40:5 I saw 1 a wall all around the outside of the temple. 2 In the man’s hand was a measuring stick 10½ feet 3 long. He measured the thickness of the wall 4 as 10½ feet, 5 and its height as 10½ feet.
1 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
2 tn Heb “house.”
3 tn Heb “a measuring stick of six cubits, [each] a cubit and a handbreadth.” The measuring units here and in the remainder of this section are the Hebrew “long” cubit, consisting of a cubit (about 18 inches or 45 cm) and a handbreadth (about 3 inches or 7.5 cm), for a total of 21 inches (52.5 cm). Therefore the measuring stick in the man’s hand was 10.5 feet (3.15 meters) long. Because modern readers are not familiar with the cubit as a unit of measurement, and due to the additional complication of the “long” cubit as opposed to the regular cubit, all measurements have been converted to American standard feet and inches, with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes.
4 tn Heb “building.”
5 tn Heb “one rod [or “reed”]” (also a second time in this verse, twice in v. 6, three times in v. 7, and once in v. 8).
6 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the somewhat parenthetical nature of the description of the city.
7 tn Or “the city lies square.” On κεῖμαι (keimai) in this context, BDAG 537 s.v. 2 states, “lie, of things…ἡ πόλις τετράγωνος κεῖται is laid out as a square Rv 21:16.”
8 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
9 tn Grk “with the rod”; the word “measuring” is supplied from the description in v. 15.
10 tn Or “two thousand two hundred kilometers,” Grk “12,000 stades.” A stade was a measure of length about 607 ft (185 m).