The portion which you shall set apart for the LORD shall be twenty-five thousand cubits in length, and twenty thousand in breadth: God now explains that an area within the special portion mentioned in the previous verse will be set apart for the LORD, that is, “dedicated to the LORD” (Good News Translation). Since the LORD is speaking, Contemporary English Version begins this verse with “An area in the center of this land will belong to me.” Its dimensions will be twenty-five thousand cubits in length, that is, about 12.5 kilometers (8 miles) long from east to west, and twenty thousand [cubits] in breadth, that is, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide from north to south. As the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation show, the Hebrew text has “10,000 [cubits] wide” (so New International Version, King James Version / New King James Version, Complete Jewish Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project), but this must be a mistake because the next few verses make it clear that this section of land must be 12.5 kilometers by 10 kilometers in size. This is also consistent with the measurements of this section of land in 45.1-5. Therefore a good model for this verse is:

• You must set aside an area within this portion of land for my [the LORD’s] use. It must be 12.5 kilometers from east to west and 10 kilometers from north to south.

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 .