What Does Ezekiel 41:11 Mean?
And the openings of the rib chambers faced the place that was left, one opening toward the north and another opening toward the south; and the breadth of the place that was left was five forearms around.
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 doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about.THE KEY
In this sanctuary, the space left open is measured as carefully as the rooms themselves.
THE MEANING
The side chambers open north and south toward a measured margin around the sanctuary. That five-cubit space belongs to the design as surely as the built rooms do. Access faces the room that remains open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that an unoccupied margin is wasted or unfinished: here, the open space is deliberately measured and placed.
THE ROOT
הַמֻּנָּח
hammunnaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוח
to settle, rest, or come to rest
“place that was left” in this verse is hammunnaḥ. The word translated “left” carries the sense of what is set down or at rest. The margin is not an accidental leftover; it is a place deliberately held in the plan.
ALSO GROWS
nûaḥ: to rest or settle
נוּחַ
Rest here has the sense of coming to a place, not merely stopping activity.
menûḥāh: resting place
מְנוּחָה
This branch makes the connection visible: the space left around the rooms can be understood as a place set aside.
פֶּתַח
petaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
to open
The word rendered “doors” also means openings. The verse focuses on where these openings face: toward the space deliberately kept clear.
ALSO GROWS
pātaḥ: to open
פָּתַח
The noun for an entrance grows from the action of opening.
maphtēaḥ: key
מַפְתֵּחַ
A key is named from the same root of opening, linking access to the opening itself.
צְלָעוֹת
tsĕlāʿôt
GROWS FROM
צלע
rib, flank, or side
“rib chambers” in this verse is tsĕlāʿôt. The Hebrew word for these architectural side spaces is also the word used for a rib. The English “chambers” gives their function, while the Hebrew retains the bodily language of a side.
ALSO GROWS
tsēlāʿ: rib or side
צֵלָע
In Genesis 2:21–22, the same word names the rib taken from the human; here it names the sanctuary’s side spaces.
tsĕlāʿôt: sides or side chambers
צְלָעוֹת
The plural form used here keeps the architectural spaces linked to the root’s bodily sense of sides.
THE PATTERN
Access and growth depend on space deliberately kept open.
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.And the servant said, Lord, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.THE THREAD
And he said, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.“Place that was left” in Ezekiel and “give thee rest” in Exodus both draw on נוח (nûaḥ), meaning to settle or rest. The shared root lets the sanctuary’s measured open margin read as space made available for rest.
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