What Does Ezekiel 40:22 Mean?
Its windows, its porches, and its palm trees were by the measure of the gate that faces the sunrise. They climbed to it by seven rising steps, and its porches were before them.
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 their windows, and their arches, and their palm trees, were after the measure of the gate that looketh toward the east; and they went up unto it by seven steps; and the arches thereof were before them.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the seven steps and the act of going up by forms of the same root, making ascent part of the gate itself.
THE MEANING
You meet a gate whose windows, arches, and palm forms follow the east gate’s measure; its seven steps give the approach a defined rise. The way through is already shaped into the structure.
THE ROOT
מַעֲלוֹת
ma'alot
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
To go up, ascend, or rise.
“climbed to it by seven rising steps” in this verse is ma'alot. The Hebrew forms for “steps” and “they went up” both grow from עלה. English separates the stairway from the movement, while the Hebrew names them as one idea: the steps are an ascent built into the gate.
ALSO GROWS
ma'alah: A step, stair, or ascent.
מַעֲלָה
Its plural, מַעֲלוֹת (ma’alot), names the seven steps in this verse.
'olah: That which rises; an ascending or burnt offering.
עֹלָה
This offering’s name comes from the same root, extending the language of ascent beyond stairs to what rises toward God.
THE PATTERN
Approach to what is set apart is pictured as a defined ascent, with the route upward built into the way through.
Then he came to the gate that faces the sunrise, and climbed its rising steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed wide, and the other threshold of the gate, one reed wide.Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place?And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder standing on the earth, and its head reached to the heavens; and behold, messengers of God were climbing up and coming down on it.THE THREAD
And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder standing on the earth, and its head reached to the heavens; and behold, messengers of God were climbing up and coming down on it.The angels are “ascending” (עֹלִים, ‘olim), from the same root עלה that names Ezekiel’s steps (מַעֲלוֹת, ma’alot) and the act of going up (יַעֲלוּ, ya’alu). The ladder makes explicit the upward movement already held inside the measured gate.
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