I saw also that the temple had a raised platform round about …: This verse involves an abrupt change of focus. In the previous verses Ezekiel was looking upward at the Temple and its side rooms. Here, without warning, he turns his attention to the base of the building. It would be easy for an inattentive reader to think that the raised platform refers to a platform high up the side of the building, perhaps above the third story of the side chambers. Translators need to make this change of focus clear, so that readers do not become confused. They may begin this verse with “Then I looked [down] and saw….” When Ezekiel looked down, he saw that the Temple stood on a raised platform (literally “elevated [area]”), which may be rendered “raised pavement” (Complete Jewish Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “raised base” (New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version). The Temple was built on this raised platform. According to the next clause, this raised base was a full reed of six long cubits, that is, 3 meters (10 feet), above the surrounding area of the inner courtyard.

The foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits: The raised platform also functioned as the foundation of the side rooms, which were built on the same level as the Temple itself. The Hebrew word rendered long is sometimes used to refer to the joints in a person’s arm (either elbow or wrist), but that meaning does not fit in this context. Here it is probably a technical building term, the meaning of which is now lost. Some translations ignore the word (so Good News Translation), but others think it refers to the “height” of the raised platform (so Contemporary English Version, New King James Version , New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). It may refer to the “edge” of the platform, where it bent 90 degrees like an elbow. This meaning makes good sense in the context. New Century Version reflects it by rendering this clause as “Its edge was the foundation for the side rooms, and it was ten and one-half feet thick.”

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 .