Ezra 6:3-4

6:3 In the first year of his reign, ¹  King Cyrus gave orders concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: ²  ‘Let the temple be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be set in place. ³  Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety ⁴  feet, ⁵  6:4 with three layers of large stones ⁶  and one ⁷  layer of timber. The expense is to be subsidized ⁸  by the royal treasury. ⁹ 

Ezekiel 41:1-15

The Inner Temple

41:1 Then he brought me to the outer sanctuary, and measured the jambs; the jambs were 10½ feet ¹⁰  wide on each side. 41:2 The width of the entrance was 17½ feet, ¹¹  and the sides ¹²  of the entrance were 8¾ feet ¹³  on each side. He measured the length of the outer sanctuary as 70 feet, ¹⁴  and its width as 35 feet. ¹⁵ 

41:3 Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance as 3½ feet, ¹⁶  the entrance as 10½ feet, ¹⁷  and the width of the entrance as 12¼ feet ¹⁸  41:4 Then he measured its length as 35 feet, ¹⁹  and its width as 35 feet, ²⁰  before the outer sanctuary. He said to me, “This is the most holy place.”

41:5 Then he measured the wall of the temple ²¹  as 10½ feet, ²²  and the width of the side chambers as 7 feet, ²³  all around the temple. 41:6 The side chambers were in three stories, one above the other, thirty in each story. There were offsets in the wall all around to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that the supports were not in the wall of the temple. 41:7 The side chambers surrounding the temple were wider at each successive story; ²⁴  for the structure ²⁵  surrounding the temple went up story by story all around the temple. For this reason the width of the temple increased as it went up, and one went up from the lowest story to the highest by the way of the middle story.

41:8 I saw that the temple had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full measuring stick ²⁶  of 10½ feet ²⁷  high. 41:9 The width of the outer wall of the side chambers was 8¾ feet, ²⁸  and the open area between the side chambers of the temple 41:10 and the chambers of the court was 35 feet ²⁹  in width all around the temple on every side. 41:11 There were entrances from the side chambers toward the open area, one entrance toward the north, and another entrance toward the south; the width of the open area was 8¾ feet ³⁰  all around.

41:12 The building that was facing the temple courtyard at the west side was 122½ feet ³¹  wide; the wall of the building was 8¾ feet ³²  all around, and its length 157½ feet. ³³ 

41:13 Then he measured the temple as 175 feet ³⁴  long, the courtyard of the temple and the building and its walls as 175 feet ³⁵  long, 41:14 and also the width of the front of the temple and the courtyard on the east as 175 feet. ³⁶ 

41:15 Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, with its galleries on either side as 175 feet. ³⁷ 

The interior of the outer sanctuary and the porch of the court, ³⁸ 

Revelation 21:16-17

21:16 Now ³⁹  the city is laid out as a square, ⁴⁰  its length and width the same. He ⁴¹  measured the city with the measuring rod ⁴²  at fourteen hundred miles ⁴³  (its length and width and height are equal). 21:17 He also measured its wall, one hundred forty-four cubits ⁴⁴  according to human measurement, which is also the angel’s. ⁴⁵ 

[6:3]  ¹ tn Aram “In the first year of Cyrus the king.”

[6:3]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:3]  ³ tn Aram “raised”; or perhaps “retained” (so NASB; cf. NLT), referring to the original foundations of Solomon’s temple.

[6:3]  ⁴ tc The Syriac Peshitta reads “twenty cubits” here, a measurement probably derived from dimensions given elsewhere for Solomon’s temple. According to 1 Kgs 6:2 the dimensions of the Solomonic temple were as follows: length, 60 cubits; width, 20 cubits; height, 30 cubits. Since one would expect the dimensions cited in Ezra 6:3 to correspond to those of Solomon’s temple, it is odd that no dimension for length is provided. The Syriac has apparently harmonized the width dimension provided here (“twenty cubits”) to that given in 1 Kgs 6:2.

[6:3]  ⁵ tn Aram “Its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

[6:4]  ⁶ tn Aram “stones of rolling.”

[6:4]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the LXX reading חַד (khad, “one”) rather than the MT חֲדַת (khadat, “new”). If the MT reading “new” is understood to mean freshly cut timber that has not yet been seasoned it would seem to be an odd choice for construction material.

[6:4]  ⁸ tn Aram “let be given.”

[6:4]  ⁹ tn Aram “house.”

[41:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[41:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “ten cubits” (i.e., 5.25 meters).

[41:2]  ¹² tc The translation follows the LXX. The MT reads “the width of the gate was three cubits,” the omission due to haplography.

[41:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

[41:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “forty cubits” (i.e., 21 meters).

[41:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[41:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “two cubits” (i.e., 1.05 meters).

[41:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[41:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “seven cubits” (i.e., 3.675 meters).

[41:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[41:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[41:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “house” throughout Ezek 41.

[41:5]  ²² tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[41:5]  ²³ tn Heb “four cubits” (2.1 meters).

[41:7]  ²⁴ tc The Hebrew is difficult here. The Targum envisions a winding ramp or set of stairs, which entails reading the first word as a noun rather than a verb and reading the second word also not as a verb, supposing that an initial mem has been read as vav and nun. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:549.

[41:7]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

[41:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “reed.”

[41:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “six cubits” (i.e., 3.15 meters).

[41:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

[41:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “twenty cubits” (i.e., 10.5 meters).

[41:11]  ³⁰ tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

[41:12]  ³¹ tn Heb “seventy cubits” (36.75 meters).

[41:12]  ³² tn Heb “five cubits” (i.e., 2.625 meters).

[41:12]  ³³ tn Heb “ninety cubits” (i.e., 47.25 meters).

[41:13]  ³⁴ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[41:13]  ³⁵ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[41:14]  ³⁶ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[41:15]  ³⁷ tn Heb “one hundred cubits” (i.e., 52.5 meters).

[41:15]  ³⁸ tc Some Hebrew mss read “and its outer court.”

[21:16]  ³⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the somewhat parenthetical nature of the description of the city.

[21:16]  ⁴⁰ 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.”

[21:16]  ⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[21:16]  ⁴² tn Grk “with the rod”; the word “measuring” is supplied from the description in v. 15.

[21:16]  ⁴³ tn Or “two thousand two hundred kilometers,” Grk “12,000 stades.” A stade was a measure of length about 607 ft (185 m).

[21:17]  ⁴⁴ tn Here the measurement was kept in cubits in the translation because of the possible symbolic significance of the number 144 (12 times 12). This is about 216 ft (65 m).

[21:17]  ⁴⁵ tn Here L&N 81.1 translate the phrase μέτρον ἀνθρώπου, ὅ ἐστιν ἀγγέλου (metron anqrwpou, {o estin angelou) “‘the unit of measurement used by a person, that is, by an angel’ Re 21:17.” It is more likely that μέτρον is an accusative of respect or reference.