Bible Strands
Ezekiel 43:16
The altar hearth shall be square at its four corners, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezekiel records a visionary revelation in which a measuring figure specifies the dimensions of the future temple altar. The description occurs within a broader architectural survey of the restored sanctuary.
The words — The Hebrew term רָב֕וּעַ (ra.Vu.a') means square, and the phrase combines שְתֵּ֤ים (two) with עֶשְׂרֵה֙ (ten) to indicate twelve. The literal construction reads as a hearth whose length and breadth are both twelve cubits.
The thread — The square altar hearth appears in Exodus 27:1 and Exodus 38:1 as a five-cubit wilderness design, while 2 Chronicles 4:1 records a twenty-cubit bronze altar. Ezekiel’s twelve-cubit measurement expands the earlier five-cubit standard.
Why it lands — The text establishes exact spatial boundaries for worship before any ritual action is described. It requires a reader to recognize that divine instruction prioritizes precise physical dimensions over symbolic interpretation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof.
Cross-references
- Exodus 27:1 “You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
- Exodus 38:1 Bezalel constructed the altar of burnt offering from acacia wood. It was square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
- 2 Chronicles 4:1 He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.
- Ezra 3:3 They set up the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD—both the morning and evening burnt offerings—even though they feared the people of the land.