Ezekiel 46

And meanwhile, before we discuss what these things signify, the very words of Scripture must be laid open παραφραστικῶς [by way of paraphrase]. The gate, he says, of the inner court on six days — of which it is written: Six days you shall labor and do all your works — shall be shut, and not just any gate, but the one that faces toward the east, whence the sun of righteousness rises; further, on the sabbath day, that is, the seventh, on which there is rest, it will be opened every week, and again, when thirty days are completed, when there is the end of one month and the beginning of another, on the new moon, namely the day of the kalends, it will be opened, so that the privilege the seventh day has in the week, the beginning of the month may have as its privilege too.

Let these things be set down for the sake of clarity; now, the Lord granting, let us unfold the spiritual sense. During the six days on which we work in the world, the eastern gate of the inner court is shut to us; but after we have come to the seventh day, that is, to the sabbath day on which there is eternal rest, or to the day of the kalends, when after blind night and dreadful darkness there is the beginning of light, the eastern gate is opened to us; and if any of us, through the merits of the virtues, has attained the name and dignity of a leader, he will enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate from outside, that is, through the labors of this world, and through the gate of the Church, which is still set within earthly bounds, not into the inner court — for this is what is written in the present passage — but to the threshold of the inner gate: and he will stand in it; but if the prince in the present scripture does not enter the inner court, but stands on its threshold, no one doubts that we now see in part and know in part, and do not yet contemplate the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. Then, while the prince stands on the threshold of the gate of the inner court, the other priests, to whom this office has been delegated — whom we can understand as the angelic powers —, will make for him the holocaust and peace offerings — for we need the mercy of God, and every creature, in comparison with the Creator, is unclean and must be purged by the divine fire, by which the lips of the prophet Isaiah too were purged —, so that, after he has received peace through the sacrifice, then, standing on the threshold, he may worship the omnipotence of God and confess himself unworthy of entering the inner court, and at once go out; but after he who is first has gone out, that very gate of the inner court will not be shut until the evening of this age, but will be open, so that the people of the land too may be at the entrance and worship toward him: by no means at every time, but when they have rested from sins and, the darkness of faith having been put to flight, have received the light of knowledge.

But why the gate of the inner court that faces toward the east is opened on the seventh day and on the day of the kalends, the following discourse will show: And the prince shall enter, he says, by the way of the gate from outside — namely of the outer court —, and shall stand on the threshold of the gate — of the inner court, which faces the east —, and he shall not enter the inner court, but, while he stands, other priests are to make for him the 'holocaust' — which Symmachus translated 'offering' —, and the peace offerings — or those which pertain to salvation —, so that, after the prince's victim has been burned up by the sacred fire and the leader has been reconciled to God, he may then worship upon the threshold of the gate of the inner court on which he has stood, and go out. What then? After the prince's going out will the gate be shut at once? By no means, but it will be open until evening, so that after the prince: All the people of the land may worship before the entrance of that gate: and they are to worship on the sabbaths and on the kalends, when the gate is opened.

And since he had said above: The priests shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings, and had not indicated the number of the holocaust, he now adds: And this holocaust the prince shall offer to the Lord on the sabbath day — he will offer it, however, not by himself, but through the priests, of whom it is written: And the priests shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings —: six, he says, lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish, so that the sacrifice of the ram is the measure of an 'oephi' — which in Hebrew is called 'epha' —, while for the six lambs the sacrifice is what the hand of the one who offers was able to offer, and for each 'oephi' there will be the measure of oil that is called 'hin'; but the kalends, that is, the day of the new moons, had this privilege beyond the sabbath day, that: A calf from the herd (or a bull) without blemish be sacrificed, while the rest, that is, the six lambs without blemish and the ram without blemish and their sacrifices, will keep the rite of the sabbath, only in such a way that, just as with the ram an 'oephi' of sacrifice is offered, that is, of fine flour, and a 'hin' of oil, so it is offered with the calf too.

