What Does Ezekiel 40:6 Mean?
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.
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 came he unto the gate which looketh toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.THE KEY
The entrance faces qedem: in Hebrew, east, the front, and what is before share one root.
THE MEANING
The way toward presence has a direction and an ascent; each of its two thresholds measures one reed wide. The passage presents entry as an opening with a defined boundary.
THE ROOT
קָדִים
qadim
GROWS FROM
קדם
Front, what comes before; the east as the direction of the sunrise.
“faces the sunrise” in this verse is qadim. English gives a compass point; Hebrew carries the sense of the front and what is before with it. The gate’s direction therefore holds both a place and an orientation.
ALSO GROWS
qedem: East; also what is former or ancient.
קֶדֶם
The gate’s direction shares a word with what lies before in time.
qadam: To come before, precede, or meet.
קָדַם
This verb makes the root’s sense of going before audible beneath the direction.
וַיָּמָד
vayyāmad
GROWS FROM
מדד
To measure out or determine extent by measuring.
“measured” in this verse is vayyāmad. The act of measuring and the resulting dimension grow from the same root. The threshold’s width is presented as a defined extent, not an indefinite opening.
ALSO GROWS
madad: To measure or measure out.
מָדַד
This is the action applied to the threshold.
middah: Measure, size, or dimension.
מִדָּה
The root also names the extent that measurement makes clear.
מַעֲלוֹתָיו
ma'alotav
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up or ascend.
“climbed” in this verse is ma'alotav. The word for the steps belongs to the same root as ascending. The approach is described as an actual rising toward the threshold.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb is the motion encoded in the stairway’s name.
ma'aleh: An ascent or rising.
מַעֲלֶה
The same root names the upward way as well as the act of going up.
THE PATTERN
Sacred space is disclosed through measured boundaries and dimensions.
And behold, there was a wall outside the house all around, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six forearms long, by the forearm and a handbreadth. He measured the breadth of the building, one reed, and its rising, one reed.I lifted my eyes again and looked, and there was a man with a measuring cord in his hand.And the one who speaks with me holds a golden reed to measure the city, and its gates, and its wall.THE THREAD
And behold, the weight of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the voice of many waters, and the earth was lit from his weight.The same root, קדם (q-d-m), marks the east-facing gate here and the route from which the glory approaches there. The measured gate’s direction points toward the arrival of God’s weight.
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