What Does Ezekiel 42:5 Mean in the King James?

Now the upper chambers were shorter: for the galleries were higher than these, than the lower, and than the middlemost of the building.

Ezekiel 42:5 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew word for “shorter” also means “reap”: the upper rooms share a root with a crop cut down.

THE MEANING

The upper chambers are shorter because the galleries stand higher in relation to them than to the lower and middle chambers. The building’s levels change in proportion as they rise.

THE ROOT

קְצֻרוֹת

qetsurot

GROWS FROM

קצר

to cut down or reap; also to be short

“shorter” in this verse is qetsurot. The same root describes these chambers as cut short and names the cutting of a crop at harvest. The verse’s measure of space carries the same seed as the act of reaping.

ALSO GROWS

qatsar: reap, cut down

קָצַר

Reaping shows the cutting action carried by the root behind “shorter.”

qatsir: harvest

קָצִיר

The harvest is what has been cut down, linking the chamber’s reduced measure to the language of reaping.

THE PATTERN

Hebrew uses one root for being cut short and for harvesting, joining reduced measure with the image of a crop cut down.

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:

Leviticus 23:10 · KJVThe Hebrew word for “reap” belongs to the same root family as “shorter” in Ezekiel.

And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.

Isaiah 17:5 · KJVThe reaper’s cutting action makes explicit the harvest image carried within Ezekiel’s word for “shorter.”

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

John 4:35 · KJVThis New Testament image extends the harvest pattern: a ready crop is seen as something awaiting gathering.

THE THREAD

And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.

Isaiah 17:5 · KJV

Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root for reaping that describes the chambers as shorter in Ezekiel. One root holds both a reduced measure and a crop cut down for gathering.

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