Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Ezekiel 43:16

in Ezekiel 43

The altar hearth shall be square at its four corners, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And the altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve broad, square in the four sides thereof.

KJV

And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof.

⋯

This verse in Ezekiel 43

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

the measurements of the altar in long cubits

on Ezekiel 43:13-17

The altar is measured “in long cubits (a cubit and a handbreadth),” rising by ledges to a hearth “twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide”. Commentators read the stepped ledges as an altar approached in stages, the restraint that governed the earlier altar of earth or unhewn stone (Exodus 20:24-25).

This site's exposition

twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide

The hearth is twelve cubits square, larger than the five-cubit altar of Moses (Exodus 27:1) and smaller than Solomon's altar of twenty (2 Chronicles 4:1). Its sides are equal. The square repeats the shape of the Most Holy Place and of the whole enclosure.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Vers. 13 seqq.) These are the measurements of the altar: in the true cubit, which is a cubit and a handbreadth (or παλαιστὴν) in his bosom, the cubit was in length, and its width was measured from its lip to the surrounding palm of one hand. This was also the trench of the altar. From the bosom of the earth to the outermost base, it was two cubits in height, and the width of one cubit. And from the smaller base to the larger base, it was four cubits, and the width of one cubit.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

altar - Ariel was to be an exact square on all sides. Compare Exo 27:1; Rev 21:16.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְהָאֲרִיאֵ֗לand the altar hearth

    vehaarieilH741 →

  • שְׁתֵּ֤ים[is] two [plus]

    sheteimH8147 →768 times

  • עֶשְׂרֵה֙ten [cubits]

    ʾesrehH6240 →338 times

  • אֹ֔רֶךְ[the] length

    ʾorekhH753 →95 times

  • בִּשְׁתֵּ֥יםby two [plus]

    bishteimH8147 →768 times

  • עֶשְׂרֵ֖הten [cubits]

    ʾesrehH6240 →338 times

  • רֹ֑חַב[the] breadth

    rochavH7341 →101 times

  • רָב֕וּעַsquare

    ravua'H7251 →12 times

  • אֶ֖לto

    ʾelH413 →5510 times

  • אַרְבַּ֥עַת[the] four

    ʾarbaatH702 →318 times

  • רְבָעָֽיו׃sides its

    revaavH7253 →7 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

4 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Exodus 27:1

    “You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 38:1–7

      Bezalel constructed the altar of burnt offering from acacia wood. It was square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.

    • Hebrews 13:10

      We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

    • 2 Samuel 24:18

      And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

  • Through

    2 Chronicles 4:1

    He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 8:64

      On that same day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of…

    • Ezekiel 43:13–17

      These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits (a cubit and a handbreadth): Its gutter shall be a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span around its…

    • 1 Kings 8:22

      Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,

  • Through

    Ezra 3:3

    They set up the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD—both the morning and evening burnt offerings—even though they feared the people of the land.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 28:2–8

      “Command the Israelites and say to them: See that you present to Me at its appointed time the food for My offerings by fire, as a pleasing aroma to Me.

    • Ezra 4:4

      Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build.

Where this verse is studied

About Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel: the study guide →Read Ezekiel 43 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).

Read on in Ezekiel 43 →