And this very holocaust, which the prince offers through the priests on the sabbath day, is bounded by the number of six lambs without blemish — namely after the six days on which we work in the world — and a ram without blemish, which is the prince of the flock, so that for each ram an 'oephi' is offered in sacrifice, that is, the tenth part of a 'corus'; but in the sacrifice of the six lambs no fixed measure is laid down, but as much as the hand of the one who offers shall give, that is, according to the quality and measure of his works; and he will offer a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi' — that is, the oil which the five virgins prepared for themselves —, to anoint the fine flour or mix it, so that every offering to God may be full of the light of truth, and the face of the one who offers may be made glad with oil; but on the day of the kalends, that is, the thirtieth day, when the firstborn and the Levites are numbered according to the law apart from all Israel, of whom we spoke above, a calf from the herd without blemish is offered — about which we discoursed more fully in the previous chapter — and six lambs and a ram without blemish, and the rest that are offered on the sabbaths, so that we may attain eternal rest and may deserve to hear: Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a few things, I will set you over many: enter into the rest of your Lord, and may be able not only to come to the gate of the inner court but also to enter its innermost parts, and to possess in deed that saying: Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

Thus says the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that faces toward the east shall be shut on the six days on which work is done; but on the sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the kalends also it shall be opened, and the prince shall enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall stand on the threshold of the gate, and the priests shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings, and he shall worship upon the threshold of the gate, and shall go out; but the gate shall not be shut until evening. And the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of that gate on the sabbaths and kalends before the Lord. And this holocaust the prince shall offer to the Lord on the sabbath day: six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish, and a sacrifice of an 'oephi' for the ram, but for the lambs a sacrifice such as his hand shall give, and a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi'; but on the day of the kalends: a calf from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram shall be without blemish, and an 'oephi' for the calf, an 'oephi' also for the ram he shall make as a sacrifice, but for the lambs as his hand shall find, and a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi'. Where we have translated 'oephi', which is the tenth part of a 'corus', the Seventy translated πέμμα, which in our language means 'cooking'; and where we said 'sacrifice', they set down the Hebrew word itself, 'manaa', which Aquila translated 'gift' or 'sacrifice', Theodotion 'sacrifice'.

And when the prince enters, let him enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate, and let him go out by the same way. And when the people of the land enter in the sight of the Lord on the solemn feasts, he who enters by the gate of the north to worship, let him go out by the way of the southern gate; and he who enters by the way of the southern gate, let him go out by the way of the gate of the north: he shall not return by the way of the gate by which he entered, but shall go out opposite it. But the prince in their midst shall enter with those who enter and shall go out with those who go out. And on market days and on solemn feasts the sacrifice shall be an 'oephi' for the calf and an 'oephi' for the ram, but for the lambs the sacrifice shall be as his hand shall find, and a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi'. That prince, of whom it was said above: And the prince shall enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate from outside, is both to enter by the same way and to go out by the same way: for he is of free will and has power to lay down his life and to take it up again, and, as much in coming to us as in ascending to the heavenly places, he uses the same freedom of his majesty.

The southern gate represents the Old Testament, while the northern gate represents the New. Those said to come from the south represent the Jews; those from the north represent the Gentiles. The Jews, then, who knew God and to whom the Law had been given from the direction of the sun, that is, from the south, where the sun burns more fiercely, are rightly said to come to the Church. They entered through the southern gate because, recognizing that Christ had been prophesied in many ways and prefigured in various forms in the Old Testament, they were drawn by their own Scriptures to embrace faith in Christ. The Gentiles, however, abandoning idolatry and renouncing the one who said, “I will sit on the mountain of the covenant, on the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:13), are fittingly said to come from the north. They entered through the northern gate because, hearing the teaching of the Gospel and marveling at the miracles performed through Christ and his ministers, they rushed to embrace faith in Christ. It was also commanded that no one return by the way he had entered, but that he leave by the gate opposite: whoever entered through the southern gate was to leave through the northern, and whoever entered through the northern was to leave through the southern. The Jews, whom understanding the Old Testament led to embrace faith in Christ, were not to return by the way they had come, that is, to observe the legal ordinances in a bodily manner. Rather, they were to leave through the northern gate, turning to ponder and examine the teaching of the Gospel, so that they might learn to fulfill spiritually what they had previously attempted to do in a bodily manner. The Gentiles, who entered through the northern gate, that is, who became children of the Church through the teaching of the Gospel, were not to return by the way they had come, namely, by going back to investigate the errors of the philosophers. Instead, after embracing the faith and teaching of the Gospel, they were to turn to the southern gate, that is, to examine the teaching of the Old Testament. When they found Christ foretold there in many ways, their faith in Christ would be strengthened.

