which flanked the gateways and corresponded to the length of the gates; this was the lower pavement.
The measuring-reed which was in the hand of the surveyor-general was mentioned before, Eze 40:3. Here we are told (Eze 40:5) what was the exact length of it, which must be observed, because the house was measured by it. It was six cubits long, reckoning, not by the common cubit, but the cubit of the sanctuary, the sacred cubit, by which it was fit that...
Commenting on Ezekiel 40:5-26
And the pavement by the sides of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement. That is, this pavement, which went along by every gate, and answered the length of them, and what appertained to them, east, west, north, and south, was either lower than the pavement in the inward court, adjoining to this, to which there was an ascent...
The higher pavement was level with the entrance of the gates, the lower was on either side of the raised pavement thus formed. Whereas Solomon's temple had an outer court open to alterations and even idolatrous innovations (Kg2 23:11-12; Ch1 20:5), in this there was to be no room for human corruptions.