What Does Ezekiel 42:2 Mean?
Facing a length of one hundred forearms stood the north door, and its width was fifty forearms.
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
Before the length of an hundred cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits.THE KEY
The chamber is defined by its opening as deliberately as by its dimensions.
THE MEANING
The verse places a measured space before you and names its north-facing opening alongside its dimensions. Boundaries and passage belong to one design: the room has dimensions, and an entry is part of its shape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A measured boundary means a space is closed off; here, the door belongs to the same design as the dimensions.
THE ROOT
פֶּתַח
petaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
To open; an opening.
The Hebrew word for door, petaḥ, grows from the verb meaning “to open.” The word holds the passageway inside the name of the structure: the chamber’s entry is part of its form.
ALSO GROWS
pātaḥ: To open.
פָּתַח
This verb shares the door’s root, making the door an opening formed for passage.
pitḥu: Open!
פִּתְחוּ
The same root appears in Psalm 118:19, where opening the gates becomes an invitation to enter.
הָרֹחַב
ha-roḥav
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
To be wide; to make room.
“width” in this verse is ha-roḥav. Breadth comes from the root for widening and making room. The fifty cubits measure the chamber, while the Hebrew word also carries the sense of spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
Reḥovot: Broad places; roominess.
רְחֹבוֹת
In Genesis 26:22, Rehoboth names the place where room has been made; the same root gives breadth its sense of space opening outward.
hirḥavta: You enlarged; you made room.
הִרְחַבְתָּ
Psalm 4:1 uses this root for being given room in distress, showing how breadth can express release into space.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives sacred space an ordered shape by naming both its dimensions and its entrances.
And you shall make a hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.And the house that king Solomon built for the LORD, its length was sixty forearms, and its breadth twenty, and its height thirty forearms.And its gates are never shut by day, for there is no night there.THE THREAD
Open to me the gates of alignment; I enter them, and I extend my hands to the LORD.The Hebrew verb translated “Open” shares the פתח root behind Ezekiel’s word for “door.” In Ezekiel the opening belongs to a measured chamber; here the same root makes the gates an invitation to enter.
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