Ezekiel 45:1

The Lord’s Portion of the Land

45:1 “‘When you allot the land as an inheritance, you will offer an allotment ¹  to the Lord, a holy portion from the land; the length will be eight and a quarter miles ²  and the width three and one-third miles. ³  This entire area will be holy. ⁴ 

Ezekiel 48:21

48:21 “The rest, on both sides of the holy allotment and the property of the city, will belong to the prince. Extending from the eight and a quarter miles ⁵  of the holy allotment to the east border, and westward from the eight and a quarter miles ⁶  to the west border, alongside the portions, it will belong to the prince. The holy allotment and the sanctuary of the temple will be in the middle of it.

[45:1]  ¹ tn Heb “a contribution.”

[45:1]  ² tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers). The measuring units here 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). 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 miles (one mile = 5,280 feet), with the Hebrew measurements and the metric equivalents given in the notes.

[45:1]  ³ tc The LXX reads “twenty thousand cubits.”

[45:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “holy it is in all its territory round about.”

[48:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).

[48:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).