And the five thousand, that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| five | וַחֲמֵ֨שֶׁת va.cha.Me.shet | H2568 | five · conjunction + cardinal number, both genders singular construct |
| thousand | אֲלָפִ֜ים 'a.la.Fim | H505 | hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · cardinal number, both genders plural absolute |
| left | הַנּוֹתָ֣ר ha.no.Tar | H3498 | to jut over or exceed · definite article + verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute |
| breadth | בָּרֹ֗חַב ba.Ro.chav | H7341 | width (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| against | פְּנֵ֨י pe.Nei | H6440 | the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct |
| five | חֲמִשָּׁ֤ה cha.mi.Shah | H2568 | five · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute |
| twenty | וְעֶשְׂרִים֙ ve.'es.Rim | H6242 | twenty · conjunction + cardinal number, masculine plural absolute |
| thousand | אֶ֔לֶף 'E.lef | H505 | hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute |
| profane | חֹֽל chol- | H2455 | properly · adjective, masculine singular absolute |
| city | לָעִ֔יר la.'Ir | H5892 | a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute |
| dwelling | לְמוֹשָׁ֖ב le.mo.Shav | H4186 | a seat · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| suburbs | וּלְמִגְרָ֑שׁ u.le.mig.Rash | H4054 | a suburb (i.e. open country whither flocks are driven f… · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| city | הָעִ֖יר ha.'Ir | H5892 | a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute |
| midst | בְּתוֹכֽוֹ be.to.kho | H8432 | a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
The five thousand rods, apportioned to the city out of the twenty-five thousand square, are to be laid off in a square of four thousand five hundred, with the two hundred fifty all around for suburbs. profane--that is, not strictly sacred as the sacerdotal portions, but applied to secular uses.
And the five thousand that are left - The territory of the Levites was twenty-five thousand square cubits, Eze 48:20, But their city was only four thousand five hundred square cubits, see Eze 48:13 and Eze 48:16; there remained, therefore, ten thousand cubits square to be divided, of which five thousand cubits in breadth, by twenty-five thousand in length, on the east and west sides, were reserved for a sort of second city; or for suburbs where laymen might dwell who were employed by those priests and Levites who lodged in the temple and in the city, Eze 48:18. And another space of one thousand cubits in breadth, by twenty-five thousand in length, which extended only from north to south, was…
Read the whole note in the consoleAnd the five thousand that are left in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand,.... Which belonged to the Levites, which was a square of twenty five thousand reeds by twenty five thousand; by the side of, or parallel to, the twenty five thousand in length, ran twenty five thousand in breadth, two ten thousands, as in the portion of the priests, Ezekiel 48:10 so in theirs, Ezekiel 48:13, the residue whereof, five thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs; to build a city upon for the Israelites to dwell in, and suburbs to be inhabited by those that were not of the city; or for fields and gardens, to supply the city with things necessary and…
Read the whole note in the consoleTo the south was a narrower strip for public use where the city was located. The overall shape of the central area was thus a square. The city was a visible symbol and focus of unity for the twelve tribes, and home to residents from the various tribes.
(Verse 15) The remaining five thousand cubits in width, along the twenty-five thousand, shall be for common use by the city for dwellings and common land, and the city shall be in the middle of it. What we translate as 'profane', Aquila translated as 'βέβηλον', Symmachus and Theodotion translated as 'λαἳκὸν'; the LXX used 'προτείχισμα' which can also be translated as 'antemurale'. 'Profane' and 'laicum' are both secular, that is, common, and can be used by all people everywhere. However, the remaining five thousand in width, by twenty-five thousand, is understood to be the length, will be profane of the city: so that it is lawful for all the Israelites and every member of the people to dwell there; not because they are unclean or because anything in the habitation of the holy land is contaminated, putrid, and filthy; but because, apart from the priests, it is permitted for everyone to dwell in them. By this we understand that all the things we refer to as sensations, that is, bodily pleasures that we perceive by sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, are profane and do not have the sanctity of the temple, nor do they have the privilege of the priesthood, but rather they belong to the realm of the laity and commoners. However, the city will be in the middle, concerning which it is written: The stream of the river makes the city of God glad (Ps. 46:4). And: A city set on a hill cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14): of which we will speak in the following. Προτείχισμα, which means a fortification, and διάστημα, which means a space, which the LXX translated as suburbs, we do not know the meaning they have in this place.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
And the 5,000 that remain in the width of the strips of the great separation which was 25,000 [in] width and its length was the same as that of any portions from the eastern side to the western side. From that he set apart two strips from its center, 25,000 long and 20,000 wide; and 5,000 were left over in its width. Those 5,000 of the width shall be for the residential area of the city, their length facing the 25,000 length of the offering for the Levites. is non-holy [These 5,000 rods of land] are not holy like the “offering” of the strips of the priests and the Levites. It is non-holy as compared to them, and they shall be for the city for dwellings of Israelites and for an open space ar…
Read the whole note in the consoleHenry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
