What Does Ezekiel 48:21 Mean?
And the overflow shall be for the lifted one, on the one side and on the other of the set-apart portion, and of the holding of the city, facing the twenty-five thousand of the lifted portion toward the east border, and opposite it, the twenty-five thousand toward the sea border, beside the shares for the lifted one. It shall be the set-apart lifted portion, and the set-apart place of the house 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 the residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions for the prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof.THE KEY
The sanctuary and the holy portion share the root of “set apart,” placing the sacred center inside the land’s ordered whole.
THE MEANING
The sanctuary stands in the midst of the set-apart portion, while the prince’s remaining land is measured on either side. For you now, the verse places the sacred center within the whole arrangement, with even what remains given a place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is set apart must be removed from the world around it: here, the sanctuary occupies the middle of the allotted whole.
THE ROOT
מִקְדָּשׁ
miqdash
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
To set apart; to mark as sacred.
“set-apart place” in this verse is miqdash. The verse calls both the holy portion and the sanctuary by forms of one root, קדשׁ (q-d-sh, set apart). The land and its sanctuary share that set-apart quality, and the sanctuary stands within it.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: That which is set apart; sacredness.
קֹדֶשׁ
The holy portion is named with this form of the root, linking the land’s sacred status to the sanctuary.
qadosh: Set apart; sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective carries the same root into descriptions of people and things marked as sacred.
miqdash: A set-apart place; sanctuary.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This is the word used for the sanctuary located in the middle of the portion.
וְהַנּוֹתָר
ve-hanotar
GROWS FROM
יתר
y-t-r
To remain, be left over, or exceed.
“overflow” in this verse is ve-hanotar. The root can name what remains as well as what exceeds the measure. Here, what remains is deliberately allotted to the prince on both sides, still held within the ordered whole.
ALSO GROWS
yeter: What remains; a surplus or rest.
יֶתֶר
This branch makes the connection between “residue” and what is left over explicit.
yitron: Advantage, gain, or what exceeds.
יִתְרוֹן
Its sense of exceeding gives the root’s “remainder” a wider range than something merely discarded.
THE PATTERN
The set-apart presence is placed among the ordered life of the people.
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.Therefore do not defile the land where you shall settle, where I pitch my tent; for I, the LORD, pitch my tent among the children of Israel.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 let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.Both verses use the Hebrew word מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash, sanctuary), formed from קדשׁ (q-d-sh, set apart). Exodus links the sanctuary with dwelling among the people; Ezekiel places that same set-apart center within the measured allotment.
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