12The building that was facing the temple yard on the west side was seventy cubits deep, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around and its width ninety cubits.
The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek that is translated as “cubit” or into a metric or imperial measurement in English is translated in Kutu, Kwere, and Nyamwezi as makono or “armlength.” Since a cubit is the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, one armlength (measured from the center of the chest to the fingertips) equals two cubits or roughly 1 meter. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Similarly, in Akoose, the translation is “arm distance.” (Source: Joseph Nkwelle Ngome and Marlie van Rooyen & Jacobus A. Naudé in Communicatio 2009, p. 251ff.)
In Klao it is converted into “hand spans” (app. 6 inches or 12 cm) and “finger spans” (app. 1 inch or 2 cm) (source: Don Slager) and in Bariai into leoa or “fathom,” which comprises the distance from a person’s fingertip to fingertip with arms outstretched, app. 6 feet (source: Bariai Back Translation).
The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation). Likewise, in Toposa all the different bodies of water are all called by one term as well: nya-name̥ (source: Schröder 2026, p. 101).
In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)
“Sea” (or: “ocean”) is translated in Tepeuxila Cuicatec as “water land” and in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac as “very big lake.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 41:12:
Kupsabiny: “There was another house at the West side of the House of God. That house had a length of one hundred and twenty feet and a width of one hundred and fifty-seven and a half feet. And the thickness of the wall was nine feet.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I saw one building facing the inner courtyard of the temple in the west. The width of it was 118 feet and the length was 150 feet, and the thickness of its stone-wall was eight feet.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “There was a large building on the west side of the temple area. It was 122-1/2 feet/37.1 meters wide and 157-1/2 feet/47.7 meters long. And its walls were also 8-3/4 feet/2.6 meters thick.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
According to Anne Garber Kompaoré (in Le Sycomore 3/2009, p. 34ff. ), there are 4 ways to identify cardinal directions:
1. celestial bodies, especially the sun and certain stars
2. geographical landmarks, for example a mountain, sea, or river (depending on its position or the direction in which the water flows) etc.
3. climatic phenomena, such as the wind and the direction from which rain comes
4. bodily reference points, especially front, back, left, and right, in relation to celestial bodies or geographical landmarks
Following are examples of how these are practically implemented by various languages: (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)
Celestial Bodies
East and west are often translated by the rising and the setting of the sun (note that the origin of English and other Indo-European languages is “dawn” for “east” and “evening” [i.e. sun-down] for “west”):
Maan: “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down” (source: Don Slager)
Kankanaey: “from the coming-out of the sun “and “going-away of the sun” (source: Kankanaey back-translation)
Northern Emberá: “from where the sun comes up” and “from where the sun falls” (source: Charles Mortensen)
Ejamat “the side where the sun comes from” and “the side where it sets” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
Tzeltal: “where the sun pours-out” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Northern Ngbandi: “the sun behind the chief’s house” (east — the chief lives traditionally at the eastern side of the village, therefore he does not get the sunlight into his eyes) and “under the sun” (west)
Northwestern Dinka: “earth behind” (east — the place behind the earth, i.e. the area where the sun rises)
Jula: “salt village” (north — because salt comes from the north, from the Sahara Desert) and “kola village” (south — since kola comes from the coastal region to the south) (source: Garber Kompaoré)
Matumbi: “toward the beach” (East) (the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas), “north” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Acoli: “right” (of the local White Nile) (north) and “left” (of the White Nile) (south)
Zande: “interior (dry) land” (east); “place-inside-country” (north / south) — Zande, like a number of other languages, including Matengo and Hehe, traditionally only has three cardinal directions.
