A door led from the entry room of one of the inner gateways into a side room, where the meat for sacrifices was 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.
- BSB There was a chamber with a doorway by the portico in each of the inner gateways. There the burnt offering was to be washed.
- 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.
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, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them. The things that belonged to the burnt offering were washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
- Lev 1:9but its innards and its legs he shall wash with water. The priest shall burn all of it on the altar, for a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
- Lev 8:21He washed the innards and the legs with water; and Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt offering for a pleasant aroma. It was an offering made by fire to Yahweh; as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Heb 10:22let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
- Ezek 42:13Then he said to me, The north rooms and the south rooms, which are before the separate place, they are the holy rooms, where the priests who are near to Yahweh shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meal offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy.
- 1 Kgs 6:8The door for the middle side rooms was in the right side of the house. They went up by winding stairs into the middle floor, and out of the middle into the third.
- Ezek 41:10–11Between the rooms was a width of twenty cubits around the house on every side.
- Ezek 40:12and a border before the lodges, one cubit on this side, and a border, one cubit on that side; and the lodges, six cubits on this side, and six cubits on that side.
- Ezek 40:17Then brought he me into the outer court; and behold, there were rooms and a pavement, made for the court all around: thirty rooms were on 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.