The length of the building which was on the north side was a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty cubits: In the Hebrew text of this verse the size of the block of rooms on the northern side of the west building is clear. Its length was a hundred cubits, that is, 50 meters (168 feet), and its breadth (“width” in New Revised Standard Version) was fifty cubits, that is, 25 meters (84 feet). However, Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint for this verse instead of the Hebrew text, which reads “On the front side the length [was] one hundred cubits, [where] the north entrance [was], and the width [was] fifty cubits” (similarly Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). The meaning of this verse in Hebrew is difficult to understand, but “the front side” probably refers to the front of the building, that is, “its façade” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), which was on the north side of the building. This was also the side in which the “entrance” of the building was.

Models that follow the Hebrew for this verse are:

• The front of this building [of rooms] was 50 meters long. It faced the north, and the entrance was on that side. The building was 25 meters wide.

• This building [of rooms] was 50 meters long and 25 meters wide. The front, where the entrance was, was on the north side.

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 .