He measured the court … and the altar. The dimensions of the former, the open space in front of the temple, alone are given—a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits broad; those of the latter, which stood before the "house," and occupied the center of the square, are afterwards recorded (Ezekiel 43:13). The distance from north to south of the inner court being a hundred cubits, if to these be added twice two hundred cubits, the space between the outer court wall and that of the inner court, the result will give five hundred cubits as the breadth of the outer court, from north gate to south gate. Then as the length of the inner court was a hundred cubits, if to these be added first the hundred cubits lying before the inner court towards the east, secondly, the hundred cubits covered by the temple (Ezekiel 41:13, Ezekiel 41:14), and thirdly, the one hundred cubits which extended behind the temple (Ezekiel 41:13, Ezekiel 41:14), the total will amount to five hundred cubits for the length of the outer court from east to west. The outer court, therefore, like the inner, was a square.
With these verses the following chapter ought to have commenced, as the seer now advances to a description of the house, or temple proper, as in 1 Kings 6:2, with its three parts—a porch (verses 48, 49), a holy place (Ezekiel 41:1), and a holy of holies (Ezekiel 41:4).