What Does Ezekiel 48:10 Mean?
And for them, even for the priests, shall be this set-apart lifted portion. Toward the north, twenty-five thousand in length, and toward the sea, ten thousand in width, and toward the east, ten thousand in width, and toward the south, twenty-five thousand in length. The set-apart place of the LORD shall be in its 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 for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof.THE KEY
The sanctuary stands at the center of a measured inheritance, making the holy the organizing center of shared life.
THE MEANING
The priestly portion is measured from every side, with the LORD’s sanctuary in its midst. Sacred presence is placed inside an ordered human landscape, where the center gives the surrounding space its orientation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what is holy must be distant from shared life: here, the sanctuary stands within a measured portion.
THE ROOT
מִקְדָּשׁ
miqdash
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
Set apart; consecrate.
מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash, set-apart place) grows from the same root as קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, set apart). The sanctuary is not merely a building at the center: its very name makes that center a place marked as set apart.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
The same root names the quality embodied by the sanctuary at the center.
qiddesh: Set apart; consecrated.
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows the root as an act of marking something for a distinct purpose.
תְּרוּמָה
terumah
GROWS FROM
רום
rum
Rise; be high; lift up.
“set-apart lifted portion” in this verse is terumah. תְּרוּמָה (terumah, a lifted or set-apart contribution) carries the sense of something raised from the common share. Here that portion is carefully measured, and the sanctuary is placed within it.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High; exalted.
רָם
This form preserves the root’s sense of height in the language of the lifted portion.
herim: Lifted; raised.
הֵרִים
This verbal form makes explicit the movement contained in the name of the oblation.
THE PATTERN
A set-apart dwelling is given a defined place among the people.
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.And from this measure you shall measure a length of five and twenty thousand, and a breadth of ten thousand. In it shall be the sanctuary, and the most set-apart place.And I hear a great voice from the throne, saying, Look, the tent of God is with humankind, and he will pitch his tent among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.THE THREAD
And from this measure you shall measure a length of five and twenty thousand, and a breadth of ten thousand. In it shall be the sanctuary, and the most set-apart place.מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash, set-apart place) comes from קדשׁ (q-d-sh, set apart), the root behind the sanctuary named in both verses. Ezekiel 45:3 makes the same connection inside a measured portion: the center is a place set apart within the land.
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