Discovery BoxEzekiel 45:1-4 
Context45:1 “‘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 45:2 Of this area a square 875 feet 5 by 875 feet will be designated for the sanctuary, with 87½ feet 6 set aside for its open space round about. 45:3 From this measured area you will measure a length of eight and a quarter miles 7 and a width of three and one-third miles; 8 in it will be the sanctuary, the most holy place. 45:4 It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 9
1 tn Heb “a contribution.”
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.
3 tc The LXX reads “twenty thousand cubits.”
tn Heb “ten thousand cubits” (i.e., 5.25 kilometers).
4 tn Heb “holy it is in all its territory round about.”
5 tn Heb “five hundred cubits” (i.e., 262.5 meters); the phrase occurs twice in this verse.
6 tn Heb “fifty cubits” (i.e., 26.25 meters).
7 tn Heb “twenty-five thousand cubits” (i.e., 13.125 kilometers).
8 tn Heb “ten thousand cubits” (i.e., 5.25 kilometers).
9 tc The LXX apparently understood “open land” instead of “sanctuary.”
