What Does Ezekiel 43:17 Mean in the King James?
And the settle shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in the four squares thereof; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward the east.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Its stairs are מַעֲלוֹת (maʿalot, ascents), from the same root as עֹלָה (ʿolah, the ascending offering): the altar’s approach and its offering are both a going up.
THE MEANING
The altar’s top, border, base, and stairs are measured, and its ascent faces east. Here, approach is part of the structure: the way up has a direction.
THE ROOT
מַעֲלֹתֵהוּ
maʿalōtēhū
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, rise, or ascend.
The Hebrew word for the altar’s stairs comes from the same root as עֹלָה (ʿolah, the ascending offering). The verse’s architecture and its ritual language share the idea of ascent: the approach itself is part of what goes up.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: Go up or rise.
עָלָה
This is the verb beneath the word for the altar’s stairs, making them literally an ascent.
ʿōlāh: A burnt offering; literally, that which goes up.
עֹלָה
This branch links the altar’s steps to the offering through one shared root.
רוּחֹתֶיהָ
ruḥōtehā
GROWS FROM
רוח
Breath or wind; the plural can also mean directions.
The Hebrew phrase is toward its four winds or directions, where the KJV says “in the four squares thereof.” רוּחַ (ruaḥ, breath or wind) is the same word beneath that directional language, so the altar’s geometry is also framed as orientation across all directions.
ALSO GROWS
ruaḥ: Breath or moving air.
רוּחַ
This is the singular word carried into the phrase describing the altar’s four directions.
ruḥot: Winds; by extension, directions.
רוּחוֹת
This plural makes the altar’s four-sided layout a description of orientation, not only shape.
THE PATTERN
Sacred space is made legible through measured boundaries and directional orientation.
And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.THE THREAD
If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.The altar’s מַעֲלוֹת (maʿalot, ascents) and the עֹלָה (ʿolah, ascending offering) share the root עלה, “to ascend.” The steps and the offering are two forms of the same upward movement.
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