What Does Ezekiel 40:47 Mean?
So he measured the court, one hundred forearms long and one hundred wide, four-cornered, and the altar that was before the house.
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
So he measured the court, an hundred cubits long, and an hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar that was before the house.THE KEY
A space can be spacious and precisely bounded at once: the court has equal length and breadth, with the altar set before the house.
THE MEANING
The court gives your approach to the house a definite form: one hundred cubits long, one hundred broad, square, with the altar standing before it. The space is expansive without being undefined; the altar remains in front of the house.
THE ROOT
וַיָּמָד
vayyamad
GROWS FROM
מדד
madad
to measure, to set out a dimension
“measured” in this verse is vayyamad. The act of measuring and the dimension that results grow from the same seed: space is both surveyed and given a definite extent. Here the court’s length and breadth are each one hundred cubits, so its limits are explicit.
ALSO GROWS
middah: measurement, dimension, size
מִדָּה
The result of measuring is itself named by this root; the court’s length and breadth are concrete dimensions.
mad: measure, extent
מַד
This related form carries the idea of a measured span, echoing how the verse makes the court’s limits knowable.
רֹחַב
roḥav
GROWS FROM
רחב
raḥav
to be broad, become spacious, enlarge
The root of breadth also gives the word for an open, spacious place. The court’s breadth is more than a number: it is room made tangible, while still held within measured bounds.
ALSO GROWS
merḥav: a spacious place, open expanse
מֶרְחָב
The same root names a broad place, so the court’s width resonates with spaciousness.
hirḥiv: to enlarge, widen
הִרְחִיב
This verb carries the root’s movement toward greater room, echoing the breadth given to the court.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
zavaḥ
to slaughter, to sacrifice
The altar’s name carries its connection to sacrifice in its root. Because it stands before the house, the verse places sacrifice within the measured space before the dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
zavaḥ: to slaughter, to sacrifice
זָבַח
The verb names the action associated with the altar that stands before the house.
zevaḥ: a sacrifice, a slaughtering
זֶבַח
This noun makes explicit the sacrificial meaning carried by the altar’s name.
THE PATTERN
Sacred space is given shape through measured proportion, from altar to sanctuary to city.
And you shall make an altar of shittim wood, five forearms long and five forearms wide. The altar shall be four-sided, and its height shall be three forearms.And the innermost room, in its forepart, was twenty forearms in length, and twenty forearms in breadth, and twenty forearms in its height; and he sheathed it with clean gold; and so he covered the altar which was of cedar.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
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.The breadth רֹחַב (roḥav), meaning “breadth,” shares the root רחב (raḥav), meaning “to be broad or spacious,” with מֶרְחָב (merḥav), meaning “a spacious place,” in this verse. Ezekiel gives that spaciousness a measured, architectural form: a hundred cubits of breadth before the house.
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