What Does Ezekiel 41:26 Mean?
And there were narrow windows and upright trees on the one side and on the other, on the shoulders of the porch, and upon the rib chambers of the house, and thick planks.
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 there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.THE KEY
The temple’s side chambers are called “ribs” in Hebrew, giving this sacred house the architecture of a body.
THE MEANING
The vision shows the house in concrete detail: narrow windows, palms on both sides, and thick planks along the porch and side chambers. The Hebrew word צֵלָע (ṣēlāʿ, “rib” or “side”) lets the house’s form read in bodily language.
THE ROOT
צַלְעֵי
ṣalʿê
GROWS FROM
צ־ל־ע
ṣ-l-ʿ
rib; side or flank
“rib chambers” in this verse is ṣalʿê. The Hebrew noun צֵלָע (ṣēlāʿ, “rib” or “side”) names both a body part and a side of a structure. English makes these chambers sound like ordinary rooms, while the Hebrew gives the temple the body’s own vocabulary for its sides.
ALSO GROWS
ṣēlāʿ: rib; side
צֵלָע
In Genesis 2:22, this noun names the rib taken from the human, revealing the bodily sense carried into the temple description.
ṣəlāʿôt: sides; side chambers
צְלָעוֹת
The plural form names the house’s side spaces, carrying the same rib-and-flank image into its architecture.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives divine dwelling living form through the language of bodies and the imagery of trees.
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from Adam, he built into a woman, and brought her to Adam.And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and opened blossoms, within and without.Have you not seen that you are God's temple, and that the breath of God dwells in you?THE THREAD
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from Adam, he built into a woman, and brought her to Adam.The Hebrew noun צֵלָע (ṣēlāʿ, “rib” or “side”) names the human rib in Genesis and the house’s side spaces here. The shared word lets Ezekiel’s temple architecture carry the language of a body.
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