What Does Ezekiel 40:19 Mean?
Then he measured the breadth from the face of the lower gate to the face of the inner court outside, one hundred forearms toward the sunrise and toward the north.
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
Then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower gate unto the forefront of the inner court without, an hundred cubits eastward and northward.THE KEY
The way toward the inner court is measured in breadth, so the approach to what is set apart contains room.
THE MEANING
The space from the lower gate to the outer face of the inner court is given a clear measure: one hundred cubits eastward and northward. The approach inward is an ordered, traversable expanse, not an undefined threshold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that nearness to what is set apart must mean a narrow passage; here, the way inward is measured as a broad span.
THE ROOT
רֹחַב
roḥav
GROWS FROM
רָחַב
To widen, become broad, or grow spacious.
English leaves “breadth” as a dimension, while רָחַב (rachav, to widen or become spacious) also names the movement that creates room. מֶרְחָב (merḥav, spacious place) is one branch of that widening: the verse measures an expanse that leads inward.
ALSO GROWS
merḥav: A spacious place, open expanse.
מֶרְחָב
The same root names the broad place that widening creates, linking this measured span with a lived experience of having room.
reḥov: An open street or plaza.
רְחוֹב
An open public space grows from the same idea of breadth, showing the root’s movement from a dimension to a place with room to enter.
THE PATTERN
The movement from constriction toward presence opens into a spaciousness that still has form.
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.O Corinthians, our mouth is open toward you, our heart is widened.THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Ezekiel’s רֹחַב (roḥav, breadth) and the psalm’s מֶרְחָב (merḥav, large or spacious place) share the root רָחַב (rachav, to widen or become spacious). In Ezekiel the root describes measured room on the way inward; in the psalm, that same spaciousness is where distress gives way.
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