Ezekiel 40:5

5. The length of the measuring reed has been variously estimated, according to the supposed length of Ezekiel’s cubit. The Hebrew cubit has usually been reckoned at about eighteen inches, while it is now known that the ordinary ancient Babylonian cubit contained about twenty. This, however, is not material. The symbolism expressed by these measurements does not depend upon the exact length in inches of the cubit or reed. The reed was six cubits long, “of a cubit and a handbreadth each” (R.V.); but as the ordinary cubit was six handbreadths (according to the Mishna, Chilim, Ezekiel 17:9; and Josephus, Antiquities, Ezekiel 3:6 ; Ezekiel 3:5) this sacred cubit must therefore have been seven handbreadths long and the symbolic measuring reed of six sacred cubits would be equal in length to seven ordinary cubits. Gudea, king of Babylon about 2500 B.C., has upon his lap a scale in which the reed is reckoned as equal to six great cubits, each cubit being equal to sixty finger lengths. Nebuchadnezzar is called in a cuneiform inscription, “the possessor of the reed of augury” ( W.A.I., Ezekiel 4:14), and both Jews and Babylonians alike were able to understand this symbolism of number. The peculiar sacredness of the number seven may be noticed everywhere, in both literatures. The number seven in Hebrew ( sheveh) is from a root meaning to be full, satisfied. In the tabernacle, ten, the number of perfect symmetry, seems to be the governing number; in the temple of Solomon and in the Christian Church the heavenly number twelve is the symbolic unit (compare twelve tribes, twelve disciples, and see Revelation xxi), while the sacred cubit, seven handbreadths long, and the sacred reed, seven ordinary cubits in length, control the measure of Ezekiel’s temple. (See further in Introduction, “Symbolism,” and closing note chap. 40.) The wall (A.V., “building”) in-closing the area, when measured by this symbolic reed, was seen to be of the most sacred dimensions: seven cubits broad and seven cubits high. (Compare Revelation 21:16.)