Belanda Bor: “lower place” (north) and “higher place” (south)
Turkana: “(up)stream” (north) and (down)stream (south)
Mono (DRC): “water place” (south) (source for this and five above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Climatic Phenomena
Shilluk: “opening westwind” (north) and “opening eastwind” (south)
Swahili used to have six directions. In reducing them to four, kusini and kaskazini which used to refer to south-west and north east respectively (the directions from where the two monsoons blow) have become the terms for “south” and north.” (source for this and one above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Bodily Reference Points
Nuer / Burun: “face” and “sun face” respectively (both: east)
Kalenjin: “eye sun” (east) (this and the one above indicate that the sun is “facing” the spectator from its position in the east:
Shilluk: doesn’t use a fixed position of the speaker, instead it has “eye sun morning” for east and “eye sun evening” for west
Mono (DRC): “foot-sun” (east — the start of the sun’s journey)
Burun: “sun leg” (west — the end of the sun’s journey)
Bari: “back” (north — when people are facing south, north is at their back) (source for this and above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Northern Emberá “the looking [left] hand” (north) and “the real [right] hand” (south) (source: Charles Mortensen)
Morelos Nahuatl: “from above” (north) and “from below” (south) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
When all four directions are mentioned, translators tend to avoid listing the four, sometimes verbose terms, and chose solutions like “all directions” (such as in Maan or Manya (source: Don Slager). Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) and Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture. Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
The concepts of distance that are translated in English with “long,” “wide,” and “high/tall” are translated in Kwere with one word: utali. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The building that was facing the temple yard on the west side was seventy cubits broad …: Ezekiel does not describe this building in any detail, and translators will need to find a very general word to describe it. Ezekiel simply calls it a building (“structure” in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), which was on the west side, that is, behind and west of the Temple and right up against the west wall of the Temple compound. It was also facing the temple yard, that is, it was facing the free space of the inner courtyard that surrounded the Temple (see verse 10, where it says that space was twenty cubits [10 meters] wide). Temple yard is literally “separate space” (King James Version), so some translations say “separate yard” (English Standard Version), “separate area” (New American Standard Bible), “separating courtyard” (New King James Version ), “private area” (New Century Version), “restricted space” (Block), or “restricted area” (Allen). The Hebrew word for temple yard carries the sense of “cut off,” but it is not clear what is cut off. It may mean that the space was cut off from people, that is, people were not allowed to walk there, because it was a “restricted area” (so Block, Allen). Or it may have the sense that this space cut off, or separated, the west building from the back wall of the Most Holy Place (so New King James Version ). Translators may choose either of these meanings, but given the difficulty of knowing exactly what the Hebrew word here means, it is also acceptable to choose a general expression such as “courtyard” (New International Version, New Living Translation, International Children’s Bible) or “open space” (Good News Translation). The building that was facing the temple yard may be rendered “The building that was separated from the Temple,” “The building that faced the area where people were not allowed to walk,” or “The building that faced the open space of the Temple.”
The west building was seventy cubits broad, that is, 35 meters (116 feet) wide, and its length ninety cubits, that is, 45 meters (150 feet) long. These measurements refer to the internal size of the building. Its width went east to west, and its length went north to south. The wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, that is, its wall was 2.5 meters (8 feet) thick all around. The back wall of the west building, the wall that it shared with the outside wall of the compound, was not as thick as the outside wall, which was six cubits (3 meters) thick (see 40.5).
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 .
Below these chambers was an entrance on the east side: Below these chambers means “on the ground floor of the three-story building of rooms.” Allen says “At the base of these rooms” (similarly Block), and New Revised Standard Version has “At the foot of these chambers” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). An entrance refers to an opening to the walkway on the northern side of the building. On the east side means the opening faced east.
As one enters them from the outer court: This opening provided access to the rooms from the outer courtyard. New Century Version says “so that a person could enter them from the outer courtyard.”
Where the outside wall begins: The entrance to the walkway was at the point where the screening wall (see Ezek 42.7) began. This rendering of verse 10a follows the Septuagint (which reads literally “at the head/beginning of the wall of the courtyard”) instead of the Hebrew, which reads “in the breadth of the wall of the court” (Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). Since the Hebrew text here makes very little sense either with verse 9 or with the rest of verse 10, it is better to make a small change to the Hebrew to make sense of the passage, as in Revised Standard Version.
