Verse 16
16. Twelve thousand furlongs measured the four sides, eight furlongs to the mile, so that its base was 375 miles square. And as breadth and height were equal, it was a cube. It was, therefore, about as truly a house as a city. That this double significance is intended is indicated, not only by its being a tabernacle, but by the fact, suggested by Wordsworth, that the Greek word for gate, πυλων , as properly signifies the door of a house.
Nor can we doubt that the structure is an intentional exemplification of the words given by this same St. John, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Alford makes an unnecessary attempt to relieve the city of its cubical shape by assuming that its height is increased by its position being on a height, (like old Jerusalem,) and the measurement being made to the ground. But the exactitude of the statement of the equality of the three dimensions, shows that the cubical form is intended. This house-city is a temple, although it has no temple in it. And so it is (beginning with the idea of a tabernacle) at once a city, a capital, a capitol, a temple, and a royal residence, a palace.
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