What Does Ezekiel 48:17 Mean?
And the pastureland of the city shall be toward the north two hundred fifty, and toward the south two hundred fifty, and toward the east two hundred fifty, and toward the sea two hundred fifty.
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 the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty.THE KEY
The city’s open edge is not leftover space; it is measured into the city’s design on all four sides.
THE MEANING
This vision holds the city within a defined center, with an equal, measured tract beyond it in every direction. The open margin belongs to the city’s design; built space does not exhaust the meaning of a complete dwelling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The unbuilt edge is not wasted space or an afterthought; it has a measured place in the city’s plan.
THE ROOT
מִגְרָשׁ
migrāš
GROWS FROM
גרש
The root גָּרַשׁ (gāraš) means “drive out, expel”; מִגְרָשׁ (migrāš) means the open common land around a town.
“pastureland” in this verse is migrāš. The KJV’s “suburbs” can suggest more built-up city, but מִגְרָשׁ points to open common ground around a town. Its word-family ties a defined outer margin to the action of driving out, making the measured tract part of the city’s order.
ALSO GROWS
gāraš: Drive out, expel.
גָּרַשׁ
This verb is used for Adam being driven from Eden in Genesis 3:24, where the root’s boundary-making force is stark.
gĕrûšāh: A woman put away from her husband; a divorced woman.
גְּרוּשָׁה
This branch carries separation from a former bond; beside this verse, it keeps the city’s open margin distinct from more built-up space.
THE PATTERN
A city’s design includes measured open land around its inhabited center.
You shall measure from outside the city, on the east side two thousand forearms, and on the south side two thousand forearms, and on the west side two thousand forearms, and on the north side two thousand forearms; and the city shall be in the midst, and this shall be to them the pasturelands of the cities.Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, and five hundred in breadth, square all around. And fifty cubits all around for its pasturelands.And the city lies four-cornered, and its length is as great as its width. And he measures the city with the reed, twelve thousand stades. Its length and width and height are equal.THE THREAD
So he drove out the man, and he pitched the cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flaming sword that turned every way would guard the way of the tree of life.The verb גָּרַשׁ (gāraš, “drive out”) is used for Adam’s expulsion from Eden, and מִגְרָשׁ (migrāš, “open common land around a town”) shares its consonants. אָדָם (ʾādām, “the ground-being”) stands outside Eden there, while Ezekiel gives the city’s outer margin a measured place; the echo links separation and defined space without making their situations identical.
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