Then too, he does not seek market days or solemn feasts, nor does he observe any difference of days, because every time is a festival as well; but the people enter and go out only on market days and on solemn feasts, and not by the same way, but by one way and then another: for it is written: And when the people of the land enter in the sight of the Lord on the solemn feasts, he who enters by the gate of the north to worship, let him go out by the way of the southern gate; and he who enters by the way of the southern gate, let him go out by the way of the gate of the north: he shall not return by the way of the gate by which he entered, but shall go out opposite it — which is commanded not only to those who go out of Sodom, and to whom it is said: Do not look back, nor only to those who put their hand to the plow, that they not look back at the things that are behind their back, but those too who are set in the house of the Lord are commanded not to look behind their backs and return to the weak and beggarly elements, and, having begun in the spirit, be finished in the flesh, but to advance from spiritual things also to greater ones and to say with the Apostle: Forgetting the things past, and stretching myself out to the things before, so that they may by no means know in part and prophesy in part, but come to the perfect: yet according to that perfection which human nature can contain, so that we may understand that saying of the Gospel: And you, when you have done all things, say: We are unprofitable servants; what we ought to do, we have done; whence the Apostle too, in the same epistle, speaks of two perfections: for as one perfect he writes: Not that I have already received, and that I am already perfect; but I pursue, if I may lay hold of that in which I also have been laid hold of by Christ, and at once he speaks as one perfect: But one thing: forgetting the things behind, stretching myself out to the things that are before, I pursue according to the purpose toward the prize of the upward calling. As many therefore as are perfect, we are of this mind — for how can the statement stand, that he who had said: Not that I have already received or that I am already perfect, should dare to say: As many therefore as are perfect, we are of this mind? —, from which it is plain that every human being and the whole creation, although it has come to perfection, nevertheless needs the mercy of God and possesses full perfection from grace, not from merit —. And so the people of the land are commanded that, if they enter by the gate of the north to worship, they go out by the way of the southern gate. Who is this people to whom this is commanded? Surely that of the Gentiles: so that he who, leaving the gate of the north — from which: Evils blaze up upon the earth —, has entered the temple, should not go out except by the way of the southern gate, to the gate of light, to the gate of warmth, to the gate at which the bridegroom lies at noon; and indeed it is said in the same Song of Songs: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind. But he who enters by the way of the southern gate also goes out by the way of the gate of the north. Which people is that? Clearly that of the Jews, which, leaving the way of the gate of light, goes to the gate of the north — of which it is said: The north wind is a most harsh wind; for Jeremiah's pot too is kindled from the face of the north —. Let us say it another way too: he enters by the gate of the north who lets go of sins, and he goes out by the southern gate who follows the virtues; and conversely, if a righteous man has fallen into sins, he enters indeed by the southern gate, but goes out by the way of the gate of the north.

But the prince, he says, in their midst will be, namely in the midst of those entering and going out, according to what is written: In the midst among you stands one whom you do not know, and the Apostle: Or do you not know that Christ is in you? — but if it is said to those who do not know that Christ stands in their midst, how much more to those who know; but when Christ has stood among those who know, then the body will become dead because of sin and the spirit living because of righteousness! —; and the prince enters with those who enter, and goes out with those who go out, standing by as witness of both, of virtue and of sin.

Therefore on market days and on solemn feasts — namely of the sabbaths and kalends and of every festival, of which we have spoken earlier — both with the calf and with the ram a single 'oephi' will be offered in sacrifice; but with the lambs there will be no fixed number, nor is the choice left to the will, but one will use his strength and the good of his conscience, so as to offer as much as he can, not as much as he wishes; and over all, a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi', so that the fine flour may be anointed and the lamp lit in the sight of the Lord, and those who use it may be able to say: But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of the Lord.

