What Does Ezekiel 40:27 Mean?
And there was a gate in the inner enclosure toward the dry south, and he measured from gate to gate toward the dry south, one hundred 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 there was a gate in the inner court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south an hundred cubits.THE KEY
The verse measures the span between two gates, showing that access is shaped not only by openings but by the space connecting them.
THE MEANING
The verse gives access a concrete shape: a southern gate, another gate, and one hundred cubits between them. The interior is a traversable space whose distance is part of its design.
THE ROOT
דֶּרֶךְ הַדָּרוֹם
derekh ha-darom
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־ך
d-r-k
To tread or step along a route.
“toward the south” in this verse is derekh ha-darom. The Hebrew uses derekh, a word for a way or path, to express the direction south. The measured line therefore carries the sense of a route through the inner court, as well as a compass direction.
ALSO GROWS
darakh: To tread, step, or walk.
דָּרַךְ
This verb keeps the movement sense present in the southward direction.
derekh: Way, road, or route.
דֶּרֶךְ
The same word describes the directed passage along which the gates are measured.
וַיָּמָד
vayamad
GROWS FROM
מ־ד־ד
m-d-d
To measure or mark out an extent.
“measured” in this verse is vayamad. The measuring verb marks the interval between the gates as a defined extent. Its related noun for measure or dimension shows how the act of measuring gives this passage a shape.
ALSO GROWS
madad: To measure.
מָדַד
This is the verb form behind “he measured,” naming the act that lays out the interval.
middah: Measure, dimension, or extent.
מִדָּה
This related noun makes clear that the hundred cubits is a spatial dimension, not just a number.
THE PATTERN
Sacred access appears within spaces whose dimensions are deliberately given.
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.And the house that king Solomon built for the LORD, its length was sixty forearms, and its breadth twenty, and its height thirty forearms.And the one who speaks with me holds a golden reed to measure the city, and its gates, and its wall.THE THREAD
Open to me the gates of alignment; I enter them, and I extend my hands to the LORD.The shared Hebrew word is שַׁעַר (sha’ar, “gate”): Ezekiel measures from gate to gate, while the Psalm speaks of entering the gates of righteousness. The Psalm makes the gate an entry point, opening the measured interval here as an ordered passage.
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