What Does Ezekiel 41:22 Mean?
The altar was of wood, three forearms high, and its length two forearms; its corners, its length, and its walls, were of wood. And he said to me, This is the table that is before the LORD.
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
The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD.THE KEY
The altar does not stop being an altar when it is called a table; sacrifice and provision meet before the LORD.
THE MEANING
The verse lets the reader see an offering-place as a table set before the LORD. What is surrendered and what is set out in the divine presence belong in one scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the assumption that what is sacred can only take from you: this altar is also called a table before the LORD.
THE ROOT
שֻׁלְחָן
shulchan
GROWS FROM
שלח
to send, send forth, release, or extend
The Hebrew word for table carries the root sense of sending forth and extending. So when the altar is named as a table, the verse holds offering together with provision that is extended before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: to send, send forth, release, or let go
שָׁלַח
The root gives the table a sense of something extended or sent out, fitting its place as provision before the LORD.
Shiloach: sent forth; the name of the waters of Shiloah
שִׁלֹחַ
The sent waters echo the same movement of what is extended outward, while the table presents provision before the LORD.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
to slaughter or sacrifice
The root keeps the cost of the altar visible: sacrifice is not erased when the verse calls the altar a table. The verse places the sacrificial act and the table before the LORD side by side.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: to slaughter or sacrifice
זָבַח
This verb holds the concrete act behind the altar’s name, so the table image does not soften what is offered.
zevach: a sacrifice or sacrificial meal
זֶבַח
The offering can also be named as a meal, bringing the altar’s sacrificial and table meanings into the same scene.
THE PATTERN
A place set before God can hold both offering and provision.
And you set upon the table the bread of the face before me always.You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons.THE THREAD
And you set upon the table the bread of the face before me always.The same Hebrew noun שֻׁלְחָן (shulchan, table) appears here and in Exodus, where bread is set before God. That shared word makes Ezekiel’s naming precise: the altar is also located within the language of a table in the LORD’s presence.
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