But when the prince makes a spontaneous holocaust or voluntary peace offerings to the Lord, the gate that faces toward the east shall be opened for him, and he shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings as is usually done on the sabbath day, and he shall go out, and the gate shall be shut after he has gone out. And a yearling lamb without blemish he shall make as a holocaust daily to the Lord; morning by morning he shall make it. And a sacrifice (or manaa) he shall make with it morning by morning, a sixth part of an 'oephi' (or of a measure), and of oil a third part of a 'hin', to be mixed (or according to Symmachus sprinkled) with the fine flour; a sacrifice (or manaa) to the Lord, lawful, continual and perpetual. You shall make the lamb and the sacrifice and the oil morning by morning, an everlasting holocaust. Where we read 'without blemish' and in the Hebrew is written 'thamim', Aquila translates 'perfect'; and where the Seventy have 'manaa', Theodotion translated 'sacrifice', Aquila and Symmachus 'gift'; and for what we said, 'spontaneous', the Seventy rendered ὁμολογίαν, that is, 'confession'; and for 'prince', 'leader', for this is what 'basi' means. Moreover, the discourse is still about the prince — of whom Isaiah speaks: Behold, I have given him as a testimony among the nations, a prince and instructor among the nations, and Ezekiel: And I the Lord will be their God, and David a prince in their midst —. When therefore this prince makes a spontaneous — and says: The voluntary (or spontaneous) things of my mouth make well pleasing, O Lord —: and a 'spontaneous' holocaust, so that he offers the whole to God, and 'voluntary' peace offerings — which is not found in the earlier passages, for it is written: And the priests shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings, and about the spontaneous and voluntary ones, of which it now speaks, there is complete silence —, so that he does it not by necessity but by will; after the holocaust let him offer peace offerings, and be reconciled to God — whence virginity too is greater than marriage, because it is neither exacted nor rendered, but offered —; for 'peace offerings', which in Hebrew are called 'selamim', the Seventy translate 'saving offerings': so that the very reconciliation of the peace offerings may be the salvation of the one who offers. When therefore the prince has done this: The gate will be opened for him (or, according to the Seventy, he will open the gate for himself) that faces toward the east — that gate, namely, of which it is written: This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter by it, and whence the sun of righteousness rises —. And he shall make, he says, his holocaust and his peace offerings — of which we have just spoken —; and 'he shall make': as being a spontaneous sacrifice, and not other priests 'shall make' it for him: namely as is usually done on the sabbath day; therefore at every time the holocaust and peace offering that is offered voluntarily has the gate of the Lord unbarred, and it does not observe the sabbath, but all days are reckoned to it as rest. Then, after he has offered the holocaust and peace offerings, at once: He goes out, and the door is shut after him (or he shuts the door), so that the prince's privilege may be kept for him and his sacrifices not be mingled with the people.

And since he had said in general: A spontaneous holocaust or voluntary peace offerings to the Lord, and had not added bull or calf, ram or sheep, and a he-goat for sin, he teaches what this holocaust is: A yearling lamb, he says, without blemish he shall make as a holocaust; and not on fixed days, but: daily; nor at any other hour, but: morning by morning he shall make it: namely each 'morning', when, the sun having risen, there is the beginning of light — of which 'morning' David speaks in a psalm: In the morning you will hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before you, and will see, and in another place: In the evening weeping will linger, and in the morning gladness, and again: O God, my God, to you I keep watch from the morning. But who this lamb without blemish, or perfect, and yearling is, Isaiah teaches more fully, saying: As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer, without voice and not opening his mouth, and Jeremiah: But I, like an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, did not know, and John the evangelist: Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; this is the lamb that is sacrificed in Egypt and with whose blood the doorposts of faith are armed, and the destroyer is shut out; and a yearling, because: He proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of retribution. Nor let the reader wonder if the same one is both prince and priest and calf and ram and lamb, since in the holy Scriptures, according to the variety of circumstances, we read of him as Lord and God and man and prophet and rod and flower and root and prince and judge and righteous king and righteousness, apostle and bishop, arm, servant, ointment, shepherd, son and child, only-begotten and firstborn, door, way, angel, arrow and wisdom, and many other things, for all of which, if I wished to cite the testimonies, they would need a book of their own —.

