What Does Ezekiel 40:14 Mean?
He also made posts of sixty forearms, reaching to the post of the court all around the gate.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
He made also posts of threescore cubits, even unto the post of the court round about the gate.THE KEY
The entrance is framed by posts whose Hebrew name also belongs to the language of strength.
THE MEANING
The posts are measured at sixty cubits, and the court’s post marks the gate within a boundary that circles it. The entrance is a supported, measured frame, with the enclosure continuing around it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The gate is not merely a gap in an enclosure; it has its own supports and surrounding frame.
THE ROOT
אֵילִים
ʾēlîm
GROWS FROM
א־י־ל
ʾ-y-l
Might, strength
The word translated “posts” is the plural of אֵיל (ʾayil), a noun also used for a ram and a mighty one. Its architectural sense places the gate’s support within a word-family of strength: the entrance is borne by its frame.
ALSO GROWS
ram: A ram; a male sheep
אַיִל
The same noun also names a ram, bringing an image of force into the word-family used for the gate’s supports.
mighty one: A strong person or leader
אֵיל
This sense makes the family’s association with strength explicit, illuminating the posts as the gate’s supporting frame.
strength: Strength, might
אֱיָל
This related form names the force carried by the structure that frames the entrance.
סָבִיב סָבִיב
sāvîv sāvîv
GROWS FROM
ס־ב־ב
s-b-b
To turn, go around, encircle
“round about” in this verse is sāvîv sāvîv. The Hebrew repeats the word for “around.” The gate is framed not only at its opening; the boundary continues all around it.
ALSO GROWS
around: Around; on every side
סָבִיב
Repeated here, it emphasizes the court’s enclosure around the gate.
surround: To go around, turn, or encircle
סָבַב
The verbal root carries the movement of a boundary continuing around the entrance.
THE PATTERN
A sacred approach takes shape through measured boundaries and framed entrances.
And you shall make the enclosure of the dwelling. On the south edge, southward, there shall be hangings for the enclosure of fine twisted linen, one hundred forearms long along that edge.He measured it by its four breaths, and it had a wall all around, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred wide, to make a parting between the set-apart place and the open ground.It has a great and high wall, and twelve gates, and at the gates twelve messengers, and names written upon them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.THE THREAD
There were peering windows to the chambers, and to their posts within the gate all around, and likewise to the porches. Windows were all around inward, and upon each post were palm trees.The next verse repeats the same Hebrew word for the gate’s posts, then places palm trees on each one. The measured supports belong to a continuing frame, patterned with openings and living forms.
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