Глава 40

Ezek.40:1. And it came to pass in the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, the first month, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourth ten year after the captivity of the city, And from here it is clear that the Prophet was taken into captivity with King Jehoiachin, after whom Zedekiah reigned for eleven years less a few months; for in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign the city was taken. Therefore, the Prophet rightly said that the fourteenth year after the capture of the city was the twenty-fifth year of their captivity. on that day the hand of the Lord was on me, and he led me there, Ezek.40:2. in the vision of God, he led me to the land of Israel, and placed me on a very high mountain, on which the fence of a city is erect. The God of all, having foreshadowed their return from captivity, and having shown His power by the resurrection of these dry bones, also predicts the reconstruction of the city and the church; and not only utters words, but shows the Prophet both the city and the church in a vision, illuminating the vision of his mind with the power of the divine Spirit. But so as not to bore the readers of this book with long speeches while interpreting everything in detail, we intend to briefly make a certain list of what was spiritually shown to the God-wise Prophet. Therefore, he says: “in the vision of God,” that is, in a spiritual, and not in a sensory, vision, his spirit was taken to the land of Israel, and on a certain high mountain he saw a building, and a standing man who had the appearance of a man, but he was the color of the lightest and purest copper, holding in his hands “a reed and a rope of those building” (Ezek. 40:3), and he commanded me to see what he would show, and listen to what he has to say. For this is why, as he said, I came, to show and teach, and you told this to the house of Israel. Then, measuring with a cane, he shows me, says the Prophet, all the dimensions of the building, and first the measure of the gates of the so-called thresholds, doorways and jambs. For “elam” in the singular refers to the jamb, and in the plural “elamoth”, and also “fes” is the threshold and doorway, and in the plural “feim” is the same. For I found such an interpretation of these words from the Syrian translator. The Prophet says that he saw not only the outer gates, but also the inner gates, as well as the courtyards between them, and the inner ones, because some were assigned to certain priests, while others were accessible to all Israelites. Although the church of God had one very long and high fence around it, behind it, inside, all the open space was divided by other walls, and some was separated for the whole people, and the interior and closest to the church itself was consecrated for some priests. Therefore, he says that in the inner court he saw “thirty” barriers and pillars (Ezek. 40:17). The Syrian translator called the barriers churches, and they were separated for the priests, as the Prophet himself makes it known. God says to the God-wise Isaiah: “go into the booth” (barrier) to Somman the scribe (Is. 22:15). The Prophet also says that a hundred cubits are separated in breadth from the outer courtyards, one facing the north, another at noon, and the same amount facing the rising sun; The length of each of the inner courtyards was twenty-five cubits, and the width was fifty. He says that the gates were similar to each other in everything, both in size and in the carved images of dates. And he calls the cornices or bulges on both sides of the doors: “ailef”, and says that images of dates were carved on them (Ezek. 40:34). He also says that he saw meals placed on either side of the gates, on which the priests slaughtered the sacrifices laid out, some for burnt offerings, and others as offerings for sin and ignorance. And nearby, as the Prophet said, there was a drain (Ezek. 40:38), which received the blood of the victims and transferred it to some completely separate place. Above the meals, he says, there were covers that protected them from the attacks of rain and sun (Ezek. 40:43). After this he describes that he saw two churches, one of which faces north, the other at noon, both of which are built in courtyards; and the one facing the noon was separated to the priests guarding the church of God, and facing the north - to the priests guarding the outer altar; but those and other priests, says the Prophet, are descended from Zadok, because the God of all ancient times, according to the sentence pronounced against the high priest Eli, removed the Abiathar family from priestly service. The Prophet also says that the inner courtyard, facing the rising sun, from the porch of God's church to the gates had one hundred cubits, and its breadth was the same number of cubits, and “the breviary was straight to the church” (Ezek. 40:47). The porch of the church was twenty cubits long and fourteen wide; and its door was also fourteen cubits wide; on both sides of it there were beams, or jambs, up to the very corner, each three cubits long. For in this way the measure of twenty cubits is completed by fourteen cubits, which occupied the door, and on each side the doorposts, which are called sides by the Prophet and occupied the remaining six cubits, three cubits on one side, and three on the other.