Page 230 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

224 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.

without the inner gate cells for the singers ;* one, looking
to the south, for the priests that had charge of the
house ; and one, toward the north, for those that had
charge of the altar (the court itself being 10 0 cubits
square, with the altar before the house). The chapter
concludes with measuring the porch of the house,
length and breadth, with the gate (ver. 48, 49).
It will be noticed that the sons of Zadok are speci­
fied for the service of the house. They had the pledge
of that everlasting priesthood which was annexed to
Aaron’s line. What Fhinehas, son of Eleazar, had
guaranteed to him for ever falls in due time to Zadok
who, under Solomon’s reign, set aside the line of
Ithamar according to the judgment of Jehovah pre­
dicted to Eli, after Abiatliar’s part in the rebellion of
Absalom. We shall find the same restriction repeatedly
made throughout the vision, and indeed uniformly kept
up. See chapters xliii. 19; xliv. 15; xlviii. 1 1 .
* Boothroyd here follows the conjecture of Houbigant, or rather
the version of the LXX, alleging that the rooms could not be for sing­
ers, when they were for the priests who had the charge of the altar
and of the most holy place. Hence he gives, “ And he brought me
to the inner gate, and lo, there were two rooms in the inner court,
one on the side of the north gate, and its prospect was towards
the sonth . . . . And he said unto me, This room, whose pro*
spect,” &c.