And so in the holocaust of this lamb, without blemish and a yearling, which is always offered in the morning: the prince himself shall make a sacrifice (or 'manaa', and fine flour or gift) morning by morning, a sixth part of an 'oephi', of fine flour being understood — and a sixth part of an 'oephi' is half a modius; for if an 'oephi' is the tenth part of a 'corus', that is, three modii, no one doubts that the sixth part of an 'oephi' makes half a modius —. Of the oil also, a third part of the measure 'hin' is offered, to be mixed (or sprinkled) with the fine flour; a sacrifice to the Lord, lawful, continual and perpetual, which is interrupted on no day but at every time, when the sun has risen, is always offered, so that what is set at the end of this chapter may be fulfilled: He shall make the lamb for a sacrifice, and the oil, morning by morning, an everlasting holocaust.

Thus says the Lord God: If the prince (or leader) gives a gift to any of his sons, his inheritance shall belong to his sons; they shall possess it by inheritance. But if he gives a legacy from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of remission (for which Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, deror), but it shall return to the prince; but his inheritance shall belong to his sons. And the prince shall not take from the inheritance of the people by violence and from their possession, but from his own possession he shall give an inheritance to his sons, so that my people be not scattered, each one from his possession. Thus far the discourse about the prince; now precepts are given about his heirs, or rather about gifts, inheritance and legacies: to whom he ought to give, and whose the possession is, whether for a time or everlasting. 'If', he says, 'he gives either a gift or an inheritance to his sons, they will possess it, because it is owed to them by right of succession, and the possession cannot pass from one to another; but if he gives it to one of his servants under the name of a legacy, he will hold the possession only so long as until either the seventh year, of remission, which is called 'deror', or the jubilee, that is, the fiftieth, arrives, when every purchase and gift will return to its former owners: so that the servant has the use for a time, and the sons of the prince the ownership of the possession'.

But what follows: And the prince shall not take from the inheritance of the people by violence (or, as the Seventy translated, so as to oppress them, or, as Aquila and Symmachus, afflict them and sadden them), but from his own possession he shall give an inheritance to his sons, censures not only the priests and princes of that time but also those of ours, who grow richer through the dignity of the priesthood and, beyond what is owed them by the Lord's ordinance, take from the poor by violence, or despoil the rich under the name of honor, so that even to their own sons, to whom the paternal inheritance is owed, they ought to leave nothing except what was left to them by their parents; therefore the priest who is richer than when he came to the priesthood ought to give whatever more he has, not to his sons, but to the poor and to the holy brothers and to those of the household of faith, who surpass the merits of his children, so that he may render to his Lord the things that are the Lord's — who speaks in the Gospel: Whatever you have done to one of these, you have done to me; for he himself, in the poor, is received in hospitality, visited in prison, clothed when naked, drinks when thirsty, is filled when hungry —: So that my people be not scattered from its possession: for if the prince has license either to take or to seize or to hold under the guise of honor what is not his and to leave it to his children, the people that had been gathered in the name of God will be scattered into parts and torn apart, or, according to the law, the inheritance of one may gradually pass to another and the cord of division perish, through which, as it happened, the inheritance came to each one; therefore he scatters the people of God and takes from it the everlasting possession of faith who leaves to his sons and brothers and kinsmen the goods of others, whether by plunder or by flattery or by blandishments or under the pretext of religion.

And he brought me in by the entrance that was at the side (or behind the back) of the gate into the chambers of the sanctuary for the priests (or exedras, and cells) that faced toward the north, and behold, there was a place sloping toward the west (or toward the sea, and, as the Seventy translated, separated); and he said to me: This is the place where the priests will cook for trespass and for sin (or for ignorance and for sin), where they will cook the sacrifice (or manaa, and gift), so that they do not carry it out into the outer court and the people be sanctified. And he brought me out into the outer court and led me around through the four corners of the court, and behold, there was a little court in a corner of the court, a little court in each corner of the court. In the four corners of the court little courts were laid out, of forty cubits in length and thirty in breadth: the four were of one measure. And a wall round about encircled the four little courts, and kitchens were built beneath the porticoes all around (or beside the couches, which Aquila translated στιβάδας [pallets], Symmachus περιφράγματα [enclosures], while Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, turoth). And he said, he says, to me: This is the house of the kitchens, in which the ministers of the house cook the victims of the people (or victim, for this is what zeba means in Hebrew). The man who held a reed in his hand and a mason's cord with which to measure the building: 'He brought me in', he says, 'by the entrance that was at the side of the gate (or behind the back of the gate) — and he did not state which gate, the eastern, the southern or that of another quarter, but left it uncertain —, so that I went to the place of the sanctuary and into the chambers, or rooms, of the priests, which faced toward the north and toward the sea': namely toward the northern quarter and toward the west, Holy Scripture having this custom, that by reason of the position of the land of Judah it always calls the west the sea — and it must be considered that the place of the priests where for trespass (or for ignorance) and for sin the sacrifices are cooked, lest they be carried out raw into the outer court, is set toward the north and the west, whence the coldest wind arises and where the light of the sun goes down; from which it is shown that whatever pertains to food is either for error or for sin: but if a sacrifice is offered even for ignorance, how much more for the consciousness of trespass!: whence Job too offered a victim every day in the morning for his sons, fearing lest they had transgressed through ignorance —.

