What Does Ezekiel 43:13 Mean?
And these are the measures of the altar in forearms. The forearm is a forearm and a handbreadth, and its bosom a forearm by a forearm, and its border to its lip round about a span. And this is the back of the altar.
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 these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth; even the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span: and this shall be the higher place of the altar.THE KEY
The altar’s name carries sacrifice within it, and its measurements give that place a body shaped from base to edge.
THE MEANING
The sacred is not shapeless here: the altar has a base, a breadth, and a surrounding edge, each given an exact measure a body can grasp. Its name carries the act of sacrifice; its measured boundary gives that act a concrete form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that what is sacred must be vague or without form: here the altar’s sacred function has exact dimensions.
THE ROOT
הַמִּזְבֵּחַ
hamizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
to slaughter; to sacrifice
The Hebrew name for the altar belongs to the same word family as slaughter and sacrifice. English altar names the structure, while the Hebrew keeps its sacrificial action audible.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: to slaughter; to sacrifice
זָבַח
This verb makes explicit the act carried by the altar’s name.
zevaḥ: a slaughtered offering; a sacrifice
זֶבַח
This noun connects the altar’s measured form to what takes place there.
מִדּוֹת
middōt
GROWS FROM
מדד
to measure
“measures” in this verse is middōt. The verse turns the altar from a general sacred object into a form with a base, breadth, and surrounding edge that can be measured. Its dimensions are stated in bodily units, making the structure graspable rather than abstract.
ALSO GROWS
mādad: to measure
מָדַד
The verb names the act that gives the altar its exact contours.
middāh: a measure, portion, or extent
מִדָּה
This related noun shows that each dimension is a defined extent, not an indistinct space.
רֹחַב
rōḥav
GROWS FROM
רחב
to be broad or wide
The measured breadth belongs to a word family that carries the sense of widening and open space. Here even that width has a precise limit: it is named and measured.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥav: to become broad or wide
רָחַב
The verb shows the widening sense carried beneath the dimension named in the verse.
reḥōv: a broad street or open square
רְחֹב
This related noun carries breadth into the idea of open, shared space.
THE PATTERN
Sacred structures are given graspable form through exact measures and defined boundaries.
And behold, there was a wall outside the house all around, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six forearms long, by the forearm and a handbreadth. He measured the breadth of the building, one reed, and its rising, one reed.And they make an ark of shittim wood, two and a half forearms its length, and a forearm and a half its width, and a forearm and a half its height.And he measures its wall, a hundred and forty-four forearms, by the measure of humankind, the measure of the messenger.THE THREAD
And they make an ark of shittim wood, two and a half forearms its length, and a forearm and a half its width, and a forearm and a half its height.The Hebrew word אמה (ʾammāh, cubit) measures both the altar here and the ark there. Their sacred forms share a bodily unit of measure, so the altar’s dimensions belong to a wider pattern of holy things given exact, graspable shape.
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