What Does Ezekiel 40:34 Mean?
Its porches faced the outer enclosure, and palm trees were on its posts, on this side and on that side, and it had eight rising steps to climb.
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 the arches thereof were toward the outward court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going up to it had eight steps.THE KEY
Hebrew names both the steps and the way upward with one root: the steps are the ascent.
THE MEANING
The inner gate faces the outer court, with palms on its posts on both sides and eight steps rising to it. As you read, entry takes the form of a visible opening and a measured climb.
THE ROOT
מַעֲלוֹת
maʿalot
GROWS FROM
עלה
to go up, rise, ascend
The verse says both “going up” and “steps,” but Hebrew uses מַעֲלוֹת (maʿalot, “steps”) and מַעֲלָיו (maʿalav, “its ascent”), forms from the same root עלה (ʿ-l-h, “to ascend”). The threshold and the climb are one movement in the language: the steps are an ascent made visible.
ALSO GROWS
maʿălāh: ascent; step
מַעֲלָה
This is the singular form behind the verse’s “steps,” making the stairs themselves an ascent.
ʿōlāh: burnt offering; literally, that which goes up
עֹלָה
The same root names what rises in an offering, extending the language of ascent beyond the gate’s stairs.
THE PATTERN
The way into God’s presence is pictured as a defined route that rises or opens into the holy.
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.Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place?Having therefore, brothers, open speech for entering the set-apart places by the blood of Jesus,THE THREAD
Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place?The Hebrew verb עָלָה (ʿālāh, “to ascend”) in the psalm comes from the same root עלה (ʿ-l-h, “to go up”) as Ezekiel’s word for “steps” and “ascent.” Ezekiel gives that ascent a physical form; the psalm asks about ascending to the LORD’s hill and standing in his holy place.
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