Another section … shall be for the Levites who minister at the temple as their possession: The other half of the sacred area mentioned in verse 1 will belong to the Levites. Good News Translation says “The other half of the area is to be set aside as the possession of the Levites, who do the work in the Temple” (similarly Contemporary English Version), and New Living Translation has “The strip of sacred land next to it … will be a living area for the Levites. It will be their possession.” This area will be the same size as that of the priests’, namely, twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits broad (see Ezek 45.3). For who minister at the temple, see 44.11.

For cities to live in means the area will be a place where the Levites will live. This reading follows the Septuagint, instead of the Hebrew text, which reads literally “twenty chambers” (King James Version / New King James Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; similarly Complete Jewish Bible). The Hebrew makes little sense in this context, but with a few small changes to the Hebrew text it is easy to see where the reading reflected in the Septuagint came from. Most translations make the change, and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project supports the reading also.

A model for this verse is:

• The other half of the area (also 12.5 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide) will belong to the Levites who serve in the Temple, so they can build towns there to live in.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .