Some time after this Temple was built, the Jews [473] added a New Court, on the eastern side of the Priests Court, before the King’s gate, and therein built [474] a covert for the Sabbath:  this Court was not measured by Ezekiel, but the dimensions thereof may be gathered from those of the Womens Court, in the second Temple, built after the example thereof:  for when Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the first Temple, Zerubbabel, by the commissions of Cyrus and Darius, built another upon the same area, excepting the Outward Court, which was left open to the Gentiles:  and this Temple [475] was sixty cubits long, and sixty broad, being only two stories in height, and having only one row of treasure-chambers about it:  and on either side of the Priests Court were double buildings for the Priests, built upon three rows of marble pillars in the lower story, with a row of cedar beams or pillars in the stories above:  and the cloyster in the lower story looked towards the Priests Court:  and the Separate Place, and Priests Court, with their buildings on the north and south sides, and the Womens Court, at the east end, took up an area three hundred cubits long, and two hundred broad, the Altar standing in the center of the whole.  The Womens Court was so named, because the women came into it as well as the men:  there were galleries for the women, and the men worshipped upon the ground below:  and in this state the second Temple continued all the Reign of the Persians; but afterwards suffered some alterations, especially in the days of Herod.

This description of the Temple being taken principally from Ezekiel’s Vision thereof; and the ancient Hebrew copy followed by the Seventy, differing in some readings from the copy followed by the editors of the present Hebrew, I will here subjoin that part of the Vision which relates to the Outward Court, as I have deduced it from the present Hebrew, and the version of the Seventy compared together.

Ezekiel chap. xl. ver. 5, &c.

[476] And behold a wall on the outside of the House round about, at the distance of fifty cubits from it, aabb:  and in the man’s hand a measuring reed six cubits long by the cubit, and an hand-breadth:  so he measured the breadth of the building, or wall_, one reed, and the height one reed. [477] Then came he unto the gate of the House, which looketh towards the east, and went up the seven steps thereof, AB, and measured the threshold of the gate, CD, which was one reed broad, and the Porters little chamber, EFG, one reed long, and one reed broad; and the arched passage between the little chambers, FH, five cubits:  and the second little chamber, HIK, a reed broad and a reed long; and the arched passage, IL,