What Does Ezekiel 41:7 Mean?
And it was wider and wider as it rose, winding about up to the rib chambers, for the circling of the house went still upward round about the house; therefore the breadth of the house went still upward, and so it widened from the lowest chamber to the highest through the midst.
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 was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst.THE KEY
As the temple’s chambers wind upward, the house grows broader while keeping its center within the design.
THE MEANING
The house widens as it rises: its side chambers circle the structure, and its breadth increases from the lowest chamber to the highest. Ascent and expansion unfold together around the middle.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that rising requires narrowing: here, the higher the house goes, the broader it becomes.
THE ROOT
וְרָחֲבָה
verachavah
GROWS FROM
רחב
raḥav
To be broad or spacious; to widen.
“wider and wider as it rose” in this verse is verachavah. The Hebrew verb describes the house becoming broad as it rises. The related מֶרְחָב (merḥav, “broad place”) uses the same root for spaciousness reached from distress, so widening carries a sense of room opening up.
ALSO GROWS
merḥav: Broad or spacious place
מֶרְחָב
Psalm 118:5 uses this word for the place into which the speaker is brought from distress, linking the house’s widening with movement into spaciousness.
reḥov: Open square or broad street
רְחֹב
This branch names public open space, showing how the root’s breadth can describe room beyond a building’s walls.
סָבִיב
saviv
GROWS FROM
סבב
savav
To turn, go around, or surround.
“the circling of the house” in this verse is saviv. The repeated סָבִיב סָבִיב (saviv saviv, “around and around”) makes the ascent a circuit around the house rather than a departure from it. The chambers rise while remaining arranged around the central structure.
ALSO GROWS
savav: To turn around or encircle
סָבַב
This verb carries the circling movement that shapes the chambers’ path upward.
sevivot: Surroundings or areas around
סְבִיבוֹת
This related form keeps the sense of what is arranged around a center.
לְמַעְלָה
lemaʿlah
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿalah
To go up or ascend.
The repeated לְמַעְלָה לְמַעְלָה (lemaʿlah lemaʿlah, “upward, upward”) emphasizes the direction of the chambers’ rise. The related עֹלָה (ʿolah, “that which rises”) preserves the root’s concrete image of upward movement.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: To go up or ascend
עָלָה
The verb names the upward movement repeated through the verse.
ʿolah: That which rises; burnt offering
עֹלָה
Its name draws on the same root’s image of something ascending.
THE PATTERN
As a structure rises, its breadth can expand alongside its height.
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.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.May you be strong enough to grasp with all the set-apart ones what is the width, and length, and depth, and height.THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.The Hebrew מֶרְחָב (merḥav, “broad place”) shares the root רחב (raḥav, “to be broad”) with the widening house in Ezekiel. Psalm 118:5 sets that spaciousness against distress, echoing the movement from constriction into room.
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