The remainder, five thousand cubits in breadth and twenty-five thousand in length, shall be for ordinary use for the city, for dwellings and for open country: See 45.6. Next to the Levites’ land will be an “additional strip of land” (New Living Translation). This strip of land will be five thousand cubits in breadth and twenty-five thousand in length, that is, about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) wide and 12.5 kilometers (8 miles) long. Together with the priests’ and Levites’ land, this land makes a perfect square of 12.5 kilometers on each side. God refers to this strip of land as The remainder (compare New Century Version “The rest of the area” and Good News Translation “The part of the special area that is left”), as if he had already mentioned the square of holy land, even though he has not. This additional strip of land will be for ordinary use, that is, it will not be holy like the territory of the priests and the Levites. It will be “for the general use of the people” (Good News Translation), it will “belong to the people of Israel” (Contemporary English Version). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “for common use” (similarly New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Complete Jewish Bible), and New Living Translation has “for public use.” It will be for the city, for dwellings and for open country, that is, in that area will be a city (identified by Contemporary English Version and New International Reader’s Version as “Jerusalem”), places for people to live, and open space around the city. Block suggests that the city will be the place where pilgrims from outlying territories who come to the Temple to worship will live while they are there, and the open country around it is where the food for the worshipers will be grown. The Hebrew word for open country normally refers to the common gardens and pasturelands around a village or town.
In the midst of it shall be the city means the city will be “inside” (Complete Jewish Bible), “in the middle of” (New Century Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “in the center of” (Good News Translation, New International Version) the additional strip of land.
A model for this verse is:
• The rest of that special area will be for all the people of the city to use. It will be 2.5 kilometers wide and 12.5 kilometers long. It will be used for homes and for pasture, and the city will be there in the middle.
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 .