But what follows: 'So that they do not carry it out into the outer court and the people be sanctified, the people who had not been prepared for sanctification', signifies this: that we should not readily give holy things to the unsanctified; that we should not, according to the Gospel, cast pearls before swine nor give what is holy to dogs — indeed Moses wishes the people to be sanctified for three days from all uncleanness and from the embrace of wives, so that they may approach Mount Sinai and, sanctified, receive holy things. But if those about to approach to hear and receive the words of God are commanded to be sanctified from their wives, it is manifest that that apostolic saying too is contained in the law: Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may be free for prayer; and that by consent one must abstain from wives, that we may be free for prayer —.

After this it is written: And he brought me out into the outer court and led me around through the four corners of the court, and behold, there was a little court in a corner of the court, a little court in each corner of the court; in the four little courts of the corner, little courts laid out; that man whom he often mentions brought him out of the place of the priests which sloped toward the north, or which was separated, where the priests cook for trespass and for sin or ignorance; and he brought him out into the outer court: from which we understand that the court from which he went out was the inner one, and that there are many courts in the holy Scriptures — of which we read: You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, and in John: And other sheep I have, which are not 'of this court'; and them too I must bring: and they will hear my voice, and there will be one 'court' and one shepherd — for this is what the Greek αὐλή means, which Latin simplicity translated as 'fold' —: for when he says 'of this court', he shows that there is another as well, which is pointed out either in the throng of the nations, as distinct from Israel, or in the heavens, as separate from the earthly court, and that to each office a court has been assigned according to the quality of merits, a subject that was argued more fully earlier —; and this court, of which the discourse now is, had four little courts, one in each corner — which the Seventy call 'lesser ones' and we, for ease of sense, have called ὑποκοριστικῶς [in diminutive form] 'little courts' —: they were of forty cubits in length and thirty in breadth, numbers which I remember having discussed in this same prophet: that the one refers to tribulations and straits, the other to the perfect age — whence Moses and Elijah and the Lord and Savior fasted forty days in the desert; and they come to the priestly office not, as the Seventy have it, after the twenty-fifth year of age, but after the thirtieth, for which reason the Lord too was thirty years old when he came to baptism, and in this same prophet the thirtieth year is set at the beginning. Where, therefore, there is food, there are also the straits and the temptation through which food is procured; and when we have come to the age of the perfect man, there everything must be trodden underfoot, and one must say: Having food and clothing, with these we are content, and: If the Lord gives me food to eat and clothing to cover me, or surely that saying: Food for the belly and the belly for foods: but God will destroy both it and them; for in the future we shall not eat and drink, but shall feed on that bread: Which came down from heaven, of which it is sung in the psalter: Man will eat the bread of angels, and: My food is to do the will of him who sent me —.

And that the four little courts which occupied the corners of the greater court were of one measure signifies the four quarters of the world: that we eat bread in the sweat of our face and all our labor profits the belly and the dung.

And these four little courts one wall also encircled: And kitchens were built beneath the porticoes all around, or they had couches nearby, so that where the food was, there was also the preparing of the tables.

And lest the prophet perhaps not know what he was seeing, he said to him: This is the house of the kitchens, in which the ministers of the Lord will cook the victims of the people: victims of the people indeed, which are offered for trespass or for sin and ignorance, but nourishment and refreshment for the priests, so that they may remember that they ought to desire nothing else, since even in the temple refreshments for their flesh have been prepared.