What Does Ezekiel 42:10 Mean?
The chambers were set within the width of the wall of the court toward the east, facing the cut-off place and the building.
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 chambers were in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place, and over against the building.THE KEY
In Hebrew, the chambers sit בְּרֹחַב (b’rochav, “in the breadth”) of the wall, so the boundary itself has inhabitable width and faces both the separate place and the building.
THE MEANING
The plan places the chambers within the court wall’s breadth, facing both the separate place and the building. Its boundary carries an interior of its own, holding rooms oriented toward the divided-off area and the larger structure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This dissolves the assumption that a boundary is only an empty dividing line: its breadth holds rooms turned toward the spaces on either side.
THE ROOT
רֹחַב
rochav
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad, widen, or be spacious.
“the width” in this verse is rochav. The Hebrew phrase places the chambers “in the breadth” of the wall. The wall’s width becomes inhabitable space, so the boundary holds an interior rather than serving only as an edge.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: To widen or become spacious.
רָחַב
The chambers occupy the wall’s breadth, giving that width a built and inhabitable form.
merchav: A broad or open place.
מֶרְחָב
Psalm 118:5 uses this branch for the large place where the speaker is set, linking the wall’s breadth with a lived spaciousness.
הַגִּזְרָה
haggizrah
GROWS FROM
גזר
To cut, divide, or separate.
The separate place carries the root’s sense of something cut off or divided. Yet the chambers face it from within the wall’s breadth, placing separation inside an ordered relationship with the building.
ALSO GROWS
gazar: To cut or divide.
גָּזַר
This verb gives the separate place its concrete sense of division.
nigzar: Was cut off.
נִגְזַר
Isaiah 53:8 uses this form for one cut off from the land of the living, showing how the same root can describe a place or a person set apart.
THE PATTERN
An encompassing dwelling becomes inhabitable through ordered rooms held within its larger structure.
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make nests in the ark, and cover it within and without with pitch.And against the wall of the house he built side chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the innermost room; and he made side chambers round about.In my Father's house are many places to remain. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to make ready a place for you.THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Here, בְּרֹחַב (b’rochav, “in the breadth”) comes from רחב (rachav, “to be spacious”); Psalm 118:5 uses מֶרְחָב (merchav, “broad place”) from the same root. It pairs that spacious place with מִן־הַמֵּצַר (min-hametzar, “from the narrow place”), so the wall’s measured breadth echoes the movement from constriction into spaciousness.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us