The porch is now measured from north to south in "wide." "The breadth of the entry of the gate" was "ten cubits," made up of the "eight cubits," with "a cubit" for "a post" or pillar on each side Ezekiel 40:11.

Posts - A projection like a ram's horn; in architecture, a column projecting from the wall with its base, shaft, and capital, or it may be the "base" only Ezekiel 40:16, Ezekiel 40:49. Here "post" represents the lower part of the column. and the dimensions given are those of the section of the base.

The porch of the gate - See account of the gates in the plan.

Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits,.... This could not be the length of the porch from gate to gate, or from east to west, as Lipman (z); since there were five cubits between every little chamber; but the breadth of it from north to south, and was four yards and two feet over:

and the posts thereof two cubits; these were columns or pillars placed on each side of the porch, or at the portal of the gate, of two cubits, or a yard and half a foot thick; which, added to the other eight cubits, made the entrance ten cubits, as in Ezekiel 40:11 what these posts, pillars, or columns signify, see on Ezekiel 40:14,

and the porch of the gate was inward; this was the porch of the inward gate; or this was the measure of the porch within the gate.

(z) Ibid. (Lipman. Tzaurath Beth Hamikdash), sect. 6.

Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward.

40:9 The porch - Probably another porch, or another gate distinct from that, ver. 6. The posts - These were half columns, that from the floor to the height of the wall jetted out, as if one half of the column were in the wall, and the other without, and the protuberance of this half column, was one cubit.

9. posts-projecting column-faced fronts of the sides of the doorway, opposite to one another.

40:1-49 The Vision of the Temple. - Here is a vision, beginning at ch. 40, and continued to the end of the book, ch. 48, which is justly looked upon to be one of the most difficult portions in all the book of God. When we despair to be satisfied as to any difficulty we meet with, let us bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but that things necessary are plain enough; and let us wait till God shall reveal even this unto us. This chapter describes two outward courts of the temple. Whether the personage here mentioned was the Son of God, or a created angel, is not clear. But Christ is both our Altar and our Sacrifice, to whom we must look with faith in all approaches to God; and he is Salvation in the midst of the earth, Ps 74:12, to be looked unto from all quarters.