17. Then the man brought me through the gateway into the outer courtyard of the Temple. A stone pavement ran along the walls of the courtyard, and thirty rooms were built against the walls, opening onto the pavement.
18. This pavement flanked the gates and extended out from the walls into the courtyard the same distance as the gateway entrance. This was the lower pavement.
19. Then the man measured across the Temple’s outer courtyard between the outer and inner gateways; the distance was 175 feet.
20. The man measured the gateway on the north just like the one on the east.
21. Here, too, there were three guard alcoves on each side, with dividing walls and an entry room. All the measurements matched those of the east gateway. The gateway passage was 871/2 feet long and 433/4 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves.
22. The windows, the entry room, and the palm tree decorations were identical to those in the east gateway. There were seven steps leading up to the gateway entrance, and the entry room was at the inner end of the gateway passage.