A model for combining verses 9-10a is:
• At the base of the building of rooms, at the point where the [screening] wall started, was an opening through which a person could go from the outer courtyard into the rooms. This opening faced east.
On the south also: This rendering follows the Septuagint. The Hebrew reads “in the direction toward the east” (Hebrew Old Testament Text Project). In the light of verse 13, which speaks about a building of rooms on both the north and south sides of the Temple, most translations assume that a scribe who copied the Hebrew made a mistake here and accidentally copied the word for “east” from the previous verse instead of the word for “south.” “East” would place the building directly on the site of the Temple itself, which is impossible, but “south” fits the likely plan of the Temple very well. Therefore we recommend that translators follow the Septuagint here (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation), rather than try to make sense of the Hebrew.
If we are right that verses 10b-12 speak about rooms on the south side of the Temple, which were a mirror image of the rooms on the north that Ezekiel has just been describing, it may be acceptable for translators to summarize these verses as follows:
• On the south side of the Temple there was a building of rooms that were a mirror image of [or, exactly the same as] those on the north side. Even the walkway and the entrance on the south side were the same.
The following details prove that the two buildings of rooms were the same:
1. Opposite the yard means the building was next to the restricted area at the back of the Temple itself (see Ezek 42.1).
2. And opposite the building means it was close to the west building at the back of the Temple (see Ezek 42.1).
3. There were chambers with a passage in front of them refers to the half-meter walkway in front of the building (see Ezek 42.4).
4. They were similar to the chambers on the north is literally “[they were] like the appearance of the rooms that were in the direction of the north” (similarly New King James Version ), so Ezekiel states explicitly that these rooms looked the same as the ones to the north.
5. Of the same length and breadth means the dimensions of the two buildings’ rooms were the same.
6. With the same exits … and doors: It is not known how exits are different from doors. However, the Hebrew word rendered doors is a general term for “openings,” so it might include windows. The Hebrew text includes the word “all” with exits (see Revised Standard Version footnote). The word “all” stresses how similar the south rooms were to those on the north.
7. And arrangements: Their “design” (Good News Translation, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, Christian Community Bible), “layout” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “plan” (NJKV, New American Bible) was the same as that of the north building’s rooms.
8. And below the south chambers was an entrance on the east side, where one enters the passage: Revised Standard Version changes the Hebrew text here to make the beginning of verse 12 refer to the opening of the walkway in the same terms as the description in verse 9. Even though the Hebrew of verse 12 is complicated (see the literal rendering below), it draws the comparison in more detail in the following way:
• “And like the doors of the rooms which were on the south side”: The doors to the rooms were on the south side of the south building, just as the doors to the northern block of rooms were on the north side of the building (see Ezek 42.4).
• “[There was] an opening at the head/beginning of the walkway … which faced east, through which a person could enter [the rooms]”: Both buildings of rooms had an eastern-facing opening to a narrow walkway that ran along the side of the building. The opening led into the outer courtyard (see Ezek 42.9).
• “A walkway that fronted onto a matching wall”: Revised Standard Version changes this phrase to read and opposite them was a dividing wall. The Hebrew phrase here adds more detail about the walkway and fits into the previous clause where the three dots are. The “matching wall” is the equivalent to the screening wall on the north side (see Ezek 42.7). However, the Hebrew word rendered “matching” is only found here in the Old Testament, and its meaning is uncertain. We believe “matching” is a good guess.
Those translators who do not wish to summarize verses 10b-12 as suggested above may find the following model useful:
• On the south side [of the Temple] there was a building of rooms, [just like on the north side]. These rooms [also] faced the building and the restricted space [at the back of the Temple]. 11 They had a walkway in front of them. They looked the same as the rooms on the north side. Their dimensions [or, Their length and width] were the same. So were their plans, doors, and openings. 12 Their doors were on the south side of the building, [just like the other building had doors on the north side]. There was a walkway between the building and an equivalent wall [or, fronting onto a matching wall]. There was an opening at the beginning of the walkway through which a person could enter [the rooms]. The opening faced east.
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 .
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