr 4:6He also made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. The parts of the burnt offering were rinsed in them, but the priests used the Sea for washing.
- Lev 1:9The entrails and legs must be washed with water, and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
- Lev 8:21He washed the entrails and legs with water and burned the entire ram on the altar as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
- Heb 10:22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
- Ezek 42:13Then the man said to me, “The north and south chambers facing the temple courtyard are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy.
- 1 Kgs 6:8The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the middle level, and from there to the third floor.
- Ezek 41:10–11and the outer chambers was twenty cubits wide all around the temple.
- Ezek 40:12In front of each gate chamber was a wall one cubit high, and the gate chambers were six cubits square.
- Ezek 40:17Then 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,
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 40:38 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.