After that, the man brought me into the sanctuary of the Temple. He measured the walls on either side of its doorway, and they were 10-1/2 feet thick. The doorway was 17-1/2 feet wide, and the walls on each side of it were 8-3/4 feet long. The sanctuary itself was 70 feet long and 35 feet wide.
Then he went beyond the sanctuary into the inner room. He measured the walls on either side of its entrance, and they were 3-1/2 feet thick. The entrance was 10-1/2 feet wide, and the walls on each side of the entrance were 12-1/4 feet long. The inner room of the sanctuary was 35 feet long and 35 feet wide. “This,” he told me, “is the Most Holy Place.”
Then he measured the wall of the Temple, and it was 10-1/2 feet thick. There was a row of rooms along the outside wall; each room was 7 feet wide. These side rooms were built in three levels, one above the other, with thirty rooms on each level. The supports for these side rooms rested on exterior ledges on the Temple wall; they did not extend into the wall. Each level was wider than the one below it, corresponding to the narrowing of the Temple wall as it rose higher. A stairway led up from the bottom level through the middle level to the top level.
I saw that the Temple was built on a terrace, which provided a foundation for the side rooms. This terrace was 10-1/2 feet high. The outer wall of the Temple’s side rooms was 8-3/4 feet thick. This left an open area between these side rooms and the row of rooms along the outer wall of the inner courtyard. This open area was 35 feet wide, and it went all the way around the Temple. Two doors opened from the side rooms into the terrace yard, which was 8-3/4 feet wide. One door faced north and the other south.
A large building stood on the west, facing the Temple courtyard. It was 122-1/2 feet wide and 157-1/2 feet long, and its walls were 8-3/4 feet thick. Then the man measured the Temple, and it was 175 feet long. The courtyard around the building, including its walls, was an additional 175 feet in length. The inner courtyard to the east of the Temple was also 175 feet wide. The building to the west, including its two walls, was also 175 feet wide.
The sanctuary, the inner room, and the entry room of the Temple were all paneled with wood, as were the frames of the recessed windows. The inner walls of the Temple were paneled with wood above and below the windows. The space above the door leading into the inner room, and its walls inside and out, were also paneled. All the walls were decorated with carvings of cherubim, each with two faces, and there was a carving of a palm tree between each of the cherubim. One face—that of a man—looked toward the palm tree on one side. The other face—that of a young lion—looked toward the palm tree on the other side. The figures were carved all along the inside of the Temple, from the floor to the top of the walls, including the outer wall of the sanctuary.
There were square columns at the entrance to the sanctuary, and the ones at the entrance of the Most Holy Place were similar. There was an altar made of wood, 5-1/4 feet high and 3-1/2 feet across. Its corners, base, and sides were all made of wood. “This,” the man told me, “is the table that stands in the LORD’s presence.”
Both the sanctuary and the Most Holy Place had double doorways, each with two swinging doors. The doors leading into the sanctuary were decorated with carved cherubim and palm trees, just as on the walls. And there was a wooden roof at the front of the entry room to the Temple. On both sides of the entry room were recessed windows decorated with carved palm trees. The side rooms along the outside wall also had roofs.