Zechariah 2:1-2

Vision Three: The Surveyor

2:1 (2:5) I looked again, and there was a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2:2 I asked, “Where are you going?” He replied, “To measure Jerusalem ¹  in order to determine its width and its length.”

Job 38:5

38:5 Who set its measurements – if ²  you know –

or who stretched a measuring line across it?

Isaiah 34:11

34:11 Owls and wild animals ³  will live there, ⁴ 

all kinds of wild birds ⁵  will settle in it.

The Lord ⁶  will stretch out over her

the measuring line of ruin

and the plumb line ⁷  of destruction. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 31:39-40

31:39 The boundary line will extend beyond that, straight west from there to the Hill of Gareb and then turn southward to Goah. ⁹  31:40 The whole valley where dead bodies and sacrificial ashes are thrown ¹⁰  and all the terraced fields ¹¹  out to the Kidron Valley ¹²  on the east as far north ¹³  as the Horse Gate ¹⁴  will be included within this city that is sacred to the Lord. ¹⁵  The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”

Ezekiel 40:3

40:3 When he brought me there, I saw ¹⁶  a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring stick in his hand. He was standing in the gateway.

Ezekiel 47:3

47:3 When the man went out toward the east with a measuring line in his hand, he measured 1,750 feet, ¹⁷  and then he led me through water, which was ankle deep.

¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

² tn The particle כּ (ki) is taken here for a conditional clause, “if you know” (see GKC 498 §159.dd). Others take it as “surely” with a biting irony.

³ tn קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). קִפּוֹד (qippod) may also refer to a type of bird (NAB “hoot owl”; NIV “screech owl”; TEV “ravens”), but some have suggested a rodent may be in view (cf. NCV “small animals”; ASV “porcupine”; NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”).

⁴ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).

⁵ tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof vÿ’orev). Both the יַנְשׁוֹף (“owl”; see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16) and עֹרֵב (“raven”; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14) were types of wild birds.

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.

⁸ sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.

⁹ tn The words “west” and “southward” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

¹⁰ sn It is generally agreed that this refers to the Hinnom Valley which was on the southwestern and southern side of the city. It was here where the people of Jerusalem had burned their children as sacrifices and where the Lord had said that there would be so many dead bodies when he punished them that they would be unable to bury all of them (cf. Jer 7:31-32). Reference here may be to those dead bodies and to the ashes of the cremated victims. This defiled place would be included within the holy city.

¹¹ tc The translation here follows the Qere and a number of Hebrew mss in reading שְׁדֵמוֹת (shÿdemot) for the otherwise unknown word שְׁרֵמוֹת (shÿremot) exhibiting the common confusion of ר (resh) and ד (dalet). The fields of Kidron are mentioned also in 2 Kgs 23:4 as the place where Josiah burned the cult objects of Baal.

¹² sn The Kidron Valley is the valley that joins the Hinnom Valley in the southeastern corner of the city and runs northward on the east side of the city.

¹³ tn The words “on the east” and “north” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give orientation.

¹⁴ sn The Horse Gate is mentioned in Neh 3:28 and is generally considered to have been located midway along the eastern wall just south of the temple area.

¹⁵ tn The words “will be included within this city that is” are not in the text. The text merely says that “The whole valley…will be sacred to the Lord.” These words have been supplied in the translation because they are really implicit in the description of the whole area as being included within the new city plan, not just the Hinnom and terraced fields as far as the Kidron Valley.

¹⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

¹⁷ tn Heb “one thousand cubits” (i.e., 525 meters); this phrase occurs three times in the next two verses.