What Does Ezekiel 40:15 Mean?
And from the face of the gate at its opening to the face of the porch of the inner gate, fifty forearms.
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
And from the face of the gate of the entrance unto the face of the porch of the inner gate were fifty cubits.THE KEY
The verse measures a face-to-face approach: the entry and the inner gate each have a front, and the passage between them belongs to the design.
THE MEANING
The way from the entrance gate to the porch of the inner gate has a defined span: fifty cubits. Each threshold has its own face, and the space between them is part of the measured approach.
THE ROOT
פְּנֵי
penei
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah
to turn or face toward
“face” in this verse is penei. The same Hebrew word appears twice, naming the front of both the entrance gate and the inner porch. Its word family also carries the sense of presence, so the verse’s measured span joins two faces rather than merely marking an abstract distance.
ALSO GROWS
panah: turn, face toward
פָּנָה
The root’s movement toward something gives “face” a directional quality: each face marks an orientation in the approach.
lifnei: before, in front of
לִפְנֵי
This related form shows how the face-word also locates one thing in front of another, echoing the verse’s measured passage from one architectural front to the next.
THE PATTERN
Approaches to sacred spaces are given ordered, measurable form through gates, porches, and boundaries.
And for the gate of the enclosure there shall be a screen of twenty forearms, of blue, purple, and crimson, and fine twisted linen, embroidered. Their pillars shall be four, and their bases four.And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty forearms was its length, according to the breadth of the house; and ten forearms was its breadth before the house.And the city lies four-cornered, and its length is as great as its width. And he measures the city with the reed, twelve thousand stades. Its length and width and height are equal.THE THREAD
And he said, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.The Hebrew word translated “face” in this verse is also translated “presence” in Exodus 33:14. That shared word opens the measured faces of the gates to a further sense: a front can also be a presence that accompanies.
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